foreign you know I am wrote shooter shooter Jason square that will basically execute the duties as for trustees workers furthermore songs Stadium promise contributed attributed in our promised to the interview and money are valuable thing or with holy Lord can I just here [Music] would you like coffee here of course we'll have it on thank you thank you very much out of anything comes up how's your morning so far so far so good okay good morning okay foreign foreign okay good morning [Music] representative Molina good morning doing well yes sir thank you for asking how about yourself here up there uh let's pick another one if you have one uh I don't think but I can get you one okay cool thank you you said you needed another agenda sir thank you I appreciate it twice I miss him when I'm like two copies thank you good morning I took a picture she had been a former district attorney assistant and now I was rid of the prosecutor's office what was her name it's running for today I didn't think it was her Carol I know who you're talking about but I can't I don't know if she's running for the year or not it's not her is it Nancy costumes she's running for D.A on that one yeah you just saw the thing [Music] yeah that thing's gonna stick with me all day okay if I figure it out thank you Eddie good morning good morning ma'am how are you doing well how are you I think you're doing good thank you good morning how's it going okay here we go thank you how's the neighborhood more ghetto than my wrist tattoo but hey yeah yeah so right in the corner of this corner house so it's kind of better it's kind of better I call it America basis I it's gotten a lot better to be honest with you so yeah I'm on Oxford okay yeah it really has but still good morning good morning you know um there's an issue I think it's because good morning it's free foreign good morning good morning this is you know this is the wrong agenda I'm sorry I mean it's just the makes it seem to drink this agenda so I don't understand is it online yes it is I'm sorry they shouldn't have just shattered at you like that I apologize it's a good point whatever well I don't know why I didn't look online foreign I can do that [Music] foreign thank you exclamation point um good morning everyone good morning oh I haven't checked sorry man I used to call my mom back in their household Mr Mayor good morning morning yes sir good morning this is a special meeting of the El Paso city council for Thursday May 11 2023 it is 1002 a.m mayor Lisa is present and presiding in council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pope 10 anello alternate mayor potem Molina representative Rivera and representative Canales all right can we stand for the pledge please in America Liberty can we begin with um hide in one place yes sir item number one is discussion in action on the results of the project P 2023-06 city council and City manager's office P cart travel and fuel card review for the record representative Fierro is also present in Council teams um yes and this item was put on they had a full act meeting on last Thursday and it's after a full act meeting we want to bring it forward and it would have come up at the neck at the last city council meeting which would have been on Tuesday we weren't able to put it on Tuesday because the auditor Mr um Calderon was out of town and so what we've done is we moved it to today so we could have a Mr Calderon come in brief the full Council and everything you see here and all the notes and all the backup was all provided by the auditor Mr Calderon good morning everyone edmundo Calderon Chief internal auditor for the city of El Paso um I don't know where to begin mayor what would you like me to go over the report again do the full act but there's council members here include myself though we're not in that meeting okay okay thank you sir I'm prepared for that I just didn't know where you wanted me to start so let me get my notes out here it has been called up on the screen so you should be able to see it on the screen there you go what I like to do will do I like to do it the same way I did it for the financial oversight and audit committee uh the first thing we'll like to start off with is we'll do the P card and the travel review first because it's it's a lot it's a shorter report and I can get through it pretty quickly and then I can jump up to the next report we issued which was on the fuel card and the reason I issued two reports for the uh Representatives that weren't here that day is because they're separate programs uh that involve city council the fuel card is handled by this is by the streets department and then the P card travel is run through the Comptroller's office but the Office of Management and budget oversees the city council for their Peak card and travel request so that's why they're two separate documents okay that way uh Council knows and then the public that's listening knows I don't know if I can move this I can oh how cool trying to it's not coming up I.T a little help here I have the fuel card here you go you can go up forward a little bit okay to the next that's managed to go up further further further further further right yeah oh right there okay we can start right there this is a report that we issued on May the 1st 2023 and this is regarding the P card the procurement card that we have oh cool now I gotta I gotta electronic instrument here okay and um this report is dated uh again May 1st it was addressed to Nicole Cody uh of the Office of Management and budget and what we do here this is this report will actually be and I can't even know but we've done it for about 17 years in a row that we reviewed P card and travel for our our elected officials and the city manager staff so we we do this annually and then we report on it annually okay so let me try to get over because what we do here again it's a little introduction our objectives on this project was to obtain an understanding of the city of El Paso uh city council and City manager's office travel request approval process and p-card program second we determine if the current city council and Peak Card office of city managers office P cart primary approvers and reconciliers are properly reviewing and monitoring the expenditures related to the respective purchases third determine if trial requests are properly approved and reconciled fourth determine if Peak card transactions are for the proper expenditures to include travel travel paid by using p cart or a voucher uh fifth we verif we verified the original receipts properly support travel expenditures and P card transactions and six identify if sales tax was paid using the P card and determine if purchases purchase limits on p-card transactions have been followed okay the scope of our work on this one was we look for transactions from September 1 2021 to December 20 December 31st 2022 per my discretion as Chief internal auditor I did expand the scope on this to include four transactions related to travel that occurred in fiscal year 2023 so I expanded the scope just a little bit by four transactions okay um here are the results of our review the first one is regarding Picard's supporting documentation and you first can see the criteria we use when we review these things and this is a standard uh way we present these types of reports what we did we reviewed all the transactions that were done during the review period of September 1 2021 to December 31st 2022 what we found very interesting is that during that review We identified 2 309 transactions for uh the city council city manager with total amount of 543 571.61 during that review period but when we reviewed the Wells Fargo commercial card system that is used to reconcile the pcard purchases we did identify that 334 out of the 2003 109 transactions did not have a description in the description field as required by our our policy so we've already communicated that with the with the OMB office and of course with the Comptroller's office uh we also review what we did we picked the sample of 25 random transactions for the review period and we uh what we call an auditor language we tested them for different criterias one of the first criterias we did is for receipts we did find two missing receipts during the review period they were both for district six one was to Dick's Sporting Goods the transaction date was July 28 2022 and it was for 293 dollars and six cents and then another one in District Six over at the Sheridan and Fort Worth on May 23 2022 for 27 dollars and six cents we couldn't find the receipt we don't know what was purchased what was bought uh for the one the Sheridan and Fort Worth we don't know what was purchased we don't know if it was lunch or something at the gift shop we don't know uh because we could not even find a travel request on that transaction okay then finally on the next item we did identify one p car transaction out of the city manager's office it was a transaction for one thousand seven hundred and six dollars and 85 cents but what we picked up on that receipt was the pi office did buy a new computer uh at a cost of 899.99 and that was for a laptop we had a an Emergency purchase because when we researched that we found out we had a laptop that kind of shorted out it stopped working and we needed uh the Pio office needed to get the uh public broadcasts back up and running so they just on an emergency ran over bought another one came back connected it got it going again so I've already talked to them and they're going to uh work on getting that tpr and getting the requirements men on that one okay and by the by uh FYI the tpr is a technology purchase request form that's approved by our I.T Department to make sure that the equipment being purchased is compatible to our Network for the record representative Hernandez is also present in council chambers good morning ma'am okay so on this one we're recommending having all receipts uh safeguarded and properly documented acquiring An approved technology uh purchase request form from it prior to the purchase of the of the it equipment and then completing all the fields on the Wells Fargo commercial card expense reporting system going forward so that one should work observation two on this review we looked at sales tax charged to uh purchases because the city of El Paso is exempt from sales tax we're we're we're we don't pay sales tax we were exempt from it but we did identify five transactions three of them came out of the city manager's office and it was for food purchases for their working lunches which is appropriate but they did pay sales tax it wasn't a lot it's about twelve dollars total in sales tax we also saw District Five had two purchases one on over stocks dot com and one in Best Buy for approximately about fifty one dollars I did talk to uh representative Salcido last night and she's already uh reimbursed the city for those sales tax expense and it's already been posted she sent me the receipt so I think that one's already taken care of okay observation three is regarding the travel request when when city employees travel and City business there are some requirements that have to be met um for example before you travel before you incur any expenses you must have your travel request approved that a process has been adjusted a little bit for you can get an email from your approver instead of getting the signature on the actual travel request form you would just need to attach that email to your travel request that way you can start incurring expenses because you're you're trying to get the the good price on the airline ticket you're trying to get the early registration for the conference so you're you're trying to be economical when you're traveling so that's why they do that and then after completion of the travel you are required to reconcile and close out your expense uh report section of the travel request form within five days Upon returning from the trip okay so in this case we reviewed five travel request forms uh related to pcar purchases and I was also from September 1 2021 to December 31st 2022 and here's what we identified during that review one travel request form was not approved at least 10 days prior to the travel a travel request for the representative from district one was submitted six days prior to travel with no approval so you know they missed it by about four days uh we had two travel requests reviews were not properly approved after after the travel for an employee from the performance office and then again the representative from District One at the time okay we did have three travel requests reviewed in curred travel expenses before the travel requests were approved we know we're trying to get the good price we're trying to be economical but you know got to get that an email will will suffice on this but we couldn't even we didn't find an email on it so a trouble request for an employee from the performance office and create expenses totaling 1 595 dollars before the travel request was approved and then the trouble requests for the city manager incurred expenses totaling 361.68 before that travel request was approved and then a travel request for the representative from District 2 incurred expenses 158 and 90 cents before the tribal request was approved so our recommendations on this one is that going forward city council city manager trial request submitted at least 10 days prior before before you travel and that travel requests be approved before and expenses are incurred and that trial requests are approved after their travel which is the five-day requirement okay number four was reconciliations there's a requirement here when you do travel that after travel the travel requests must be reconcile and completed by business days we over went over that we separated this out because we we saw some some high numbers here uh we did review five again five tribal requests for the same period from September 1 2021 to December 31st 2022 we identified that terrible requests were not properly reconciled three requests reconciliations were not performed within the five business days after the conclusion of the travel a travel request for an employee from the performance office was not reconciled after after the trial after the conclusion of the travel the travel requests were the representative district one was reconciled seven days after the conclusion of the travel and a tribal request for the city manager was reconciled 11 days after the conclusion of the travel one request for the city manager's office contain travel expenses of an early birth check in the fifteen dollars which is not allowed for the policy for early bird check-in and then one travel request use the incorrect travel request form the correct trial of course form was revised as of 7 22 2021 there's two versions out there so when you're going to travel city council please make note which travel requests for music because there's a 2017 version out there and then there's a 2021 version so you know please look make sure you're using the right form if you have any questions please call me and we'll help you make sure you get the right form but going forward we're just recommending on this one that city council and City manager's office should ensure that travel request forms are reconciled after the conclusion of the travel and extra fees such as early bird check-in are not incurred and the use of correct travel use the correct travel request form okay the fifth one is regarding close P cards we always run this test this review to make sure that when employees leave including City Council Members or any other City employee leaves that the P card is turned off because you can keep the P card well it should keep the P card but we'll turn it off it does not active anymore so we'll make sure that happens almost we usually collect those P cards it's part of our uh exit procedure when when employees leave the city they turn in their ID they're turning on their P card any other parking pass card a little Permit card there's a lot of little things are on that checklist so that's one of them so in this case we reviewed that we did find that um for districts one six and eight those were the city reps I left office you know in very early January of 2023 their Peak cards were open and what we can honestly tell you there uh the B card was closed it they left it open with a capacity of one dollar and that was done for the purpose of in case of any transactions came in late you know from the vendor from the merchant so the good thing there were no no uh no uh uh transactions came in but then they were now properly closed so you can see that by the chart they were all closed as of April 17th so then we also had another uh we had a Pio transfer from the Pio office to the fire department and her P card was kept open it finally got closed she left the office in March of March 20th of 2022 it was closed on November 2nd 2022 so there were doll clothes so now they're all closed so you can rest assured they've all been closed and our recommendations is that going forward that appear that a periodic periodic active P card holders analysis be conducted to ensure that active P card holders are our current voice that they've been closed of their own if the employee has left so we'll continue to monitor that so that concludes my report on that one we did get responses back from Nicole Cody the managing director over at OMB and they've agreed to our recommendations and going forward I think we'll we'll get a lot better in this area so any questions on the P cart yeah I got a question for you I happen to have received a open records request that was released to miss Litton from ktsm and it had a lot of expenses it had a lot of usage on P carts and but what you're saying because I I questioned I asked you and your answer to me was as long as it's been approved there is no violation your travel no I'm just talking about in general the peak Arts because there was a you know just across the board and nothing in no one in particular are just looking at all because I'd never had the opportunity to see all the expenses of all P cards and I guess Miss Litton from one of the local TV stations asked for it and they released to us what's been released and I noticed uh the expenses which was a lot those expenses are considered no violation because they're approved by a department head would that be what you told me the process the way it works mayor after you incur inspections on the P card it runs at cycle electronically from the merchant to Wells Fargo Bank and once a month uh usually around the 20th I believe we get notified that those expenditures have hit your P card and you're required to go into the system and reconcile them and chart what you do and you reconcile them you charge them to the correct account number you want in your department you put an explanation what the expense was for and then you put check there's a little box that you check off that you have the receipt and then you do all your expenses and then you click that you reviewed it and then it goes to your approver at that time and then your approval reviews the expenditures so because I mean the number was huge I mean the amount that the credit cards were used was really a big big number if you saw my observation one for the review period it was over half a million dollars and they required to turn in receipts what was purchased in like I said that I was shocked to see the the amount but I didn't I don't see it in your report yes sir well based on my report I gave you a recap the amount of dollars that were spent during the review period was over half a million and then 2300 over 2300 expenditures were done during the reviewing period so the P cart you said was over half a million yes or for in this case I mean that first time I'd seen that and it was like I said it was an eye-opener to be honest with you and I just kind of had some questions and I guess I'll have questions not here but uh as we look at them all yes sir okay thank you okay representative Fiero thank you mayor um a couple of um suggestions that we made during the fallac meeting in regards to the receipts was for example in District Six there's a receipt that's been outstanding for over a year in one for over seven months and one of the recommendation was after X amount of days that your P card be suspended until you turned in the receipts and the prime example was brought up by the mayor Pro tem on on having to go back and find the receipts and turn them in um I don't understand why it's not what that policy isn't across the board it's it just seems like the mayor Pro tem had to do it but District Six didn't so sir that policy is controlled by the the Comptroller's office and they have the ability to turn off the P cart they can do it under computer terminal Miss mayor that's the suggestion that we we talked about I have had conversations with Margarita Marine regarding that and she's made a commitment she's going to start turning P cards off I think it's it's got It's now we're now at that level she's going to start she can't get receipts she can get reconciliations done she's going to make the decision and turn those things off I think if we're not adult enough to turn in our receipts and follow the policies then absolutely our P card should be turned off suspended um mayor I have one more question for Miss Neiman and you brought up open records and we've been receiving lots of open records Miss demon what is the um the policy to to submit an open record what do I submitting an open record have to produce so you would you would you're notified of your open records request and then we process it but would could I use the name art leaser or you know do is there any can anybody do it on Anonymous names I saw the other the other day there was one from Anna one and I was like no no you know that's it the other the when the media does it they do their name their station their what they're asking for so our our form the information that we don't verify or authenticate a person's identity as long as they provide the information for us to produce the records most of them are done electronically sometimes people are requested by paper so as long as that information is available we produce it is that best practices it seems like a lot of work and we need to we need to we need to produce I actually think uh we need to produce open records quicker but um that's a lot of work and money for somebody on average sir our open records are are produced in under in three days so that's quite um quickly considering that we have 10 days but right that's something that we continue to improve upon um I I would not be able to give you an answer on what the best practices um under the requirements you have to produce a name an address an email account and then we produce the records back so again and no one verifies them we don't authenticate or verify the person's identity so I mean it's a matter of producing records and traditionally we don't we're not we're actually not permitted ask why they want the records but then we don't also that wasn't my question my question was authenticating the person so we would need to look and see I don't believe that we would understate law that we have to request that you're a real person or have an ID or anything of that sort it's done electronically now mayor can we direct the city managers to look at the best practices when it comes to requesting open records yes sir thank you thank you mayor thank you and also the when they do release any open records Miss uh Neiman it's released to council everybody gets a copy so everyone knows what's been released correct correct sir so the practice is anybody records were obtained or requested are copied on the email before it goes out okay so when I was talking about everybody would have a copy and then um who have various proactive Pages posted where everybody has access to the same information yes ma'am thank you for that as well clarify that uh representative Canales I think I was just preempted there no thank you Mary I think I was just preempted there I was going to point out the proactive pages on many issues that are requested frequently including this issue all of the information on purchasing card policies fuel card policies the actual usage for last year the actual usage to date for this year they're all already posted on the city website and anyone can access them on the on the proactive Pages section of the open records page on the City website I think it's beneficial for the public to know those things are there and anytime you want to make an open records request especially about an issue that is timely or in the news it's very likely that before you you submit you might find it there on the proactive Pages uh already posted and so I commend the city attorney's office and everyone else who is working hard to make sure that those records are available to the public sometimes even before they choose to ask for them [Music] um regarding the the question about authenticating identities any member of the public any person really is entitled to request information correct and so it doesn't totally matter who who it is or what their identity is yes that's correct okay and there's yeah there's there's no reason why we wouldn't release uh document to someone based on their identity correct we would release information as requested by the person who's asking for the information okay that's all my questions thank you mayor thank you sir not Chad Mr Calderon thank you let me go to the next item okay now I like to go over the fuel card review okay excuse me um we also did during this project we added a the fuel card so let me give everybody a little bit of background the members of the council that we're not present at the full Act so I want to make sure you have the same information I gave the full whack okay back in October of 2020 doctor was October 20th of 2022. uh the full act met at the time we had uh different members representative was on the committee representative Hernandez was on the committee and um we presented the annual audit plan and our annual Charter and they got approved there in October of 2022. okay so at that time when we scheduled the review the audit it was just scheduled of P carton travel because we had done it 17 years in a row right so I said okay well it's just going to do it but then something happened on our November 28 2022 I received a call on the city's hotline uh it was to my office and I received a phone call making the allegation that the district the representative from district 6 had been using her fuel card to fuel uh automobiles to help her in her campaign or to be part of a campaign so she was using the field card for that and that was November so I said okay so I kept that information on the side where so when we started looking at this project in December of 2022 we started looking at it so at that time I made the decision which I'm authorized under my Charter to add that component of fuel card to the annual P card and travel review so I added we had already done three prior projects on the fuel card system and I had it we had enough knowledge that we kind of knew how the system works so this is okay so we added it okay so we started looking at in December we started looking at it in January and we were putting what I like to call our data sets together and requesting the uh Alon statements because we had contracted with 7-Eleven to use the alarm pumps so I was getting information from our streets department and we were putting like I say the data sets together okay so on March the 6th we had our first full act meeting with the New York forak members and so already March the 6th of 2023 remember this all started back in October of 2022 so we're all the way up to March of 2023 and we met on March the 6th the U of the UFO act met they elected a new chair and they elected representative Brian Kennedy as the chair so after that meeting I started meeting with the new um City uh fall act members and introducing myself and giving them a little orientation on how the internal audit office is set up I met with representative Kennedy on March the 8th okay and um I met with them we we sat on and talked in his office and at that time I made the decision to disclose to representative Kennedy that I was looking at fuel cards because I had an allegation on this the representative from District eight I mean um Sixth District Six okay and he just told me get to work a lot of work to do so we started looking at the data so we started putting all the data we already had a lot of the data remember so we started in December January February we're we're crunching we're getting we're getting information we're putting it together keep in mind that the Alon statement kind of looks like your statement from uh Kohl's department store it has all your purchases the times the dates a lot of specific specific information but we couldn't sort it we couldn't you know do analysis freely on them because it was a piece of paper so that's when I had my staff work on creating the data sets and we created those that way we could we could analyze it and do our analysis okay and then on March 20th of 2023 I had contacted Chief pacias and asked them for assistance uh because I was trying to get video I wanted to get video to see who was uh using the pumps at the time and see what he in in first off to see how how far back I could get video I wanted to see can I get six months a year you know what I can get and he uh referred me to Chief Beto talamante's assistant chief Beto talamantes and I said okay I'll get back to you now I know what I can do there so we kept working on putting the data sets together and the best of my regulation recollection uh about April 4th it was the week of April 3rd to the 7th I believe it was April 4th I contacted assistant chief talamantis and told him uh the data sets were ready and if I could if you could send a detective over to see if he could help me get video and they agreed so they came over so the detective I met with Detective hinojos on April 6. and we went over the data that we had on the gas purchases um I told them that we had identified District Six as a high use but then unfortunately we had identified District 3 as even higher use on fuel for uh 2022. uh detective you know who's agreed to help me to obtain video from 7-Eleven uh representative Kennedy was president at that meeting as a full act chair and detective inohos returned to El Paso PD headquarters to discuss a situation with this Commander him and the commander discussed it with the assistant chief they looked at the data then they contacted the police chief and Chief and chief Messias then called me uh requesting a meeting so he came over to my office and this is on on Friday it's Good Friday no I'm sorry good Thursday this is Good Thursday right April 6. and Chief pacias and I went over the data um and he made he this he told me that Mundo I think I need to start an investigation on this and I told him Chief you know I can't tell you what to do you that's what you wanted to go ahead and he did he called he notified Deputy city manager Mario dagustino that he was going to start an investigation I then proceeded and contacted the Chief Financial Officer Robert cortinas and advised him of of of the same and later that day I also contacted Carla Neiman as I'm required to notify notified her that the police department had begun a criminal investigation and then um I I called the city manager at seven o'clock I was unable to reach him I didn't get to speak to him so 6 30 the next morning and I informed him at that time and that was on Good Friday so that's kind of the chain of events I did receive an email from the police department on April 18th from assistant chief talamantes at the El Paso Police Department that closed their file they had determined that nothing criminal had had occurred and they were referring back to me to address the situation administratively so I did that's when we finished up our report and I published it on as of May the 1st and that's what we're going to go over right now okay so I can get this thing to work here is the cover the the first page of the report again it's dated May 1st I addressed the uh report here to Robert cortinas our Chief Financial Officer because since this involved uh the purchase of fuel and the high and the high dollar amount I decided he would be the appropriate person to report this to so we did that and we went so let me go over the information okay and then I put here as part of our annual audit plan we do this uh give it a little bit of background the city of El Paso began using the 7-Eleven convenience stores on August 2019 under contract number 2019-474 and it was done in order to increase the efficiency in fueling City vehicles for gasoline we do have pumps at our Corrals but the Corrals are you know they're located kind of a distance away from some of our facilities so the thought process was let's do this and we'll increase the efficiency of fueling City Vehicles we completed a detailed analysis of the data sets that we had created and we during our review I had made the decision we started looking at district 6 and we had looked at a sample of some of the other districts on city council but I made a decision that time and said okay you know what we're going to review everybody so we had the data so we just created the data sets for every member of city council including the mayor so everybody got got reviewed So based on that review you will see the chart that we have here and it's detailed by district and this involves every District like I said and the mayor's office and this is for the entire year of 2022. now keep in mind I have a lot more data I have that of some data of 2020 some data for 2021 I have some data I've got 22 and I got some data for 2023 so I got a bunch of data but I made the decision that we were going to report on 2022 because I had to lock it in so that was what I chose to report on so what you see here is the gas purchases for 2022 and as you can see uh we had district one didn't have any purchases during 2022 we had uh and I'll do it by by dollar amounts I think would be better oh God hold on sorry about that should have done that before I apologize for that um let's see district one didn't have any District Two I can do it by gallons just do it by gallons I had 707 gallons purchased for 2022 District three I had 1943 gallons uh District 4 224 gallons District 5 420 28. I can't see I'm sorry uh District Five 1458 gallons District Seven had zero gallons uh District eight have 278 gallons and the mayor office at 325 gallons and then you can go down the chart and you can see how we actually listed the amount of transactions for the the gallons and then the associated uh dollar amounts for those gallons and then I did a percentage breakdown of as a whole of the council so you can see how each District relates to council as a whole okay here on this page on page two of the report you can see the page numbers down on the bottom right hand corner um I actually give you some key Point sections of the fuel card policy that I was able to identify when I read the policy I just put those there for reference points only and then of course I have my other paragraph which is kind of my uh my disclaimer on the processes we use to do this type of work the and then had a conclusion that the results of the knowledge provided us with a comprehensive database of the purchases for each member of the city council three observations were determined based on fuel purchases in calendar year 2022 observation one addresses deficiencies in the current commercial fuel card policy and use Alon that's that's exactly the title on it and I had two observations two and three uh addressing the significant fuel usage by city council districts my two city council districts for calendar year 2022 and then I say there's a detailed analysis attached to as attachment one at the end of the report and you can see that that's the the graphs and the charts that I've included and I made the decision that time I included every member of city council so you can go back and see what you purchased for uh 2022. observation one uh we talk about the policy I actually spent a lot of time myself reviewing that policy and this is the policy was effective July 5th 2021 and was revised June 21st 2022. and the following five issues are what are what I identified because I I did this analysis the policy addresses the commercial fuel card uh by City employee by city employees the policy is specific on the use of commercial fuel card by city employees on City owned Vehicles while conducting City business the policy does not address the use of the commercial fuel card by members of the city council also the policy does not provide guidance on the use of the commercial fuel card on privately owned vehicles used by city by members of the city council the second thing I saw the policy does does not require the use of the department record of purchase logs there's a log if you look at the policy there's a log at the back of it it doesn't require it the only thing that's in the policy it is only encouraged to use the department log of fuel purchases and you'll find that under Section seven um also current odometer readings are not consistently entered when prompted at the time of purchase and I know representative Canales who had a a comment the other day that when you buy gasoline you have to put in your mileage on on the vehicle I want to let everybody know yeah it prompts you but it doesn't keep the pump from turning on you could enter a zero or even leave it blank and the pump will turn on okay so that that's we actually reviewed that and found that to be true also the required statement of understanding and acknowledging the understanding of the policy could not be located for each member of the city council for calendar year 2022 we look we asked we couldn't find them nobody knew where they were if they existed we don't know they we just couldn't find them but in April of 2023 the streets and maintenance department began Distributing New Field cards and is attempting to obtain statements of understanding for each member of the city council so you might have received a phone call or an email regarding that but they're they're working on getting that uh up those statements obtained and then the log used to document the delivery of the fuel cards to each individual city council District it's not signed by the member of the city council it is signed by either a member of the specific District a staff member of your District or a member of the city manager staff but I could not the the the logs that I have for the when the fuel cards were delivered I did not see any member of City condo signature under I saw a bunch of squiggly lines and little wavy lines when people signed that way so I don't know if that could be there but I couldn't even identify who those lines belong to so my recommendations on this one is the city of of El Paso should create a program of offering members of the city council of vehicle allowance instead of providing a commercial fuel card this would limit the the use of large amounts of fuel by members of the city council the city of El Paso currently has a program by paying Executives a monthly vehicle allowance for using their their POV their privately owned vehicle for conducting City business a similar program should be created for members of the city council so that was my recommendation there regarding others components of the policy require that the use of the log of fuel purchases instead of only encouraging news and it should be required require that it be done okay not not encourage remove the word encourage and replace it with required okay and then three the the city of El Paso's commercial fuel card policy policy and use procedures Alan should be revised to require users of the commercial fuel card to enter their mileage at the time of purchase when when prompted what happens here we we saw it on the Alon statement so whatever number is entered for mileage it shows up on the monthly statement so we can tell when you enter a zero or you enter a bunch of Nines It shows that and it has no logic there's no logic in this thing so you can enter any number so it's not going to calculate your new mileage and say okay this was your mileage before this was this mileage now we're not going to turn on the pump it doesn't have that logic it just asks you for a number you enter a number and then the pump turns on okay and then require a statement of understanding for every employee who is issued or used as a commercial fuel card and this should include the police department and the fire department personnel because they are the the largest users of this uh fuel cart program okay and should because that's what it was intended to do to fuel our Fleet and as you know our police and fire department work 24 7 365. and sometimes when you need gas you need gas so they need they need to have the ability to fill up but we need to make sure it's well documented on their purchases okay finding or observation 2 we talk about the fuel purchases in District three uh because during my analysis as you remember the chart in page one identif I did identify District 3 as the highest user of fuel in in 2022 so what we did here I actually said well I'm going to save myself some time by writing a bunch of paragraphs so I just put a chart together and I thought it was the easiest way to communicate the information so what we did here I put every month of the year so it'll be 12 months I put the total number of purchases for every month and you'll see how many times they they visited and then I put in this case I put instances of fuel card purchases made on consecutive days that means like on Monday Tuesday or Wednesday Thursday you know where there are consecutive days and then I list the dates and then the the related or the associated number of gallons and I did this for every every month you can see they're not and it goes on to the end oh I do need to tell you I did have footnotes here and I want to make it clear to to the council the billing cycle for 7-Eleven and it changed in October of 2022 but prior to October 2022 the city would get billed from the 16th of that month to the 15th of the next month it wasn't a calendar it was more like a fiscal period so it went from the 16th to the 15th that's why you'll see and that would be from um January to September in October the city issued a new contract to Alan and thus there was a change in the billing cycle so beginning in October it picked up everything from the 16th of September all the way to the end of October okay so you actually got like 45 days in there okay and then after that it's been from the first of the month to the last day of the month so it became a lot easier to analyze because it was done by by the days in the individual month but um my my conclusion based on the amount of fuel being purchased and this was based on my analysis and the frequency of fuel purchase on consecutive days in calendar year 2022 the data indicated two or more vehicles are being fueled the amount of fuel purchased by District 34 calendar year 2022 to appears excessive my recommendation was the use of the commercial fuel card should be eliminated for use by the members of the city council initiate a policy or program should be started to pay each member of City Council of vehicle allowance which should be added to their to their paychecks and a vehicle allowance program already exists for City Executives so we already have that in place so we wouldn't have to create anything new because we already have a process for that for that recommendation okay so now I'll jump to District three and uh I mean District observation three I'm sorry and that will be the analysis we did on District Six in District Six we actually identified 1400 58 gallons uh on 86 transactions at a cost of 5 293.94 this one I did the analysis a little bit different because I don't know you have any experience looking at data but to me you know I'm a forensic auditor and data speaks to me it has and I said okay let's see what does this this data set tell me this one actually gave me a different type of of information and what we did here we did the same thing we listed the month of the year before the 12 months in 2022 I did list the number of purchases for that uh specific month and then on this one my my staff did a really good job on analyzing the cycles and that's the average days between Phillips so you can see there uh and for this one gets in this case for district six you can see four days four days three days four days three days two days and and it just Cycles but then more important what actually stuck out to me was the type of fuel that was being purchased because I was seeing Supreme unleaded was being purchased at first and then I then I started seeing regular unleaded so you know I go like okay you know so that started indicating to me do we have multiple vehicles and that's what my analysis took me so you can see the total on the chart you'll see it down the bottom same footnotes with the same building cycle okay started January to October then it it changed in October with a new contract okay but also during this analysis I something really really came up to me that just really perplexed me and we did find two purchases that were done in Van Horn Texas one on May 22nd 2022 and another one on August 11 2022 we were unable to determine what was the reason for the purchase we couldn't find no travel request we couldn't find anything I mean so we're we're unsure why those transactions occurred and then we identified fuel purchases on consecutive days or same days for for the following dates um on May 21st and you can see the gallons on May 22nd I see consecutive purchases August 31st and September 1 consecutive purchases two days in a row then I see November 7th and then November 8th I see consecutive purchases then in November I started seeing something even a little bit more baffling I see two purchases on the same day I see 19 gallons on November 13th and uh I mean November 13th and then again on November 13th I see another 14 gallons on the same day and then I see the same type of of uh activity on November 28th I see 14 gallons and then later that day I see 21 gallons we're unable to determine the reason for these purchases on the same day but remember I still had my allegation that I received on my hotline and it's just like okay ice the information is the information and So based on on the analysis we did and based on the fuel being purchases the frequency of fuel purchases on consecutive or same days and the type of fuel purchases purchased in calendar year 2022 the data indicates that two or more Vehicles were being fueled the amount of fuel by the districts six for calendar year 2022 appear excessive and I had the same recommendations that we we take we remove the city council from the fuel card program and give them a vehicle allowance very similar to what we have for City executives and then of course we have my conclusion that we should improve our our policy get that uh updated and and for current practices and provide annual training to our staff on on the use of those fuel cards and the commercial fuel card should not be used by members of the city council in fueling their privately owned vehicles I don't think they should and on and on so in that we presented a report you can see my distribution we did get response oh and here what I have here are the part of the analysis we did I just I'll go over that real quickly uh you'll see these are my graphs that we did we did three different graphs based on the data total number of gallons purchased in 2022 total number of transactions in 2022 and city council net fuel costs for 2022 and you can see the the the pattern is pretty consistent uh based on those graphs also included I thought it'd be appropriate to put I did the monthly totals for every member of City Council and I list there the month of course the number of Philips or or visits to the gas station and um the average day so I kind of did the average day for everybody and then we put number of gallons purchase and of course net cost to the the city and I want everybody please understand the price you see on the Marquee at 7-Eleven is not the price we pay we pay a lot less than that because we pay wholesale prices and then there's a small admin fee we put we added it for our streets department to cover their costs so but that's not what we pay so when you you see that on the Marquee we're not paying that that cost okay so you can see I have one for every member of council including the mayor's office we did get responses from Mr Bristol and he concurred with all our recommendations so I think moving forward we'll see the program updated and uh improved thank you let that concludes my update thank you I have a you had um told me when you briefed me I I was originally briefed by the city manager and then asked to call you and you briefed me and you gave me and I don't see it on the report unless I missed it that uh four or five gallons were purchased at different times like a gas can or an ATV or something is that anywhere in this report uh yes sir you will see it of course he took down my report I got a hard copy here you can see those purchases on page four mayor if you look at January 2022 there were one purchase for um four gallon 4.1 gallons looks on December 27th and then another purchase on January 9th for a 5 gallons mm-hmm I'm not sure why that small amount was purchaser okay and then you're also um told me there was a purchase and I don't remember what day of the week but at like 8 52 at night and then again at 8 in the morning the next morning here's that in your report no sir I didn't put the times in the report I did not but it is included in my in my uh work papers okay those times in the work paper is that part of the was released with the police department report or is that note you still have yes or no in the documents that I did present to the El Paso Police Department to detective those times are included I I gave him copies of the uh they what I call the daily worksheet so that's part of the that's the the data sets we created and we do one for every month you're also and you didn't mention it so you also briefed me and told me there was purchases done during City Council meetings do you have the times and when it was done and how many times yeah yes sir um yes sir I I have several here that we found after the last four act meeting members of the four act asked me to do some additional research and I was able to find some initial data in in our data sets can you share that with everyone yes sir we had one on January 3rd of 2023 a purchase was done at 512. and that that one came up during the fallac meeting um but we I get that information to you is there additional ones or is that yes sir there's three more that we found um after we found one on July the 6th 2022 there was a purchase at 12 24 pm than we did find another one and these are for district three okay and then we did find another one on July 19th at 2022 and that purchase was done at 4 38 based on the Alon reports all of this is based on the Alon reports okay because it came from them and then we have the final one we found was on November 22nd 2022 at 1205 PM it was a purchase was done and these dates coincide with the city council meeting and we did verify that city council meeting was still in progress and you keep saying based on the airline report do you believe it's accurate or no yes sir it's extremely I just want to make sure now you also reported and I think I read it somewhere and you didn't discuss it where city council members were not in El Paso and fuel was being used do you have that in your report no sir I did include I did not include that in the report I actually uh made the decision to hold that one and share it with the police department only and I did share it with Detective at the time and the one we did share was one we did have the District 3 representative attending a conference in Vancouver Canada attending the international Downtown Association their 68th annual conference and Marketplace and we were she had the we were able to obtain the copies of the travel request we have copies of the bill the hotel bill airline tickets so we know when she left and when she came back and we did Identify two fuel purchases that were done while she was attending this uh um conference one on September 21st 2022 and another one on September 23rd 2022 and those were the dates they were in Vancouver any other ones that would have not been made aware of not for um District 3 for district six we did we did find other out of town now when I ask you a question it's not for any particular District anything in your report I want to make sure that the Public's aware well I just want to be specific to the district sir I think it's the only fair thing to do we did uh do a little further analysis after the May first meeting with um the data that we had available from Alan and again my report discusses two transactions in Van Horn Texas that were done in 2022 but and then during the four act meeting I did discuss that I had identified in 2020 I had identified uh gas purchase in Pecos Texas and I had talked to the representative from District Six extra time Minister I got was it was an accident she used the wrong card and I said okay just don't do it again just be you know I said fine it's one time don't do it again but since we've done additional research we did find two additional transactions that were done out of town one in in July 4th 2021 we did find one for District Six in Carlsbad New Mexico and then we did find another one on July 22nd 2021 in Fort Stockton Texas so now that you know but we were able to get data going that far back now any other information that because all this you're sharing his first time I've heard a lot of it now any of this information you're sharing do you have any additional you'd like to share with the public not really sir I mean this is all the information that I have as of right now okay specifically unless somebody has a question I might have I might have forgotten one little piece here and there but I don't think I mean let me look at myself they gave me the thumbs up okay representatively better thank you I was just going to ask about something and Mundo had already brought out thank you no no he'd already answered it I turned on your microphone though I've got a series of questions here and uh oh first of all when you you mentioned the fact that uh when the gas cards were issued and you're you're going to give a new part you're going to get new policy in place is that correct is that what you're saying the policy will be updated sir I already have a commitment from the streets department that they're going to update their policy can I make a recommendation on that sure is like for myself and another representative here that doesn't want that card or doesn't use that card that we are allowed to refuse it and not have anything to do with that secondly uh you you mentioned that you're thinking of giving a stipend you're thinking of getting them a stipend counsel well I won't do it sir there would be the city manager's office would approve that that transaction I don't approve any transactions no I no I think that would have to be a council right it's a council right you're thinking like that for a car allowance not not my office whether it takes place while the restaurants are here there are termed out I hope you vote against it the other thing is that uh was there ever a limit on the gas card no sir that's one thing we did find out during our review No Limits because it does have the capability of being limited you can limit it by dollars or you can limit it by gallons because that thing that component was never engaged because you know you as a former police officer will understand right that police car needs gas all day long you know because it doesn't stop right and I also described you can't tell how many gallons that car is going to go through you can guess but you know so that when I talk to the people at streets That's the basis for their decision because they don't know how many gallons a a police car is going to need or a fire truck or an ambulance right because you don't know how many runs they're going to get and that's exactly right what I was going to say because every every card every police car every fire truck every fire uh vehicle that's used they use the odometer as a PIN number I think that should be applied to the representatives as well and the mayor as well that way that's the only way it starts with the with the odometer of their vehicle being used and so that would be another security measure that could be in place yes it could be representative Rivera you know but remember it already prompts you to enter the the odometer reading well that's supposed to go on that's what I said the abdominator but the the machine it doesn't have any logic in it it doesn't calculate when the last mileage you put into the current mileage you can punch in all nines and the thing's going to turn on well yes but but the odometer is is is registered with the uh station itself yes I know in your on your daily log at the police department on our daily log and then with the Department in charge of the field cards yeah because I remember and I have Chief I see us here he'll he'll probably verify that as well because those odometers are not only punched in by the officers but also registered with the people issuing the card yeah I would hope and pray that the fuel cards are are not used by the the city council going forward I I think fuel allowance would be more than than generous of the city or city council people I know I me as an executive I get a few I get a a vehicle allowance and I find it very appropriate you know for the amount of driving I do around town on City business and I do a lot of driving on City business right and I asked you that because I remember the mayor sitting here saying that he recalls there was a there was a a limit on it right you were saying he kept saying that there was a limit on the gas card and then oh yeah back in Fort 13 14. yeah that was an old program representative Rivera it was actually a program from Howdy's the convenience stores yeah doesn't even exist anymore I think now they're Speedway and back then uh all these people have long retired so I couldn't find anybody that that could give me very specific details but we would go buy a hundred dollar somebody would go buy puppy somebody would go buy a hundred dollar gift card it was like a gift card they called it the gas cards and it was capped at a hundred dollars and the first of every month somebody would do the the Rounds Around city council and every every city council District would get a gas card for a hundred dollars but that program ended when we started using the fuel cards so the policy in place right now apparently it's lacking a major part right and that's what that's what we're gonna when I was there and representative Hernandez was there we were looking forward to to uh to that audit as well uh and to make these changes that were necessary so I'm glad they're they're on out in the public and out in fact to hopefully change for the better um the other thing that I would say is if to further secure this the representative decides use a stipend or a gas card in the future whatever you decide to do is to register the Regals with you Richard what sorry register their Texas plates with you the vehicle vehicles that they're going to fill up well I think we get well you know what if you hold on because if you're taking that extra step you're taking it to be secure in in what you're you're set out to do isn't it yes sir but if you get the allowance I don't see there would be a need to get your license okay so that that would be open to other cars yeah wouldn't be needed because you're getting the money in your in your paycheck oh and your paycheck yes sir they would add the the the vehicle allowance for your paycheck just like they do with me so I get one okay and and that you feel that would be a lot yes sir that I think it would be a lot better okay and then for transferring reason when people want to look for these reports how come they're not all there I I just you just go back up three years uh 21 2020 I believe was when you try to look up the reports on fullwack why aren't they they would be on my website reprovera and we have them we've been limited by the I.T Department how many reports we can do remember I've been here since 2005 so that's a lot of reports so they're posted on my website uh the full Equity website internal audit Works website we have why can't it be in the foreign in the fallac website I'm just unsure at this point how far back those are kept on record I would have to research that for you but they should be there as backup okay and then they're also included in my quarterly reports exactly remember every quarter I would report to you on all the work we did and then they come back and then yeah and then you presented they would be there yes they would be in that quarterly presenter representative and I remember that yes and then if you remember also at the end of every audit and review I do uh I submit copies I've been instructed by the full act to distribute a copy of the report electronically to every member on city council and city manager and also a hard copy so you'll see those famous white envelopes I found out we're Infamous for those white envelopes that say internal audit on them so we distribute a hard copy an electronic copy every time we complete a report okay and going back to the billing process uh for my benefit and well as well as those are their listing and didn't catch all of it could you repeat that again please I know you said this the new the process was the 16th through the 15th I'm sorry sorry the billion years the billing process yes um in our review for 2022 the billing cycle is the 16th of the previous month to the 15th of the current month so you can go December the 16th uh one year to January 15th of the next year and those will be listed under that January year and then you mentioned October 16th through the November the last so yeah you have a 45 day period where they you said you had a 45-day period on that on October right that would be October 2022 there was a change in the contract and there was a change in the billing cycle which went from the 16th that's kind of like the Oddball month it goes from the 16th of September all the way to the end of October so in that building cycle you'll actually you'll you'll see uh 45 days worth of purchases so I'm correct 45 days yeah 45 days so all those purchases are come together yes sir yes sir okay yeah just that one month I was the Oddball month okay and what's the present billing date again from the first of the month to the last day of the month it's a lot easier to follow definitely um that's that's it for now man thank you mayor thank you thank you you're welcome thank you uh representative thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr Calderon I'm sorry no representative um your policy suggestions are great unfortunately policies do not keep people honest dishonest people are going to find a way around policies I'll give an example Mr Calderon brought up the the accidental use of the of the gas card you know to use your and you wouldn't know this because you don't have a guest card it you have to you put in your gas cards you put in your your mileage your odometer mileage and some of them that that I saw were seven five six one two three and when I first saw them I said who has a car with that many miles but so so you put in your odometer then you put in your passcode then it allows you so there's all these steps you have to take before and each one of us that uses a card has a unique individual passcode so your suggestions are great but there's always ways around it unfortunately uh that that was my response to Mr Rivera you're a rich man are you done with that sir do you have any other thing represent Canales followed by representative Molina thank you mayor thank you many city employees in in the conduct of their business have access to a city vehicle so obviously police and fire but there's some others you know if you are working in Parks maintenance for example and you're taking out a maintenance vehicle to do your to do your daily work those folks have access to a city vehicle some other uh employees like the you know administrative employees in in some departments for example they might use their own City vehicle and they're uh reimbursed actual mileage real mileage at the IRS rate correct correct sir we do have some employees that do fill out a mileage form it is one of our forums that we have in HR it has to be approved by their manager supervisor director and then it is processed and they're reimbursed for the mileage now on the other what you said earlier on the let's say the parks department the parks department doesn't use the fuel card program right now the only ones police and fire and I believe we have seven approximately seven vehicles at Environmental Services a habit every all the other departments are are using right now the corals okay well we have the city pumps is at the 7-Eleven pumps the city pumps understood thank you and I think that's a good clarification um the uh option of mileage reimbursement is that something that would potentially be available to the city council or is that not is it something that elected officials are not eligible to receive D you could have the city council decides that you want to do a mileage reimbursement I I just want to let you know it's a lot of paperwork okay and you're gonna have to keep track of your miles your in your daily The Forum I'm looking at it in my head I think it has enough for eight to ten entries to put in there for trips that you take so it's gonna be a lot of work you know a lot of work on on the on the district rep to keep track of his mileage and where they went and the purpose of the trip again so I think the the vehicle allowance would be more efficient for members of the city council yeah and I think that's a fair enough recommendation I just want to point out that theoretically if we are using a gas card we should already be keeping track of the trips we are making for City business and the mileage that those are using yes sir correct because you remember my report I say there's a log that has to be kept on your purchases but the policy right now only States it's only encouraged it's not required my one of my recommendations is for the employees that we do keep on the fuel card program that they be required to maintain that log and it's something that can be reviewed right now it's only encouraged so they don't have to uh yeah I mean again to I've only had a fuel card here for a short amount of time but I've maintained a pretty detailed log of of all of the purchases and the miles I've driven for City business um I can't imagine being entrusted with something like a fuel card and not keeping that kind of log and so I don't think it would be much more onerous to have to complete a log for reimbursement which I have done in the past as a as a city employee before being an elected official and I think that it wasn't uh terribly burdensome I think it could potentially function as an accountability tool as well to make sure that that uh the amounts that are being covered by by the city you know for reimbursement for for mileage our our tracks and it's verified that those are uh trips that were taken for City business correct correct it's just it's documentation keeping the logs the policy does when you get the policy the back page of the policy is that log they even show you you don't have to create it's already done for you right you just have to start now keeping it but it's it's a lot of bookkeeping okay yeah I just didn't want to let the moment pass without uh mentioning that option that I think hadn't been discussed yet uh that's something that we already have employees doing throughout the city and it is I wanted to know if it was an option that's theoretically on the table for how to move forward um yes it's more documentation but I think the the current discussion shows maybe more documentation isn't a bad thing yeah I strongly believe going forward it is going to be required of all city employees to complete that log okay that concludes my questions thank you mayor thank you sir and um we do have represent Molina thank you very much mayor um Mr Calderon I'm going to bring your attention to the police report I know back we used to call that complaint report on the face that does say an incident report um information or excuse me the answer in report two three one zero one zero seven three the title is listed as a information report and it has a code of 999-99999 I am very familiar with that code because it's an information report so when you were talking to Detective was he being assisted by any other Detective no sir because he's the only one that that showed up at my office for our appointment later I did have a meeting when they brought me back the results of the of the review the preliminary results before I got the email from assistant chief talamantes and his Commander came with him and I was commander regime Moulton okay but anyways um just a little bit different to know that an information report was filed versus a complaint report and I know there's a new system of Records management system and they're calling it now an incident sheet so uh let's talk about the videos uh with all these transactions that were taking place how many videos did you request I as many as I could get when I met with uh detective hinojos uh I had asked whatever everything you can get me I mean I was just curious to see who I would see at the Palms I just want to emphasize I did not contact the reporter crime I contacted him because I was trying to get the video at least that helped me before get videos of different things and that's what all I wanted was a video and it was as many as he could get me and I'm not sure to your question okay as many as he could get at the different stores I know you're not a law enforcement officer I don't think you've ever been but but would you consider those videos as evidence oh yes sir I do to be used in a criminal case yesterday remember I'm doing the administrative review yes I understand for my administrative review yes they would have been ex they're extremely helpful and were you ever able to view any video no sir as of as of today I have not looked at any video when I did meet with the detective and the commander they told me that the video was blurry and very grainy and they said they couldn't even make out um if the person on the video was male or female they they couldn't tell me and it was very hard they couldn't even get license plates or the cars were everything was very blurry that's what they told me because the video was being shot from inside the store do you know if there was any attempts to get let's say video coverage from a business across the street a residence that might have a door uh the ring camera or anything like that maybe on a rooftop business or you don't know I I don't know if they attempted to get those they never disclosed that to you no they never did okay all right Mr Calderon that's all I have thank you sir thank you sir um just to follow up on similar so they're saying that you're telling me you were told there was no videos outside a convenience store yes sir that's what the detective told me that the video that they were able to obtain was shot from inside the store so I was having to go from inside the store to the front door the side glass window and then it would it would shoot out toward the pump to the pumps maybe one or two that I've ever seen don't have videos outside video cameras okay so could you repeat that I said maybe one or two convenience stores that I've ever seen do not have video cameras outside yeah sir I I've seen inside hot site well after you told me that I checked that's why I can tell you just because you made that statement I was really puzzled that there's no video cameras I went over and I mean some of them even have five or six cameras outside yes sir I know I've after this I started looking at the gas pumps when I put gas I use Murphy or Sam's and I'm always looking to see if I'm on the camera just something I just started doing okay representative um funeral actually miss Calderon when we at our last meeting requested the police report and footage we received a police report is there a reason that we've not received footage I'll be on I I only asked for the police report I didn't ask for the affiliates okay can you ask for footage prior I I don't have it Police Department would have it could you could you ask for that please yes sir thank you and I think there's no other questions we do have called I want before we go on I do want to make sure because I've seen some comments this is not a city council item it's an auditor item to what you do after an audit of any sort do you always brief full act then Council yes sir it's just process procedures well I'll still probably go through the notation I still have to do the notation part to put it on the record so I will get that set up for the next city council meeting and I want to make sure everyone sees that the information and documentation no one's asked you to change alter or do anything different than what your report found no sir I won't allow it I'm the independent auditor sir I I take what I do very seriously you know one of the things do you believe that you were over pressured or felt that you were someone was trying to intimidate you at any point all right I'd rather not answer me anyone from Council I'd rather not answer okay would that mean you're playing the fifth who knows I'm just wondering I haven't done anything criminal but no I just prefer not to answer sir if that's okay respectfully I I don't want to answer all right thank you for that uh call to the public please mayor we have 18 members of the public that signed up to speak or submitted statements the first person is Max Grossman followed by Melissa Bailey Minerva Torres arnulfo Hernandez good morning sir you have three minutes good morning sir good morning mayor council the measure of the character of an elected leader is how he or she behaves when no one is watching and City rep Cassandra Hernandez and former city rep Claudia Lizette Rodriguez were caught with their hands in the cookie jar big time our chief City auditor at Mundo Calderon has meticulously documented the quote unquote excessive gas usage of Hernandez and Rodriguez showing they purchased 63 percent of the fuel used by the mayor and Council in the year 2022 and that each purchased fuel for at least two different vehicles or seemed to have in his audit Mr Calderon has revealed month by month how much gasoline the two reps purchased in 2022 including numerous purchases on consecutive days and in the case of Rodriguez two instances of purchases on the same day and instances of purchases in Van Horn Carlsbad and Fort Stockton and now we have a police report indicating that someone used Hernandez's gas card twice while she was in Vancouver and by the way that report shows that a male was seen pumping gas into a gray vehicle twice how has rep Hernandez responded to the audit in her May 3rd press release she called it an attack on minorities even though six of the eight of you are Hispanic then on May 5th she announced she would repay the 6691 dollars the city spent on her gas but refused to apologize instead accusing Mr Calderon and the members of the foak a professional misconduct she attacks his professional Integrity because he did not give her the opportunity to explain herself before he issued his report as if City reps should have the power to interfere with the auditor's independent assessments her latest ploys to give away free gas cards on her social media platforms making light of her behavior and shrugging her shoulders at these proceedings Hernandez keeps telling the media that the city imposed no dollar cap on the amount of gas she was permitted to purchase even though City Fuel can only be used for official City business and of course we have title 8 section 39.02 of Texas law which makes it a felony to misuse quote government Property Services Personnel or any other thing of value belonging to the government unquote between 25 and 30 thousand dollars as for former city rep Rodriguez her behavior is just as egregious not only did she purchase gas on consecutive days and as far away as Van Horn and Fort Stockton but in two instances she filled up twice on the same day and she even filled up her car on the last day in office January 2nd in a recent Instagram post she displayed a cashier's check and offered to pay back the 5300 she spent on gas but only if quote someone can show me again where I did something wrong unquote she then makes the claim that she drove 50 000 miles in 2022 on official City business or confidence in your leadership thank you followed by Arnoldo Hernandez good morning you have three minutes good morning ma'am good morning mayor Lisa good morning City Representatives first I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your dedication service to our community as an elected official I understand you take your responsibilities very seriously and always strive to perform to the best of your ability thank you for the work you do in our community again my name is Minerva Torres Shelton I'm here to express my concern about the potential abuse of power by City representative Cassandra Hernandez and former city representative Claudia Rodriguez it appears that after an internal audit in 2022 the city Representatives may have misused the city fuel cards costing taxpayers thousands of dollars as a member of this community I strongly urge City Council Members to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the matter to determine if any abuse of power occurred if it is found that the representatives and get engaged in such Behavior appropriate action should be taken to ensure that they are both held accountable for their actions most importantly City Council Members should take appropriate steps to prevent this from happening in the future as I've heard that you already started too when I first heard the news I wondered how often does the city conduct internal investigations to ensure accountability and transparency in our government operations I also ask myself what consequences are faced by elected officials who abuse their privileges is it enough for them to Simply repay any misused funds and continue their daily duties the community Alexa representatives and therefore we deserve to know if any wrongdoing occurred it is crucial that we can trust those that we elect and represent us in any abuse of power must not be tolerated in conclusion I hope the city council will take this matter seriously and conduct a thorough investigation to determine the truth if no abuse of power occurred then both the current and former city representative deserve to have their names cleared but if any wrongdoing is found it must be addressed appropriately to restore the trust of the community in our elected officials thank you for the time thank you ma'am the next speaker is arnulfo Hernandez followed by Melissa Bailey it will need the Elmo please good morning sir um thank you thank you um mayor and city council I'm here to speak in support of item one today uh I supported and voted for proposition J and I support the auditor's report pursuant to proposition G that they report directly to the city council instead of the city manager in the spirit of transparency I applaud you going forward to discuss this matter but um Mr Kennedy is a chair of this this committee I don't think you're ready for action now I think there's a few clarifications Corrections and changes that need to be made on the report and if I may show um hope you can see it here on the left hand side are the listings of the city council as it sits now with the names of the individuals now on the left is the um Narrative of the use of the fuel card my concern is that the the way it reads it refers to the representatives as they sit now and that narrative is from 2022. so if you go into um Miss Cassandra Hernandez she's listed as a representative four four three and that's true and the narrative also says three but I think it should have the name attached to that where it really is makes a difference it's in representative six my representative Mr art Fierro um the imputation that I see just from looking at what I have here is that he is the one that has been misusing and misusing his gas card and that's not correct so the narrative should say that representative six Claudia Rodriguez and not Mr funeral um because I don't think he is responsible for that um I think that the recommendations made by those recommendations that are shown I think if the city council would adopt a stipend an allowance um it would go much further than trying to negotiate whether you have a gas card or not and and putting down your mileage and the dates and the odometer and all that you avoid all that plus you make it easier and you actually save money having the um thank you sir I have to report that the next speaker is Melissa Bailey Melissa Bailey or if you're in the Q star sixth place to unmute your telephone Melissa Bailey I don't see the phone number in the queue the next statement was submitted by Martin de la Rosa and it reads to the respected El Paso city council as I write today my comment below I am here wishing you good health and continued service to our great City I'm writing on behalf of my city representative Cassandra and on this and the current discrepancy over her gasoline charges I believe she should be given due process and provide an accounting of its use which our own police force has has found in their investigation to be legal Cassandra has provided the best representation to our district and to me and my family in particular I live on the border 300 meters from the Rio Grande and Cassandra has actually been boots on the ground canvassing the land directly behind my house where the migrants pass through daily she has provided resources and short-time solutions while pending local state and federal resources that hopefully will be allocated to our city for a successful positive resolution of this humanitarian crisis I feel the May 11th city council review of her gas card billing on the same day that title 42 ends is laughable As Old City representatives and mayor and all the resources should be allocated to the Border as it is an all hands on deck mobilization as this unfolds I will continue to support Mr Hernandez as I did when she had to rerun for her seat in the 2019 special election that she won-handedly showing that her constituents supporter wholeheartedly I urge you to allow her to continue her work for our district and handle this legally and not politically as this will not fly in our working class District nor in our city where there are more dire problems thank you for your attention I wish you continued good health sincerely Martin and Charlie De la Rosa the next speaker is Teresa Caballero followed by Philip Lang Mike Ajay to me good morning you have three minutes uh good morning good morning ma'am uh good morning mayor and city council and the public of El Paso my name is Teresa Caballero and I'm a long time voter and taxpayer of El Paso I'm also a criminal defense attorney in private practice and I agree with the speaker before me in that I do think that there are a lot of holes in the reports as they stand and things need to be shored up but I do I'm very delighted that this item is on the agenda I commend you on this this is actually a good day for El Paso because the most important job you have is to guard our money and make sure that our money is properly spent because anything less will just render a determent of this of this city and so this is actually a very good thing that you're doing today and I want to commend Brian Kennedy for his very good work regarding this um you know it's very hard to Catch a Thief and as a criminal defense attorney I could drive a plow truck through the case that has sort of been presented today but that's not really the point the point is to look at where money is being spent how it's being spent and um Miss Hernandez it is not a good look whether you've committed a crime or you haven't or you didn't understand the policy or you you did it's just you're not ready for prime time and I agree with the speaker before me your report needs to be amended because what stood out to me was it appears that art Fierro now councilman for district six is the purchaser of large volumes of gas because it really just refers to District Six and anybody picking up this report today or 20 years from now should be able to know exactly the person to whom the report is speaking the mayor asked a very important question when he started out and he asked the auditor so you're telling me that if an expense is signed off on it's just approved and legitimate and we got a long response but we didn't really get an answer to that we got a process but I that's a really good question mayor and it I'm going to assume based on the non-responsive response that the answer is somebody we don't know whom a department head can sign his name or her name and it is now legitimate and it appears that when you're going to have large expenses perhaps there needs to be a screening process thank you Miss Caballero thank you for your time thank you ma'am the next speaker is Philip Ling Mr lane star six to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes good morning Mr Mayor and members of City good morning my name is Phillip I'm also known as Tom Lane and many of my friends I'm a resident of District Six and am deeply concerned with the findings brought forth by the chief internal auditor and believe the allegations warrant further Independence and full investigation and I fully support his recommendation that the commercial fuel cards should be eliminated for use by members of city council to be replaced by a policy or program to pay each member of City Council of vehicle allowance which would be added to their paycheck I asked city council to adopt this recommendation and that if adopted to the council member should be given thorough and complete guidance as to the reason for that vehicle allowance and that documentation be maintained by city council and as to the receipt by the city council members of that guidance having this type of a vehicle allowance moves fuel usage from a city expense to a personal expense and it eliminates questions for the use of the gas whether for personal use related to city council responsibilities or related to political campaigning the excessive fuel use by City representative Cassandra Hernandez and former city representative Claudia Rodriguez cannot be justified I asked that city council also review if any member of city council or the mayor should have received a fuel card as no policy was clearly presented that City Council Members should have received a fuel card I could find no enabling provisions of the city Charter and I believe that the city council should identify any past Council actions that would provide for the current use of fuel cards by members of city council and in the absence of an enabling provision the city Charter or any other past city council actions I asked that city council members and the mayor reimbursed the city for the cost of fuel purchases as determined by the chief internal auditor for travel requests because I was mentioned as part of the chief internal Auditor's report I asked that city council adopt a policy that specifically requires personal payment by City representatives for any portion of travel requests that do not comply with the travel request policies including all travel requests made with less than the minimum required length of time I also recommend that city council publicly make available all travel expenses of City Representatives paid for with City funds and that policies be adopted to limited control spending of such travel if a member of a council of the council travels nearly Halfway Around the World to give a brief speech at a great cost to taxpayers I really want to know that information and it would be convenient to have it in a centralized web-based location without the need for an open records request thank you sir the next statement was submitted by Mike jamian and it reads dear mayor and City Council Members the Cielo Vista neighborhood association would like to express our support for representative Cassandra Hernandez District 3 regarding recent discussions surrounding her fuel expenses we believe that representative Hernandez has provided excellent leadership and a strong voice for our community and we stand behind her we understand that there have been questions raised regarding her fuel expenses and we recognize the importance of ensuring that all elected officials are held accountable for their use of public funds however we also believe that there have been attempts to create an issue when there is none and that representative Hernandez has been unfairly targeted furthermore we are confident that representative Hernandez has taken every step necessary to ensure that her use of public funds is in compliance with all applicable regulations who has said you take no further action on this matter and bring it to a close the Cielo Vista neighborhood association supports representative Hernandez leadership and voice and we believe that she has demonstrated a commitment to serving our community with Integrity thank you for your attention to this matter sincerely Mike Jimmy and president the next statement was submitted by Eileen carlsworth and it reads I understand the special city council meeting tomorrow is to discuss and take action on the internal Auditor's report regarding city council and City manager's office fuel cards audit El Paso is facing a major crisis with illegal migrants flooding across our border this is the most important issue facing city council today tomorrow and who knows how long last week there was a lot of media regarding one former city representative and a currency representative Cassandra Hernandez District 3 and their use of the city issued fuel cards rumors are rampant that Council will vote to remove Ms Hernandez from Council for alleged misuse of a field card this Hernandez had paid back and for the entire amount of her fuel card charges in 2022 we all know that the majority of those charges are legitimate but she has paid in order in full in order to end the drama and move on to more important things affecting the city of El Paso today according to the audit there are no accusations Criminal Intent law enforcement and the district attorney have declined to file charges or prosecute earlier this year Council was faced with an investigation that the District 4 City rep has sexually harassed a city employee after an investigation Council simply voted to Simply reprimand the representative in my opinion his charges were much more severe than a few hundred dollars of fuel charges that may have not been legitimate but paid back to the city yet he remains in office with a slap on the hand and some training I ask that city council take the same approach there is no Criminal Intent that can be proven one hundred percent of the charges have been repaid this representative has been elected three times to her seat obviously her District three constituents believe in her and want her to continue in office until she turns out in 2024 please do the right thing and have a serious conversation about how these field cards were managed by City staff for the many years they have been in place and correct those problems do not remove Mr Hernandez from city council thank you Eileen Carlton the next speaker is Rich Wright good morning Mr Wright you have three minutes good morning good morning mayor city council good morning sir thank you thank you for entertaining me today corruption in government is kind of like mice in your home you don't sometimes you don't even see them you just get a little Glimpse out of the corner of your eye that little gray streak you know and uh then eventually you see mice you know and uh I think I can like to congratulate you guys for pursuing this matter today I think uh respectfully I would request that you go back and look at fuel cards for the last six years as far as the data can go because you've looked at one year so far and you've found uh irregularities and I think you should go back and check out some more and I think you should root out corruption as far as you can so uh thank you for your time and thank you for your service thank you sir the next statement was submitted by Manny Moreno and it reads to your mayor and City Council Members as a private citizen I would like to express my support for my representative Cassandra Hernandez District 3 regarding the recent discussions relative to Hercule expenses as somebody that attends her community meetings on a very regular basis I cannot honestly say that I have yet to see those I can honestly say that I have yet to see the leadership knowledge commitment and dedication that Ms Hernandez has and demonstrates from any other District 3 representative prior to her she has done an excellent job of representing our community like no one before her has her involvement in our community goes above and beyond yes we are all humans and we all make mistakes many times honestly and unintentionally if this issue regarding her fuel expenses did indeed happen and knowing message Hernandez's character I can undoubtedly say that it was an honest mistake I understand she has reimbursed the city of El Paso for the amount of sixty seven hundred dollars and that goes above and beyond in making amends and putting this issue to rest we could be facing some very tough and excruciating times in the coming days and weeks with a termination of title 42 and overwhelming migrant influx and a possible default of the national debt besides the indiscriminate killing of innocent people in mass shootings these are the things all of us should be preparing for and concentrating on at all levels especially our governing bodies let's spend our time and money on what is really important and show other government entities that we are different and we will concentrate on the real issues that could and will be impacting our city I sincerely ask that you take no further action on this matter I and many other people do not question Mr Hernandez's integrity and commitment as a former Marine Vietnam combat veteran and disabled veteran I would want Mr Hernandez in a foxhole with me during battle that's how tough and dependable she is you would want her on your site too thank you many Moreno thank you the next statement was submitted by Kenneth Bell and it reads good morning my name is Kenneth Bell like many of my neighbors I was disappointed but not surprised to learn about the excessive gas used by two of our city council Representatives one current and one former the statements released by the two representatives and questions wreaked of entitlement and lack of accountability to make matters worse The District 3 representative decided to make a mockery of this situation by holding a raffle for gas cards allege incidents of broad waste and abuse are not a joke elected officials are entrusted to restore to the taxpayers money and shouldn't be spent with impunity nor should these officials attempt to distract dissolve from their alleged wrongdoings with cheap publicity stunts this situation highlights why public trust continues to erode accountability must be taken and I hope mayor Lisa cease to it the next speaker is Gabriela Marcelo Gabriela Marcelo star six please two unmute your telephone Gabriela Marcelo good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor and city council my name is Gabriella and from what we've gathered today there was no gas limit cap in place the only limit was to use the fuel card for City business exclusively not for a road trip to Van horns that goes Carlsbad and Fort Stockton not to fuel the vehicle the family or friends or fuel campaign trucks for any re-election campaign or any election of that sort with this said former representative district 6 Claudia Lisa Rodriguez held her very first community meeting on June 29th at Marty Robbins with city manager Tommy Gonzalez so you're telling me that from January to June almost six months Rodriguez had already misused thousands of dollars on gas both on consecutive days both here in El Paso and Van Horn Texas in 2022 your salary as city council was 52 500 that means that according to the auditor's report Claudia Lisette Rodriguez gave herself a 10 tax-free pay increase and Cassandra Hernandez gave herself a 13 tax-free pay increase all at our expense why is it that these individuals feel they are above the rule of law with the state of Texas and the IRS as a member of this community I pray you will call for further action by either investigating internally or through a third party failure to do so would imply your complicity in this criminal activity as such any accolades given to Claudia Lisa Rodriguez during her tenure city council should be retroactively Stripped Away and Mr Sandra Hernandez if you have any Integrity to the office you hold you should do the right thing and voluntarily signed or be removed from the office affected immediately so that we can finally focus and prepare on the pressing immigration issues and the real issues as Cassandra Hernandez continues 10 here in city council presents a huge liability to the city of El Paso thank you so much for your time and attention and I hope you all do the right thing today thank you the next statement was submitted by Searcy and it reads to whom it may concern and it has been brought to my attention in another special city council meeting has been called with any notice to the city of El Paso with the intention to try and remove my District 3 rep she was duly elected by the voters of this District it is not up to the city kangaroo Council Court to remove another person who does not agree with a mayor example in case you all forgot Tommy Gonzalez doesn't city council have a lot more important city issues to address than more internal city council bickering like unhanded audits city mayor has called a City emergency this should be keeping every District rep very busy closing of streets closing of the streetcar service closing of the international El Paso Airport to Public Access illegal migrants by the thousands camping out on city streets and ignoring title 42 expiring within hours of our Border Town the voters of District 3 voted in our red Cassandra it's not up to 300 four puppets with tiebreaker going to the mayor to remove our duly elected City representative what's the old saying you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time we are the voters remember what goes around comes around Sid hcrc the next statement was submitted by Mario seniceros and it reads dear mayor and El Paso city council the Rosedale neighborhood association stands in support of Representative Cassandra Hernandez District 3 regarding the recent discussion surrounding her fuel expenses we have complete faith in her leadership and voice and strongly believe that no further action is needed as resident residents of the Rosedale Community we appreciate representative Hernandez's tireless efforts in addressing our concerns and working towards the betterment of our neighborhood her commitment to transparency and accountability is commendable and we trust that she has acted in the best interest of her constituents we urge the city council to take no further action on this matter and let representative Hernandez continue her important work on behalf of our community sincerely Mario senicero's president the next speaker is James penado James panado if you're in the Q star six I don't see that phone number in the queue the next speaker is Edward Salomon Edward Salomon I don't see him coming forward the final statement was submitted by Lisette kobos and it reads dear mayor and council members I'm writing to express my disappointment in the recent political tactics employed by some of our city Representatives particularly in regards to the issue of authorized field charges it is disheartening to see the that our elected officials are spending their time on Petty squabbles rather than addressing the pressing issues facing our city I am especially angered to see that City representative Cassandra Hernandez has been unfairly targeted in this political game as a resident of District 3 I have seen firsthand the dedication and hard work that rep Hernandez has put into representing her constituent constituents she has consistently advocated for our community and has demonstrated a commitment to addressing the issues that matter most to us it is clear to me that rep Hernandez has been unfairly targeted in this fuel card issue and it is my hope that the mayor and Council will recognize her hard work and dedication to our city rather than wasting time on these Petty tactics we should be supporting our city Representatives who are working tirelessly to move our city forward I urge you to put an end to these political games and focus on the important issues facing our city we need leaders who will work together to address the challenges ahead and I believe that rep Hernandez is an important part of that effort thank you for your time and consideration please read my letter into the record Global's family thank you we do have an additional statement submitted by Chris Yost allow me to pull it up and it reads this is from Chris Yost I'm submitting this email in strong opposition to agenda item one I'm a resident of district 6 and a disabled combat veteran I'm asking Art Theater to for the rep for district 6 to read the statement into an official public record and he is he is a servant of we the people of District Six should he decline or otherwise refuse I asked mayor Oscar Lisa to read it as he presides over city council and he too is a public servant of all the citizens of El Paso I'm opposing this political Witch Hunt against former rep Claudia lizelle Rodriguez as this Witch Hunt is nothing shy of a Banana Republic or country constantly stands in opposition to globally This Witch Hunt ironically is attacking rep Rodriguez who in her official capacity was authorized and issued a guest card as the city does not issue take-home vehicles to city council now this field cart does not have continuous contingencies such as fuel limits vehicle type to be utilized mileage Etc and rep Rodriguez constantly in execution of her official duties has on countless occasions had to travel to her district and back to her City Hall office interpersonal vehicle reps will be Vegas is not responsible for the Democrat policies which led to skyrocketing fuel costs and lower fuel efficiency during her term therefore if you are seeking the witch to hunt I would begin at the Democrat Party who fought to erode fuel Independence this nation had under the previous administration when Phil was much more affordable and a better quality the conflict in Ukraine did not impact U.S field output lastly I suggest utilizing city of El Paso resources more efficiently as in in my investigating multiple cases of art Federal abusing his office in violation of Texas penal code 39 for requesting the information on rep Rodriguez now a private citizen surely city council takes official oppression and abusive office as a serious violation as ethics complaints were previously filed earn art Pierro I demand city council stop abusing its Authority and begin fixing the issues we the people are forced to endure Chris emiost thank you sir representative Canales followed by representative Kennedy and then I would like after that to entertain a motion to go talk with the council those brought in by the city go ahead sir thank you mayor yeah I just wanted to make a very brief simple clarification uh a speaker mentioned that um a simple signature of a department head or something was was sufficient in in order to uh have an expenditure approved for the city council specifically any expenditure that's greater than one thousand dollars has to be placed on a city council meeting agenda and approved by the entire body of the city council before the expenditure can be made the frequent these these items are frequently on our agendas I submitted one recently to cover the cost of attendance at the neighborhoods USA conference being held here in El Paso for the neighborhood association presidents in my district it's a simple expenditure but because the amount was greater than a thousand dollars it had to be approved by the entire body of the council um I just wanted to make that clarification the council doesn't have the authority to spend with no limit on our purchasing cards their controls for for any purchase greater than a thousand dollars that's the only clarification I wanted to make thank you mayor thank you sir representative Kennedy and then I will entertain a motion and go to Executive session I remember we go to Executive session for legal consultation is there any way I'd be able to speak I was working and I missed my uh top opportunity they called me so I'm just asking this is James paynal go ahead Mr Bay now though you have three minutes thank you ma'am and I apologize for missing when you guys called my name the first time uh it's hard to stay on but uh yes my name is James panado I'm a constituent of District eight Chris Canal's District uh I'm disappointed by this I I do think this is all a unnecessary Witch Hunt uh I while I think you know it's good for city council to pay attention to the numbers and the dollars that City Council Members spend uh the amount that we're spending this much time the day title 42 comes to an end seems like all a big political distraction and a Witch Hunt uh the two City Council Members you know one of them would vote the way that I often like and the other one would vote the way that I often don't like so this is not about how they vote this is just I'm aware that both of these women are mothers and uh and one of them lived very far from Downtown City Council and uh it is not against the law to have uh two vehicles that they use for gas it is not against the law to my knowledge to have a vehicle that uses premium uh or a B8 and is not against the law to be a mom on city council uh you know like if city council was adequately addressing all the other exorbitant expenses adequately and and everything else is being fine-tuned and you've got nothing else to look at then okay I guess we need to look at this but going back into the past to look at a political enemies and and look for uh nickel and dimes to to spend this much time worrying about when title 42 is coming to an end it all just looks very political and unnecessary and a waste of everyone's time uh how much how many of our Street Maintenance people people are being diverted from cleaning the rest of the city because they have to focus on the area where all the migrants are around Sacred Heart how many law enforcement officers are having to be reallocated from being all over the city to instead being around the Sacred Heart area um I mean that there this that is a concern to the citizens of El Paso I think you guys are working hard to do a good job of that but you know people who who uh you know like I think there is an open border crisis right now and um and all that is what should be discussed and other areas of focus like you know our other water parks making enough money to justify how much money we're spending on water parks I'm glad you guys are looking at the trolleys I'm concerned about the Metro Bus system I think we need to privatize the Sun Metro system because of all the millions of dollars wasted in the Sun Metro System I'm concerned about the recycling program I want to know how can the water treatment facility projects be done more quickly because those are all problems that are really facing you know like causing stress on the people of El Paso we need to cut the budget and look for ways to spend money better so that we can cut the taxes in this city and you guys spending this much time on the nickel and dime spent by these two City Representatives is it just looks really bad and I'm disgusted thank you Mr Bean I know you've reached the three minutes sir thank you thank you so much time I appreciate it thank you thank you for that we have a motion and a secondness point there was a motion and a second to return to Executive session all in favor anyone opposed and the city council the city of El Paso May retire to Executive session pursuant to section 3.5 a the El Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss item one discussion in action on the results of project P 2023-06 city council and City manager's office P cart travel and field Card review under 551.071 consultation with attorney it is 1209 pm thank you especially with the staff here okay so much foreign foreign Miss Prine we do have a quorum yes sir is there a motion to come out of executive session there's a motion and a second to come out of executive session all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1 35 PM we're on item number one thank you Miss Prine and um Council um has decided that um we'd like to direct Mr Garcia to bring some options to the council for independent investigator to investigate the usage of p-card gas card and be totally independent there's been a lot of vacuum sessions towards Council towards foi towards the auditor towards me that um so we we want to hire somebody that's totally independent of the city to continue the investigation but also we're going to ask Mr Calderon to finish your investigation we feel your investigation is still not complete you have prior years that you started working on and we'd like to see those finished and then year to date so I have a second on that mayor I believe we need some someone make a motion I'm sorry that's right you move to approve thank you it's always best to have the second person I don't know if you knew that thank you and uh also Mr Garcia just please bring us those recommendations and we want to make sure it's got nothing to do with anybody in the city and totally independent thank you mayor just quickly to clarify in in your in the motion you described you mentioned Mr Garza who is Mr Garza just for the benefit of the public what was that who is Mr Garza just for the benefit of the Bible he's an attorney that was hired to outside Council to hire to give us independent uh information thank you thank you thank you for clarification there is a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Fierro and this is to directly outside Council to return with options for an independent investigation and the investigator right into the investigation and also for Mr Calderon to finish the audit from prior years in current year in previous years in the current year on that motion call for the vote voting session is open Council Mrs Neiman can you repeat the motion the motion was to direct outside counsel to bring to return with options for an independent investigator to conduct an independent investigation and to direct the chief internal auditor to complete his report to include previous years and the current year the voting session is open I don't show your my vote is no again I see it now thank you and the voting session the motion passes six to one representative Hernandez voting the remainder of council voting I representative Salcido absent do we have a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the special city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the special city council meeting for the Thursday May 11 2023 is adjourned at 1 38 pm Three Brothers see it look at all the security measures yeah information I thought that was you're asking what's like what station am I from like we've never met before I was very confused Wetland Buffalo area yes and in the Summers I barely do anything uh just it does get a little chilly yeah hey we're just going out of practice Leslie Thomas other information the council voted on right now to have an independent investigator to investigate everything that's going to be working with the irony auditor to pull off getting really not done their job so we want to make sure that we give everything due process Ary independent the investigator to investigate we also have to say auditor to go back and view this colony because the audit really was he had started 20 and 21 but really hadn't just added unfinished and also didn't finish it so we were you know he'll do it in a very interested manner you know you don't want to get somebody the timeline out of something that's critical because you don't know when the investing is the retired by the city had come down foreign moving forward what do you want to handle you know cards or not having the I do agree with uh you know there's no cash or I do agree with our condition of uh really made for any City issue of car insurance foreign investigators in other words we want really full independent investigation to the matters so you want to work for charges outside uh it's important to know that the City attorney is another year I've done a lot of interviews and I've talked to a lot of people and one of the things that you know we have never seen more more working out very clean agencies what's going to happen you know for May 11th you see where you know that processing the schools being open we are really prepared as to everybody has a lot to do there's nothing else we can do today that will change this morning we've had a meeting with the congresswoman itself is Senator secretary Community today there's nothing different so we're prepared for the unknown we don't know what that home will bring in that when you say we have oh yes everybody in the city you know if you look at you know nobody should really pay for anything it may be another city Maybe enough if you look at other areas and hope to see the importance of just an important orders are closed today expires fires you know the border patrol for what's going to happen I said this conception people have wrong information we've got our son of seekers information so the quarters close today that we've closed but one of the things that I can assure people and it's really important to know that our responsibility of the Mississippi of our community in the system continue to welcome our Asylum Seekers and immigration process and accessories so they're actually coming to the United States so important to know the nose act priorities also to make sure that we do the area systems of hours you know during your three walk-ins that's true that was a big discussion at work it's uh 159 no questions yes I obviously understand it's important information because I heard that is a border service from uh Las Cruces about half of the schools with we could change something there's nothing am I going to go out there right now and change anything about it be prepared yeah but we got nothing else to do except hope that uh we're correct our channel before us yesterday and that was very important and uh I don't know foreign yes and I got home last night at 9 30. I'm a bit tired so you're not even the usage 13 months so yeah let's talk about last Friday foreign my daughter okay sir thank you