El Paso City Council Work Session: December 1, 2025
El Paso City Council Work Session: December 1, 2025
On December 1, 2025, the El Paso City Council convened for a work session to address food insecurity in the community and discuss utility rate applications. The meeting featured presentations from the Kelly Center for Hunger Relief and El Pasoans Fighting Hunger regarding the scope of hunger in the city, followed by executive sessions and votes on utility matters involving El Paso Electric and Texas Gas Service. Council members expressed deep concern over the food insecurity crisis and engaged in a contentious debate over settling versus continuing litigation on gas rate increases, ultimately resulting in the failure of the settlement motion.
Consent Calendar
- None; the agenda consisted of work session presentations and specific action items.
Public Comments & Testimony
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Warren Godell (Executive Director, Kelly Center for Hunger Relief):
- Stated that he seeks visibility and acknowledgement of the food insecurity problem as the primary immediate need.
- Opposed the approach of merely providing band-aid solutions through the pantry without addressing root causes, arguing that serving people does not solve the problem of why they are hungry.
- Expressed concern that a significant portion of the population is reliant on pantries due to systemic issues including low wages, historical redlining, and the lack of economic mobility.
- Asserted that increasing the minimum wage balances out unproductively by increasing community costs.
- Clarified that the food insecurity issue is a year-round reality, not a holiday-specific phenomenon, and that charitable giving drops significantly after the holidays.
- Positioned the "Fresh Start" program as a critical mechanism for economic mobility, noting its funding is ending in July due to the discontinuation of foundation support.
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Chris Shegel (Interim CEO, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger):
- Agreed with the assessment that the holiday season is not the primary challenge; the challenge is the sustained fight year-round.
- Proposed a goal for equitable distribution where no resident is more than 20 minutes from food, noting current travel times can be 40-50 minutes from the west side.
- Requested a review of distribution adjustments to areas like the west side to ensure equitable access.
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Representative Canales (Council Member):
- Acknowledged the data, noting it is no less alarming than previous years, and emphasized the need for the community to start thinking about solutions.
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Representative Chavez (Council Member):
- Expressed a firm conviction that food insecurity is the greatest drag on the community's economic development and supported equating its resolution with economic development.
- Encouraged council members to visit Kelly personally to better understand their constituents' realities.
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Representative Acevedo (Council Member):
- Expressed strong opposition to subsidy mechanisms that would force El Pasoans to subsidize natural disaster costs on the Gulf Coast through utility consolidation.
- Felt the proposed settlement would be a "lose-lose" scenario but argued for continuing negotiations to get a better outcome.
Discussion Items
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Food Insecurity in El Paso:
- Warren Godell presented data indicating a 35% food insecurity rate (based on 2023-2024 UTEP surveys) and a 53% rate of households lacking self-sufficiency.
- Godell highlighted a 2% per capita income impact attributed to hunger and food insecurity, describing it as a "very large number" compared to typical social determinants (0.1-0.3%).
- Godell discussed the "Fresh Start" program's reliance on a discontinued grant from the Paso de Norte Health Foundation, noting the program ends in July 2024.
- Godell described the "Closed Closet" as having overwhelming demand, with lines as large as the food pantry, and emphasized that most recipients are working individuals with multiple jobs earning insufficient wages.
- Chris Shegel noted that the Food Bank handles 85% of region distribution, while Kelly distributes 10%, and other partners handle 5%.
- Shangel confirmed that there are 65 pantry partners in town and that staffing and operating hours are key factors in their ability to sustain operations.
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Utility Matters (El Paso Electric & Texas Gas Service):
- Representative Chavez moved to authorize the city attorney to hire outside counsel to intervene in El Paso Electric's amendment to the Texas Business Solar Power Program.
- Representative Mino noted a personal contribution of $1,750 to support El Paso Electric employees.
- Representative Chavez proposed a partial settlement with Texas Gas Service to reduce the proposed 27% rate increase.
- Representative Chavez stated that while he does not want rates to go up, the 27% increase is unacceptable, and a 10% settlement is a necessary compromise to continue fighting the consolidation issue.
- Representative Acevedo argued that the settlement leaves El Pasoans losing and that the proposed settlement amounts to subsidizing Gulf Coast disasters.
- Representative Acevedo stated he would vote no to continue negotiating for a better settlement, even if the outcome remains negative.
- Mayor Pro Tem Chavez (presiding in Mayor Johnson's absence for the vote) expressed the difficulty of the vote, weighing the risk of a 27% increase against a 10% increase plus legal costs.
Key Outcomes
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EX1 (El Paso Electric Solar Program):
- Motion: Authorize the city attorney to hire outside counsel to intervene in the El Paso Electric application (Docket No. 58862).
- Vote: Passed unanimously.
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EX2 (Texas Gas Service Rate Increase & Consolidation):
- Motion: Enter into a partial settlement with Texas Gas Service and continue opposing the consolidation of service areas.
- Vote: Failed.
- Tally: Representatives Chavez, Trejo, Limon, and Canales voted Aye. Representatives Acevedo, Rocha, Niño, and Fierro voted Nay. Mayor Pro Tem Chavez broke the tie with a Nay vote.
- Directive: The city will continue to oppose the consolidation of service areas and litigate the dispute at the state level rather than settling at the current terms.
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Adjournment:
- The work session was adjourned at 11:08 a.m. on December 1, 2025.
Executive Session
- Topic 1: Application of El Paso Electric Company to amend the Texas Business Solar Power Program (PUC No. 58862).
- Topic 2: Statement of intent of Texas Gas Service Company to increase rates within specific service areas (OS-25-000-28202).
- Note: The council entered executive session at 9:48 a.m. and returned to open session at 11:00 a.m. to ratify the decisions made during the session.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone, and I hope everyone had a wonderful blessed Thanksgiving. It's good to be back. Ms. Brian, I think we're ready to go. Yes, Mayor, good morning. This is a work session of the El Paso City Council for Monday, December 1st, 2025. It is 901 a.m. Mayor Johnson is president and presiding in Council Chambers, along with Mayor Pro Tim Chavez, Representative Madonado Rocha, Representative Limon, Representative Canales, Representative Nino, and Representative Borietre Juice running a few minutes late. Mayor, we have a quarter. All right. Fantastic. Representative Russia, would you lead us in the pledge, please? The United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God in the NISP with liberty and justice for all. And that brings us to item number one, and this is a presentation by Warren Godell, Executive Director of the Kelly Center for Hunger Relief on the impacts of hunger and food insecurity in El Paso. Fantastic. Good morning, Warren. Good morning, Mr. Mayor, Councilman, Councilwoman. It's a pleasure to be here. Having been a member of a school board and run for office in the past, I understand the fortitude that is necessary to deal with the whole process of running and then serving, and I greatly appreciate your energy and your efforts on behalf of the city of El Paso. Thank you. And IT will bring up that presentation. Great. Thank you. Yes, sir. I'd like to give you really just a high level overview on food insecurity in our community and its impact. Kelly Center for Hunger Relief is a nonprofit that is trying to serve El Pasoans and help them address hunger and food insecurity in our community. Food insecurity is an official term of the USDA. It's been studied for 40 years until recently when the government discontinued their annual surveys of this. Texas, as you can see by the slide, it has more food insecurity than any other state. The line of people you see there is what I walk into every morning when I come to work. That's Tuesday through Saturday. These are the numbers. This is 2023, 2024 numbers. They come from studies by a team of researchers at UTEP. They have taken the first look, real look at food insecurity in El Paso that we can find has ever been done. In the past, these numbers come from interpretations or of annual excuse me, of census work, but the 35% you see there, food insecurity in El Paso was actual surveys done by UTEP of the El Paso County population. The United Way looks at it a little differently. They take a basket of cost of living every year, and they measure that against census data of where our population sits. There, households that live at or below poverty, when you can see those numbers for El Paso. And what they call Alice households. These are people that are working but not making enough to be self-sufficient. If you look at that those numbers, if you add up the households living at or below poverty, plus those who are working but not making sufficient money to be self sufficient, that number for El Paso is 53%. That's one in two of our neighbors are not making enough money to be self-sufficient, and they need some sort of help at some time during the year. That's a lot. It's a big number. Now, that's a range. So if you're at the top of that range, you're making almost enough money to be self-sufficient.
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