The El Paso City Council held a special meeting on Thursday, May 28, 2026, from 9:01 AM to 1:07 PM (with a 10-minute recess) to receive departmental presentations for the FY2026-2027 preliminary budget. Over 32 departments and divisions presented their budgets, staffing plans, and strategic priorities. Key topics included an operational efficiency review motion, a retirement recognition, and concerns over Sun Metro route changes.
Well, good morning, everyone. We are going to. Did we lose some money? We're going to get started, Ms. Bryan. Yes, sir. Good morning. This is a special meeting of the El Paso City Council for Thursday, May 28th, 2026. It is 901 a.m. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Maldonado Rocha, Representative Boya Trejo, and Alternate Mayor Pro Tim Fierro and Representative Nino. Mayor, we have a quorum. Okay, thank you. Representative Vier, would you lead us in the Pledge Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the United States of America. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Well, yesterday was an incredible day, and I know today's going to be even better. And I think we are on page 74. Yes, sir. And this is a presentation discussion in action for FY2026 2027 budget as presented by the city manager, and we continue with the departmental presentations with the libraries. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Mayor Council. It's great to be here this morning. I wish I would have gone last night, but here I am. What we do, I don't know. Am I supposed to? There it is. What we do? We provide resources for educational, recreational, and cultural development to the El Paso community. And our budget variances, it includes an increase in salary, janitorial and security service expenses, rising fuel costs, and an additional 100,000 dollars for collection development. In our positions, we will see that we have 176.5 FTEs across general and non-general fund. And we did lose a position to a grant, but we were able to provide full time to our OIA mentors, and I'm happy to say that we only have one vacancy at the moment. And it is very hard to pick one from the other. But the first one listed is our career online high school, and I'm just going to tell you a little bit of what we have been doing with in our programming this year. The next three listed programs are family programs, literacy and adult basic education, and literacy initiatives. This year we have an increase in attendance of 25,731 for all our programs in the library. It has been an incredible honor for me to participate in this program. I had the opportunity to hear from young adults who expressed gratitude for the space and highlighted its positive impact on their lives. One individual returned to school, another secured a job, and the third mentioned that the she found housing with the help of our mentors. It is truly rewarding to hear that we are making a difference one life at a time. Our passport program is offered at four locations, and we are the only agency that is open on Saturdays. During this physical year, we have processed 8,414 applications. But most interestingly, we have interacted over 17,000 people inquiring about passport services. Our signature programs, we have six uh citywide programs that the library conducts, and this year we had our first year holding library con, and which attracted 3,000 participants. Team Tober had approximately 5,400 participants, and the was a major success, drawing about 13,000 attendees. And we want to thank Mayor Pro Temp Chavez, Representative Rocha, and Representative Limon for joining us and participating in the parade. It was a lot of fun.