To see a a full room today, and I hope everyone has had a great holiday season, and it uh is a great start to the twenty-sixth new year.

Miss Pry.

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the mayor's proclamations.

We begin this morning with a pledge of allegiance with students from the Alicia R.

Chacon International School and Isleta Middle School and Eastwork Knowles International School at the invitation of City Representative Lily Nimon.

We have Alexa Salinas, Luis Diego Salinas, and Ariana Chavez.

Hi, good morning.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

No.

You guys please be seated.

Well, as we bring this uh first city council meeting to an order, I just want to reflect on last year and let everyone know not to forget what happened in the past.

So this actually marks one year for us that are sitting on this dais, six of us that we were sworn into office.

So it's been a really really good year for for us, and we have a wonderful year ahead of us.

So congratulations to all the city council members uh that were sworn in today, a year ago, and it's been a great year, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful twenty twenty-six with you guys.

So congratulations.

Okay, Miss Frying.

Yes, Mayor, that brings us to the mayor's proclamations.

For those of you receiving a proclamation this morning, your group will have up to four minutes collectively to come to the podium and receive the proclamation.

The first proclamation is Lady Rumble Day.

We're gonna read something first.

Oh, good, as we see all the accolades and all the excitement that you've brought to El Paso.

I'm gonna read the proclamation and then we'll we'll hear from you.

Proclamation say El Paso, Texas, whereas Lady Rumble Basketball Proud 501 C3 nonprofit organization based in El Paso empowers young female athletes through competitive basketball mentorship and academic support, ensuring that every girl has the opportunity to pursue excellence by removing financial barriers.

And whereas Lady Rumble has risen to national prominence, winning the twenty twenty-five AAU World Championship and the twenty twenty-five West Coast National Championship, and is consistently ranked among the top youth basketball teams in Texas and the nation, establishing El Paso as a rising force on the national stage.

And whereas Lady Rumble continues to push boundaries for El Paso Athletics by striving to become the first team from El Paso to qualify for Nike Junior EYB L, the nation's most prestigious youth basketball circuit, an achievement that would place El Paso basketball family on the map and open doors for other local athletes.

Signed the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

And over the past two years, our results speak for themselves.

We have won 11 regional championships, one international tournament, and this past summer we dominated this national stage, capturing two national titles, the AAU World Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee, and West Coast National Champion in Las Vegas.

Wow.

I just wanted to end with the continued success of our program is made possible by community support and donations, which are vital to removing financial barriers and allowing us to continue developing confidence, discipline young women who excel on the court in the classroom and in life.

We invite the community to follow our journey on social media as we continue representing El Paso on the national stage.

Thank you, Mayor Johnson and Council, for recognizing these athletes and for supporting programs that invest in the future of our youth.

Thank you.

Now, coach, do we have enough time for them to introduce themselves?

Yes, yes.

Sure.

Do you want one by one?

Sure.

Go ahead, Charlotte.

Remember, one side can tell them.

Okay.

Good morning.

My name is Sherlot Zudon.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Alina Navarrete.

I'm from the Upper Valley and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

I'm Eva Salcito.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Omarika.

I live on the Northeast and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Abrina Pew.

I live on the West side and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Ania Burrow.

I am from the East Side and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Hannah Hakovo.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Maya Blackwood.

I'm from the Northeast and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Mia Fain.

I'm from Santa Teresa and I'm in sixth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Caden Tacobo.

I'm from the East Side and I'm a sixth grader.

Good morning.

My name is Gelina Hernandez.

I'm from Cartoo, Texas, and I'm in seventh grade.

Good morning.

I'm Camila Hall.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in seventh grade.

Good morning.

My name is Elsie Salcillo.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in seventh grade.

Good morning.

My name is Linnea Watts.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in eighth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Natalia Varela.

I'm from the West Side and I'm in eighth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Celeste Hill.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in eighth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Lucy Woodard.

I'm from the East Side and I'm in eighth grade.

Good morning.

My name is Victoria Sanchez.

I'm from the West Side and I'm in seventh grade.

Good morning.

My name is Angelique Rios.

I'm from Anthony, and I'm in seventh grade.

Good morning.

My name is Alana Alfia Stukes.

I'm from the Northeast and I'm in seventh grade.

Is that it?

What about the other coach?

Parent, okay.

Well, you know, we we know the hard work and dedication that goes into winning championships.

And it's my understanding that you guys train year-round even on weekends.

So that dedication is incredible.

I also watched you guys on YouTube at one of your semifinals where you uh your game against the West Texas Blazers.

You guys remember that game?

And you beat them up pretty good.

And the score that I saw was 30 to 54.

So you guys are really, really good.

You have a really nice uh games out there on YouTube that anyone wants to watch that, go out and take a look.

So really, really good games, and you guys are very, very talented.

And coach, can you tell us?

Can you come back up and maybe tell us some ways we can support you guys?

Oh, thank you.

Um, honestly, it's just donations.

We we really look to the community because a lot of these girls do have some financial barriers.

And so just getting our name out there.

We we do a lot of um fundraising in in our local community, and and it takes a community to help uh group like this get recognized in that national level.

We're actually thankful to those who have already donated and helped us out, you know, by spreading the word, reposting us.

Uh we we've gotten to to get to that national stage because of of the community themselves.

So just community support is really what we need for these girls because it's not cheap getting these girls out of El Paso to compete at that national level.

Good.

And in your community is behind you, and they are, yes, sir.

They have been, yes.

Good.

And and and again, we want to thank you guys for all that you've done, continue to do good in school, continue to represent El Paso on the national stage.

We are so very, very proud of you, and the city of El Paso is behind you.

So, congratulations, you guys.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you so much.

Charlie, go that way, baby.

You're gonna take a picture, babe.

Go that way.

Uh how we set up when we uh win.

And the next proclamation is Estine Davis Day.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll let everyone come up to the podium.

It is my esteemed honor to be reading this proclamation this morning.

There we go.

Whereas Esteen Davis was a true icon in El Paso, an entrepreneurial pioneer who for more than 70 years operated as Steen's East Side Barber Shop at the corner of Piedras and Alameda, becoming one of the first black women business owners in El Paso, Texas.

And whereas her barber shop blossomed into a place of fellowship, cultural pride, and community connection, featuring her renowned wall of fame, honoring notable black Americans, including the history-making nineteen sixty six all black starting lineup of the Texas Western Miners.

And whereas Estine Davis extended her entrepreneurial spirit beyond her barbershop by founding Esteen's fashion model agency, the only black owned modeling agency of its kind in the Southwest for more than 30 years.

And by establishing the Miss Black El Paso, Southwest Scholarship Pageant, which empowered countless young women with confidence, opportunity, and educational support.

And whereas she also helped co-found the McCall Neighborhood Center, an essential cultural and historical hub in El Paso, and served as a devoted member of Shiloh Baptist Church for more than seven decades, shaping youth programs, community events, and the longstanding annual Easter parade that brought families together year after year.

And whereas her leadership extended into historical preservation as well, as she served as president of the El Paso chapter of the 9th and 10th Horse Cavalry Association, helping to honor and preserve the legacy of the Buffalo soldiers.

And whereas Estine Davis's life was defined by service, mentorship, creativity, and a deep commitment to uplifting her community, leaving an indelible legacy that continues to inspire generations of El Pasuans.

And whereas her passing at the age of 92 is felt as a profound loss across the city, but her impact will endure through the institutions she built, the people she touched, and the history she preserved.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso, encouraging all residents to honor her memory by continuing her lifelong work of empowerment, service, cultural pride, and community uplift, November 14th shall be known as Estine Davis Day.

Signed by the Honorable Mayor Bernard Johnson.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Yeah, you have to excuse me a little bit because I've been fighting what I think everyone's calling the flu.

Yes.

So the last several days I've been down, but uh through my relatives, they've given me a few shots.

Good shots, not bad shots.

Safe shots.

And I've made sure I was prepared for today.

Okay.

Thank y'all very much for this wonderful way of honoring my mother, Mayor Johnson, City Council, all the members, and probably more important, the people that are in the stand back behind me who have worked with me, work with my mother in particular, and all the things that she had she did for the community.

Quickly, though, on September the 25th, 2022, we forced my mother to retire.

Some of y'all may remember, we had to force her to get out of the barbershop.

And a week later, she got into put on a robe, forced me to drive her down on Alameda Street, and said, I have something I want to show you.

We made a right turn by Jefferson High School.

We rode all the way down Alameda to Piedras, and she told me drive slow.

And she said, I want you to look on the left and the right side and see what's going on.

I didn't know what she wanted me to look at.

By the time we got there, she said, I have a mission for you.

I want you to rebirth what used to be Eastside South Central.

My mother had a love and a passion for South Central.

She was committed to the brown black and white members of her community, and especially her partnership with the business community.

She was a staunch advocate for everything that was important about South Central.

In fact, she had an opportunity to move and live somewhere else that I was trying to push her to, and she said, I'm not leaving my house.

It's in South Central.

She built it.

South Central was so important to her that she would even walk and visit the different restaurants, eat in those different restaurants, and they remember her when we had the home going service.

But the other thing that she felt was so important was finding a way so that her community could be the best that it could be in the people in that community.

She loved everyone.

And many of you remember because some of those who mayors, judges, et cetera, used to walk by her barbershop when they were going to Bowie or to Jefferson High School, and she would always wave at them every morning, never turning anyone down.

When she said rebirth Eastside Central, that gave us the vision to create a 5013 initiative called the Eastside Central Coalition, and our focus on rebirth in that community.

In the next uh months and years, we're going to hope to be her force, working through her vision to deliver on that promise.

Thank you.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I think almost everyone in the room uh knows the impact that Ms.

Esteine Davis had on this community and continues to have, as you said, Mr.

Davis, through uh the the lasting impact of of the things that she has set up.

Um I think it's important to give a plug to the Black Business Living Museum.

Uh this is a project of the Eastside Central Coalition that is open at 106 North Piedras in the building of the uh of the barbershop.

Uh it has it has preserved Ms.

Esteine's barbershop, including her historic wall of fame, uh, but also features uh a really uh important and powerful exhibit in the back about the neighborhood, about black business in El Paso, um, and about the contributions of your mother and her neighbors and her friends and everybody who worked hard to uh make that community what it was.

And so I I think everybody in El Paso should go look at this museum.

Uh it's not large.

One can go and and uh read through it and learn from it in a short amount of time.

Uh but they should go because uh I think uh what what you all in the East Central Coalition are doing there is is capturing a very important piece of El Paso's uh history and as you said, uh pushing pushing into the future to to help that neighborhood uh to to become the the jewel of El Paso that it has always been and and uh will be in the future.

So with that said, I I just wanted to uh uh say that I think you know as well as anyone, your your mother touched a lot of people.

She cut a lot of people's hair, first of all.

That shop was open for quite a long time.

But but beyond that, um, you know, she she really has been a pillar of our community for so long.

And um, my my condolences to to you and your family and um uh I I want you to know that that uh all of El Paso uh stands with you and and remembers your mother.

Uh and I I think we'll continue to do so for quite a long time because uh she's she's made a huge impact.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, the the last time we had the pleasure of of seeing your mom was at the uh history museum, and there was an exhibit there, and she's just the most dynamic person, and she left a lasting mark on my daughter.

Uh my daughter's 16 years old now, I guess it was a year and a half ago, two years ago when this event happened.

But she's just she's just a dynamic woman.

I had the honor and pleasure during the 87th session to um file a HR-1042 uh in honor of your your mom and all the great things that she did in El Paso.

And and Representative Rocha touched on many, many great things that she she did in our community.

The one thing she left out, and I had to bring it up because Bernie Olives is in the audience, is she was responsible for a whole bunch of sumble floats and helping uh uh decorating, designing them.

And so it's she just touched everybody.

Thank you for everything you're you've done for us and she did for us and and for being here and allowing us this opportunity.

Thank you, Mayor.

And my friend, I'm just gonna add a few things here that you know your mother most may not know, but she moved here at the age of six from Troy, Texas to El Paso, and she started cutting hair originally on Fort Bliss in the nineteen fifties.

And as Representative Fiero mentioned, most people don't know, but she helped design floats for the Thanksgiving parade beginning in nineteen eighty-two.

I will always remember uh your mom's warmth and unwavering dedication to this community.

And she was always uplifting others, and uh she is truly an icon of El Paso.

And her passing leaves so much work for us to continue to do.

And I know that you're going to continue the legacy and all the great work that your mom wanted you to do.

And your mom was not only a person that uh when I was young, I remember going into the barber shop.

Yeah, my uncle took me in there.

And I remember your mom uh for all of the great things that she's done for this community.

So today we're honoring your mother, and congratulations.

She used to smack in the head for that act and writer.

She was your mother, I can tell you that.

Thank you, my friend.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, let's go ahead and do two rows.

If you're a little shorter, I'll have you self-identifying.

Come on up to the front.

Oh my god, no.

You know how we put it okay.

The final proclamation is Lone Star Emmy Awards.

If we could have all of the Lone Star Emmy Award winners come forward, please.

Um this is an honor that is bestowed on Telemundo quaranty okay, Noticia 26 el Paso, and PBS.

Uh I'm gonna do something a little bit different with your permission.

Sure.

Let's do it.

Reconociendo la excellencia in the periodismo, la narrativa, la production and considerando que Lone Star de la Academia National de Artes y Ciencias de la Television, establecido in el anjo, presta services a los 19 mercados televisos de Texas y honra los más altos niveles de logro professional mediante la presentación annual de los premios EMI Regionales.

As you come on reportage que destaco a la Virgin de Guadalupe como symbol of the resiliencia in la region fronteriza, además de testimonios de primera mano sobre la realidad de nuestra region.

Look at all those Emmys.

This is great.

You guys have the mic.

Alejandro.

Good morning, my name is Dalinda Garcia, I'm the news director for Noticias El Paso or Canal 26, as many of you know it.

We have been informing and empowering the El Paso community for over 40 years.

And today I feel pleased to receive this recognition.

Canal 26 was nominated for the Lone Star Emmy Awards, one of the most prestigious awards journalists can receive.

We were nominated for 14 categories, winning six out of those nominations, including Best Morning Show, Reports on Border Issues, Diversity, Public Service Announcement, Producer and Photographer.

I strongly believe that our job is more important than ever.

Many of our community members rely on us to understand not only local but also state and federal laws and any changes that come as the year 2026 starts and under this administration as well.

Therefore, I personally want to express my gratitude to City Rep Lili for acknowledging the hard work that every single day one of the individuals, all of the individuals that are here in front of you do because news never stop.

Thank you.

On behalf of the entire Telemundo 48 team, I want to express our deepest gratitude to the El Paso City Council for this incredible recognition.

But beyond the awards, we truly what truly define us, it's our mission to be a newscast with a human face.

In a city like El Paso, Spanish language news is essential.

We don't just report tragedies.

We highlight stories of resilience, success, and hope.

We are also the only station serving our community with the Telemundo Response Consumer Unit, Telemundo Quarentayocho Responde, where we recover more than 700,000 for people affected by fraud, broken promises, and unfair practices.

That's real service.

That's commitment.

This recognition belongs not only to us, but to the entire community that trusts us every day.

Together let's keep proving that local journalism matters.

And that we serve if that if we serve with heart, we can change lives.

Thank you, El Paso, for allowing us to be your voice.

Thank you.

Someone from PBS.

You guys are such great speakers.

Um I tend to be behind the camera.

Um but I just wanted to share my gratitude as well to everyone here in City Council.

And uh as a non profit, PBS El Paso has really um put in the work this year.

And I mean for as long as I've been with PBS, we've really put in the work, and it's such an honor, and we don't take it lightly to have the responsibility of telling the stories through a more educational lens.

Um it is my honor to be producer at PBS El Paso, and it is my honor to be able to tell the stories of El Paso.

Um we won this award for a story called Nuestra Guadalupe, a symbol of hope in the borderland.

And I'm just so extremely proud to be able to shed some light um and be part of the storytelling of the amazing culture and the amazing art that El Paso has to offer.

We've been through so much as a nonprofit organization, losing our federal funding.

So right now uh we do ask our community of El Paso that if you would like to protect your local public media, just make any donation that you can possibly make at this time.

And we really really appreciate all the support our amazing community has given us.

Um we are on a low budget being a non profit, so this really really means so much that we were able to get this recognition.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So there's a lot of familiar faces to us that are there.

So would they mind coming up and introducing themselves?

Uh yes, good morning.

Carla Mariscal.

I am the one of the news anchors for Telemundo Quarentao El Paso, and staraki.

Thank you so much.

Hi, good morning, I'm Chantal San Sores.

I'm the evening news anchor, and also I'm in charge of the Telemundo quarantyo responde unit.

Thank you so much for this recognition.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Sofia Perez, I'm a reporter for Telemundo.

Uh one of the reporters that's always calling you to do interviews.

But thank you very much for this recognition.

Um a lot of the times we divide into you know, this is my news team, this is my news team, but we are all journalists and we're always working for our community.

Sorry.

I miss the ladies first, but uh my name is Emanuel Esparza and I'm the sports anchor at Telemundo Quarantyo.

And thank you for having us.

Hello, good morning.

Feliz Yeah Lorrey.

Gracias for este reconnaissment for the Han Starakon Ustedes, the whole party.

My name is Jacqueline Mata, weeking news anchor and weather presenter.

But most importantly, during the weekdays you can see me being a reporter and doing what my passion is, reporting on community issues, and as the Lone Star Emmy Award that I won, border issues that impact my community, my hometown.

Thank you all for this bringing quality journalism to this community to this city, and also thank you so much to my team and Alina Garcia, my news director for believing not only in me, but in each and every single one of the team members and onivision notes el paso.

Thank you all.

But no matter what I do, um I remember that I am the voice of my community, and it is an honor to do it in Spanish as well because we have a lot of our community that are Hispanics and they also need to know what is going on.

And I know um we represent you guys where your voice as well, so thank you for all you do, and also acknowledging all our Hispanic journalists that we are also the community, and thank you so much.

Hi, Miguel Contreras, reporter for channel twenty six.

Is there one more?

Yes.

I thought so.

But also I wanted to um mention the uh senior producer, also our station manager, she wasn't able to be here, Emily DeSantos as well.

Very good.

Well, thank you guys for all that you do for El Paso, and I just want to let everyone know that some of the other media markets that you guys beat out for the Lone Star Emmy Awards, Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and the RGB.

And look at all these awards here.

And again, this this recognizes the highest professionals and honors for regional TV.

It's judged by your peers, TV professionals from around the regions.

And there's a lot of Emmys there.

And firsthand, I know what it takes to bring home an enemy.

And uh my daughter's mother has a few of those Emmys uh in her in her possession as well.

So I understand what it takes, and I want to thank you guys for all that you do for the community, the stories that you tell, and just the professionalism that you have shown to El Paso for the many, many, many years that you have been doing this.

So a big big congratulations to each and every one of you.

And you've walked in with so many Emmys this year, maybe next year it'd be double that amount because it is very, very hard to do.

And I know some of you are doing double duty, some of you are doing weather, some of you are doing reporting, some of you are MMJs.

You guys are doing whatever it takes to get the stories done.

So thank you for representing El Paso and always shining a bright light on this community.

Thank you guys.

You ready?

Yes, Mayor.

Good morning.

This is a meeting of the Al Paso City Council for Tuesday, January 6th, 2026.

Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in Council Chambers along with Mayor Potem Chavez, Representative Acevedo, Representative Boy Art Trejo, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Potem Fiero, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales.

It is ten oh two A.M.

Now will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police Senior Chaplain, David Mayfield.

I invite those present to join me as I pray.

Its deep roots, its border location that shapes our identity, and its people whose lives are intertwined across cultures, nations, and generations.

In this place of meeting and movement of challenge and opportunity.

Help us to see not only issues to be managed, but neighbors to be served.

As this council begins its work for 2026, grant wisdom for the decisions that affect our economy, our workforce, and the livelihoods of families throughout this region.

May policies foster opportunity, fairness, and long-term stability so that work is dignified, businesses can flourish, and no one is forgotten.

In matters touching the border, grant compassion alongside clarity.

Cooperation alongside responsibility.

Help leaders seek solutions that are humane, lawful, and attentive to the real lives impacted by every decision.

Bless the conversations held here today.

Give patience when perspectives differ.

Courage when difficult choices must be made, and unity of purpose in seeking the common good.

May this new year be marked by thoughtful leadership, shared responsibility, and hope for all who call El Paso home.

We offer this prayer in a spirit of gratitude and hope.

Amen.

Thank you.

Okay, Miss Cry.

Thank you.

That brings us to public comment on consent agenda and regular agenda items.

This morning we have Miss Jamie Fisher, who signed up to speak at 10 o'clock regarding item number 27.

Item 27 is uh the award of solicitation 2025-0545, Eastide Regional Park Phase 2 to Grace and Engineering and Construction.

Good morning, Ms.

Fisher.

You have three minutes.

Good morning, City Council and Mr.

Mayor.

Good morning.

My name is Jamie Fisher.

I'm the founder of Pickleball El Paso.

And with me today I have our new president, Ida Chavita, and a couple of our members.

And we are all thrilled, so excited to see that the beast has moved into the approval phase with 10 pickleball courts in it, needless to say.

So this has been an arduous, a long process.

I remember seeing Representative Nino at the public comment meetings along with his predecessor, Representative Salcito.

I know Dion Mack worked on this hard, and we've got to do a shout out to Carla and the Capital Improvement Team people.

It's been a long process, so we're glad to see it come to fruition.

We would have more people here.

We usually fill up a couple of rows, but we got caught in the holiday switchover, and we've got people taking their parents to the doctor and going back to work.

So please know that they are here with us in spirit, and they're excited for this project to begin.

So speaking of the holidays, I was truly blessed to have both of my adult children home for the holidays, plus the husband and the girlfriend, and my husband said, uh, what are we going to do together?

And it was him that suggested pickleball, not me.

I don't my children did not get the sports gene.

I think they were switched to the hospital, but they're lovely people.

They're lovely people, so we're going to keep them.

So anyway, they all said, we can't do that.

We don't have the hand to ball.

But the paddle is so short.

I said you're going to do this.

And we went out there and we just started whacking at stuff.

And there was laughter.

And there was joy.

And we had a great time.

And so that's one thing this sport's good for because the paddle is small and easy to handle, it's quick for people to learn.

Now for the rest of us and the rest of the year, at our facilities, we have open play.

And there's a paddle rack.

You put your paddle in.

About every 20 minutes, people come off the court and the next four go in.

So you don't have to know anybody.

You don't have to set up a match.

And this is priceless for our military people.

When they relocate to El Paso, they show up to play and they get to meet people.

It's also great for the tourists.

I've been to other cities, and you can't walk in a public gym unless you buy a membership Cincinnati.

Nobody saying who it is.

My daughter lives there.

But we are doing a great job taking care of all parts of our community.

It's physical, it's social, and this is going to be a great boom for El Paso.

I hope you will support Agenda Item 27.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That brings us to call to the public.

Use this forum for political statements or campaigning.

Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda.

However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda.

This morning we have eight members of the public that signed up to speak.

Okay, here it is.

So I wanna congratulate all the news anchors that were here earlier, and that's prove that uh Mexicans can achieve everything.

I was raised in Juarez.

I w I came here without speaking any English.

And right now my mission is to tell people to wake up and report animal cruelty in Felizia de los Reyes.

They donated six sixty breads, blue breads to back the blue, please please flood them with business.

And uh animal cruelty, cruel de animal is un tema muy serio.

Los animales que están matando sufrir, y los que vemos eso sufrimos también.

Entonces, yo no sabía cómo reportar cruel de animal.

Una vez empezaron a quemar un gato con cigarros, empezar una muchacha de mi escuela le puso veneno y el gato se murió.

Yo no sabía como reportar.

I gente que no sabe como reportar, me habla rato.

Una señora que tiene como 30 gatos, me habla que hago un gato arriba de un poste.

Then go three as cuchandolo llorar.

Ayer otra muchacha que también se supone que sabe de animales.

El programma de TNR trap neuter return.

Solos encargados de operar, atrapar y regresar los gatos.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Ron Como.

Mr.

Como's topic is exercising his constitutional rights to the rescue nineteen eighty-three animal services.

He will be followed by Karen Washington.

Good good morning, Ron.

Trying to get rid of a picture so I can get to the others.

So here we are.

First meeting of 2026.

And we still have the same old problems.

Hopefully we're gonna get them fixed.

Um there was in your positive meetings a comment made by somebody that they didn't want best friends involved with our shelter anymore, and I understand that Terry said that wasn't up to her, it was up to the people.

Okay, so let's discuss this.

Protesters at El Paso leaders for better care for abandon animals in the city.

K Fox.

El Paso Animal Services criticized for handling of stray animals.

Uh Facebook login found lost pets podcast, straight leadership.

Y City of El Paso is again looking for animal services directors after years of turnover and public criticism.

Enough is enough.

El Paso protests about the stray and loose.

Your community is speaking loud to you.

The problem isn't that the people want best friends.

The people don't want best friends, but nobody's paying attention to what your community is saying.

Definitely.

This is something that just needs to end, guys.

We've got a chance of fixing the city, and we need to do it.

Um representative.

Called for high number of stray cats and dogs as a public safety issue.

As city council, we have to really step up to the plate for the safety of the community when it comes to animals.

So what have we done?

That was a little over a year ago, that was said.

If you want more, Google it.

We have had enough.

Perfect example of things that shouldn't be happening that do El Paso, Texas Animal Services Shelter Report, 2124.

In the missing calling column.

In other words, strays that disappeared that were in the shelter.

We have um 542 across the line.

Yet in the shelter report, it shows a total of 11.

How did we go from 542 to 11?

Okay, the uh the other thing.

Dog live release rate.

It shows a total of 5246 and cat 4522, which gives you an actual of 48.84 live release rate.

According to the shelter report, it's 84 percent.

Where was ASAC when they were going over the shelter reports to point out the fact that somebody altered the shelter reports, which against the law from what I understand?

Thank you, Mr.

Comwell.

Fix it, guys.

The next speaker is Karen Washington also speaking on animal services.

She will be followed by Darlene Vincorn.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council.

A happy new year.

Happy new.

I, for one, and certainly uh hopeful for a better year regarding animal services and animal control.

We have here El Paso City Ordinance Title VII.

Once a dog comes into the hands of someone and it's not chipped, the owner has three days to come forward with a microchip, it has six days to come forward.

Then it becomes property of said person who found the dog.

And be honest with y'all, I don't really like coming here.

Um, but when an issue arises and I feel it needs your attention, I will be here.

So again, I'm going to ask you all who is running the circus of animal services.

There are two issues that I need to voice.

Number one, El Paso City Ordinance Title VII.

Why have this ordinance if both El Paso Police Department and animal control officers are not aware of it?

Or maybe they are and they just don't care.

I rescued a dog from the middle of the street back in November.

I scanned the matted dog.

He is full of stickers, and I found no microchip.

I had him groomed and I got him vet care.

400 later.

So 11 days later, 11 days, a couple reached out asking if positive still had this dog.

To the point, this is to the point.

Animal control became involved as well as El Paso PD.

It turned out that the dog was chipped, and El Paso Police Department threatened that if the dog was not returned to the owner, the foster mom would be charged with theft, as dogs are considered property in our great state of Texas.

I'm well aware of the dog cases are a civil matter.

They must be handled in a court of civil law.

I have experience in this, trust me.

It's pathetic that a paid animal control officer did not know Title VII.

After six days with the microchip, this dog belonged to positive rescuers, yet we were threatened to return the dog.

I have filed a complaint, a formal complaint with internal affairs as well, because this was not an El Paso police department matter, but a civil matter.

Number two, New Year's Eve, last Wednesday, a dog I rescued back in September had escaped her foster home, and I was asked for help and rescuing her again, so I set a trap Wednesday evening.

Thursday morning, New Year's Day at approximately eight o'clock.

For some reason, six animal control trucks arrived to the area where my trap was set up.

Six trucks for one dog.

These animal control officers saw the dog, they followed her in their trucks with their lights flashing, as if they were in pursuit of an escaped convict, not a helpless dog.

They even had catch polls in hand.

She ran for her life terrified.

Now you all tell me, was this necessary?

Forget for a moment that I rescue dogs.

I'm a taxpayer.

I help pay these employees' salaries, and I'm disgusted with wasting resources.

The unprofessionalism, the lies told about this dog by animal control supervisor that a bite report had been made.

Anyway, I we we need somebody in charge of animal that cares.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Darlene Drincoin.

Her topic is also animal services.

She will be followed by Denise Rodriguez.

Good morning.

Good morning, there and city council.

Good morning.

I'm here to speak on in conjunction with what Karen just said.

I was the one who went out, I was checking the trap that was set up behind Circle K because we had gotten the report on the dog.

I went to check the trap.

When I did, I turned around, here comes an animal control truck.

So I flagged him down, thinking, okay, they're looking for a dog, not the dog we're looking for.

If I see the dog, I can alert them that where it's at.

In the meantime, I tell him, he tells me black and white German Shepherd mix.

I said, We've got a trap set up.

I pointed behind me to the trap.

I said, We're aware of the dog.

On his radio, I hear she's at Southwest University.

When I look to my left, coming up behind him is another truck.

Now that's two trucks for one little dog.

So I went back to Southwest University.

I go to the ball field where the dog to the left, two animal control officers with catch poles.

I see the dog running across the field towards where these guys are.

I look to my right.

Two animal control trucks.

Catch poles.

They're running this poor dog to death.

I went out on the street.

I'm trying to follow these guys and see what's going on with this dog.

Two more animal control trucks.

Six.

I said, no, something's not right.

So I went to look for the dog, couldn't find the dog.

They were still out there.

And I mean, they're speeding through these streets.

Someone would have stepped off the curb.

A car pull out in front of them.

You're talking about a catastrophic event.

But they didn't care because I pulled one of them over and he rolled down his window and I said, You guys need to back off.

We're aware of this dog.

I said, I volunteered.

And he's like, Well, who are you?

And I said, I volunteer with positive rescuers.

We're aware of the dog.

We have a trap set.

She's being handled.

Well, that's nice that you have community concern.

And I said, Who are you?

Officer Rivera, badge number.

And he said, You have a nice day.

And I said, please back off.

You're scaring the dog to death.

She's going to run out into traffic.

Nope.

They cruise.

I mean, they I can't say cruise.

It's just like Karen said, like they were chasing down an escape convict.

I mean, seriously.

What a waste of resources.

And these guys don't know what they're doing.

I'm sorry.

They need to work with an expert.

She's been doing this over 23 years.

I go out with her.

I know how to trap dogs now.

But they don't, they don't want a woman, I believe, telling them what to do.

And she knows what to do.

But these guys are wasting resources, and just like we are taxpayers, we're paying their money.

They need to back off.

They need to learn and be trained.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Denise Rodriguez.

Ms.

Rodriguez Tar 6, please to unmute your microphone.

Miss Rodriguez says topic is bar regulations on closing times.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Hi, good morning.

Happy New Year to everybody.

Um is Denise Rodriguez, and I am a resident here in El Paso, Texas.

Today I would like to address the constant increasing number of fatalities that are a result of drunk and reckless driving.

As a born and raised citizen of El Paso, Texas, I am not able to recall a day in recent times where a death caused by drunk or reckless driving hasn't occurred.

We see a minimum one injury every single day.

Citizens are unfairly losing mothers, fathers, and even children.

Our people and children deserve a safe environment.

I could I encourage you all to ask anybody outside of the city or even state.

What first comes to mind when El Paso is mentioned.

I guarantee the answer would be similar to where the worst drivers are.

Recently we lost a 17-year-old to impaired driving.

Which is why I am pleading to the council to require all bars and clubs to close no later than 12 a.m.

Those two hours can save a lot of lives, as well as having a mandatory breath of visor test before exiting the establishment.

This would certainly give the people more peace of mind.

Thank you for listening to my concerns.

And please help us create a safer community.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jesse Romero.

Mr.

Romero's topic is San Jacinto Plaza and additional parking.

He will be followed by Eduardo Chavez.

Good morning.

Morning, City Council.

Good morning, Mayor.

Morning.

I worked three days of the week in San Jesus in the Plaza for the uh I was at the uh Winterfest.

Excuse me.

It was fantastic.

That's the only word I can describe about the Winterfest.

It was fantastic.

And I want to thank the city, the parks and uh parks and recreation, and all the people who uh worked and put in the music.

They had salsa, they had cumbia, they had country.

It was fantastic.

I spent three days there for a month.

I was in heaven.

It was more like a family gathering.

It really was, because they were taking pictures, doing all kinds of good stuff.

So if you didn't get a chance to go to a park, you know, for this weekend or for the winter fest, if you didn't do it this year, do it next year.

It's fantastic.

And the best thing to do if it's growing, and it grew a lot.

And we had thousands of people there, but a lot of people from El Paso and a lot big section or a big part where from Juarez y El Juarez, and a lot of from Chihuahua.

Can you imagine come with Chihuahua?

Four hours, wait, an hour and a half, an hour and a half on the line to cross over here and to come shop and everything.

And that's good.

That's very good for El Paso.

But Winterfest was fantastic.

Now, how do we make Winterfest better?

How about expanding the plaza?

It's a small little area, but you can go across the street on the north side, and there's parking there, you know.

It's it's time for El Paso to grow bigger and make the plaza grow bigger.

Because when I was in when I was younger, I used to sell newspapers there.

Yeah, it's a long time ago.

So the Herald Post.

The Air Pulse is gone.

The alligators are gone, but I'm still here.

You know, that's a good part.

Now, the thing is that we need to grow, you know, the Placita because it's good.

It's good for tourism.

It's good for the people.

And it's really nice.

The concerts are good, everything was nice.

Now, how do we find parking?

Well, you know what?

You've got to we have parking there for a long time, but we never utilized it.

And that's the part on top of the freeway.

Think about it.

People the people don't want to come to El Paso or downtown because why the parking, it is not good.

They say, well, yeah, if I go over there, I have to find this, or I'll get a ticket, and the tickets cost what, 20 dollars or something like that?

I don't know.

But we need to get, in other words, it would be nice if El Paso thought in the future.

You know, we've been here a long time, you know.

I've been here and I've seen that.

And it would be nice to have the place to get bigger for more people.

It really would be nice.

And you say parking, we do have parking spaces right up the street.

And it's just a matter of time.

And if you all get together and get organized, it'd be good.

It'll be good for El Paso.

It'd really good.

And be good for tourism.

And I was reading the paper that the biggest tourist, the biggest uh tours in El Paso from Mexico.

They really are.

And it's really good.

It's good for business, it's good for us.

And it's good for stores.

Look at Walmart, look at all the shopping centers who receive all the monies.

And that money is coming into El Paso.

So thank you very much.

Have a good day.

And um thank you for those comments.

That's the way to go.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for the comments.

The next speaker is Eduardo Chavez.

He will be followed by Elizabeth Crawford.

Mr.

Chavez's topic is water and no more raising our water bill.

Guess who?

I'm back again.

Check off the new year.

Bring it in.

Hey.

Yesterday I went to the county meeting and I uh had a good meeting with our uh representative out there in Montana Vista, uh Jackie Butler.

She is so nice, so beautiful that she even made a Tanghaw meeting on Thursday for all my people out there to come and tell them their story about the water and sewer.

Plus, I thought, you know, once you're there, tell them your all your complaints.

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut because I think it's gonna be a big day for her.

I feel sorry for her, but she's a beautiful lady.

I wish you guys would go out to our town home in your neighborhood or your district.

I know you used to go with once in a while.

And uh one thing I was gonna ask the city manager, who is in charge of uh allocating or uh uh looking over the books or auditing the water department.

I think somebody needs to check how much things they're spending, you know.

There's uh the old uh we used to pay our bills in uh airport.

They got a fence around the the uh area there.

Cork screw wrought iron.

I mean, I don't even think you guys can afford to have that in your house.

Why do we spend something like that on uh on uh municipal money?

Secondly, they got all these uh backup generators, millions of dollars are sitting there.

I think one of them is like uh a million and three million just sitting there.

I've seen one that's been sitting there for since 2006.

I don't think it's ever even got started.

So, what is that money going to?

We have to pay for it.

Now, another thing I found out Bell City.

Bell City had the best water ever.

Well, now that I've been selling the uh water systems, I found out that they got contaminated water.

Well, but the smart people of uh our water department.

Yes, I'm directing you guys.

You went and bought all the water right from the people because you thought you were so smart, get good clean water.

Well, God punished us by giving all these earthquakes, and now all that water is contaminated.

Now the farmers and all the people that are out there want our have rumors that they want to sue the city of El Paso because you got the the rights to take care of the water.

Are we gonna pay for that too?

Somebody needs to uh come down and and start checking where this money that uh the water department wants to get a race.

And before they get a race, make sure it's going to the right place.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Travis.

And the final speaker is Elizabeth Crawford.

Miss Crawford's topic is light, darkness, and abortion.

Miss Crawford, good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning and thank you.

Good morning.

Um January 6th, which is often called Three Kings Day.

Uh we're reminded of of the magi.

As we think about the nativity, the incarnation, we're reminded of light coming into the darkness.

King Herod called Herod the Great, the rule ruler of Judea, who ruled at the time of the massive Roman Empire when the Lord Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary.

The historian Josephus, a Jew who lived centuries back, wrote about Herod.

He had a reputation for brutality and cruelty.

He's described as paranoid to keep his power and stick with cruelty in his attempt to destroy the Christ child, desperate to preserve his throne from this king of the Jews that had been born.

Herod committed the horrific massacre named in history as the massacre, spoiler of the innocent, wiping out babies in and around Bethlehem, two years old and under.

Um the scripture records this in Matthew 2.

Um I would like to read some quotes by an abortionist in our day that show a similar brutality, cruelty, sickness of mind that exists to go to work daily and do an abortionist do.

Uh the abortionist sentence, these quotations quote, you have to be a bit schizophrenic.

In one room, you encourage a patient that the slight irregularity in the fetal heart is not important, that she's gonna have a fine, healthy baby.

Then in the next room, you wish assure another woman on whom you just did an abortion that it's a good thing that the heartbeat is already irregular.

She has nothing to worry about, she will not have a live baby.

Another quote, somebody has to do it, and unfortunately, we are the executioners in this instant.

Another quote, there is a lot of activity in the uterus.

That's obviously the fetus being distressed, taking violently.

That's to all intents of purposes, the death trauma.

Um the abortionist, the life of the abortionist is a dark, dark person living in a dark, dark world.

This month is as um the the life and legacy of uh Martin Luther King is being recognized.

We need to know that his niece, Alveda King, is a very outspoken and bold speaker against abortion.

She refers to abortion as womb lynching.

She herself had several abortions and longs to warn ladies of the devastating aftermath that comes with abortion.

Um speaking of the Christ child, um and John John the Baptiste and his announcement of the Christ child.

We read these beautiful words in Luke chapter one about the Lord Jesus to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sin.

The Christ child came to bring light and to dispel the darkness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes call to the public.

And that brings us to the consent agenda.

Okay.

All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by City Council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members.

Prior to the vote, members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda.

When the item has been taken, the item has been approved.

Council may, however, reconsider any item at any time during the meeting.

Motion approved.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Ms.

Prime.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions.

Page 11, item 26, take item to at 11 a.m.

per strategic and legislative affairs.

Thank you.

All right, there's a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, there's a motion and a second.

Any discussion on the consent agenda.

Ms.

Prime?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Mayor Potem Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor pro tempiero to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Mayor Pro Tim Chavez.

Aye.

Thank you.

In the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

I believe that brings us to the first readings, Ms.

Fry.

Yes, sir.

This is on page six, and counsel per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, no personal communication should take place on the dais when the meeting is in session.

Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per debatable motion.

Please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the dais while the meeting is in session.

If you're joining us through teams, please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any interruptions.

Representative Lamont.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, Ms.

Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Lilly, second it by Representative Nino, and this is to approve the first reading of ordinances.

These are items 10 to 18.

On that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms.

Prime, we're going to take item number 24 next on page 10.

Yes, sir.

Item number 24 is discussion and action on a resolution to rename ESI Sports Complex at 14380 Montwood Drive to Richard A.

Castro East Sports Complex in honor of Mr.

Castro's outstanding dedication to the community of Al Paso.

This is Representative Nino's item.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay, we have a presentation on this one.

Yes, Mayor.

So I'm sure a lot of us are aware of the great work that Dr.

Richard A.

Castro has done.

You know, a couple of individuals from the community reached out to my office, and they went through the process of obtaining signatures, getting the community involved, getting the parks and rec recommendation to rename this park.

I'm not going to go too much into the background of the work that Mr.

Castro has done because there is a great presentation that is about to be presented.

But Mr.

Castro, thank you for all the work that you have done for our community, the investment in not just sports, but also education.

But uh, I'm gonna hand it over to Mr.

Don Olivis, who's the applicant who has been working along with my office and will be doing today's presentation.

Mr.

Levis.

Good morning.

Good morning, City Council, Mayor, staff, and happy new year.

It's uh a great pleasure of mine to be here to be able to speak on behalf of all of the things that uh Richard A.

Castro has done for this community.

Throughout his career here in El Paso, his focus has been on how can I make the community better.

And one of his focuses has been on youth.

How can I help youth become the productive citizens that they actually have the right and the ability to to become?

So he has focused on sports.

Obviously, through sports, he has become a tremendous mentor for thousands of kids here in El Paso over the decades that he has been doing this.

Not only has he given of his wealth, but he has given of his time to be a coach, to be a mentor, to just help these kids understand that they can become anything that they strive to if they have certain disciplines that are really intrinsic to him.

And that is you have to have a good work ethic.

You have to be responsible.

You have to be able to make accountability for yourself.

That's what he has done.

He is one of the hidden jewels in this community that has really not been recognized to the degree of what he has contributed to the community.

There isn't a building in El Paso that's named after him.

There isn't anything that is named after him.

Not that he has sought that, but he deserves that.

He absolutely deserves to have that recognition because he is one of the greatest mentors that this community has had.

And yet, when people talk about Mr.

Castro, they talk about the things that they they know about, the the McDonald's, they talk about the McDonald's tournament.

The McDonald's tournament serves many purposes that really aren't really known.

It allows our kids to be able to be showcased on a national basis.

Coaches come in here to recruit kids from high schools.

That gives our kids the opportunity to be seen by these coaches.

Otherwise, they wouldn't.

At one time, Mr.

Castro not only funded but coached El Paso teams that went all over the United States playing other teams.

What an opportunity for these kids to get out there and be recognized not only for their talents, but just for what they for who they are.

He provided that for them.

He provided that opportunity for them.

He has always known that the athletic fields, whether it be on a court or on a field, was an extension of education.

He knew that the learning that was taking place in that environment transferred over to the classroom to life in general.

You're going to hear from some people here today that have experienced that benefit of being mentored by Richard A.

Castro.

I hope that City Council today understands that the naming of this park is just the beginning of what should be done for Richard A.

Castro and to really immoral immoralize the fact that his contributions will go on for decades.

In this park, I would like council to take note that anything else that goes on in this park should be named Richard A.

Castro, whether it be whatever happens, if there's a swimming pool, if there's a uh any kind of recreation center, it should bear the name of Richard A.

Castro.

With that, I'll turn it over to uh well these slides here.

These slides are are something that uh uh I need to talk about.

These slides talk about all the the things that Richard Castro has done.

But they're not just talking about trophies and scoreboards.

We're talking about opportunities.

Opportunities that have been presented because of what Richard A.

Castro has done.

For decades for decades, Dr.

Richard Castro didn't just support youth sports financially.

He made sure kids who might not otherwise have a chance were able to step onto a field or a court, put on a uniform, and feel like they really belonged.

Thousands of young people in El Paso learned discipline, teamwork, confidence, and resilience because someone believed in them before they ever believed in themselves.

That kind of impact doesn't end when the game is over.

It carries into the classroom, careers, families, and the future.

These slides that are being shown here represent more than just programs.

They represent life change.

Life changes.

And overall, it has enriched this community because of what he has done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dan.

Thank you, Dan.

And I believe there's two more individuals that are also going to be speaking who were Mr.

Castro was a coach for, right?

Mr.

Olivis.

Yes.

Are they here?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, City Council.

Good morning, Mayor.

It's my honor to stand before you.

As we mentioned, Dr.

Richard Castro, I know him for the last 40 years as coach.

I was one product of his coaching from a young age.

Learning the valuable lessons of not giving up, giving everything you have.

He's provided me, you know, besides my my father and my brother.

He's been probably the most uh one of my greatest mentors growing up.

Uh, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

This man has done that for thousands of kids across, whether it's through coaching, whether it's through funding, whatever the case may be.

This man has always been who what you see.

He's a generous, uh caring man that really focuses on the youth of El Paso, doing the best and leading into education.

Education was huge.

I was a young man uh that was lost for a while.

Uh going back and forth, not knowing what to do.

He brought me after this was several years after uh being coached by him.

He brought me back to help him coach his youngest son, uh DJ at that time, to coach, and that again reignited the fire inside of me of what I really wanted to do.

Uh working with kids was what I want, you know, a passion that I didn't realize how much I wanted.

I decided to go back to school, uh, got my education, became a teacher, and I'll now taking the lessons he's uh instilled in me.

I've become a coach outside of uh a youth organization, and also just trying to teach the same principles that I learned from him.

Um again, Mr.

Castro is uh most deserving of this award or this uh recognition.

Uh it is like Mr.

Oliva said, uh pretty surprising that the city we have not named anything after him because of all the contributions.

So again, it would really take you uh great consideration in being able to name uh this uh sports complex in his honor.

Uh there would be no more deserving person that reflects the true values of our city and our youth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Olivia says Mr.

Omar here as well.

I don't think so.

No?

Okay.

Well, Council Dr.

Richard A.

Costro is a lasting legacy from a volunteer coach to a national scholarship leader.

Dr.

Castro's contributions have shaped youth sports, education, and community community development for generations to come.

So, council uh motion to approve.

Second, okay, represent representative Limon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Richard, come on up, please.

So don't sit back there.

Richard, um, so I've had the great honor of um seeing um your son and my daughter grow up together from that elementary school, and I'll share the story.

My daughter would come home and say, This little kid, mom, he's got McDonald's socks, he's got a McDonald's backpack.

Hey, as all this McDonald's stuff, can you get me some?

I'm like, oh gee, how do I do that?

But it was Richard's son, and it was Vince, who's a wonderful, wonderful young man.

Richard, I know that there's a building in your university now that's been named after you.

Um, and then now there's gonna be a uh a park.

But you carry some of the biggest title already, and that's of being a dad, of having granddaughters, of being a family man from the valley with with such deep roots.

You have the honor of calling your abuelita, your first teacher.

Um, and you bring forth to this community so much love.

I still remember that first McDonald's that opened up on Hawkins, and uh the joy to see Alicia Chacon serving the first hamburgers that came out from the line.

Um have been an incredible person, your family.

Um, it's been a joy, and congratulations.

There you carry the best in your heart, Richard.

Felicidades.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Dr.

Castro, felicidades, congratulations.

I think this is well deserved, and more than that, it's earned because of your contributions to our community.

I know that I went to your uh event earlier last year in May, uh, your scholarship award event.

So many people have benefited from your generosity.

Um, and I know that education is so important to you.

Education is so vital to our community because when we invest in our youth, we invest in our future.

And thanks to you, to your generosity, the future of El Paso is looking bright.

And also, thanks to your generosity and your investment in youth sports, we are creating a healthy community.

And by doing that, um, as the person that spoke earlier said, we're challenging our youth to become the best version of themselves.

So thank you.

I I agree with Mr.

Olivia that your legacy will live on forever, and and we appreciate it, and I thank you.

Thank you.

And my friend, before we call this vote and give you an opportunity to say some things, I just want to congratulate you as well.

Thank you.

You have been a mentor to so many of us in this community, and you have done so much.

And you've been doing it for a long time.

And we cannot thank you enough for all of the youth that you've mentored.

Uh, all of the, you know, to include myself being on boards with you, whether it was at the Hispanic Chamber or whether it was on one of the hospital boards that we served on.

You have been a mentor to me to me as well, and I cannot thank you enough, my friend.

And this is well deserved, and we are so proud of you as a community, and we are so lucky to have you here, because there's not many Richard Castros in many communities.

But we're lucky and blessed here in El Paso to have you.

And I wanted to say thank you.

So let me call the vote and then we'll give you a few minutes to.

Maybe we also have public comment from Mr.

Thornton.

No, it's Wayne.

Come on.

No.

Yeah, we'll bring them up.

Okay.

And by the way, as think uh Davis earlier, uh, she cut my hair while I was in college over 200 times.

She slapped me on the head too, so I still remember it.

So but this gentleman behind me, Richard A.

Castro, ladies and gentlemen, I spent 43 years with the City of El Paso Parks Parks and Recreation.

I tell you what, he contributed to our department in so many ways.

Lincoln Center, I spent 28 years there.

And in those 28 years, three things were born out of the Lincoln Center.

The greatest events ever for Parks and Recreation.

One, Gus and Goldie, learn to swim.

Two, midnight basketball, the Junior League of El Paso and Julie Carlman.

Three, was a McDonald's basketball league for kids.

All three of those events, this gentleman contributed to.

I walked up to him like another person.

So Mr.

Cashu, can you help us with this?

Can you help us?

No problem.

Anyone walking the earth in El Paso, Texas?

Nobody, nobody can compare to this gentleman with education, scholarships, and our youth.

Richard A.

Castro.

Congratulations, my friend.

Wow.

All right, Council.

We have a motion and the second server.

Any further discussion on this particular item?

Hearing on Ms.

Bryan.

Mayor Mr.

Catharos going to speak.

It will happen before the vote.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, we're going to let you speak now.

Thank you.

Wow.

What can you say?

It's this is obviously so emotional.

So proud.

Not just for myself, but obviously for my family.

What is happening today is going to live for generations to come, way after I've said goodbye.

So it'll be an opportunity for my family, my friends to speak to that event, to speak to the park when they think of me, when they speak of me, that will be part of the legacy that will be part of my being.

So I completely and truly appreciate all the effort that came from such good friends.

Because they came to me and they talked to me about the desire to have something in my name.

And that something that they suggested was a park.

So I truly want to thank Wayne Thornton, Joe Rodriguez, my good friend Ben Olivas, Joe Rosales, the other two young men that were part of my life and my teams, Omaro Choa, who's now officer in the uh with was the border patrol.

He went on to get his his is from the segundo barrio.

I would pick him up every day, take him to practice, then take him back home, got to know that that's an interesting story.

Uh so many memories, so many memories.

What a wonderful life.

But I was coaching, Joe and the rest of the kids on my team, and well, I had a bunch of really good players, so we were up and up for the championship game, and we played the Bowie Bears.

I was so impressed with two of the kids on the on the Bowie Bears team that I recruited them to be on our team.

And they went on one of them wanted to play with me for the rest of his school career and made all the trips that we made with us.

And why is he asking for my 11-year-old brother?

And so he left, and then his mom came up, and she questioned me of what my intents were and what I was doing.

But she did ask me to come in, and I very simply told her I saw my play.

I mean, I was very impressed with him.

I want him to play with us.

And she told me we have very limited resources.

So the last thing to worry about what I want is for him to be on our team and to experience the the things that we're going to be experiencing, which is the a lot of the out-of-town trips.

He went on to be a big time football player at Bowie, uh, even though he was a great basketball player for us, went on and got his degree at UTEP, became a border patrol member, got his black degree built in in martial arts, became an instructor with a border patrol in in self-defense, and I'm not sure what rank he is today, but somewhere around the captain level, perhaps even higher, a great success story.

Joe, I remember we were at practice, and we were practice at one of the at Eastwood Heights Elementary, and we're warming up, and I turned and I see this young guy coming with our point guard, and our point guard was you know, regular point guard, and Joe was like 11 or 12 years old, but he was like 5'10, so somewhere around that that height at that time.

I looked at him, I turned to my my the individual who was helping me coach, and I tell him we just won the championship, and and as I found out, Joe had never played before, but he learned very quickly, and we won the championship.

So many so many uh uh uh memories, you know.

We talked Dan and Wayne talked about my contributions, and I am so glad that I had the passion and still have the passion for youth programs.

I know the value of education, so that's why I I met strong advocate of education, but during that course of years that that I have participated first as as given on my time and in every way that I could to include coaching, and then later uh not only coaching but providing resources the the wonderful experiences that all those kids provided to me.

You you can't put a dollar amount on them.

They were so so valuable, then I carry them with me.

I can talk about a number of experiences with some of these guys.

Obviously, we don't have the time, but uh I will tell you that that it's been very rewarding.

We lived across the driveway from each other, and she started a squ neighborhood escuelita in the front of our house, which she had built with the intent of having that classroom.

And her vision was to provide an education to all the kids in the barrio to include me.

She started that that squalita many decades before I came around, but I had the opportunity toward the toward the toward the end of her uh career to to attend her school and be part of that.

And she lit the fire for the understanding of the importance of education.

So I know the value and what it takes for a lot of our kids to go through a university or college and get that education.

So when I had the opportunity to start scholarship programs, and I have a several of them, I didn't hesitate at all.

And I intend to continue with all those efforts as long as I am able to.

Again, I want to thank all those individuals that make this possible.

Special thanks to Councilman Ivan Nino for your support.

You know, the park is in his district.

And I also want to give my sincere appreciation to the entire council and and to you, Mayor, for uh making it happen and for your vote uh this morning.

You know, when I first walk in to the council chamber, it immediately takes me back to my city manager days being in in this environment.

And I've got to um recognize you all and thank you for your services, because being part of the uh city administration for a number of years, I know all the issues that uh you all encounter and that you all go through.

And I want to compliment you on your professionalism.

Uh some of the comments and the issues that came up today used to come up when I was a city administrator and probably come up in most communities.

And uh, you know, the way you handled them was uh impressive.

Um I know you have other items on the agenda and you need to move on, but for this kind of events obviously don't happen very often for me as an individual, it may not happen again.

So I I um appreciate the time and appreciate the action.

And uh thank you.

I want to also recognize before I go, my son DJ, which is here.

I want to recognize my other sons that weren't able to be here but are here in spirit as well as as uh my wife and my younger son that are home but are watching on TV.

Fantastic.

Once again, thank you so much and look forward to many years of enjoying the Richard A.

Castro Park.

Again, Richard, thank you.

Richard again, thank you so much for everything that you've done for our community.

I know we've also had a lot of great conversations.

He's also served in even the PSV board.

He was a chairman for of the PSB board for many years and also worked on a lot of key projects for O Paso Water Utilities.

Um but again, uh looking forward to the public uh ceremony, uh dedication ceremony that we'll organize.

And thank you again for all your work, Richard.

Thank you for those comments.

One final comment in reference to the public service board, and I really enjoyed my service there.

I was longest serving chairman of the public service board, and the sanitization plant was my initiative.

Wow.

I I I brought that up before the board and I pushed for it.

Uh even though there was at least one people that didn't see the value of it at the time, eventually everybody came around, and the rest we all are familiar with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, my friend.

The most important part of this agenda item, Ms.

Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Nino, seconded by Representative Limon to approve the resolution to rename the East Side Sports Complex to Richard A.

Castro, East Hide Sports Complex.

On that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representative Acevedo, not present.

Congratulations again, my friend.

Thank you.

All right, Ms.

Prime, item number 26, please.

Yes, sir.

Item number 26 is on page 11.

And it is a presentation and discussion on the El Paso Computes program led by the University of Texas at El Paso College of Education in partnership with the City of El Paso Department of Information Technology and funded through an American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA grant allocation.

Good morning, Mayor.

Good morning.

Carolyn Patrick with the IT department.

This item is a presentation on the El Paso Computes Initiative in collaboration with and led by the University of Texas at El Paso College of Education.

This program is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA grant allocation.

This briefing will highlight the progress and impact of the initiative focusing on building computational competencies among teachers and students in the El Paso's K through 12 public schools.

I would like to invite Dr.

Clifton Tanabe, Dean of the College of Education at UTEP, to share his presentation on the program's objectives, milestones, and future plans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor.

City Council.

First, let me say uh how what an honor it is to uh make this presentation on the same day that the Richard A.

Castro East Size Sports Complex gets named.

Uh talk about somebody who's been a mentor in my life as well.

I only can confirm and second everything that's been said uh today about him, and uh so honored to be able to do that uh on the on this day.

Uh this is going to be a uh briefing and update of a project called El Paso Computes.

This is a partnership and collaborative effort and initiative with the City of El Paso.

And the work that we've been able to do with your amazing city team has been eye-opening, and I'm excited to share a bit about what we are doing.

I have a couple of other team members here here.

I'll just introduce briefly.

One is Dr.

Erica Mean over there with her hand raised.

She is an associate dean in the College of Education and the architect of this work.

And uh Elizabeth Flores, who is the uh uh college's administrative officer, she crosses the T's and dots the I's with the city team.

So very important uh person to have as part of this team.

Uh the scope of this work, if uh go to slide two, is broad.

It's really about building uh and increasing computational competencies, computing competencies for El Paso students across the city.

It is about capacity building, is about creating uh content uh delivery for teachers and students and teacher educators so that our students in K-12 settings get exposed to, understand, and can use computational thinking and artificial intelligence early so that when they enter into the higher education next step or into the workforce, they're they're exposed early on into the tools and to that world.

And I'll talk a bit about how we're doing that through a skilled, integrated and scaffolded approach.

Next slide.

There's one big crazy goal as part of El Paso Computes, and that is to impact 20,000 underserved K-12 students in El Paso throughout the project.

Uh we're doing this through a series of workshops that I explained, but but if you're gonna partner with with the City of El Paso, you better go big.

And so that's what we've that's what we've done with this project.

And we're and uh and you'll see how how we're how we're making that happen uh throughout this presentation.

Next slide.

What we're doing is not building the wheel.

We are leveraging what we already have established and a partnership structure that's already been built out through the UTIP College of Education and with school districts in our region.

This is a shared governance model where faculty and leadership from the College of Education at Utah meet quarterly with district leaders and educators to talk about our residency models, to talk about the engagement work that we're doing with the school districts.

We can't train teachers if we're not partnered up with schools, so that's what we're doing, and we use this model and leverage, which is with partner districts throughout our region to build out other initiatives such as El Paso Computes.

Next slide.

This is the uh uh education college of ed team that is working on this project.

Eric is in the audience.

You see Elizabeth.

Some of you may know the work of Dr.

Salama Slama and Anne Gates.

They are they've been doing uh uh computing and computational computing education in in in the region for years and years.

Krista Apadaka is uh project coordinator who helps us to keep it all going.

Next slide.

There's a key operating value uh that that anchors this this initiative.

It's hands-on training delivered by experts.

You really can't del you really can't teach or get folks up to speed on tools that are artificial intelligence tools or computational thinking content without delivering the that that content with a hands-on approach, and all these workshops you'll see uh do exactly that.

The initial workshop that we deliver is called Computational Thinking and AI for K-12 educators.

It is a launch early on our first workshop in March when we announced it, and and it's teachers are are busy, and so getting them to come to a workshop is not the easiest thing to do.

Uh when we announced this workshop, we we thought we had a good idea, we thought our partnership structure would work to get people involved.

Two hours in, we filled 80 slots, and there were people knocking on the door.

So the demand for this information was obvious.

Uh so and and why is that?

Well, we have teachers who are in schools right now working with students who know more about AI and and chat GPT than they do, and they're they realize that they need to get up to speed.

So this opportunity was uh was a was a great opportunity for them to build some of that, get some of that reskilling and upskilling uh work done.

Uh next slide, I've got to make sure that I show you the evidence just so you don't think I'm I'm talking about it.

Here's the receipts, real pictures of the workshop.

Next slide.

Uh this is a scaffolded approach, uh scaled.

So uh this is a next level or an advanced level of uh a delivery workshop that we uh a content workshop that we provide.

This is for secondary computer science educators in the field right now.

So these are folks who are in schools, they're delivering uh uh comp computer science education content, uh, and we provide an opportunity for them to come back, get some upskilling, get the the latest and the greatest, and and we deliver that through uh uh experts who are who are moving in the fast-paced world of artificial intelligence and and computer science education.

Uh next slide is more evidence.

That man standing there is Dr.

Salama Salama, some of you may know him.

He is now the associate vice president for scientific computing and artificial intelligence at the University of Texas El Paso.

So a good expert for us to partner up with.

Next slide.

Uh this is a um so we are a college of education, we train teachers, and the approach that we're taking is integrated and scaffolded.

We understand that delivering workshops directly to educators is an important part of the work we're doing, but we got to get future educators, folks who are coming into the field, uh uh knowledge in this area early on.

And so uh this these are for these are for teachers who teach future teachers.

So these are faculty members at the El Paso Community College and at UTEP who are uh teacher trainers.

They are uh invited to this workshop.

It's also a good example of how with the leadership of the city of El Paso, we've been able to partner with other organizations doing this kind of work in our region, and in this case, we partner with the Borderplex Alliance and their Binational Tech Council uh to deliver uh this work.

Next slide.

Pictures.

I was told I got to get pictures into this to the slide, so I'm gonna get pictures for you.

Uh this is a big deal.

And and those of you who are familiar with higher education, uh, you know uh it can move slowly at times.

I admit that.

Uh AI, artificial intelligence, uh, computational content is moving at light speed, and so we had to do the same in order to deliver on this.

This is an effort that we did to redesign our core curriculum for teacher for for aspiring teachers.

So in our preparation program, we redesigned the curriculum so that this course was designed and put into the pathway.

Every single teacher, regardless of discipline, will be exposed to computational thinking for education uh in in our program.

And and why that's such a big deal, as I think you know, uh the College of Education at UTEP is responsible for 70 plus of the entire teacher workforce right now here in El Paso in our region.

And if we don't participate in this in this approach, uh we're gonna be we're not gonna be doing what we should be doing.

So this was I'm super proud of our team and the faculty who who did this work because this is this is pretty difficult.

We got it up, uh, we've got it up right away, and it's it's a fantastic course.

I have a video, just so you don't hear me go on and on.

We created a video for you just to see what see what the workshop experience looks like.

Can you play that?

El Paso Computes is a partnership initiative at UTAP between the College of Education, the Department of Computer Science, and in partnership with school districts across the region.

And so they'll be able to take this and apply it right away in their classrooms and tie it to the contents they teach.

Even though I teach elementary music, I was able to find a way that I can incorporate that into music education because there is a section on that for where we can compose music, we can do different tones, we can do different musical notes.

AI is an incredibly important part of the future of education.

Everything from more personalized tutoring engagements to allowing teachers and educators to make more efficient their lesson planning work and their administrative work.

We want educators to be able to teach with AI so that they're deploying that tool in a way that accelerates their students' learning and builds a capacity in our region for graduates who have a knowledge and account around computer science that they can take out to the work world or to their university.

I really think that it's a great practice to teach students computer science, coding languages, but really at the heart, we're trying to teach them how to think, we're trying to teach them how to solve problems.

I think UTEP is doing a great service by UTEP providing a training like this with very good hands-on training with facilitators teaching us all the new teaks.

We can turn around and go back and teach our students and prepare them for technology that's not even invented yet.

This is really our inaugural effort at offering El Paso Computes workshops to teachers in our community.

We're grateful for the partnership with the city, but also with El Paso ISD to get out this first effort and recruit teachers.

We've seen great response from schools and EPIC from the district, and that's why we've had such great participation from teachers, and it's just the first step.

Now, education work is often done across multiple different agencies and in state settings, but to have the City of El Paso partner with us in driving these outcomes for the future of our region for students who are right now in K-12 settings so that they get some of this information delivered by teachers who've been trained in this area, and that they can take that uh throughout their careers is is so powerful, and it's been super exciting for us.

And so I just want to I want to thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank uh your your amazing team, City Council.

I want I want you to know how how incredible the El Paso City team has been to work with.

Um we want to make sure that we understand that what we are doing is actually having the outcomes we hope for.

So as you can imagine, we have an evaluation team uh looking and tracking those results.

They did what is called a retrospective pre-post evaluation design.

It's basically just a survey, post-survey at the end of each experience uh to give us a sense of these four things.

Uh is there been a difference in the participants' knowledge with computer science and artificial intelligence?

Do we do we see that there's been some some development in computational thinking, knowledge and skills, but these are the two important ones as well.

Have have these teachers uh their attitudes adjusted in using and teaching with computer science and artificial intelligence, and is their willingness to use that content and to use those tools uh changing and improving.

Next slide.

Here are some of the it's just a summary of the results.

I think you have as an attachment uh uh one of the reports or report that's uh uh available for you.

This this we're showing some significant uh increases in computer science AI content knowledge and computational thinking through both of the workshop strands, but uh draw your attention to that last bullet point.

Uh the results indicate that there were increases in teachers' perceived confidence of computer science and artificial intelligence knowledge, as well as increased attitudes and willingness to use and teach computer science and artificial intelligence.

So that's a powerful outcome for us.

It's something that we're really uh uh trying to figure out how to how to do uh throughout this entire project.

Next slide.

Again, uh, this is a scaled effort.

So it's it's an approach to try to get to many, many students, and the way that we're doing that is through this scaffolded uh uh multi-pronged um competence competency and and and an overarching building effort here.

And one of the things I didn't talk about, but is included in this work is a uh experience for secondary students, these are high school students, almost 200 students who've gone through cybersecurity camps, these are boot camps uh offered through this project.

approach to try to get to many many students and the way that we're doing that is through this scaffolded uh uh multi-pronged um um competence competency and and and and an overarching building effort here and one of the things I didn't talk about but it is included in this work is a uh experience for secondary students these are high school students almost 200 students who've gone through cybersecurity camps these are boot camps uh um offered through this project we have 105 that number is gonna grow already this coming spring semester of schools impacted nearly 300 teachers have been trained through El Paso Computes uh this last kind of uh uh a dashboard indicator 10 plus teachers certified in computer science doesn't sound that big trust me we have now been asked to talk about this work in other places in the state and when we go and talk about having produced 10 computer science certified educator students program people are blown away they're like how was that possible and the reason why that's so surprising is if you're trained in computer science and you go to industry you're going to make a lot more as somebody who's in industry you're not gonna say hey why don't I go be a teacher so it's a strategic approach where we identify these folks early on we work on what they love to do which is teaching and build their capacity till they become fully certified as teachers and the and the double whammy here is they're in schools right now with other folks who've gone through the workshops that we provided and they're sharing knowledge their leaders in these schools changing culture around computer science education and artificial intelligence so that's that's the whole kind of game here it's the whole goal is to try to build that culture create an atmosphere in K12 schools where where the where the outcomes for our students in our region in this area that we know is so important for our for our future workforce are met.

Thank you so much there's websites and things that you can uh you can look up and reach out to me anytime excellent update uh representative thank you mayor this is really awesome and I really appreciate you and your leadership I've just seen the college grow since you've been at the head of it so um I just wanted to start off there what one question that I have is my my assumption here is that this will be housed in the teacher education department it's in the college of education yeah run through the college of education so will it touch all of the departments then it does I mean e teachers faculty from across the uh college are taking these faculty driven workshops we also have El Paso community college faculty in those teacher training workshops so yeah we're trying to get that pipeline of teacher trainers involved I I have a little bias towards the educational um leadership and foundations department so I just want to know how that how it's gonna touch it's a students have some of his faculty in these workshops as well okay good yeah all right well thank you so much yes sir thank you representative chavez thank you mayor thank you for the presentation I had an opportunity to meet with Dr.

uh Salama last year um at UTEF we had a great conversation regarding AI um I had more questions regarding AI in terms of government and how to handle all of that so I think AI is an important conversation to have in every space no matter what you're doing but I do appreciate the fact that we are investing in AI in teachers because you're right I mean I have three kids they're they're using AI and and sometimes um it's important for teachers to know how to uh handle this tool especially when it comes to education and its future well such a good point part of those workshops includes not just what what you can do with it hands on but some of the some of the risks you know what are some of the concerns that you need to know about in order to to teach with AI effectively and how to teach children not to lose their voice um creativity because of using AI right to still find their their own thought process as they're going through through work.

So thank you so much I appreciate I can't wait to see what comes of it.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate the update and continued success this is exciting.

Thank you so much for thank you.

Thanks y'all miss Brian let's take item number 19 yes sir item number 19 is on page number nine and this is a public hearing of an ordinance granting a special permit to allow for infill development with reduction to the site street setback and a 60% parking reduction at 600 South Stanton Street.

Good morning and is there a motion move to approve second all right you want to go through the presentation sure good morning mayor and council uh Luisa Mora with planning and inspection item 19 it's a special permit request for property located at 600 South Stanton so the special is for in field uh development uh as well as to request a reduction to the size street setback and parking so here we have an aerial it's obviously located on Stanton Sado Paisano uh corner of Fort and Stanton it's an existing building uh that's being uh repurposed uh grant zoning is C4 commercial uh again this is a special permit not every zoning so zoning stays this the the same uh future land use map designation for this area is G2 traditional neighborhood this kind of uh calls for a a mix of uses uh together in the area so this is obviously uh I'll goes along with that so here we have a detailed site plan as part of the special permit a detailed site plan is it's required binding so it's a subject to your approval as well uh so in in uh magenta aligned magenta is existing building and then we have parking on the back of of that property um growing requirements is 35 parking spaces they can only accommodate 14 uh so they obviously are requesting 60 percent parking reduction uh they submitted a park

So here we have a detailed side plan.

As part of the special permit, a detailed side plan is it's required binding, so it's uh subject to your approval as well.

Uh so in uh magenta alignment magenta is existing building, and then we have parking on the back of that property.

Um requirements is 35 parking spaces.

They can only accommodate 14.

Uh so they obviously are requesting 60 percent parking reduction.

Uh they submitted a parking uh study demonstrating um that there were uh at least on the eight parking spaces available on the street within 300 feet of the subject property, which is enough to kind of compensate for the missing parking.

Uh so that's part of the the review.

So the proposed uses for this building, this property is a ballroom.

Uh so here we have the elevations again.

This is existing, maximum height is 17 feet.

Uh this is a site plan superimposed on aerial imagery.

Uh access to the property uh to the parking is through fourth.

Uh there are doors to the building on Stanton.

Here you have pictures of the subject property uh is currently existing.

And then just property surrounding uh this is typically commercial retail spaces.

Uh we did uh the applicant did notify the neighborhood associations in the area before submitting the request.

Uh we did notify property owners went to hand read uh for the CPC before CPC for the public hearing, and obviously it gets notified before council.

Uh we did not receive any communication support or opposition to the request.

Uh we have uh here the notice map, so we notify we sent 34 notices in total 55 properties got not a five of this request.

And then with this staff and the C Plan Commission recommend approval of the special permit as well as the detailed side development plan.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you very much.

Any questions on this?

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, Ms.

Prime.

We had a motion and a second.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Limon to adopt the ordinance on item nine nineteen on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo.

Aye.

Thank you.

Representative Piero, thank you.

And the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms.

Bryan, I know we have a few minutes before the mass transit meeting, and I know I'm jumping around, but let's take item number 22.

Yes, sir.

Item number 22 is on page number 10, and this is discussion and action to authorize the expenditure of district four discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed $2,000 for initial cost related to the new adopte street program, which serves a municipal purpose of improving the visual impression of the community and promoting community interest in the beautification of the city of Al Paso.

This is Representative Boya Trejo's item.

Representative Trejo.

Motion to approve second.

There's a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All right, Ms.

Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Boya Trejo.

Seconded by Representative Chavez to approve item 22 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you.

And the voting session?

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms.

Brian, let's take item number 23, please.

Yes, sir.

Item 23 on the same page.

Is discussion in action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of district for discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed $5,000 to support current and future programming for youth, seniors, families, athletic activities, community engagement efforts, community meetings and other district events, including signature events in District 4, serves a municipal purpose of fostering a positive community atmosphere, promoting cultural enrichment, supporting local initiatives, and enhancing the overall quality of life for all Paso residents.

This is also representative Boya Trejo's item.

Representative Trejo.

There's a motion and a second.

Any discussion on this particular item?

All right, Ms.

Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Boya Trejo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to approve item 23 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Voting session is open.

Thank you.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Miss Prime, is there a way we can hold one minute, then convene the sending?

Okay.

If council wants to go ahead and recess, and then they'll they'll convene it 1130.

What's that?

We can squeeze 25.

Let's squeeze 25 then.

Okay.

Okay.

Item 25 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the expenditure of district eight discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed $5,000 to support current and future programming for youth, seniors, and athletic activities, initiatives, events, community meetings, and other events in District 8 serves a municipal purpose of providing recreational and cultural activities to the residents of and visitors to the city of El Paso, which benefits the community and instills community pride, promotes cultural enrichment, supports local initiatives, and enhances the overall quality of life for El Paso residents.

Discretionary funds will be used for the purpose of relate purchase of related items included but not limited limited to water, refreshment, snacks, prices, and recognition or award items for events taking place at various community locations, including but not limited to District 8 parks, libraries, and city facilities.

This is Representative Canales' item.

Okay, Representative Canalis.

Move to approve.

We have a motion and a second.

Any discussion on this particular item?

Ms.

Bryan?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Limon to approve item 25.

On that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to recess?

Move to recess.

There's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting in order to conduct the mass transit department board meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the regular city council meeting is in recess at 11:30 a.m.

What do you all want to talk about item 27?

Thank you.

Okay.

Move to reconvene the city council meeting.

Okay.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

Anyone opposed?

And the regular meeting is back in session at 1159 a.m.

All right, Miss Prime, we're going to take item number 27.

Yes, sir.

Item 27 is on page 11.

And item 27 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2025-0545 East Side Regional Park Phase 2 rebit to Grayson Engineering and Construction Inc.

for a total estimated amount of million 11 million seven hundred and seven thousand six hundred and seven dollars.

The project will consist of adding approximately six hundred and fifty thousand square feet of area to the existing East Side Regional Park to include softball fields, pickleball courts, handball courts, sand volleyball courts, basketball courts, and various site amenities.

Motion to approve Mayor.

Second.

There's a motion and a second.

Good morning.

You guys?

Can we see this presentation, please?

Good morning, Mary.

Good morning.

Gilbert Guerrero Capital Improvements.

This presentation is for the East Regional Park Phase 2 project.

The second face of it.

And we have six uh funding sources that we're going to be utilizing to uh construct this project.

This is the location of the project.

As you can see on the lower part of the uh photo is the beast.

We have the water park, the parking lot, right next to that is where this second phase will be constructed.

Currently conditions, it's just desert, but a little bit over a year is gonna take quite a quite a change and very, very nice project.

Uh this is a rendering of the project.

You see the parking lot, you see the four uh soft softball fields, uh pickleball courts, uh basketball courts, and volleyball courts, and the handball courts, of course, with your with your restrooms and some canopies.

Of course, I just mentioned the mind going back to that previous slide.

Do you mind going back to that s previous slide?

They want to take some pictures back here.

We can provide the rendering if they want.

Which I think we already have to represent as we can forward.

All right.

Thanks, Gilbert.

So the approximately six hundred and fifty thousand square feet of uh area that we're gonna be improving, um, including the parking lot, uh, food parking, uh, food truck parking, walks, landscape irrigation.

Um this is the the um scope of work with the four football fields, uh, dugouts, shelters, pickleball courts, bleachers, bike racks.

It's a full amenities of full park.

And in addition to that, the parts grants it did allow us to go in and add additional pickleball courts so we can have a total of ten pickleball courts.

Um mentioned the handball courts.

Sand Baliball courts and and um and basketball.

Uh this was a competitive SEO proposal, solicitation.

We advertised on July first, 2025.

Five firms submitted bids of five local vendors, and we are recommended to award construction to Grayson Engineering Construction Inc.

in the amount of 11 million seven hundred seven six six zero seven.

Um construction will start this spring.

Typically, after uh once it's approved, it takes about maybe four weeks or so to get the contract ready.

Then we'll start uh construction right after that.

Okay.

Representative Nina.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Gilbert, we're here.

Yes, sir, we are.

You know, um this item is very personal to me.

Uh we've been in so many different conversations.

I know I've been briefed by Ms.

Mack, by Yvette, by Gilbert.

They've addressed a lot of my questions from warranties to ensuring that there's a space between the pickleball courts that people could, you know, serve to having windscreens.

So thank you for really um, you know, over the years having conversations with me.

Um today marks a meaningful and long overdue moment for District 5 and for the far east side of El Paso and for all of El Paso.

Uh District 5 families have been asking for places where our families, our kids could play, our teams can compete, and our neighbors can gather.

Phase two of the Beast Urban Park delivers that.

It's an investment in our youth, our health, and everyday moments that bring community together.

For nearly two decades, the Beast Urban Park has existed as a shared vision, passed from one generation to the next, written into plans and promised to families who choose to plan routes in the District 5 community.

Residents bought homes, raised families, and invested in these sites, believing that this park one day will be fully realized.

This item represents another important step towards that promise.

Phase two is not the finish line, but this marks a major milestone in a multi-phase effort to fully deliver a 92-acre park that will one day stand as the largest urban park in the city of El Paso.

With this phase, we're continuing to build toward the long that long-term vision, adding meaningful amenities and setting the foundation for future phases still to come.

Along with the team uh at Institute Architects for your leadership, your patience, and your commitment to getting this right.

Thank you as well to the members of our community, previous council administrations, and to this council for continuing to carry this vision forward.

Over the last year and years before, I've spent countless hours working closely with staff, having thoughtful, honest conversations about the design, the scope and delivery, not just how to build something, but how to deliver it well in a way that truly serves all of our community.

A clear example of that is pickleball.

The original proposal included four pickleball courts.

But to you know, when we when I met with the pickleball association, in order for you to host tournaments, you need eight pickleball courts or more.

And to position this park and El Paso as a regional destination, again, you need eight pickleball courts or more.

And staff didn't just listen to ideas from my office.

They welcomed input from our community and together found a better solution.

Because of that collaboration, this phase now will include 10 pickleball courts, along with many other amenities, creating new opportunities for recreation, tournaments, and economic activity for the city of El Paso.

That spirit of openness, partnership, and problem solving has defined phase two from the start to the finish.

We also knew that advancing a vision to a reality nearly two decades into the making required us being creative and being fiscally responsible without asking the taxpayers for new dollars.

This council secured state grant funding in 2025, leverage project savings, and strategically use investment interest to fully fund phase two.

That approach reflects our shared commitment to being strong stewards of public dollars while still continuing to deliver real results.

At its core, this project reflects one of our city's most consistent consistent priorities, quality of life.

It speaks to the importance of green space, trees, access to parks, which is something that a lot of our community has been asking for, and places where families can gather.

It supports our health, our and wellness, active living, and community connection, especially in one of the fastest growing areas in the city.

In just one year since taking office, we completed the design, refined the scope, security the additional funding, and we're set to advance one of the largest projects in District 5 from concept to construction readiness.

And that doesn't happen without our teamwork.

It doesn't happen without our dedicated staff, and it doesn't happen without a council willing to follow through.

And today we're just not just approving a project.

We're honoring a long-standing promise.

We're advancing multiple phase vision that has been day keys in the making, and we're delivering a park that reflects the voices, the needs and hopes of our community.

And to the residents of District 5, my neighbors, and to all of El Paso, we thank you for your patience, your advocacy, and your belief.

This project belongs to you.

Thank you, Council.

Fantastic.

Any further discussions?

Are you gonna let us complete pickleball off there?

Hey, we could have a match between all the districts.

Okay, Ms.

Fryn.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Nino, seconded by Representative Canales to award the solicitation on item 27 on that motion, call for the vote.

In the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms.

Bryant, can we take item number 20?

Yes, sir.

Item 20 on page nine.

Is a public hearing of an ordinance amending Title 18: Building and Construction, Outdoor Lighting Code, Other Exemptions, City Owned Facilities to add an exemption related to the Sun City Lights Program associated projects.

There's a motion to approve.

Is there a second?

All right.

You want let's see the presentation.

This is a must-see.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Happy New Year.

Joaquin Rodriguez with the Capital Improvement Department.

That is not the correct presentation.

This is for item 2019.

IT is also posted online if you want to grab it from there.

The project?

So this is a pretty straightforward ordinance amendment.

Nothing new.

This similar ordinance amendments were passed previously for the Cincinnati Entertainment District Sun City Lights Project and the Paseo de las Luces Sun City Lights Project.

Essentially, what it allows is for our design teams to have the flexibility they need to execute the projects as they've been presented and coordinated with the public.

It allows us to not have to worry about things like color temperature of lighting, total output of lighting, and shielding of lighting, which are restrictions that are within our building code, but really intended towards uh commercial facilities, parking lots, sidewalks, um, lighting of that nature.

So this exempts the Sun City Lights projects from uh that part of the ordinance in its entirety and allows us to move forward uh with construction on those projects.

There are some really great renderings in the presentation if it ever comes to light.

Um if not it is uh in the backup as well.

Okay, it's coming.

I can just draw the projects on the Elmo if we need to.

It's on the it's on the podium.

IT, I have it on the podium computer.

If you can please share it.

Thank you.

Is that good?

Um so I've pretty much gone through all the slides.

If you want to just go to the pretty pictures, the ones at the park.

There we go, there we go.

So here's the project at the uh Washington Park.

This is in the Medical Center of the Americas area.

These are the alebrijes.

Um so these projects will be um will have glow on the dark sidewalks, uh colorful lighting accenting these figures.

And these figures are huge, life size alebriches.

Go ahead.

There's a better picture of what you'll see.

Uh again, true to scale with the lifelike children writing them and the lighting baller.

So under the current lighting ordinance, we wouldn't be able to do um this type of lighting within these areas.

So this allows us to move forward with that.

Uh Marty Robbins Park again uh shade acts light accented shade structures.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

And similar uh lighted structures at Pueblo Viejo Park.

Um the intent of the Sun City Lights program is really to create um what we've deemed in the past as instagramable spaces, so really placemaking, creating interesting places where people can go and enjoy our public spaces.

There you keep going.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Any uh representative Limon?

Joaquin, what are the alebrijes made out of?

Is it are they cast?

Um Bologna, I correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe they're cast concrete.

Wow.

Yeah, so they are durable structures.

And painted.

And painted.

Is that correct?

Fiberglass.

Good afternoon, Apolonia Raldan, Urban Design Manager with CID.

So the Alebrijes are glass fiber reinforcement concrete.

So they're very durable and they hold the thermal so the kids don't get burned.

Oh cool.

They sound really it sounds really beautiful.

Um on the Pueblo Viejo.

Will the will there be a signage?

I know, like for example, since Cincinnati, it does say Cincinnati, Base de la Luces.

Is there an uh signage that goes along with these?

Yes, there will be, it's not here in the renderings, but oh, right here, actually.

You can see on the bottom um left, there'll be a rock wall with the Pueblo Viejo Park sign, and we'll also put a little plate that says the Sun City Lights, and then a logo of the parks department.

Okay.

I I thought the Sun City Lights project was supposed to be something that encompasses or went across street areas to designate it.

So Sun City Lights started um as really public improvements.

Cincinnati and Paseo de las Luces were the first that focused on street elements.

Um as you know, the Sun City Lights Initiative has been about ten years in the making.

The type of improvements that we originally did with Sun City Light with Cincinnati and Pasela de las Luces are really prohibitively expensive at this point.

Um the decorative gateways, the archways, entryways cost over a million dollars now, which would wipe out the budget for these.

So our approach was to focus the budget on the placemaking elements that people are actually able to interact with that are gonna draw people in.

Um so a little bit less of the monumental style aesthetics and really focusing on the placemaking elements.

Okay.

Thank you.

Representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank you both.

This program, this project has grown since we've been in office, and we're just so excited to see it come to fruition at uh Martin Mart Marty Robbins Park.

And we can wait for these other ones to go up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

See, why can't I tell you this was a hit, so we had to see this presentation.

Very, very good.

Ms.

Prime, there was a motion and a second.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Boya Trejo to adopt the ordinance on item 20 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Okay.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

All right, Miss Brian, let's take item number 21.

Item 21 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of a portion from A2 SCSP apartment special contract special permit to C1 SCSP.

Commercial Special Contract Special Permit at 1991, South Kleinfeld.

All right.

Afternoon already, right?

Can we see some water planning inspection?

Sorry, I don't have nice pictures for you.

So this rezoning request for property uh 1991, South Cleanfield.

Uh here we have the aerial imagery.

It's an existing uh facility, living existing facility.

Uh the proposal is to add a uh commercial daycare to it.

Uh so they need they are requesting the rezoning to allow the use, the proposed use.

So the property is currently zoned as 82, which is an apartment district.

Uh existing facility is allowed in that zoning.

Again, the proposal is to add a commercial one, the care center that which require will need uh the rezoning.

Uh they are adjacent to single family homes to the to the west.

Um, and then another kind of living facility at the south.

The future land use map designation for this area is G4.

Uh so we're running walkable.

Uh kind of the suburban nature, right?

We have homes and uh shopping centers, that that style, so it is obviously in compliance with the designation.

So here we have the detailed side plan.

Uh like to point out this is not something that will be binding.

Uh right here, it's kind of hard to see.

It's on the on their right.

There's kind of an addition that they're proposing.

Uh, again, this is not binding, this is kind of conceptual at this point.

Just demonstrating what's there, and again, the buildings existing, and mostly everything is already there as it is.

So here you have images of the subject property.

Uh you can see with the existing building, which is proposed at least uh up to now to remain as it is.

And then the surrounding development, there's a funding side to the north.

Again, there are single family homes to the west and more commercial to the south and across South Greenfield to the east.

Uh the applicant did notify the property neighborhood associations uh before the application.

Uh at this time for public notices uh we'd send to all property owners when turned their feet before public hearings.

Uh the plan division has not received any communication and support or opposition to this request.

Uh so with this staff and the C plan Commission recommend approval with some conditions for the rezoning request.

Uh given that we're going to uh higher zoning district and uh that will allow more uses.

Uh we can uh look into some conditions to protect them in the residential neighborhood that's there.

So one of the conditions is requiring a detailed side development plan, uh, approve, reviewal and approval uh before any certificates of occupancy so that way we can check what's uh being developed.

Uh a 10 foot landscape buffer um adjacent to any residential districts, uh just to leave a little more space, a buffer to the residential.

Number three is that no outdoor amplified sum be permitted within the property again to protect those homes.

And four is that a minimum 500 foot distance be required between establishments driving 51% or more of the income from a coal beverages just to avoid that um having a lot of uh you know, this type of businesses surrounding the neighborhood.

And with this, that concludes my presentation.

All right, any questions on this particular item?

Representative Canales?

Just one quick question, actually a procedural question.

The motion on the floor is that to approve with the conditions.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any further questions?

All right, Miss Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by alternate mayor pro tempiero, seconded by representative Limon to adopt the ordinance on item 21 on that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session?

And that motion passes unanimously.

No, sir.

That's everything that was posted in open session.

Okay.

There's some items for executive session.

Right.

Does council want to retire into executive session?

And move to retire into executive session on items EX1, EX2, and EX3.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to retire to executive session.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the city council of the city of El Paso may retire to executive session pursuing to section 3.5a of the El Paso City Charter and the Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, Subchapter D to discuss any of the following.

Executive session item one statement of intent of Texas Gas Service Company and Division of One Gas Inc.

to increase rates within the company's incorporated areas of Central Gulf West North and Rio Gran Valley service areas.

OS-25-00028202.

Application of El Paso Electric Company to change rates.

PUC number 57568.071.

And executive session item three, application of El Paso Electric Company to amend its certificate of convenience and necessity.

CCN for a three sixty-five.

PUC number five seven five zero one.

HQ number utility dash seventy-four.

Under five five one point zero seven one.

These matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney.

It is 1222 P.M.

Okay, Miss Bryan.

Is there a motion to come out of executive session?

So moved.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to come out of executive session.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

The meeting is back in session at 125 p.m.

We're on EX1.

Mayor Potem.

No action.

Thank you.

EX2.

Motion to delete EX2.

Second.

There's a motion by Mayor Potem Chavez.

Seconded by Representative Limon to delete EX2 as it was not discussed today.

Okay, call for the vote, Ms.

Bryant.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Boya Trejo.

Hi.

Thank you.

And the voting session?

And the motion passes unanimously to delete EX3.

Motion made, seconded, and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to hire and retain outside council and any other necessary consultants and to file an intervention in the El Paso Electric Company's application to amend its certificate of convenience and necessity for 366 megawatt natural gas generation facility under the Texas Public Utility Commission.

Docket number 59076 in matter number high Q Utility Dash 74 and to take all steps necessary, including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this authority.

Ms.

Brian, there's a motion and a second.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made and read into the record by Mayor Potem Chavez, seconded by Representative Limon.

And this is to hire and retain outside council.

Okay, Representative.

Just wanted to take my 1750 donation from El Paso Electric Employee Pack.

Okay.

All right, Miss Brian, there's a motion and a second.

Yes, sir.

On that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

There's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

Anyone opposed?

And the regular city council meeting for Tuesday, January 6, 2026 is adjourned at 1257 PM.

Thank you, Council.