Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

This is a meeting of the El Paso Mass Transit Department Board for Tuesday, July 7th.

It is now 1241 p.m.

And president presiding is Board Chair Johnson.

And also present in Council Chambers are board members Chavez, Acevedo, Maldonado Rocha, Boyartrejo, Niño, Fierro, Limon, and Canales.

We do have one member of the public signed up to speak, sir.

Okay.

And that would be Mr.

Kirin Quirino Villa.

Mr.

Villa, are you here?

Yes.

And his topic is change to the bus stops on Route 24 and 65.

Good afternoon.

Sir, you will have three minutes to address Mayor and Council.

I was gonna say good morning, but uh it's good afternoon.

Yeah, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mayor, good afternoon, council.

My name is Kirino Villa.

I'm here to speak on the Sun Metro Rising changes, and particularly the changes to the bus stop that affect Illos de Plata Senior Center in a negative way.

Before these changes, Sun Metro service was good, was good.

The bus stops were on Comanche running right beside the senior center.

The seniors would get off the bus almost in front of the center.

That was bus route 24.

Bus Route 24 would travel going east on Delta, turn on Tobin, then turn on Comanche.

Continue east where the bus stops are located.

Also, pictures 6 and 11 will show bus stops for passengers going west.

Also for bus stops going east and west are located in good areas with shade and a covered bus stop.

Comanche street is not a heavy car travel street.

Bus Route 24 has been canceled or eliminated.

The new bus route 65 places bus route 24.

Bus Route 65 does not turn on Delta and Tobin.

It bypasses the intersection and continues going east on Delta.

The bus stop that were the bus stops that were on Comanche are now located on Delta and Shelter Street.

Delta Street is a high volume car travel street.

Shelter Street has a caution sign for truck crossing.

Those new bus stops on Delta and Shelter Streets are hazardous to the seniors.

Now, when seniors get off the bus on Delta and are going to the center, they have to deal with crossing a street that has no crossing walk and have to walk a long distance to get to the center.

And these bus stops on Delta have no cover from the sun or from the weather.

You guys can see pictures from 7 to 11.

For the safety of the seniors and all passengers, I think it's reasonable to request that the bus stops on Comanche be placed back on Route Bus 65.

You know, uh the mayor, I know you've been there to Hilos de Plata and um other members of uh the council have been there when they were running for for elections.

I invite you to go out there and see for yourself the situation.

It's like you know, walking our shoes.

What we had before was good.

Everything was right there at the center.

Now they push this out to a street where it's very dangerous to cross.

And remember, seniors use walkers and canes to cross this street.

And like I was saying, this is a heavy travel car uh street, and there's a there's a caution sign for for trucks.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Villa.

All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by Mass Transit Department Board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members.

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

If an item has not been called out for separate discussion, the item has been approved.

The mass transit department board may, however, be considered any item at any time during the meeting.

We do have the approval of the minutes, item number one for the consent agenda.

Okay.

Okay, there's a motion and a second.

And we do have a motion made by board member Fierro, seconded by board member Limon.

And this is to approve item number one.

The minutes voting session is open.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And the voting session is closed, and the item, the item has been approved unanimously.

Okay, let's take the consent agenda.

We do have the regular agenda.

It's item number three.

So nothing under consent.

In that no, just a minute, sir.

And no approval of the board members.

Okay, perfect.

That's great.

Thank you.

And item number three is presentation and discussion on a report by El Paso Transportation Authority on the transit services offered by offered in El Paso County.

Good afternoon.

Jerry DeMiro's uh Deputy Transit Officer for Sun Metro.

As you all know, Sun Metro provides transit services within the city limits.

Outside of the city limits, those services within the county are provided by the El Paso Transit Authority.

That helps county residents get into the city, it helps county residents do business within the city, recreate within the city, make medical appointments, etc.

Sun Metro historically has partnered with the county in transportation initiatives.

For example, we provide a space for them to maintain their vehicles over at Union Depot.

We provide fueling for all of their gas uh natural gas fueled vehicles, and most importantly, we provide transfer points for passengers coming into the city to do business in the city.

So we've formally briefed council on Sun Metro activities routinely.

The director of the El Paso Transit Transportation Authority has requested an opportunity to brief you about his services.

So without any further ado, I'd like to introduce Mr.

John Andau, the executive director of the El Paso Transportation Authority.

Thank you.

Good morning, John.

Top of the morning.

Good afternoon, actually.

Good afternoon, you're right.

Yes.

Top of the afternoon, Mayor and Council John Ando, Executive Director of the El Paso Transportation Authority, and I'm also the executive director of transit operations for El Paso County.

Here to give you a presentation about the newly formed El Paso Transportation Authority and how we partner with Sun Metro and the services that we provide outside the city limits of El Paso.

Next slide.

Or do I do it myself?

Yep.

So this is our mission statement for ETA.

Our ultimate goal is to provide safe, reliable, and accessible transportation solutions that connect the rural communities of El Paso County.

And we do that through fixed route and ADA paratransit services.

We're committed to enhancing mobility, fostering regional cooperation, and improving the quality of life for all residents.

So we were formed in 2020 by the El Paso County Commissioner's Court.

We are a local government corporation created under the Texas Transportation Code Section 431.

Presently, the staff to ETA is through the El Paso County Transit Operations Department.

We've contracted with the Rio Grande Council of Governments to act as our fiscal and administrative agent.

And we presently contract with Kemp Smith for legal services.

And going to our history of El Paso County Transit, we started basically in 1995 based on a countywide transit plan that was completed by the El Paso MPO.

And over the course from 95, we've uh formed new services and partnerships.

We started the New Mexico Park and Ride service between El Paso and Las Cruces.

We started a Van Pool program.

We entered into a contract with Sun Metro to operate Route 84 in the South County.

And then in 2015, we did a renewed interest in wanting to expand transit.

We first started a new route along Tacora Road, the Mission Trail.

We then partnered with the Texas Transportation Institute to do a regional transit study to figure out how can we better connect county residents to the city and vice versa.

That study basically yielded a recommendation to form what is now what is known as the El Paso Area Transportation Services LGC.

As part of that LGC, we added additional members, Clint and Anthony.

We've expanded services.

We did redo services in the South, and as a result, the services provided by Sun Metro was discontinued.

We did rebrand services as ETA, and we also started a new paratransit program.

And then in 2025, I was hired and we started microtransit service in San Elazario and Clint.

So we presently have 12 members of the Board of Directors on ETA.

Three of them are from El Paso County, one are from each of the jurisdictions outside of El Paso County.

And then we also have ex officio members on the board, which includes the El Paso MPO, Sun Metro, City of Socorro, and the West Texas Regional Transportation Committee.

We presently have an administrative staff of five.

Four positions are filled, one is vacant.

We are in the process of hiring three more positions, so at transition, we'll have eight individuals working for the transportation authority.

We did form an access advisory committee to help us give us guidance on how we can provide better transportation to seniors and persons with disabilities.

And we contract all of our services.

I'm going to be summarizing each of our transit programs that we presently offer.

But we presently operate seven days a week, Monday through Friday from five to about eight at night, Saturdays from seven to about seven at night, and Sundays from about seven to five.

We're closed on seven major holidays.

We have heating air conditioning, Wi-Fi, electronic fare boxes.

Back in December, using funds from El Paso County, we made all of ETA services free.

It's a great opportunity to help allow those that are low income to reinvest their money that they were using in transit in the community.

Also has helped increase ridership, create mobility options for those that didn't have transportation, and as a result, we've seen so far a 46% increase in passenger trips.

About 3% of those are new riders to the transit system.

Most of them are existing riders that are making more trips on the transit system as a result.

So we're going to start with the ETA Paseo.

That is our fixed route transit service.

These are buses that operate on six routes throughout El Paso County.

We connect to three of Sun Metro's transit centers: West Side, Mission Valley, and Upper East Side.

And we're looking at implementing four additional routes in the future per the regional transit study.

The map on the left shows you basically the ETA Paseo network.

Access is our paratransit program.

It provides services within a three-quarter mile radius of ETA Paseo routes.

We also provide service into El Paso within the Sun Metro Lift service area.

One of our unique partnerships that we have with Sun Metro is that those that live out in the county can use access and go anywhere that Sun Metro lift goes, and those that live within the city could use Sun Metro lift to go to destinations that access serves in the county.

This way we're not creating transfers between the passengers and it's making a seamless for those that are very sensitive in our community.

Undelay is our microtransit program.

It's a pilot program that we just launched in the South County regions of San Elazario and Clint, connects people to Socorro, Mission Valley Transit Center, and El Paso Community College, Mission Del Paso campus.

The service operates similar to your recently started microtransit service in the upper east side area of your city.

Bomino's Van Pool is a program that we operate in conjunction with Enterprise.

We subsidize vans at $500 per month per van.

It operates anywhere within El Paso County.

It's fairly simple to use.

A group of seven to 15 people can create a van to determine where the destination, the pickup point and the destination is, and basically they would operate the van to those points.

We will subsidize it at $500.

The rest of the group subsidizes the difference.

We presently have about 139 vans operating throughout El Paso County.

Many of those vans serve the city of El Paso.

This gives you a perspective of ETA's performance.

In fiscal year 25, we did 572,000 passenger trips between our various programs.

In fiscal year 24, we did 559,000 passenger trips.

We're anticipating that we would exceed 600,000 in fiscal year 26 because of the fare-free promotion that we've implemented.

We are doing a lot of capital projects to make ETA a great transit system throughout El Paso County.

We're getting ready to install 155 bus stops, which could include shelters, benches, and signs countywide.

We also are building in the process of building a new transit operations and maintenance facility in the east side portion of El Paso near Windermere Avenue.

That facility will house the entire ETA fleet as well as ETA administration.

The purple sign is what our new bus stop sign will look like as we install those throughout the ETA service area as well as also at some of the Sun Metro stops we serve within the city of El Paso.

It will help people tell passengers where we're going.

People can scan the QR code to get route information.

They'll be able to text a number to a system where they will actually tell them in real time when the bus will arrive at that bus stop.

We're also getting active in technology.

We've partnered with Move It in Transit to help people be able to plan their trips, schedule lift and Uber rides.

Hopefully, we're working with the RMA so that they'll be able to unlock bikes within El Paso, pay their fares through token transit.

Should we charge a fare again?

Book microtransit trips through future software.

You can also track our buses in real time, and we're also available on Google and Apple maps.

We have a lot of upcoming projects as we continue to work through ETA's implementation.

As I mentioned, we're doing capital projects.

We're in the process of purchasing electric vehicles that we'll use on our access and on delay program, similar to what you guys have with the Sun Metro Lift.

We're making service enhancements to the transit system to make better connectivity to Sun Metro services.

We've re-negotiated and implemented new contracts with our contractors.

We're actively working with Sun Metro staff on partnerships.

We're also separating from El Paso County as of September 30.

And on October 1st, we'll be independent of the county and the board of directors of EPATS, the jurisdictions plus the county will govern our activities, similar to how this mass transit board governs Sun Metro's activities.

We are actively pursuing a partnership with Socoro.

They are interested in joining ETA.

That's one of the last cities left to join ETA, and we're hoping that will take place in October.

We're also working in collaboration with Sun Metro staff so we can use some of the urban area funds to support ETA services since approximately 90% of our services operate within the urbanized boundaries of the El Paso area compared to the rural boundaries where we've previously received funds from Textock.

Our contributions of passenger trips to the urbanized area will grow funding for not only Sun Metro, but Socorro and ETA as a whole.

We're also in the process of transitioning the rural transit district status from the county to ETA.

And as I mentioned, we're hiring four positions, building additional capital projects.

We have connections.

Our services connect primarily to Sun Metro service.

We also connect with the New Mexico Park and Ride at the West Side Transit Center in Anthony, South Central Regional Transit District for services into New Mexico, and then the City of Socorro's microtransit system.

So our relationship with Sun Metro is evolving.

We presently have interlocal agreements in place with Sun Metro for jury duty passes, putting our schedules in your schedule pages, bus purchasing bus passes.

We also have a license agreement so we can utilize your bus stops and transit centers.

We're grateful for the CNG fuel that you provide to our 26 CNG cutaway vehicles.

As I mentioned, we have the paratransit coverage to prevent transfers between the two systems and make it seamless to the disability community.

And then we're in process of doing interlocal agreements with Sun Metro so that we can use 5307 and 5339 urbanized funds.

We would like to convert your seat from an ex officio seat to a fully voting seat on the ePATS board of directors.

So then once the city of El Paso joins, then every municipality is participating in this regionally coordinated transit system.

And then lastly, we've historically have leased the Union Depot maintenance facility to our contractor transdev.

We're hoping to shift that leaf lease over from Transdev directly to ETA so then we can utilize that facility until our new facility opens in 2029-2030.

So the value that ETA provides to Sun Metro is we bring a lot of our riders to your services that you operate throughout the city limits.

We recently did a survey that I presented to the EPATS board last month, where approximately 47% of ETA riders transfers to a Sun Metro route, whether it's at West Side, at Mission Valley, or at Upper East Side.

Also, as our routes travel outside the city limits, we provide extra services along your corridors to help supplement Sun Metro services that operate on those corridors, particularly Donatin Drive, when traveling to Anthony, Montana Avenue when traveling towards Montana Vista area, and then Socorro Road and Alameda Avenue when traveling to the South County cities.

So in theory, your residents could ride ETA service within the city limits to stops that our routes presently serve on the way outside the city limits.

And we're hoping that as we in the future bring an interlocal agreement for your consideration, that one, we would have our route stop at all of your Sun Metro stops that I just mentioned on those corridors.

ETA would accept Sun Metro passes for trips along these corridors.

Should we charge fair?

And these trips would provide benefit to Sun Metro in between your regular services that you operate on those streets, particularly Route 12 on Donathan, Route 60 on Socorro Road, and Route 52 along uh Terra Esta Road and Montana Avenue.

So that concludes my presentation about ETA.

Happy to answer any questions if you have any about us.

John, great presentation.

And we have a couple comments or questions.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, John, for their great presentation and all your heart work.

Specifically, you know, public transportation is extremely important.

In District 5, we just launched the microtransit program, and I've said that this could really, you know, set someone up for future job education and just having access to to even just health care, right?

Um, you answered a lot of the questions that I was going to ask, you know, uh, as of December 2025, you did the free uh cost to to ridership, and I was going to ask what is the increase of ridership ever since then.

You mentioned it was 46%.

Did you mention it was 23% new riders?

Um, it's about three percent new riders, and the majority of the riders are existing riders that are now making more trips on the transit system.

Great.

No, and I was going to ask what the increase of ridership with Sun Metro is since you know you collaborate, you work together, you essentially could take them, like for example, with district five, you'll take them to the upper east side sun metro transit center.

Um you said that there was a 47% increase that are transferred from your services to Sun Metro, is that correct?

That is correct, yes.

Great.

Now, since you all offer free ridership, does it also is there a cost when they get transferred to a Sun Metro route, or how does that happen?

So presently, since they ride us for free, most of our riders would purchase Sun Metro passes to then ride Sun Metro services throughout the city limits.

Okay, great.

No.

Now thank you for that and that clarification.

In regards to the Vamos pool, you said that you all subsidize $500 when someone creates this program or uh opts into this program, right?

That is correct.

What is the full cost of one van or if someone wants to create a partnership with the Vomanos pool?

Remember the vans range from about 1,500 to 2100 a month.

Okay.

And then the users are also responsible for the fuel.

Okay.

And then those costs get divided between the users that want to use that Vamos pool, right?

That is correct.

And so the more users on the van, the lower the cost to the entire van.

Very cool.

How many uh vents did you say there was a hundred within the city?

About 139.

139 vents within the city.

That's great.

I've seen them parked in different strategic locations.

I've seen them on Montana and Luke 375 at a at Pit Smart.

Um, I've seen a couple of vehicles there.

So it's great that people are using that, and I'm glad to to know that.

Um, I have no further questions.

You really uh tackled all my entire thought process, but thank you for all the great work and partnerships and collaborations that are extremely important.

Because overall communities don't see the boundaries between our governments, right?

And I cannot tell you how many individuals from uh the Far Iside, Montana Vista and other unincorporated areas reach out to my office asking for different services.

So I'm grateful for all your work and the partnership that we have.

Thank you.

We're great to provide the service.

Represent Limon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Congratulations.

You just gave us a full presentation without any notes, other than PowerPoint that you were doing, and it was very clearly presented.

I I commend you for the ability to do that in front of council.

Thank you.

What a difference a year and a half makes.

I I can still remember meeting with Javier Banales when they were talking about this.

It's only been a year and a half, and look at all that you have.

I'm very excited because of the connection to the Nestor Valencia, the Mission Valley Transfer, which obviously goes out into the county.

And I'm hopeful that Socorro will jump on board and be a part of it because it'll be a completely loop around the entire area.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Very proud of you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, John, for the presentation.

Um, I'd like to hear a little bit more about the Donovan corridor that you mentioned, um, how you're servicing it.

I did see it on your map here, and let me I made it bigger because I think it's slide number 11.

Um, if you could maybe just tell me a little bit about um that corridor and uh who you're servicing.

Yeah, so um presently we have our Route 10 that travels on Donovan from West Side Transit Center on the way to Anthony and uh Sun Metro, you guys operate Route 12 on that corridor about every I believe 60 minutes now with Sun Metro Rising.

So we basically are serving those that are ultimately trying to get to Anthony, Westway, Vinton.

However, there are from there are some times where if there's not a Route 12 coming by, that uh there will be city residents that will take the Route 10 and also go to destinations along Donovan, like the Walmart and a lot of other shopping opportunities that do exist.

So one of our uh projects that we're working with Sun Metro staff is how can ETA provide that value to the city for your uh ultimate participation in ETA so that um the city can see that the extra services that we provide on our way into and out of town, basically between West Side Transit Center and Borderland Road would provide that value to help overall support those that live along that community.

So instead of having a bus, a Sun Metro bus come by every hour, for instance, combined with ETA and Sun Metro, you would have a bus potentially every 30 minutes.

Yeah, providing a lot more service to the community.

I appreciate that, John.

Maybe we'll have you out at a community meeting so we can discuss this further with the with the community.

We'll be happy to, yes.

Thank you so much.

John again, thank you for the the wonderful presentation and congratulations on all the ridership and everything that you're doing.

Thank you.

Very good job, and we look forward to working with you more.

You got it.

Thank you, John.

Happy to rest.

Miss Nunez, next item.

There's no action on that item, and next item is the last item number four discussion and action on the resolution.

One authorizing the mayor to sign an amendment extending the term of interlocal agreement 2023-0067 between the city of El Paso and the Texas General Land Office for the purchase of natural gas for two additional years, two authorizing the mayor to accept, reject, alter, amend or terminate the inner local agreement without further action by the Mass Transit Department Board, and three that the expenditures under this agreement are governed by Mass Transit Department Board's approval of the city's annual budget.

Move to approve.

Okay, there's a motion to approve.

Is there a second?

There's a motion and a second.

And we do have a motion made by Board Member Limon, seconded by Board Member Chavez, and this is to approve item number four.

Voting session is open, and we voting session is closed, and the item has been approved unanimously with board member Rocha not present for the vote.

Okay.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor.

Anyone opposed?

And the motion carries and the mass transit department board meeting for July 7th is adjourned at 1 10 p.m.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, did you want to go back to the regular meeting or remain in recess?

Uh we're gonna recess for lunch.

Okay, and then reconvene at what time, sir?

2 15 2 15.

Okay.

So the regular city council meeting remains in recess and we'll reconvene at 2 15.