we have a motion a motion we have a second all in favor say iOS motion [Music] passes all right then moving on to item number seven uh consider approval of submission of legal council opinion and a resolution authorizing the submission of the op Paso M applications with a federal Administration or funding assistance relating to Federal Transportation so with this uh there's in your back up there is a a sample or a a u like a template for a resolution uh this is uh something that FTA is asking for us and specifically since we are the recipients that direct recipients for the 5310 program but it it's it's very basic I mean it's stuff that we already do which is you know commit to following all the procedures for or running the the program and so on but what is new is that in the in F FTA uh tram system in the update they're asking you to have this on file so it's a very simple uh resolution so uh we recommend approval of this motion we have a second all in favor opposed passes right all right so items eight and nine are not for Action they're just for a discussion um let me read number eight first discussion of the op Paso n staff operations and compensation um chair we have you as a presenter but I'm happy to to present the please go okay and we have the the chair as a presenter because this item was also discussed at the executive committee uh last week and this was a request that that we received that I received personally but yeah I'm sorry that's on that was on item 10 the public comment was for item 10 is that correct yes um so the the request was um as a result of discussions that we had last year when we were doing my annual evaluation performance evaluation last year in terms of uh comparing the the compensation of Mo staff versus the my personal my own uh compensation so the handout that you have in front of me that the one that was just passed out that was discussed at the executive committee good a little bit of the history on starting in 2016 on on how you know increases in salaries have been handled for for staff and on the right hand part of the table I started in in April of 2019 so the the increases have been you know starting in 2020 so a little bit of of History you see that the uh 2016 to 20 19 or so the increases were not very consistent for staff a lot of it had to do with the fact that uh that increases for n staff were tied to whatever compensation or increases city of Al Paso staff had so as you know the uh you know the city is our Fiscal Agent but we are not a a a department of the city of Al Paso so there is some Independence there um when I came in in 2019 um my predecessors and Roger Williams who many of you uh uh remember was fighting really hard to get a an increase to Mo staff but uh but so I took over that so you see that first increase of 3% in May of 2020 uh but that was again result the the result of some really hard uh discussions that we had with the city's HR department um that discussion also LED uh later on to the revision of the operational agreement that the no has with the city of Al Paso where we clarify all of the roles and responsibilities for the city and the mo and and one of the the things that that really needed to be clarified is the you know items that had to do with HR and specifically with a with compensation so um even though that that uh the the agreement was revised in 2023 but we we started seeing the the benefits of of that and you see now that starting 2022 with 23 and 24 uh M staff have been uh receiving um salary increases that are in line pretty much especially the last two years with any increase that I have received as the executive director so I think that's uh going back to the uh operational agreement what it's specifically now clarifies that no staff uh compensation is determined by the executive director the M which is me and uh so having complete uh independence from from the city's HR department which again makes sense because you know our operational funds are completely independent from the city's general fund so you know it's not like um so that there is that justification to have that separation between n staff and City W passive staff so this is just for for informational purposes that that was requested and U happy to answer any any questions so is the methodology based on Market Merit or Cola since you're doing it independent of the city how are you looking at this proposition you know time and service how are those things taken consideration so right now we it is a um a blanket increase that we're providing but one of the things that we do want to start is is really have u a more detailed uh performance evaluation process where we do consider Merit right so but right now especially the in the last two years you know whatever increase I have received that has been extended to to M staff but but we do want to focus uh on on that you know performance evaluation process that really looks at at Merit so that you know it's not just a blanket increase I would just urge you as you kind of move forward in developing this um B was Max comments here I think you'd be you to work on developing that policy that brings that proposal back to the board or the executive Comm there may be instances where we're looking at a COA because of inflation just being a reality and maybe the board has to make that Financial determination that that's the route we're going to go instead of pursuing a step which is more tied to Merit right so I think those are the the things to consider um and any given time um and I think having something in place for this next budget year would be you know it's good to start working on that now for for the next budget year absolutely and and and to that point I mean obviously anytime we talk about uh increases whether for me or for for staff you know we look at our cash flow at our you know financial situation and obviously these increases are are you know fit perfectly well with our with our cash flow so any other questions just a comment we just received this uh on paper uh I would appreciate in the future if something like this can be included in the backup on the agenda or if if not uh Mr chair we can please append this to the minutes of the of the meeting uh so it's available for for the public and for future reference thanks and and to that point um that that was um my personal call not to include it because again it's stuff that could be a little bit more sensitive but since then I in speaking with our legal counsel um you know he recommended that we do I mean this is public information right so um but again it was my call not to include it because it could be could be sensitive but uh but again given that we're not uh speaking about any particular individual then it you know it's okay so yes so we'll definitely include that in the in the minutes any other questions any discussion all right item number nine is discuss the executive director's annual performance evaluation for year 2024 self evaluation form and next steps which by the way is my favorite topic so Mr chair I have you also as a presenter but um so members uh Mr CVO emailed his self- evaluation um and a blank evaluation form for all the tppp members to um fill out um seen some see it okay Eduardo did we um was the EV the evaluation form yes I it was sent out uh I think it was Wednesday night but I was made aware yesterday that many did not receive that email I suspect that it was since it was a group email that may be in your spam boxes it's not there well apologies for for that anyways but um according to to the process um today was an opportunity it's not there's no action in the month of February what uh the intent for for this is for to give members an opportunity to fill out the the um the valuation form if you wish to do that now or take it with you um and I will definitely you know resend that email maybe break it into or individually to each member of the policy board that email had the the blank form along with my self- evaluation form and and the narrative that you know provides some some backup and some uh perspective on why I am evaluating myself the certain way so um the the idea is for uh those that want to submit the the evaluation form to do so by the end of the month um and submit those directly to Marisol or to Serio not to me and they will compile them and then have that discussion with the executive committee in the in the next month in March so the executive committee can you know bring them together and and and do what whatever the committee feels appropriate um so that in at the board meeting at the tpv meeting in March we can have a you know complete the the the process for this year so with that again I apologize for if uh I just was made aware yesterday that uh that this didn't uh reach you all um if I may uh Eduardo let me ask Serio to kind of discuss a little bit of um timeline Etc so that the members are aware of what what we're trying to accomplish yes sure uh so um we brought the timeline to you uh last month uh for the executive director's evaluation uh for purposes of today uh you know we are trying to encourage you all to fill out the EXA the blank uh evaluation form uh we had originally contemplated probably even going into executive session to give you all an opportunity to do that sure I don't know if we're going to do that today or not or just remind members that this is a pending matter I think it's a pending matter because some members have not received it and I think they should have the opportunity to take it back uh do an evaluation I have uh and I think other members have submitted uh the evaluation already uh but um I think In fairness we need folks to be able to take a look at this digested and think about it okay so I'll just remind the me the the board members that our contract with our executive director does call for this evaluation process and as uh the senator has reminded you all it's much much more robust and effective process if there's participation from all the TPB board members since he does report to you all you all do supervise him and evaluate him uh under the proposed timeline um we will having received your evaluation forms we will discuss the evaluation forms in executive session at next meeting March the 14th and then if all goes well we will discuss it again on at the March 21st meeting uh you all will have an opportunity to speak with give them some constructive feedback in executive session and depending on the outcome of those discussions and evaluation reviews we will sign all of the necessary documents uh no later than March the 31st that's the the timeline as it was originally proposed to you all I think we are on track you any questions Mr chair if appropriate I have extra copy so well I printed copies of the self evaluation that I can distribute to to you all in addition to resending the email very helpful memb so so if you look at the evaluation form we've asked uh Eda to explain and justify each category um it's hard to capture everything I know when we went through the list we uh each one of us have an idea of what goes into one of these boxes um so Ardo has added addal information for you to review that way you can make your own determinations and follow up with questions uh if you have any thank Youk you than for doing that so as we move forward we'll finish Distributing all right so now moving on to reports and discussion item number 10 is uh the borderx safe mobility plan progress update this is for our safe uh act Safety Action Plan that we're developing here so uh we have Ang gante with the the presentation [Applause] good morning chair and board members uh an guante El Paso Mo I am going to be uh running quickly through a uh um a fairly detailed presentation to make sure that uh you guys are aware of the high points that we want to share at you at this point in time um so it'll just be me presenting this morning a more lengthy uh version was presented to Tac um if we could get the uh agenda slide slide the agend okay so I'm not going to spend as long as it says on this agenda on these items but um we're going to briefly touch on uh just an overview and reminder of what the Safety Action plan is uh about where we are in its process uh what we've done thus far on public engagement and some upcoming opportunities to be involved uh that we're pretty excited to share with you uh the development of uh our existing conditions information uh to include uh our high Injury Network map that is now available online and is interactive so I want to make sure that you guys see that and we have a QR code that I believe works so you guys can and access it and interact with it um and also future opportunities to be involved we've got some um fairly uh fairly good things starting very soon that we want to make sure that you guys are aware of and have an opportunity to participate in all right so next slide this is going to be just a real quick uh recap of what it is we're doing here and how far we've gotten so far and what we've got left to do next slide please so just as a reminder this came before this body um originally when the no was going to apply for a safe streets for all Grant um a couple years ago that was awarded the task order was approved by this body last spring and uh Mo staff and our consultant team began working on uh what is eventually going to become the safety action plan that that will be approved by the this body and this plan is going to cover the entire uh Mo boundaries so this is going to uh cover the entirety of El Paso County as well as the portions of donana and Otero counties that are within our jurisdiction in New Mexico and having this plan in place will make the entities covered with projects mentioned in the project list able to apply for implementation funds uh in the 2026 round of uh Safe Streets and all uh grant funding from the US Department of Transportation um so just to go over it Safety Action Plan this is recovering this is covering uh roadway safety uh and Transportation safety across all modes so that is going to look not only at uh at cars and trucks on the highway but we're also going to be examining safety for non-motorized Trans transportation to include um walking bicycling the use of uh assisted Mobility uh devices to get around and how our infrastructure works for those and it's also going to be covering uh not only just uh normal passenger traffic but also Freight in terms of roadways we're going to be looking at all sort all types of facilities regardless of ownership with within our region from our highways down to our local roads um and this is we we've we've been Gathering the data that will inform uh the policy recommendations and projects that we include in this plan and I will be sharing some of that with you in a little bit um and then also just this aligns with the national roadway safety strategy which we're going to kind of go over just a little tiny bit but not in great detail in a little bit next slide please so the specific goals of this plan are to reduce the crashes and fatalities that are occur throughout our transportation system regardless of mode um we're going to use the data that uh our Consultants have been Gathering and we're going to identify strategies and priorities to address safety so this is not only going to include things like um data on where the most accidents and the most severe accidents are occurring but this is also going to take a look at what sorts of conditions typically result in collisions whether or not accidents have yet occurred on facilities with those features um question in this data set are we including uh law enforcement highp speed chases um I we're using uh Chris primarily I don't know if they have that segmented out um but I know that that is a topic that has been of interest and uh we can we can work and see if there's some way that we can that that we can include that information would be important I don't believe it's in their I mean the crashes that have resulted are in there but there but there's no mechanism for drawing attention to which ones they were yet speaker Moody I think that based on our interaction with the county they have that data SE segregated out so I think as a partner they can help lay that over the top of the the data set so I think that would be it would be good to see that injuries fatalities absolutely put you the spot do you know Chris so so it's it's not segregated out in Chris um because it's it's uh not necessarily the primary cause of the incident or accident you'll see something like a speed related or loss of control or whereas you know DUIs or DWIs could be or distracted drivers could be because that's the cause of the accident uh generally on a highp speed chase it should be L sure so I think I think it's important to note it if one if the goal is to reduce crashes and fatalities I think regardless of of why or how we need to know what what's causing that so um I think to speaker Moody's point I think it's important to include that data set into the County Attorney has AEL presentation on that yeah we would absolutely any if there's any information that uh that's available to share um and if it and if there is a desire to to ensure that we segment that out we can we can work on how to do that absolutely so next slide please we're going to look at the safe system approach so this right now has emerged as a best practice when uh when jurisdictions are developing plans like these and when they're taking safety into consideration for their uh Transportation Planning um so these are the tenants of them I won't necessarily read them off to you um but essentially this this underpins uh the the recommendations we're going to make and and and the general approach we're going to be taking to how to resolve what we notice in the existing conditions data to reach our goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries in our area um these elements uh function as as as layers um generally speaking when you have uh a catastrophic event there's a series of factors that lead up to it each of these layers is going to offer partial coverage but not complete coverage kind of like swiss cheese if you have the entire stack of slices of Swiss cheese you probably can't see through it the holes in each individual slice are blocked by the subsequent slices if you have any one of those operating by itself or only a portion of that stack of slices you may have holes that go to the bottom that allow uh in a catastrophic event to occur so this the the idea and intent here is to increase the layers of protection that our transportation offers its users all right in the next slide we are looking at our progress so we gave a a larger and indepth and more timec consuming presentation to Tac to focus on uh on on on this uh information and our findings we're going to give you guys kind of the high points today in the interest of time but this is about where we are in the process so what we have done so far is we have had uh stakeholder engagement general public engagement we have had a uh um an interactive map distributed to the community that got we were we were pretty excited by the amount of interaction and response it had where um anyone could go on and they could drop a pin on an area they felt we needed to focus on for safety a geographic area on the map and they could solic they could also submit a cont comment for what they had noticed and why they dropped that particular pin there and we had fitf assistance on that and that was great greatly helpful in getting our engagement up um and that information that subjective uh data Gathering exercise can work hand inand with uh the exercise that we per that our Consultants performed or several exercises in order to gather the data about documented incidents on our roadway station um and we are going to be I'll be talking in a couple slides about just what we're going to be doing next uh in terms of gathering public input um so we are right now in the yellow Square we're sharing a status update um we are having a uh Coalition meeting which I believe you all should have received invites for and if anyone needs the information and does not have it I would be very happy to provide it to you at 2:00 on Tuesday we're having a zoom meeting and that is going to be with our uh with our stakeholders uh with areas of focus dealing with Transportation safety so that would we would like if you guys if anyone from this board is able to attend we've also reached out to uh um to law enforcement and to just uh to anyone we could think of and it was kind of an exhaustive list of folks that might have might have some skin in this game and and offer Insight on how we can improve uh the safety in uh in our region and what we ought to be including in our plan um we are also going on that date to be releasing uh a community survey on the topic of safety that we want hopefully you guys all fill this out in your individual capacity and share it widely get your constituents to fill it out the more we know and the more engag we have the better um so we are very excited to share that it is uh going to go live on Tuesday and uh it and all of our information concerning uh uh our plan is at a borderplex safe.org and then when we have public Outreach sta uh information there's a uh there's a a community outreach get involved tab where that lives um so we're we're very excited about our survey and it's got some pretty good questions and uh we encourage you guys to fill it out and share it and then um we are also there's going to be a calendar in a few slides of some popup events that we have scheduled um mostly in kind of an inter intercept format where we go to events that are already happening and uh we have information to share uh on our plan we encourage folks and attendance to fill out the survey things like that um oh yeah yeah and then we're going to be doing uh more meetings we're going to be developing our policy recommendations budget Etc and then we're going to be getting you the final plan document uh this fall all right so I'm going to gloss over public engagement because I know that we're on a time crunch here um this is some information uh or so let's go to uh two slides yeah one more okay so this this is some information from our uh first public meeting that we held back in October and then also we uh had the interactive map up between October 18th and November 22nd next slide so here's some some stats that we had on our public engagement so we had 450 ultimate responses uh between the uh the map itself which I think there there were almost 200 pins alone not even counting the comments um and then also comments we received at the uh at the open house um our first Coalition meeting had over a 100 participants and also uh during this during the the time period That's past we developed our website which is borderplex safe.org next slide please and this is a little bit of this is an infographic on the uh public information that we received um of note we had uh 23 people comment specifically on not uh non-motorized Transportation infrastructure and a pretty pretty substantial majority of those indicated that they are not not good with The Pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure we have in place now they'd like to see more and safer um and then also uh these were the potential safety countermeasures discussed okay and then I'm going to show you one last slide because it's got the QR code so go to slide 17 where's the number so this all is in your backup and uh it's it's good information but I but I want to show very specifically on this slide is we've got the QR code that you can view our high Injury Network map that was developed by our Consultants utilizing the data from both States about uh the the our our Transportation uh infrastructure and its relative safety just where are our incidents um and what sorts of incidents do we have so the you can uh you can zoom into different areas of the map you can see what's there and you can also see various statistics concerning Transportation safety in our region and then I believe in your backup there is the meeting calendar that shows where we're going to be when thus or so far as far as we know uh and if you've got anything that you'd like to see if maybe we can show up at we can we can see about that and please reach out to us if so and those are them those are the high points that I wanted to share with you this morning thank you members any questions and we have public comment so we have Mr Scott White public comment for for this item you Mr White good morning everyone um thank you for what you're doing on this and catching up El Paso with where we should be not just in terms of the infrastructure but an approach towards safety as policy rather than just if it if somebody doesn't die in the process it's it's very important and I know um Mr deaser apologize for your loss um over at Sun Metro buses are supposed to be one of the safest forms of transportation except something went very wrong when things go very wrong that's not that's where we get into the range of accident but I've heard a lot of people talking today not about collisions which is what Texas has adopted as the official uh terminology to the these events they are now collisions not accidents not crashes but at the federal level we've also adopted crash during the iig so things like that change me things change the way we think about these types of incidents what is it that we can actually prevent so that we can take action and prevent them and put them into the plan and make sure we're covered and so I would like to make a couple suggestions here going forward we need to have a couple of in at least a couple of independent voices serving as part of the teac and maybe eventually is part of the policy board who can speak for those people who travel bya AC of Transportation who may not have representation here now I know Miss Mario is doing a very good job but at the same time she has certain concerns I have certain concerns and so often when we talk about policy they don't come up we need to make sure everyone is properly represented when we talk about Transportation safety and the infrastructure we're looking to create so I hope you keep that in mind I hope you keep working I know it's a big lift to shift from accident to Collision because we're not used to saying that and let's keep doing everything we can to end traffic fatalities and any kind of deaths in our transportation system thank you so much all right any more thoughts or comments on on this all right moving on then to item 11 the executive director's report uh some very quick um thanks here borderline Expressway phase one ribbon cutting that happened last week it was a really really significant event the fact that we one of our priority projects base one um is now open to to traffic so congratulations to everybody to teot um but also no board members here um as you know Borderland Expressway is significant also because it really is part of a of a of a bstate uh project once it it's complete I know New Mexico is working hard also on on their on their side doing the improvements to 404 and and New Mexico 213 as well so that was a great thing thas I don't know if you want to say anything else no I think uh you I think it's ENT to to to the board uh you know it's I think it was number four in our RMS 2020 study uh making it a priority for the region and uh I think uh the fact that we put it on there 2020 and it's uh actually on the ground now it's uh it's a really positive thing with phase two coming along right behind it right and thank you to Mayor Johnson also for providing some some words at that meeting it was a it was it was a little windy but it was a cool a very very cool day all right uh Item B the Texas Transportation Commission meeting I attended that um the highlight of at least in my view for that meeting was the unveiling of the draft fiscal year 2026 UTP as you know that's at the 10- year program for protect where funding levels for the next 10 years are are outlined and I'm careful with the word because there'll be the they repeat it every year this is not a budget it's not a guarantee of funding and so on we are looking at the numbers to see uh how they the specifically for our region funds that come to the mo and funds that come to the district um we we're looking at some differences now overall for fiscal year 26 the UTP is a little bit smaller than last year's and or the the current one which is 25 um the current one is $104 billion this one is only 100 billion so tell the commission that it's only 100 billion not too shabby right but so the state of Texas does still has a pretty healthy uh um um amount of funding for for the next 10 years um those there's one more thing that I just wanted to mention that that came um that is really going on right now with some of the changes that are coming out of the the administration out in DC that of course you've seen everything and and many of these uh have effect many of the agencies that that you uh that we work with but specifically for us the one thing that uh that we were the way that it's affecting us is that now anything that requires a federal approval through the Federal Highway Administration or the Federal Transit Administration needs to go to headquarters to be checked by the Le teams right so that's the the direction that that we're seeing unfortunately that may delay some of the approvals on our documents including for example the the quarterly s Provisions that we do both on the Texas and New Mexico side So currently we are uh working with our federal Partners on the November STI Provisions that have some pretty important projects that that you know need to be approved in the in the step so that they can move forward forward one of them is a Borderland Expressway Phase 2 project that is fully funded but um if that approval of the STI is delayed because the Texas office for Federal Highway now has to send it over to to DC to headquarters for approval so that may delay some of our projects as well uh same goes for the transportation Conformity process the air quality that that uh that is you know complicated and honorous on us um so we've been working very well with our partners in in Texas and New Mexico of the federal agencies but again what happens you know when they send that over to to DC could could uh just impose a little more of a delay so with that that's all I have any thoughts questions happy to answer any questions members com Mr I know that the administration um focus on certain words uh in terms of projects do pose a risk I think to some of the narratives that have been built here when we're talking about access to services like Transit shared use paths those kinds of things phrases like Equity disadvantaged underdeveloped those are the Red Flags the administration's tracked I wonder if at all in we can start working on evaluating if any of those words exist in the Scopes of work for any of the projects that we might need to amend just in the abundance of caution so that we don't risk the federal funding that might be how do those projects absolutely and we're working with both um um New Mexico DOT and Tech stud in and identifying that but as you know it's it's fluid right it's changing but we do know that that are certain key words that uh that are going to be flagged the same goes for some of the funding opportunities or funding programs for example what uh one that that we feel is pretty much going to be lost is the the nebby examp the national what is it electrification the the federal plan to um you know Electrify and put more charging stations and so on that one appears to be not a favorite and and a candidate to be C and several others but uh again it's very fluid but we will work along with the dos and our the Texas and New Mexico uh divisions of Federal Highway and FDA and we'll bring it to Tac and and try to work on you know dealing with this situations to ensure that our projects move right that they don't get stalled because there is one word that shouldn't be very important any other questions discussions there any further business we have a motion to adjourn call me thank you thank