The El Paso Mass Transit Department Board convened a special meeting on August 18, 2026, at 11:39 a.m. to discuss and act on the proposed FY 2026-2027 budget for Sun Metro. Board members present included Chair Johnson and members Chavez Acevedo, Maldonado Rocha, Boyar Trejo, Nino, Fierro Limon, and Canales. No public comments were received. The board unanimously approved the budget resolution.
Special meeting of the El Paso Mass Transit Department Board for Tuesday, August 18th. It is now 11:39 a.m. Present in presiding is Board Chair Johnson also present in council chambers. Our board members Chavez Acevedo, Maldonado Rocha, Boyar Trejo, Nino, Fierro Limon, and Canales. We don't have any public comment. And the only item on the agenda is the discussion and action on the resolution that proposed that the proposed budget for the mass transit department of the city of El Paso, Sun Metro, filed by the city manager with the city clerk on July 17, 2026, is hereby approved and adopted by the board as the annual budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, which began September 1, 2026, and ends on August 31st, 2027. Okay. Robert, can we see the presentation? Yes, sir. Again, so uh this item is again the approval of the budget for the mass gender department, which is Sun Metro. You saw this presentation back on May the 28th. And again, separate action is required against this per the transportation code. So again, very similar information from what you saw uh presented from Mr. DeKaiser back in May. Um overall, again, uh good opportunity to explain a little bit about the non-general fund again. So Sun Metro is primarily funded by the dedicated half accent sales tax. Um they also received quite a bit of grants um which helps fund their operations, and then obviously the revenue they collect from their bus fares. You'll see overall for the Sun Metro department their budget is increasing by 2.1 million. Um you'll see the overall change in their FTEs, a decrease of 13 FTEs. You've seen a pretty lengthy presentation from Mr. DeKaiser in regards to the uh Sunmetro rising program again, looking at the the current routes. Um I will say again the budget increase primarily being driven by the sales tax growth on the revenue growth side on the expenditure side, it's actually a good story for some metro, so they are actually putting over five million dollars into their fund balance again to be able to continue to replace buses as they need to and make those capital investments as required. If you can go to the next slide on slide number three again, again, just some of the key route uh key changes here. You've seen the presentation in regards to submetro rising, the implementation of those routes which they have planned. The fleet replacement obviously is very important and critical that again uh replacing those vehicles on a timely basis again to ensure uh no impact to services, and you'll see there the streetcar to the left, and then again the revenue generation, the uh grants that they do receive to help fund their budget as well. Um, and then again you see on the right-hand side their performance measures, which is reported to the Mass Transit Department Board on a regular basis. So, with that, again, the proposed budget similar to the city's budget was filed on July the 17th, and Mr. DeKaiser is here and we're able to answer any questions that you may have. Okay, represent Canalis. Thank you, Mayor. There's uh it it dives in the weeds a little bit, but there's one thing that I wanted to highlight in Schedule B. That's the fee schedule for uh mass transit. Looking at line number 45. Um there is a reduction in the daily rate for maximum hourly parking fee uh for some metro facilities. That's probably for Mr. DeKaiser. He's thinking up behind you, Robert. Uh is this um or Mr. DeMiro. Is this uh what what facility in particular does this apply to? This primarily applies to the Union Depot or Union Transit Terminal. Union Plaza Transit Terminal. There you go. Union Plaza Transit Terminal downtown. And this is a reduction in the fee from a maximum of $15 per day to a maximum of ten dollars per day. Is that correct? Yes, we we conducted a uh informal survey of area parking garages to determine whether our rate was within others, and we found we were well we were about five dollars above the Wells Fargo garage, we were ten dollars above the county garage, so we made an adjustment to bring it down. Okay, just think it's important to highlight that for the public as a good option for downtown parking. Um I think ten dollars maximum for the entire day is quite an affordable rate. Uh so uh commend you for again making the effort to look into doing that comparative study and and figuring out what was uh an acceptable rate for that parking.