Well, good morning, everyone.

We are ready to get started.

Good morning, Miss Prime.

Good morning, Mayor, and good morning, everyone.

This is a work session of the El Paso City Council for Monday, March 30th, 2026.

It is 9 04 A.M.

Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in Council Chambers along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Maldonado Rocha, Representative Boria Trejo, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales.

Representative Acevedo has been has requested to be excused from today's meeting, and Representative Nino is running a few minutes late.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Okay, Representative Chavez, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Okay, Ms.

Brian, let's take item agenda item number one.

Yes, sir.

Item number one is presentation and discussion by Emergence Health Network of their 2025 annual report on activities, collaborations, and partnerships with local entities.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Christy Darty, CEO for Emergence.

And first of all, I kind of like this city council when it's quiet like this.

I said, Whoa, I keep forgetting.

I was like, it's Monday.

You guys are going to be on Tuesday.

So first of all, thank you for letting us be part of your work session and sharing our 2025 annual report.

But are are you saying it's very nice because uh representative Pierro is that's exactly right?

But I'm not allowed to say so.

Thank you for saying it for me.

Thank you for saying it for me, representative.

And congratulations on your induction to the Hall of Fame, by the way.

Uh uh let's see.

So how do I bring up the presentation?

And for the record, Representative Nino arrived at 9 06 a.m.

Okay, so what we uh as you see here today, uh we are stepping into our 60th anniversary.

So you're gonna see a lot of diamonds um in our presentation today, and as we go into this year, so the organization has been through several name changes, but it's still the mission of the organization has not changed.

We've grown significantly.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about that.

But um 60 years is pretty significant for this organization.

Um next up, as we always do in our uh annual report, we like to share with you our demographics.

Who are we serving as your local mental health and IDD authority?

So if you look here, here's some different um numbers regarding gender, ethnicity.

We try to break it down by service line, and something else we like to point out is we did 12,000 assessments in the county jail.

Uh that doesn't mean we serve 12,000 people, but 12,000 individuals that were booked into the county jail were assessed for mental health needs and services.

Uh we don't have demographic data for the jail.

That's owned by obviously the county, but we like to keep track of what EHN is doing in both the downtown jail and the annex.

Next up, this is something um that we're proud of is our crisis intervention team uh that is partnered with the El Paso Police Department, receive the uh I always say this wrong.

Meritoris, there we go, award, uh service award uh at the 2025 Al Paso Police Department annual award ceremony.

So this is a great um testament to the partnership between EHN and the city and what we're doing out in our community every single day.

Our CIT teams are busy.

They're responding to, I think the last time I talked to Chief Pacias, we're still only responding to about 50% of the calls, and that's really just because that's the manpower we have.

Uh we could double our teams and still uh maybe not meet all the needs, but it's a critical service that is really helping individuals in crisis, and it was really nice for the police department to recognize that.

Just to give you some data on some of our responses.

So you have, as you can see, the Al Paso Police Department team is the busiest.

They have they in 2025, they responded to over 2,000 calls.

Then you have the Al Paso County Sheriff's Department.

We have a very unique uh service.

We have school-based CIT.

So we do that with all the districts except uh Sequor.

No, Isletta, I apologize.

Is Leta.

Uh we do it in different uh uh uh forms.

Some of our rural school districts have that through telehealth.

We have uh technology that the officer can use that's that out in Fabens and some of the rural districts.

But really, what we're doing is we have a team dedicated to uh the school police departments.

So EPISD was our first partner.

For example, if there's a crisis on one of the campuses, EPISD police department may respond.

They can call us and we go, we meet them there.

We're not riding in the car like we do with El Paso Police Department, but we can't find another school-based CIT model in Texas or the nation right now.

And I'm not saying there's not one, but they do we just can't find one.

So we're very proud of that, and we think it's very innovative, and I know our school districts appreciate it.

And then you see we have another category.

We have a program we called we call core.

It's clinician officer remote evaluation.

Again, that's that technology piece that we do for some of our further districts, our more rural districts, because it'd be it would take too long for us to get there.

This way, the officer has a tablet, it's a nice big EHN logo.

They just click that logo, and a clinician is available to them to assess that situation.

Next up, we were very proud to unveil our uh the first mobile crisis units in El Paso for behavioral health.

Uh we have three of these units on the streets right now.

And this is a true clinic on wheels, and we're using them really to respond to crisis, but we've expanded that a little bit throughout the year to where we're our community health workers are actually using those units to go out and work with our unhoused population out in our rural communities, really trying to provide that access to care where it's important.

We've also attended truancy court, we've partnered with JPD, we've done some uh evaluations at the children's hospital.

Our our youth crisis outreach team, which is also called WICOT, they also use the van to do follow-ups.

So if a child has been in crisis, the YCOT team will drive the van, they'll go to the house and say, Do you need to see someone?

And they can get a provider, like the child can come in to the to the van, parents can come in.

Um, our children's van actually has a PlayStation in it, so the kids uh can relax a little bit and and then you'd be amazed they start talking.

So we've um we've done uh outreach again to our uh our unhouse programs.

We've been in Al Paso, Socorro, Horizon, uh Terralingua, we're all Trilingua, we're also we've been there, and next month we're heading out to Presidio.

So we're really trying to maximize that technology piece.

And back to our youth crisis outreach.

This is just some data that I can share on our youth crisis outreach team.

I can tell you Al Paso was part of the pilot to receive the funds for that team, and we just got additional dollars to expand our youth crisis outreach.

So if you see this is what that team has done, um they've made if you look at the the data there, we've got some inpatient referrals connected to our services, uh, sent them to other external providers for services.

We did have some decline, and then unfortunately, we did have one that we had to have justice involved.

But really, this is a huge testament to the services that that youth crisis outreach team is doing in the community.

And again, like I said, this fiscal year we did get additional dollars to grow that team.

I've already talked a little bit about school-based CIT, just want to highlight some expansion for the year.

Uh we again we're in we already were in EPISD, Ken U T O ISD, um, Socoro.

We did expand into Fabens, and I know we're working on some of the other small districts with the core program.

Um this is uh switching a little bit to school-based mental health, so not crisis.

This is actual just traditional outpatient services.

These are all the districts that have allowed us our schools in those three districts that have allowed us into their schools.

So I actually have staff that report to these campuses when the schools are open.

When the schools aren't open, those staff are back at our children's unit and they're doing outreach to the families through our our children's program.

But we went up from 16 to 20 campuses this past year, and we're continuing to grow.

I can tell you as you can see, EPISD is one of the biggest utilizers of that.

I uh the one thing that EHN does not do, it is not an exchange.

We don't get we let me start over.

We don't get paid to be there.

So we ask, we have an interlocal in place with the district, and we just ask for space because we're serving these kids somewhere anyway.

We might as well serve them where it's convenient for them, the family, and a lot of times these kids they don't need long-term services.

Some of the things our school-based services see is anxiety before a test.

Test anxiety is a big thing, and we really try to get in front of that where we actually do sessions and things like that, and we are out there on the campuses working on test anxiety.

You know, there may be a situation where you know a young lady broke up with her boyfriend and she comes to school and she doesn't want to talk to mom.

How many times have we had so many opportunities to catch up with those kids and just help them through that day?

You know, as we tell people it's okay to not be okay, and we want to make sure we're in the places where somebody may not be okay that day.

And so we're really proud of our school-based presence in those three districts.

Next, we um had 988 day, which was a lot of fun.

And so what we decided to do this year is change it up a little bit with our furry friends, and so we did a campaign with our 988 bandanas where everybody put those on their dogs, their cats, and we took a lot of photos and did a huge social media campaign on making people aware of the 988 lifeline.

And as you know, we answer that lifeline in the 911 Center live here in El Paso, and we're very proud of that.

Um, other things we did is some of our children's clients uh and adolescent clients painted rocks and left those rocks wherever they felt it was important to leave the rocks, somewhere on trails, playgrounds, and so people were able to see 988 all over the community on September 8th.

Excuse me.

Next, um, this was a really wonderful partnership with Texas Tech Dental School.

Our developmental disability side of the house, sometimes we don't talk enough about those clients.

There, um it's a wonderful group of people, but one of the challenges they have is going to the dentist, especially if a loved one is nonverbal and they're they get overstimulated, they get scared.

So we were able to partner with the Texas Tech Dental School on a screen and clean.

And we we had 18 clients and their families go and get a screening and a cleaning at the dental school.

Not only did this provide a much needed service for our clients, it's introducing those dental students to a population that needs care.

And so we're continuing that partnership with the dental school.

Um we had some testimonials from some families just we're very appreciative because it was a very warm and welcoming environment, and um getting that a much needed care.

We've had clients that are nonverbal in our IDD services that have had behavior outbursts, um, really aggressive, come to find out abscess tooth, and they couldn't tell us that their mouth was hurting.

And so this is such an important partnership, and we're gonna continue to grow that.

Next, we had another very innovative partnership with the Tom Lee Institute.

Uh, in in November around Veterans Day, we partnered with the Tom Lee Institute to host a traveling exhibit called Brushstrokes from the Front Lines.

And this what it is, Tom Lee actually was on the front lines of of World War II and was able to paint what he saw.

And so when you came into our veterans one-stop clinic, you walked in and you walked around the clinic and it told a story of Tom Lee's experience in World War II.

And we had over 300 visitors to our clinic just to see the artwork.

And it was just beautiful.

If you ever get a chance to see this artwork, please take an opportunity.

Um, and Tom Lee is such a big piece of Al Paso.

Next, we had a large multimedia campaign, again, around 988.

Uh, we got some feedback that people thought 988 wasn't for kids, and that's not true.

988 is for anyone.

So we wanted to make sure we pushed out a media campaign showing that 988 was for everyone, especially if youth or or adolescents needed some help.

It was bilingual, and it really wanted to highlight the um the work of what our professionals are doing to assist families.

You might have seen some of our signs on I-10, Bassett, the outlet mall, Ciela Vista, the airport.

We were very happy to be able to also have some signage at the airport and some TV commercials.

Next, um, our uh deputy CEO and CFO Ashley Peterson was recognized as one of the 40 under 40 leaders in behavioral health.

I think that's an amazing accomplishment.

And to highlight the young people of El Paso, I know I'm not gonna be in this job forever, and so I'm trying to you know prepare those folks to take up, take up the next the next leadership, and she's amazing, she's brilliant, and so we were really happy that she was able to be recognized at the national level.

What everybody's probably talking about is our behavioral health east campus.

That is a huge undertaking.

And I have breaking news, you're gonna be the first group to hear this, is we did have our board on Thursday afternoon was able to approve a construction contract.

Uh it's yeah, thank you.

It's been it's been fun.

I'll just use that word.

Um, the land is uh still we are looking at the corner of Zaragosa and Edgemere.

Uh that is moving along very nicely.

Uh hopefully the plan is to take that to our board for final approval next month.

And so um we've been working with River Oaks, who owns the land.

They have been a wonderful partner.

Uh we just went through the survey, and it looks like we were originally going to purchase 10.9 acres, but because of the the way the survey lined out, we're actually going to be put pushing close to 11 and a half acres.

And I have to recognize River Oaks, they're giving us that at the same asking price.

They did not increase the price when the acreage increased.

So we appreciate that very much.

And so that is the only thing they did ask is if we would close in 15 days versus 30 days, and we can do that, not a problem at all.

And so that will uh we'll be closing on the land by May 19th.

Um and then I'm hoping that I get an executed contract from the state in the next couple of weeks, and we'll be planning a groundbreaking soon.

Um that campus is going to have a crisis unit as well as an outpatient uh clinic on that campus.

The services that will be provided are going to be 16 adult extended observation unit beds, which is a 48-hour uh service, 16 adult crisis stabilization beds, which is up to five days, and then 16 adult diversion beds, which is six to twelve hours.

That's just really diverting someone from going to jail.

We're also bringing online that is does not exist in El Paso children's crisis beds.

So we'll have four children's EOU beds, which is the extended observation, and four children's crisis stabilization beds.

We're looking at 94 new FTEs and a 14 million dollar operating budget.

And so it's going to be a huge uh addition to what is needed on the east side.

Uh we're also going to be having a behavioral health outpatient clinic.

Right now, the furthest east we go is about it's Lee Treveno.

Um, and so uh we we really feel like based on our zip code analysis, having something further east is important because there's so much growth out there, and so that is the outpatient clinic will be funded by EHN where the crisis we are getting additional state dollars to fund that crisis unit.

One of the things we may be asking for support from the council and and um Mr.

Mayor is that operating money we will not be asking for until uh FY28, and so that's the next biennium, and so we're gonna need some help to make sure we get that across the finish line.

Mary Representative Gonzalez is very committed to that, as so is Senator Blanco, but we may be asking for local voices to make sure that that uh operating money for that crisis unit is secured.

Next up, we all uh oops, I got ahead of myself.

Um we have our revenues and expenditures, and I have to say um for the first time in many years we did actually end in a deficit.

That is not common for EHN, but I have uh there's some a couple of reasons why we ended in a deficit.

One is um the board did allocate or excuse me, authorize EHN to spend $500,000 to finish up our partnership with the Disney Institute.

So EHN has partnered with the Disney Institute since 2019.

We we um brought them in to really work on our our culture and our customer service.

We looked in inside, we wanted to make sure, you know, we wanted to make sure our employees felt supported and felt like they um were able to grow and and do what they needed to do within the organization.

Nobody wants to be micromanaged, and so the Disney Institute came in and helped us, they helped us build that.

And I can tell you that since that $500,000 was just the last piece of the investment in 2025.

Our our turnover rate has gone down significantly.

People want to stay and work because at EHN because they feel supported and the culture is so um inviting.

And Disney didn't tell us what to do, they helped us design it because Disney does have that figured out with regards to uh culture.

The next thing we um for the last several years, we've been very fortunate with 1115 dollars with directed payment dollars, where our revenues over our expenses has been pretty significant.

What we realized this year, because things are changing, funding mechanisms are changing, is we had a very significant grant match requirement that we had been covering with revenues in the past, and this year um we realized we it was there a little a little more, I was shiny a little brighter.

So 1.9 million dollars, or excuse me, that is not right.

Uh seven and seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars was the match that brought in 1.4 million dollars.

So we it's important that we continue doing that, and we're budgeting and making sure that we can absorb that into the operation.

This was just the first year that the financing mechanisms had uh changed to where that match was um weighing on our operations, but I can tell you as of today, we have uh 23 million dollars in reserves.

So the fact that we lost for the year didn't affect us from a health perspective.

We're still financially very sound.

Next up, uh, one of the requirements that EHN has to complete every four years is a community needs assessment in order to maintain our certified community behavioral health certification, which is called y'all still hear it called CCBHC.

Happy to announce that we just were recertified for four years.

We were the only we were only the second, so we had three attempts to submit all of the requirements to be certified.

We did it in two attempts, and um we were the only second center in the state of Texas to do it in two attempts.

It was Al Paso and San Antonio.

So most centers are having to take the three.

But what I'd like to do is just share some highlights of the community needs assessment that we did in order to complete this year's certification.

Um so this is just uh gives you a an um a high-level overview of how the needs assessment was completed.

Uh external data, internal data, uh stakeholder input.

We did interview in individuals from the city, community leaders, the county, other uh per uh behavioral health providers, school districts, and our board members.

The first finding was not a surprise to anyone.

There's a high need for behavioral health services in El Paso.

Um we did we did get some information regarding uh the population level risk indicators, so really looking at very specific populations, but really uh poverty and low insurance were two things that came out during this uh needs assessment of folks that are truly in need of behavioral health services, low income and no or low or they are either have zero insurance or underinsured.

Next up is um the high what I was re referencing is the high needs population.

These are the populations that are um there's some concentration concentrated needs with regards to behavioral health, justice involved, not a surprise at all.

People that are um cycling through the justice system coming in and out of the jail.

So not only are we going to we're we've got this east side campus that is gonna open and have a diversion um component, but hopefully later this year, that's the plan.

We're starting construction next month.

Our campus at 1600 Montana is going to have a smaller version of the same uh services that we are gonna be building on the east side.

So we're gonna have a small diversion center, we already have an EOU there, but we're gonna also have that crisis stabilization.

So we're gonna be able to start seeing that before that campus opens.

And so that way we can demonstrate to the community the need.

Next up is our individuals with IDD with intellectual developmental disability.

Um really integrating those supports for those individuals.

So many of our individuals that we serve live with family and the families are aging.

And we have to make sure we support those folks as their families age and they have the services they need to be successful.

Continuing with the high needs populations is youth and families.

I think that's something I covered with our and the data that I showed you with our WICOT team.

And then of course our vel our veterans and our military population, which we do have a clinic that focuses specifically on those individuals.

Finding three is regarding um behavioral health disparities, really again looking at the um the stigma around uh low income and no insurance, other second uh socioeconomic factors.

So again, as you see through this report, we're really trying to put services where people are, not having people having to come where services are.

And we're gonna continue to do that as we grow and we identify those places to make sure people have access to the care they need.

And uh finally, we are looking at our last one is capacity drivers and constraint as everybody's facing workforce shortages.

We're still trying to be competitive in the market.

I think our culture has really helped.

But again, that uh salary piece as expenses and the cost of living increases.

We need to make sure we're competitive.

Um I can tell you reimbursement for behavioral health services has a huge uh challenge.

We haven't seen increases in Medicaid rates in over as long as I've been the CEO, which has been 15 years.

And so as the cost of delivering the service increases, the reimbursement has not, and the bulk of our population that is insured do carry Medicaid.

And really last, just um looking how we can better braid funding, blend funding.

As I shared with you, we're we're you know, trying to maximize match dollars to bring in different types of uh funding to where we're be able to plug those gaps and those holes for those folks that need those services.

So just looking ahead, um, you know, I I'm really happy to announce that you know we're gonna be hopefully having a groundbreaking and all of you will be invited to our uh our behavioral health center at the central location, then our East Campus in the summer, and then really we're just preparing for our session um the 90th legislative session to make sure that the funding for Al Paso is solid, secured, and we have that um ongoing support from the state.

I am happy to answer any questions.

Wow.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Sixty years.

Yes.

Fantastic.

I can say I've been there the whole time.

Yeah, thanks.

Representative uh Firo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Christy, welcome.

You know, um we're blessed to have the relationship in El Paso between the community and EHN.

Um partners like you are rare.

Um this annual presentation update.

I I wish we could do the quarterly, because it's just so much great things that you and your entire team are doing for us.

Um you mentioned customer service.

I I had the the occasion to visit your your your establishment, your offices, and from the front desk till the break room to the microwave, everybody you meet is just so courteous and helpful.

And and so this partnership is really working.

But I think you could do it without the big um Mickey Ears.

You could just go on, and you all are so great there.

Um you know EHN's everywhere.

And just last week, Mayor, myself, Chris, and representative um Lemon were at um the El Paso Um Boys and Girls Club.

What a transformation that building is it it's just it's night and day from um a year, a year and a half ago I was there.

And the services that you are offering there is amazing.

And Mayor, if Christy didn't bring you any slime, she needs a she needs to bring you some slime.

I'm still playing with the slime that I got there.

Christy, thank you.

Thank you again to you and your team for everything you do for our community.

And again, we're blessed to have you all here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

And it's called the Mine Lab at the Boys and Girls Club.

That's why we had slime.

So bring us some slime next time.

Yes, for sure.

Represent Limon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I agree.

That's uh a fabulous center.

Thank you, Chris, for allowing us also to be part of that event.

It was really wonderful.

Um, I really like the idea of the Disney Institute, especially we tend to forget how things need to happen within the organization, and we think everything's okay, but it's always good to have that other look and just to kind of get us back to maybe sometimes even reality.

I really like the rock painting activity, and I know that representative Fierro kind of has all those wonderful activities that you all do, so hoping we can share some of those in our district as well.

And then I'm curious uh why Isleta is not part of this.

Is it because they decided not to do it or break down?

I mean, I don't know if you can even say, but I'm I'd be really interested in following up perhaps with one of our trustees.

Sure.

Um we've approached T Sleta in the past.

Um they just feel that they have it, they they have their services um handled.

I I I can't really speak to why.

No.

Uh, but we are open, like I said, we're not charging any district to be on site.

It really is um uh a partnership.

We just ask for space.

They don't charge us for space, we don't charge them, you know, we don't asking them to pay us for the services.

We we help those kids.

Uh it's it's just a matter of what the districts are looking for.

Very good.

And I think that uh you can never uh turn your back on the service like this, especially for our students.

And so congratulations, and hopefully next year you'll be able to say differently.

But he's let us on board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much for the presentation, Christy.

I really appreciate it.

Um I am very um happy to know that you are part of our community because I know that you lift the weight off of so many uh individuals and family shoulders um in helping them through a time of crisis.

But last uh week or a couple weeks ago, I was in Washington DC at the National League of Cities Conference, and I had the opportunity to meet with different um leaders from all across our country, and something that kept popping up in our conversations was a need to uh help the unhoused in in different communities for different reasons.

It's something that a lot of communities are facing all across this uh country.

Um and I was wondering if you had ever experienced or thought of the possibility of sharing uh what you're doing with the CIT um team with others in other cities just because I think it's been such a valuable um experience for us.

I know that the Westside Regional Command Center, because I was part of that program with the HART initiative and I was involved with that.

I know that it's it's been a game changer for us, and we've really been at the front forefront and being proactive about this so that it doesn't become a huge concern like it has in other cities.

So have you have you explored that opportunity at all?

Yes, ma'am.

We actually have our CIT team has presented at the Texas CIT conference as well as CIT National or International, I think is what it is.

And so we have shared our our story.

Um I can tell you that many communities are not as um quick to go into the co-responder model, but I have to say, you know, um City Manager Mac and she we went through this prior to her being city manager was super supportive of us getting through this, and that co-responder model has been very successful here in El Paso.

Um other cities, it's everybody meets there.

And so they that's one thing they've really talked to us about and we've presented on in many different spaces that the Texas Council of Community Center's um conference as well.

So we've presented our model often throughout the the nation.

Um and it's been very well received.

They just you've gotta have the right people, and I can tell you um Chief Allen was an amazing partner to get this off the ground.

Chief Pesillas ha you know discontinues it.

You have to have the right people that are open to being able to say, you know, we're okay having social workers in our police cars because that's not that's not common.

Um and so we we've shared it wherever anybody would listen.

We're happy to share it anywhere else.

I have wonderful staff that do a great presentation.

But really it boils down to the people that are sitting up there, the the administration you have, the leadership you have at the police department, willing to open their minds and and the and their I mean their number one priority is public safety, but they've let us in.

Same with the jail.

It's not common for uh mental health services to be as as as they are in the jail the way we do them.

So happy to present other places too.

So I I might contact you for that because I have a few people that I've met there that probably would want to hear from you.

But I just want to highlight the significance and the importance of the work that you're doing.

Thank you and to make sure that everybody knows that because of that work, we are in a much better place.

Absolutely.

And so I'm grateful for that.

And we do have some great data now.

Because I mean we've been with I think CIT started in 2018?

19.

I do it was February 14th.

I remember it's Valentine's Day of 2019.

So we have some good data too that we can we can show other communities that it does work.

And I like the fact that you mentioned that you know uh you could respond to twice as many calls if you had yeah, you know, I don't know if it's a bigger budget or just more people.

I don't know what a combination budget of both of them.

Yeah, it's but and I and the other thing is officers.

So I mean we can't take officers off the streets.

Right.

You know, so it is a balance, and I know um Chief Pacias and I have had multiple conversations.

We'd love to grow CIT, but he's got to get his force, you know, full for you know, solid first, and then and I don't want to speak on him by his behalf, but I think all of you have heard that.

But we're happy to partner um with the city to grow that program if it becomes something that's a priority.

But there are a lot of lot of things that we're doing right.

So wonderful.

Congratulations for that.

Well, and it's not just the CIT, it's the continuum.

So we're in 911.

That's huge.

That is not common.

And we're actually integrated into 911.

Other cities may like let their lip mental health authorities sit in 911.

Our 911 center actually allows us to be on the CAD system.

Then we can help with that dispatch, whether it's CIT, our mobile crisis, uh uh street, you know, a normal regular police officer.

There's so many things, and then the beyond that, we we have the ability for for to get the services where people need them versus you know, uh inundating our ERs or our jails.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate the work you do.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for your presentation.

Mental health is extremely important and also access to any type of health is important.

Um, you know, district five grew 47% from 2010 to 2020, and um I've met with many different mental health advocates and have shared how even in the Far East side there's very limited access to health care or even to mental health.

I don't believe there's a specific um mental health brick or mortar location in the far east side in my district.

Um I will I definitely want to meet with you.

I know that you mentioned that you were proposing that uh East Side Campus on Saragosa and Edmir, which will be in District Five.

And I actually saw you guys about a couple weeks ago uh visiting the desert area and I was trying to understand what was happening, but uh because it's right behind my house.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So I live right uh in right between.

I was out there with Mr.

Centrone.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes, I saw you guys.

Um so definitely we'll love to have a conversation just because I know you know people are gonna be excited, but people are gonna also have questions.

So thank you for all the work that you all do.

It's important work.

And again, it's about uh having access to care and taking care of our community.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Canalis.

Thank you, Mir.

I'll be really quick and just say, in addition to all the wonderful things you presented, I just want to commend you and EHN in general for being everywhere.

Um, I I show up at uh uh health fair on one end of my district and EHN is there.

I show up at a meeting at the other end of my district and EHN is there.

You have people throughout the community working with so many organizations, and um I it's so commendable to see how integrated emergence has become in all aspects of the community.

So I think truly it's a model for how an organization like yours should work because people don't have to go looking for you.

Uh you find them wherever they are.

So thank you so much for for that.

It means so much to the community.

Thank you.

Representative Brocha.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Christy, congratulations.

We have had a lot of conversation.

I've referred so many young constituents that that I had the privilege to speak with uh over the last couple of weeks to your services.

And I really hope that they use them since um it's really geared towards towards keeping them healthy as they grow and and work through challenges that are a little different than what we what we dealt with when we were younger.

But congratulations on the 60 years.

I really look forward to collaborating more this year.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

So much good is is here.

Um you've already answered one of the questions.

I was gonna ask, how many members of the um the CIT team do you have?

And was there any hope of expanding that?

And I think currently we have 17 teams, I believe is what we're on the streets, and then we have some leadership.

Uh and again, that's we we um I always joke with Chief Pacifics, we're their backup singers.

And so we will follow them and support them any way we possibly can.

And so if the city chooses to grow that, we will uh step in that partnership and continue to grow.

Very good.

And then your mobile crisis unit.

Correct.

What are the hours of your units?

Um they are available all the time.

I mean 24.

Like our crisis team has access to those.

We've gone out on SWAT situations, um, things like that.

If they need us, they'll let us know.

Police lets us know.

So they're they're not hourly, they're uh as needed.

A lot of the stuff they do during the day, they may go to a health fair or they go um, they've responded to schools.

If our school-based CIT responds to a situation in the family, instead of having to put a uh distraught adolescent child into a car and drive them across town, we can take the van over to the school.

Um they're very distribute discreetly uh wrapped.

So when that people see them, they just like gray, they kind of look like gray vans.

They don't have a lot of markings on them, so we try to respect people's privacy that way as well.

Very good.

You guys have been busy and congratulations on 60 wonderful years.

Thank you.

Yeah thank you very much.

I appreciate the continued support.

And mark your calendars.

May 8th is going to be mental health awareness night at the Chihuahuas, and EHN is the title sponsor.

Be a lot of fun.

Um so if you haven't gotten tickets, get tickets for May 8th.

You've got it.

And Christy, thank you for the great work.

Thank you.

And thank you for the update.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Have a great day.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And for the record, Representative Piero, join the meeting at 9-11 a.m.

That brings us to item two.

This is presentation, discussion, and update on the city of El Paso's federal legislative agenda for the 119th United States Congress.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Ms.

Pine.

I make a motion on page two item two to delete this item for strategic and legislative affairs.

All right.

There's a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

There's a motion and a second to delete the item.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And that motion carries unanimously.

All right.

Is there a motion to retire into executive session?

Second.

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

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the city council of City of El Paso may return to executive session pursuant to section 3.5A of the El Paso City Charter and the Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, Sub Chapter D to discuss any of the following.

Executive session item one, Texas Gas Service, a division of one gas inks test year 2025, gas reliability infrastructure program, interim rate adjustment for the incorporated areas of Texas Gas Service, PUC number OS-26-000-30734.071 and executive session item two discussion on purchase exchange lease or value of real property in Al Paso HQ number 25-255 under 551.072.

These matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney and 551.072 deliberation regarding real property.

It is 943 a.m.

Ms.

Prime, believe we're ready.

Is there a motion to come out of executive session?

Second.

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

All in favor.

Anyone opposed?

We're back in open session at 1030 a.m.

We're on EX1.

Mayor Potem.

Thank you, Ms.

Prime.

Motion made, seconded, and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to suspend the implementation of the interim rate adjustment for an additional 45 days after the effective date as provided by subsection A of Section 104.301 of the Texas Utilities Code in the application of Texas Gas Service, a division of one gas incest year 2025, Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program, interim rate adjustment for the incorporated areas of Texas Gas Service filed on March 10th, 2026 in matter number utility 78, and to take all steps necessary, including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this authority.

There's a motion made and read into the record by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro on EX1 to suspend the interim rate adjustment on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro.

Aye.

Thank you, sir.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

EX2.

No action.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

All right.

Thank you, Council.

There's a motion and a second to adjourn.

All in favor?

Anyone opposed?

And the work session for Monday, March 30th, 2026 is adjourned at 10 31 a.m.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.