thank you [Music] so you can't get that Marine Corps punctuality probably correct on that sir yes sir Joe what do you mean so um okay logged in good morning Miss Brian I don't know happy feet foreign cover that for a reason able chairs things are going crazy okay you know what I was going to ask you do you know what I was going to ask you know okay I'm half there Maybe more okay no I've seen that one yeah I love it I don't have it though foreign thank you good morning that's it thank you good morning Mr Mayor representative Fiero there's Prime we do have a quorum and it's nine o'clock good morning mayor yeah good morning everyone good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday May 23 2023 mayor Lisa is President presiding as well receivers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro temanello alternate mayor Pro tem Molina and representative representative Salcido is running a few minutes late and representative Hernandez is arriving at the Deus it is 901 am now will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting it writes for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain Robert Hemphill Junior see you sir good to see you good morning to The Honorable mayor Mr Oscar Lisa who's also a Hall of Famer member of the city council members and department heads and Friends of the city of El Paso please buy your heads at this time father of mercy and justice thank you on behalf of all who are gathered here today for the city council meeting the scripture tells us and it says the father and behold how good is and pleasant it is for us to dwell together in unity thank you for our leaders here and as they work together as a team Holy One you're known by many names you're known as the spirit of Life the spirit of love Spirit of community and the spirit of Justice where's your blessings on the people who have been called to leave the city in which we live and work and play we pray for wisdom we pray for strength for courage to do what is right and good for all citizens maybe put the interest of others above our own and may we act with love for the coming good may we be good neighbors recognizing your image and every person here and this we ask in your holy name in the name of the father son and the holy spirit amen thank you thank you sir good morning Dr Lang will you lead us in the pledge sir thank you sir thank you sir for the record representativity that I just arrived and representative Canales will be arriving soon thank you all and um I um I do want to thank everyone for being here I know that we have some great proclamations and we have some students here that um are are here to so we can congratulate you all in your Great accomplishments um you know it's always um it's nice to to have the youth here the people that really are the future of our country and you know when I look around and I see them here I really get excited knowing that uh our future is bright and we'll continue to breathe bright as um you know we run for office and we continue to to make sure that um we represent our community and make sure that our community and Public Safety is our number one priority but also education becomes our number one priority education becomes number one because I'd love to see every one of you all up here someday leading Council leading our city leading our state maybe one of y'all will be president of the United States and um so I get very um excited to be able to stand here and sit here and watch you all as you come up here and we congratulate you all so um you know I I um I always say I want a moment of silence but today I don't want a moment of silence I want a moment of gratitude for the future of our community and I want to again thank you all for for being here and with that let's think of something good and let's pray for good let's pray that uh we have a um a wonderful and a beautiful day and continue to prosper so if we just think about a good thought and and maybe we can transmit it amongst all of us thank you thank you and you know I never I never come prepared to speak in the morning I come and I look around in whatever fills my heart is what I talk about and you guys really warmed my heart today so thank you Megan may God bless you and may God bless El Paso with that Miss Prine thank you mayor that leads us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso's 10th anniversary date I got a mural yes sir thank you mayor and thank you for the honor of allowing me to read this Dr Lang welcome whereas Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso became an independent University within the Texas Tech University system on May 18 2013. with the goal of improving lives and empowering Generations through accessible health education and world-class patient care whereas today the University's four schools trained tomorrow's border Plex Healthcare leaders the Gale hunt School of Nursing the L Frederick Francis Graduate School of biomedical science de Paul L Foster school of medicine and the Woody L hunt School of Dental Medicine while also partnering with local hospitals and University providing vital opportunities for medical residencies clinical rotation and postgraduate job placements whereas the contribution of 634.4 million annually to the local economy by removing barriers of Health Care growing our health care leaders through initiative education conducting Cutting Edge research on Direct impacting Hispanics and residents of the U.S Mexican border whereas Texas Tech Health Science Center El Paso has transformed the lives of 2135 graduates and continues its impact role of changing the lives trajectory of families in our community Texas Tech University Science Center El Paso celebrating 10 years of service to El Paso and West Texas will remain steadfast in its mission of improving Access to Health Care inspiring future generations of Physicians dentists nurses and researchers now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council the city of El Paso that May 18 2023 shall be known as Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso's 10th anniversary day congratulations Dr lamman with your team thank you oh good morning Dr Langan it's um it's what an honor to see you here and I remember the first day I got to meet you when you first came here and um what an honor that you've you've made a huge difference not only in Texas Tech and a lot of lives of a lot of students and administration but to our community and and I thank you for that because I uh as a rule every time I see you you got a big old smile and I thank you for that so welcome to uh city council sir thank you with your Indulgence I'd like for my team to stand I've got several of the Deans here and vice presidents and Communications and marketing because what I'm going to say I say but on behalf of the entire University first of all I want to thank you mayor liser I want to thank all members of the city council for your continued support of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso your leadership and dedication to building a bright future for our community has allowed our University to provide local residents and West Texans with transformational health education here in El Paso an opportunity that wasn't available 10 years ago as you've mentioned representative Fierro we've touched the lives of patients and their families through world-class Health Care through community-based prevention programs and also so Innovative research that affects our community today over 2100 alumni are now our physicians and nurses and researchers and soon will be our dentist here in the area and they'll be joined by 855 students that we currently have as well together with our community supporters and with your assistance we're meeting the health care disparities in the Border Flex by increasing Access to Health Care by growing our own people that will provide for the future of our community for generations to come in the past 10 years we've achieved many Milestones I'll just mention two one is the establishment of the Woody L hunt School of Dental Medicine and the Francis School of biomedical Sciences and I think together we along with you have showed the nation what resilience is and what it means to be El Paso strong during this historic month in our University's history we're very grateful to be a part of this border Plex community and we look forward to our next decade of impact again my heartfelt appreciation to you and on behalf of my entire universe University for your support and your continued encouragement in our mission and those we serve so thank you very much thank you now now to make sure you remember this day Daphne where are you so we'd like to present you with the same t-shirt here's to the next decade I thought you were going to give us a free stress test [Laughter] that was the speech sir mayor I hope there's a petite large in that pile there okay we'll leave them up there I'll let you guys pick thank you again Dr Lang and you know as you just pointed out uh none of us can become great leaders without a great support team and I can see your support team so congratulations thank you very much thank you and at this morning's honorees will please remain in council chambers city council will have an opportunity to take photos with you once all the ceremonial items have been completed the next Proclamation is internal audit Awareness Month representative Kennedy Mundo present whereas internal auditing is a vital part of strengthening organizations and protecting stakeholders of both the public and private sectors and whereas internal auditing helps identify and manage the organization's risks and ensure policies procedures and controls are in place and working appropriately and whereas internal auditing is an increasingly sophisticated and complex activity requiring specialized knowledge training and education and whereas internal auditing is an established profession with a globally recognized code of ethics and internal standards for the professional practice of internal auditing and whereas The Institute of internal Auditors the internal audit professions most widely recognized Advocate educator and provider of Standards guidance and certificate certifications celebrates its 82nd anniversary in 2023 and whereas historically the global internal audit profession promotes awareness about its value during the month of May each year and whereas the contribution of internal auditors is to the success of organizations and global economy at large deserves our recognition and accommodations whereas we congratulate The Institute of internal Auditors on its 82nd anniversary and the IIA El Paso chapter on its 44th anniversary now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of May shall be known as internal auditor Awareness Month signed by our mayor Oscar liser thank you [Applause] well I edmundo Calderon Chief internal auditor for the city of El Paso for the record I wasn't going to present today we're waiting for Michael Lama from the county auditor's office but I think he got caught in traffic so I'll do the best I can thank you very much for the proclamation on behalf of the El Paso chapters of The Institute of internal Auditors we're very grateful for the honor and I'm really happy to report that the profession of internal auditing here in El Paso and Las Cruces is in good hands as you can see behind me I have my staff here and some of the younger Auditors on the staff are are awesome I just want to tell you the future of auditing within our our communities in good good hands I just want to mention some of the agencies or some of the the companies and and governments that have internal audit functions within El Paso and Las Cruces of course the city of El Paso the county of El Paso episd Isleta Independent School District Socorro Independent School District the city of Socorro uh State AIDS various State agencies they they have Auditors located here in El Paso the very new numerous too many numerous students to uh State Higher Education is well represented with UTEP Texas Tech and El Paso Community College have internal audit functions our corporate uh Partners here are we have some Westar Bank Helen or Troy here in El Paso have internal audit functions and then we got some financial institutions in addition uh GCU government employees credit union and evolve Federal Credit Union so you can see there's Auditors embedded throughout El Paso and Las Cruces so thank you very much for for this recognition thank you sir and I know that I had the opportunity to be interviewed by when they did a peer-to-peer audit of the city and where was the auditor from Baltimore Howard County which is Baltimore Maryland and uh they were so impressed with the process procedures and the way he all do your job and it was the first time I I've had the opportunity to do that so it I walked out telling us what a great job your whole team does so congratulations on that okay thank you very much and thank you all okay will you uh do me a favor and introduce your team coach okay let's see I'll start from here um one of our younger Auditors Kay Gamboa right behind her is uh John Monsoon recent UTEP grads just to let you know utep's putting out a very good product Mike Montiel he's been with me about 25 years behind the back in the back is Daryl Olson he's our our uh our veteran auditor by the way he used to be my student when I was teaching at UTEP right here then behind him is Esmeralda Herrera another recent youTube graduate that we just hired and Liz de Lao which is my secret weapon in the office she's been with me over 22 years and then Sergio Carrillo is another young and Rising auditor within our office but thank you guys I was I was going to say that you guys do a difficult job because it's hard to have a job that people think it's a great way when you don't call them but your dedication to making the city of El Paso better is appreciated by all of us and helps us stay on our toes and come up with better processes and procedures and I want to thank every one of you okay thank you very much thank you [Applause] mayor Pro tem thank you mayor the final Proclamation is Young Women's steam research and Preparatory Academy Day thank you Miss Prime it's a proclamation the city of El Paso Texas whereas the young woman's steam research and Preparatory Academy is an all-inclusive first all girls in the El Paso Independent School District and the first single gender new tech Network Academy in the nation which opened its doors during the 2017-2018 school year and this year they have their first graduating class and whereas many of the students have been at the Academy since the seventh grade spending six years of their young academic career building a strong Sisterhood and special relationships with the faculty and the staff at ywa and their first graduating class consists of 27 strong young women leaders who are Trailblazers and who have helped set the Traditions that will be their legacy for years to come and whereas the focus of the young women's Academy is on science technology engineering arts and Mathematics and Service Learning and their students are engaged in a curriculum that accentuates the female perspective providing the tools needed to create change within the local community and in our Global society and the El Paso Independent School District recognizes that Minority women are underrepresented in this underrepresented in the stem field and created a place for young women's steam Academy to cultivate females to provide opportunities that bridge the gender and minority majority Gap and the field of stem and whereas the young women's Academy is a full post-secondary Preparatory Academy that provides pre-advanced placement advanced placement and dual credit enrollment courses beginning students freshman year and their focus on social emotional learning and project-based learning helps to develop a deep commitment to social justice and affecting change in a world that is challenged by environmental political and social issues and they accomplish this commitment by having access to a premier college preparatory curriculum with distinguished Arts Athletics and community service programs and whereas students will graduate with two endorsements focused on stem and arts and humanities programs of study and they are leaving the academy with a strong stem academic Foundation resilient social emotional upbringing and a well-rounded background focused on literature and arts now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that May 23 2023 shall be known as young women steam research and Preparatory Academy Day congratulations y'all [Applause] good morning councilman um Oscar mayor Oscar liser thank you all for acknowledging and recognizing um this Proclamation for young women's Academy this is our sixth year that we opened our doors we opened our doors in 2017 2018 to two groups of students sixth grade and seventh grade and many of the young women that you see in the stand sitting behind me were part of that first class so we have grown together for six years and along with their parents and we really have become a family supporting our students to achieve their dreams anything that they um their goals what they their future careers anything they want to do we know they can do it and they've had that support from us we are a pipeline for steam which is science technology engineering arts and Mathematics with a heavy emphasis on the Arts I believe that's where our students shine that's where they feel included and that's where their their creativity just blossoms so we are proud of our students 27 graduates but very strong committed dedicated young women who are going to be president of the United States and yes our students are driven they're passionate and and not just for self but for their community so we look forward to Opportunities where we can contribute and support you and your projects anytime our doors are always open I would like to introduce one of our students lajuard Zara she is one of our top contenders and top of her class and she has a few words to say uh good morning everyone good morning Council Council members um it is such a privilege to be speaking to you all today uh to be speaking on behalf of the class of 2023. we're all here with me on behalf of my peers and my friends my teachers and my mentors my school and my community uh because that's what the young women's team research Preparatory Academy is it is a community a diverse flourishing community of young women that I'm so lucky to be part of because ywa provides opportunities that allow leadership and creativity of those within it to soar I've been asked to talk about my time at ywa as an example and I mean here I've been able to uh through the guidance of my teachers I've been able to give a TED Talk work for congresswoman Escobar's Congressional Campaign and uh attend Rice next fall with a full ride scholarship ywa provides ywa provides that kind of support and it's there with you every step of the way to Greatness and Excellence our renowned art program whose reputation precedes itself throughout the city is evidence of that the class of 2023 is near 2 million scholarship total is evidence of that and our community where you can count on being accepted and encouraged is evidence of that and all the confident young women in their graduation gowns here today are all evidence of that I can say with 100 certainty that these women will go on to lead and create and Challenge and solve problems in Steam science technology engineering art and math the way we have been taught in the school these women and myself through the knowledge and strength we have gained here at our time at ywa and our time as Warriors will be an asset and a light to anywhere our paths take us now I know that those paths might stray from El Paso but fortunately ywa is here to stay and I know that every successive class from here on out will amplify these strengths and this knowledge and it will be a light and an asset to the city as well thank you so much thank you I would like to introduce Mr Mark Paz he's assistant superintendent for secondary schools thank you for the recognition today mayor Lisa and council members episd is 140 years of pioneering education here in our region and this is a prime example of that pioneering these young women six years ago took on a challenge and a journey to be part of something different something unique something unlike anything offered academically in our region and so to see these 27 graduates walk across the stage on June 13th at 1 30 in Magoffin auditorium at UTEP will be one of those moments where we all will just take a deep breath and be excited to see how our future has evolved our education has evolved these pioneering young women are a true example of empowered women ready to do anything they put their minds to so we're excited for this opportunity and recognition today but more importantly we invite you to our ceremony to recognize the inaugural class of young women's steam Academy thank you thank you no we um I know we have a [Applause] all the students here we all please come up come on up and um good luck for them introduce himself to us yes okay yes ma'am my name is miss you to study animal Sciences congratulations yes and I will be part of the Barcelona hi my name is I'll be attending UTEP to study epidemiology [Applause] and I'll be attending YouTube I'm majoring in Communications and minoring in computer science thank you [Applause] my name is Genevieve vespinos and I'll be attending UTEP um majoring in sports I mean sorry business marketing my name is Adeline antiveros and I will be attending the University of New Mexico on a full ride scholarship to study in mechanical engineering foreign EPCC for two years for nursing assistance [Applause] I'm Alexis Navarro I'll be attending UTEP as a Terry scholar double majoring in business marketing and computer science [Applause] uh hello my name is Bailey kukula this year I will be taking a gap year but hopefully I can attend UTSA where I'll study archeology [Applause] hi my name is amaris Espinosa I will be attending the university of El Paso here and I will be studying film [Applause] hi my name is Victoria McMullan I'll be going to Xavier University to study on pre-med Pharmacy [Applause] hi my name is Andrea Tellez and I will be studying at UTEP and I will pursue a major in psychology [Applause] my name is Alyssa Martinez I'll be going to YouTube on a full ride Mandarin in nursing [Applause] and I'm training to go to the Navy foreign [Applause] to study aerospace engineering with the minor atmospheric physics [Applause] my name my name is Anna and I'll be going to EPCC for two years to study biological science hello my name is Angelina alores and I will be a part of the El Paso County Sheriff's [Applause] hello my name is Ariana Carpenter and I will be attending Florida Institute of Technology to study astrobiology [Applause] hello my name is Sarah Alvarez and I will be attending UTEP to major in Communications [Applause] hello I am Melissa Jaime and I will be attending EPCC for two years and then going to Colorado to study environmental science in the University of Colorado Denver [Applause] [Applause] hello my name is I'll be attending the University of Texas at Arlington and study marketing [Applause] hello my name is Jennifer Tucker and I'll be attending the University of Health Science and Pharmacy with a partial scholarship um majoring in pharmaceutical science hello I'm Hannah Connor and I'll be attending UT Austin this fall with the impact scholar scholarship [Applause] so these are my daughters every single student who comes to my school is considered my daughter I wanted it would be I would remiss in not introducing two of our faculty members who have been with us from the beginning Miss sari palisadi and Miss Rebecca Guerrero and taking the picture stand up Miss Connor this is Miss Naomi Connor who is an art teacher with us and also supports us with Student Activities we are a small campus but Mighty campus and thank you so much for this honor today thank you congratulations everyone congratulations and I do I did figure out who's going to be president but I'm going to keep it to myself thank you for that thank you for the record representative Salcido and Canales have also arrived to the meeting mayor would you like to do the consent agenda so we're moving a lot of items up in order but that's fine the consent agenda yes ma'am all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor Pro 10. yeah I do um we want to pull uh item six out the correct representative we have that it's okay and we'll do that after Council items right so uh page four item six move to the regular agenda per representative Hernandez page eight item 28 moved to the Forefront per representative Fiero page 8 item 38 revise and move to the Forefront of the regular gender per representative molinar and that revision is to add representative Kennedy as a co-sponsor page 9 item 32 move item before item 31 per representative Kennedy and then page 9 item 34 revised per representative anello and that revision is to add representative Salcido as a co-sponsor to the item and I think we want to move item 29 also for representative Hernandez yes mayor um item six we have Riverside High School students here and we'd like for them to be part of the resolution proclamations as well as item number 29. and then um separate from that in no particular order it can come later I would like to move item number nine from the consent agenda to the regular agenda I just have a couple questions for our legal team so the revisions are to move 28 30 and 32 per to the front and 29 28 30 28 20 yeah so they're just 28 29 30 32. they're in the same order that they are on the agenda number 42 will not be moved that's it I'm kidding you with that do we have a second and mayor we do have public comment on items 10 and 11. item 10 is a resolution that the mayor will be authorized to sign a First Amendment operational policy agreement with a metropolitan planning organization and we have Mr Harrison Clerk that would like to speak good morning you have three minutes good morning Council Harrison Florida assistant director for El Paso mpo if I had realized this was going to be on the consent agenda that I wouldn't have bothered signing up but I just wanted to uh thank Mr cortinas and the city attorney's office and everybody else on staff who worked with us on updating the operational agreement between the mpo and the city this is going to make it a lot easier for us to understand the role of both organizations the the city being the Fiscal Agent for the MPL we think it's going to make for a more efficient relationship moving forward so I encourage you all to uh approve thank you thank you thank you Harrison's good to see you and for item 11 this is a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign the First Amendment to the operating and maintenance agreement with a chamber of commerce and we have Miss Lisa Turner that signed up to speak on this item good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor and Council I was just curious good morning Miss Turner did they pass that idiotic Bill to take your powers away of local local government okay based upon that you can't enter into any kind of agreement such as this because you will be burdening the businesses with having to hire accountants to deal and account for this money the state took that power away from you therefore you cannot do this anymore it now falls into the state's hands and unfortunately they allowed anybody that wants to walk in off the street to have standing to sue you they've just made a huge mess and quite frankly our budgets is going to be fat because there's a lot of things that we can't even spend any money on anymore no 380s no tax abatements no sales tax rebates can't do that because that has to be accounted for and you can't put regulations on companies to account for such stuff under the law so it's really curious I can't wait to see how this pans out thank you I think Mr Turner I think this reads that um in consideration of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce is investing approximately 250 000 they're investing the money we're not it's not part of our budget we're not giving them 250 000 they're actually investing 250 000 to upgrade the you've entered into an agreement with them even those now so we can take the money but we're getting an agreement so they can pay it it's not coming out of the general fund correct Mr Gonzalez so my whole concern is yes sir that's correct why I brought it up is the silliness of what they've done in Austin what it's going to do to you how it's going to impact 380 agreements property tax rebates that whole nine yards the whole Economic Development thing that we do here at the city level that's in the state's hands now not yours no well that's what I'm saying they're investing we're not we're not taking it out of the general fund all right thank you thank you Mr Turner and with that we got Motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello secondary by representative rivetta to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote representative Salcido thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 28. before we move forward I do want to recognize one of the pioneers of Texas Tech school of medicine and I think it's important to say hello to him Dr Manny De la Rosa he's here and he did an incredible job and he's one of the pioneers and one of the main reasons Texas Tech is in El Paso and I've been a big fan of yours as you know and a good friend so I just want to recognize you and thank you for being here and congratulations and based on what you did you can look around and be proud of your accomplishments thank you Dr foreign thank you item 28 is discussion in action to recognize June 2nd 2023 to be National Gun Violence awareness day this was submitted by representative Pierre thank you mayor welcome Mindy Miss Love Knows uh welcome very much thank you for bringing this to our attention uh thank you for serving on the women's commission for us and thank you for being a resident of District Six you know and how timely this this resolution is on the eve of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history in a country where there are more guns than residents I'm honored to read this resolution whereas every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence and more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 17 000 gun homicides every year whereas a city Across the Nation including cities of a of El Paso are working to end the senseless violence and with evidence-based Solutions and whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as we see the increase in in firearm homicides non-fatal shootings across the country increase calls to domestic violence hotlines and increase in City gun violence whereas National Gun Violence Awareness Day falls on June 2nd 2023 marking the beginning of where orange weekend a time to honor the lives lost to gun violence and advocate for sensible gun laws whereas in January 2013 heidien Pendleton was tragically shot and killed at age 50 and on June 2nd 2023 to recognize the 26th birthday people across United States will recognize National Gun Violence awareness day and wear orange and tribute and other victims of gun violence Who and the loved ones that were victims now therefore be resolved that the city of El Paso declare the first Friday in June June 2nd 2023 to be National Gun Violence awareness day and all citizens are encouraged to wear orange in their local communities thank you Mindy for bringing this our attention good morning ma'am good morning um my name is Mindy luevanos I am a volunteer with El Paso County Moms Demand Action I also serve as a Texas State lead for be smart which is an educational program that promotes the Secure Storage of firearms and most importantly I'm a mother of four um wear orange is dedicated to honoring the lives of people in the United States affected by gun violence and elevating the voices of those demanding an end to gun violence 2022 was another deadly year for America's gun violence epidemic and in the first half of 2023 the impacts of this Public Health crisis have continued to devastate communities and families across the country but as incidents of gun violence have grown so too has the moment to stop it we continue to educate raise awareness organize Advocate and rally for safer communities we wear orange to demand a future free from gun violence orange symbolizes the value of each person's life and we wear it to honor those killed wounded or impacted by gun violence and to call for an end to this crisis this year we invite everyone to wear orange on June 2nd together we will remember the millions of lives taken or impacted by gun violence and demand action in their honor thank you thank you man with that in there I make a motion to prove there's probably a motion in a second thank you sorry who was the second representative thank you and we do have public comment also mayor from Ms Turner on this item Good Morning America good morning everybody wants to do something about this they want to treat the symptoms that will not solve the problem the problem is not a gun the problem are the people the problem is the lack of opportunity the problem is poverty when you are a child growing up in a Barrio or a slum out in rural areas the only people you see with anything are Those who commit crimes that's the path you will follow we have a deeper problem both sides of the issue don't care they get money coming in to fund them candidates get money to fund themselves organizations get money coming in so they can go out and speak but nobody wants to get at the root cause what is causing somebody to want to take another's life you can take a gun from somebody who wants to kill 100 people did you change their mind no they still want to kill 100 people they're just going to find a different way to do it we have to figure out how to fix it at the base level it's like right now it's like I go check my oil it looks milky I change the oil 50 miles later I check the oil it's milky I keep doing this even though I know I have a cracked block leaking water into the oil in my car I keep treating the symptom by changing the oil I don't fix the problem problem is people the problem is lack of opportunity the problem is simply poverty the problem is a lack of opportunity to be something other than a criminal and until we deal with those issues the killings will continue whether you like it or not you can pass all the resolutions you want but I want to see my Representatives at all levels of government to actually do something to address the issue don't treat the symptom fix the problem don't be running around here changing your oil every 50 miles because you've got water coming from a cracked block into your oil system treat the problem I mean quit because it upsets me because I see money coming in on both sides and one's protecting guns one's wants to take guns but nobody wants to solve the problem because it's hard work and you don't get on TV by doing it and you can't get it thank you Turner thank you thank you there was a motion made by representative Fiero seconded by representative Salcido to approve the resolution on item 28. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item is 29 and this is discussion in action to approve a resolution recognizing and commending Mr Anthony Carter wrestling coach at Hanks High School for his accomplished tenure for his contributions to Hanks High School to high school wrestling and to wish him well in his retirement after three decades of coaching this item was submitted by representative Hernandez hi Coach Carter if you could please join us at the podium I also want to thank Adrian who's part of our city clerk who's nominated you for your tireless and hard work I believe you're a wrestler before in Hanks High School so thank you for that nomination and I'll read this as you approach the podium whereas a long time El Paso and Mainstay in the competition competitive High School World of Wrestling coach Anthony Carter has led the Hanks High School wrestling program for more than three decades and whereas Coach Carter began coaching at Hanks during 1990-91 season but it wasn't until 1999-2000 when girls wrestling was sanctioned by the universe City inter scholar Scholastic league in which he took the reins of the Hanks girls wrestling program leading the girls wrestling program to six straight state titles from 2014 to 2019 and Raz in 2008 Coach Carter was inducted into the Texas Wrestling Hall of Fame and locally has been recognized by the El Paso Times as coach of the years over 10 times and whereas the national Federation of State High School associations the governing body for all U.S High School athletics named Coach Carter the 2016 National coach of the year for boys wrestling making him the only High School coach in the state of Texas to win this honor for the 2015-2016 school year and in addition Carter was also named the 2015-16 coach of the Year by the Texas girls coaches association for the 4A 5A 6A UIL division combined and Raz Coach Carter has been an inspiration motivator helping wrestlers to gain confidence and reach their full potential he has been behind 30 state champions with his wrestlers going on to Collegiate Sport with over 30 wrestlers taking their talent to over 15 different colleges and whereas Coach Carter has been the force behind Hank's wrestling mentoring so many students and outside the mats and after 30 years he will retire not only leaving behind a Legacy of Champions but also of thousands of practices of the lessons of losing and trying again and the grind it takes to be a good athlete and a better teammate now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that the city council recognizes coach Anthony Carter for his accomplished tenure as a wrestling coach for his contributions to Hanks High School to to high school wrestling and to all the students privileged to have been trained by him and even in retirement he will always be referred to as coach congratulations thank you thank you good morning coach um I didn't know anything about this just so I have no words to say but but thank you I just been extremely blessed I've been surrounded by fantastic people and you know it's just uh I'm just overwhelmed by all of this so so just thank you thank you thank you coach and you know you're you can um you can say you don't have anything to say but for the last three decades your actions speak a lot louder than words so congratulations for the dedication to the children in our community and like I said your actions spoke a lot ordered louder than any words you could say today thank you I appreciate it thank you coach I moved to approve go ahead representative zubetta thank you thank you mayor Coach Carter that's your uh first of all thank you representative Hernandez this is long overdue this gentleman uh I my son had the privilege to be one of those kids that you coached and um during that time in in in watching you and the way you carried yourself you were a true mentor to those kids who have become as you say fine gentlemen in our community and other communities as well and you've sent them to several universities and that's all because of your dedication to your work uh I just want to congratulate you again congratulate uh representative Hernandez replacing site of on the on the agenda and like I said long overdue sir and I I can't believe you're going to retire because you said that before and you came back but keep coming back yeah you'll see what the big men upstairs have has in store for me we'll see thank you so much sir I moved to approve exactly [Applause] there is a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by mayor Pro tem anelo filed followed by representative Rivera to approve item 29. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously [Applause] item number 30 is discussion in action on a resolution that declares El Paso the veterans capital of the USA this item was submitted by Representatives Molina and Kennedy thank you very much mayor um this time County judge and Colonel Brave please come to the front Okay and any one of you who are veterans please come up I would really appreciate that very much resolution whereas the city of El Paso welcomes all veterans from all over our nation to celebrate and honor their bravery service courage and sacrifices and whereas the history that Fort bliss's first Armored Division and the city of El Paso share has unified a community of the same mission of supporting our veteran community and their families whereas the city of El Paso is a home of approximately 165 000 service members and military families whereas veterans participate to make a direct economic impact in our community of six billion dollars each year and whereas the city of El Paso is ranked seventh Nationwide in best cities for veterans home buyers and establish a rental assistance program in 2020 to assist veterans and reduced the number of homeless veterans in the city of El Paso whereas it is an honor for the city of El Paso to continue working with Fort bliss's first Armored Division who synchronized resources to provide a good quality of life to men and women that served our country and their families and whereas our veterans and their families are strong voters engage in the community and always willing to lend a hand to those in need and whereas the city of El Paso is named as one of only five communities Across the Nation as a 2023 Great American defense communities by the Association of Defense communities and whereas the city of El Paso has increased its support by hiring a chief military officer in developing initiatives that serves and honors the veteran Community whereas an informative website hosted by the city of El Paso was created to provide valuable information and assist veterans and their families and whereas the Veterans Affairs advisory committee was formed to serve and offer services to the city's large veterans population and whereas a monthly video program is produced known as Sun City Bliss to inform the veteran military community of the services activities and events of the city and Fort Bliss provides and whereas the city of El Paso has an annual veterans luncheon for over 700 veteran employees and whereas in 2015 the El Paso city council approved the implementation of the policy veteran employment incentive which includes a bonus rebate for companies that hire veterans and host veteran job fairs and whereas Fort bliss's first Armored Division in the city of El Paso established a partnership that launched the bridge Fellowship that assists military members to transition into successful post-military careers and whereas the city of El Paso installed the monument at Cleveland stair scoop excuse me Square to honor the brave men of company you fought in World War II and whereas The Voice sacrifice and service to of our veterans in our community is highly valued and recognized by the city of El Paso and whereas the city of El Paso fully supports the county of El Paso the veterans capital of the United States of America where every day in the city of El Paso is Veterans Day now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that every day in El Paso is Veterans Day move to approve ment yes the missing element yeah good morning well your honor mayor and a great friend and thank you representative Molina and representative Kennedy thank you so much for this and and Paul Albright who has been such a a factor of combine you know getting the uh the city and the county to work together I just want to say that you know this started you know back in 2019 we did a resolution to recognize or begin the Journey about being the veterans Capital United States of America and one of the first features that we had was a beautiful and I hope that all of you get to see we have a beautiful wall of fame for all our for our veterans and what it is it's all the branches the beautiful symbols of all the branches as well as the nine missions because we're trying to figure out how do we get veterans to come together and there's organizations and we thought uh in a general Medlock and myself sat down and he recommended that it would be by missions and I think it's a beautiful gesture and and word comes from is that we have some of the most incredible veterans that you can imagine here living with us but the disproportionate amount of veterans that have died in our Wars is just unbelievable and so one of the pillars was to recognize these incredible veterans and the other pillar is to bring that awareness to the entire Community to make sure that we take care of veterans in other words we could not be the veterans Capital United States of America and decide that there's gaps or that there's individuals that don't get treated properly or that we still have veterans in Juarez that are not able to come back that fought in our Wars we have to do this this has to be that awareness to bring that energy to make sure that we do that I'm inspired you know my my brother was the first fatality in the Vietnam War uh he was a helicopter pilot and I'm inspired because what I was always thinking about him coming back and how would we treat him on coming back so we have some incredible things that we're trying to accomplish but one of them is really to unite the community having the veterans capital of the United States of America hear is like giving our veterans sort of like a like the colors of a school or the mascot of a school that brings them all together and that we get recognized not only here but throughout the country and and be able to you know get them recognized as well as continue this plight of of making sure our veterans are taken care of so I thank you very much for this this you know coming together there's an economic factor I think there's going to be a lot of loyalty of of veterans coming through through El Paso that are going to want to find out we've done tremendous research this is not something we just came up with we have tremendous research to support the idea that we are the veterans captain of the United States of America I can tell you and the mayor knows that one of the best things I've ever have a sense is to reach out to the president of the United States of America and say welcome to the veterans capital of the United States and I think that was something think that long time coming but but here we are I'd like to we have some incredible speakers today I've got Colonel Brady that's going to be speaking and I've got our ambassador Who David Garcia and then Linda Mays will be talking about something incredible because we have to continue to have pillars that we know that no one is ever going to challenge or even think about us not being the veterans capital of the United States of America first of all Colonel Brie thank you thank you judge thank you you know um Colonel Brady one of the things that's important that um before you speak that I think we talk about that Fort Bliss and El Paso is one community and El Paso's Fort Bliss and Fort Bliss as El Paso and there's no doubt but the biggest compliment anybody can ever make to our community is one of Veteran massage to retire when a veteran decides she's been all over the world um Mr Albright I'll tell you the same thing we've had this conversation they have the opportunity to retire anywhere and they pick El Paso and that's the biggest compliment any Community could ever have because it's the way we treat our active men and women in the military and they want to become veterans in the community that respected them while they were in active duty and will continue to respect them when they're veterans so we have over 50 000 veterans and that number will continue to grow because of the great job we do as our community the city and the county together so I I want to again thank you I know that uh I I think before you you had like you tell people where you're from where you started where I started yeah where are you from well I'm from Las Cruces but I'm a part of it so you know when we think of uh the region you know I I had stakes in El Paso so I was last year in 1992 in the in the council chambers recognized as a uh leader in The Scouting organization Yucca Council and so this is like coming home right and I'm a product of a veteran who decided to plant his home here uh because of the community you know judge thank you for your your words and mayor same thing um it's a hard act to follow both of you you've said so many great things about uh what we're trying to recognize today and so you know the only thing to add to it you're talking point of Fort Bliss is El Paso and El Paso is Fort Bliss you know driving deeper into that is about stewardship that we look out and we look at our communities and when I see El Paso I'm thinking about what benefits El Paso and when El Paso and C4 Bliss they're saying the same thing and we work together as judge was trying to say that and mayor you you as well that when veterans decide to uh leave the army that they decide to come here and so this history of El Paso and Fort Bliss is steep goes back centuries right uh several decades and what we're doing right now is recognizing and re-energizing that and having a chief military officer for the city is helping us kind of amplify efforts to look for opportunities to work together and you know that's one thing of the association of Defense communities it's a theme is that we work better together and that's one thing you know I'm speaking on behalf of Journal Eisenhower that we could we could keep that in mind that when we think about opportunities for each other if we work together we can achieve so much more thank you very much thank you and you know General Eisenhower is such a so strong to make sure that El Paso and Fort Bliss continue to work together I was honored yes this Saturday to be a co-um Grand Marshal at the Army Days parade on Fort Bliss and that was such an honor that he would ask me to be out there and be the co-au Grand Marshal of the parade and that's how we feel that El Paso and Fort Bliss is one so I was very thankful for him then and then we got to um give I gave him the key to the city for El Paso and he gave me the key to the city and Fort Bliss and then I looked at him and they're identical you can interchange them and they'll open each door and that was the part that was really important thank you so much for this opportunity to speak thank you [Applause] I wore my best suit just for you first of all I want to thank God for his Mercy His blessings giving us the opportunity to come here and join our city council I want to thank Northeast representative Joe mullinar Mr Kennedy for your support on this resolution which is very important this today is a historical moment when the city and the county can come together and work as a team because if you work as a hand nothing gets done but when you work as a fish you get a bigger punch and things get done these things that are being passed out to you a token of the appreciation coming from the office of the County judge and the judge I think you're going to go ahead and give that one to the mayor but I just want to thank everybody and I want to thank my veteran brothers and sisters our agencies I want to thank our military officers uh lays on here Mr Albright and Mr Jacobs let me cut that I don't want to screw that up but anyway um I want to thank them because they're truly involved within the veteran community and they play a big part in the veteran capital I want to thank Mr Tommy Gonzalez also for supporting us through the years and also you should be getting one of them too and your county clerk but God bless everybody and my amigo doing a great job thank you yes good morning mayor good morning City Council Members thank you so much for this opportunity as a veteran Advocate I I'm not a veteran but I am a Advocate I have helped the judge with his uh since he had this Vision coming from a gold star family my mother was the Widow of Sergeant Roberto ituarte we were successful as the family and friends getting a school named after him in the sisd and so our next mission uh to continue the mission of recognizing veterans we are working together with the county and I hope to have the city join on board on a gold star families Memorial to be built there at Flags Across America adjacent to the Vietnam War something very special that we've been working on since the Inception of the Vietnam War and we'd love to that be a part for you all to be a part of that as well so thank you for this opportunity veterans Capital USA is something it's a tremendous honor and it goes a long way with recognizing the all the sacrifices that not only veterans have made but their families so thank you very much thank you so I want to give thank you representative mayor thank you for this great opportunity I know we're going to have an amazing bond together and make sure we do the right thing for our veterans once again thank you and God bless you all thank you our Colonel Albright I mean command sergeant major Albright I'm thinking of Colonel Washington and Colonel um Gonzalez but will you um can you can you approach the podium place and you know I want to thank you for the hard work and I know that every day you work really hard to make sure that the city and the county continue to work together it was said that it's about time we've been doing this forever now it becomes official but we've been working together we couldn't be the capital of the world for veterans if we hadn't been working together we wouldn't have over 50 000 veterans making sure that El Paso was their home and you're one of those veterans and I'm talking about sir and you know I am I think it's important to know that we've been working on this for a long long time now have become official now we're Partners we'll continue to be but we were Partners long before I think long before I was born because you know Ford Bliss has been so important in our veterans and I just want to thank you for the job you do for the city and your staff and also your service to our country and our community and I I I want to hear from you how important this has been of a mission when I got to meet you when you're in the military and you shared a picture that you didn't have a beard then but he shared a picture when you were the command sergeant major here at Fort Bliss with me and now you're our partner and you're the person that we look forward we look to to continue to unite this command sergeant major Albright well thank you mayor and uh thank you members of council and and to our County Judge too uh you know we do have a great partnership um I can't do any of this without the people standing behind me uh and those that couldn't even make it in that sent their regrets to us as well they said I'm so sorry I have something else going I can't make it it really is a collective effort for everything that we're doing uh the support that we get from the city staff and the city manager is just absolutely amazing um and and everything that we do uh we don't think of it as work it's a purpose and it's a passion and and we look at it as it's it's the right thing to do it's not because we need to do it it's because it's the right thing to do uh you know we look at the partnership with Fort Bliss that we have it is amazing it has gone back you know a hundred years you know almost so we're we're that partnership is going to continue to get stronger it's going to get better uh you know it we starting a campaign called better at Bliss uh better at Bliss is going to go out nationally to all of the service members so that they recognize that that Fort Bliss in El Paso is where you want to be this is where you're going to be taken care of your your sons and your daughters as they're going to school are going to be taken care of in school as you transition out you're going to be taken care of and then we're continuing the narrative that not only is better at Bliss but The Narrative of El Paso's sons and daughters that joined the Armed Forces wherever you go in the world you have a place to come home here and we're going to take care of you we're going to make sure that you transition correctly we're going to make sure that you get taken care of that we take care of you from everything from mental to financial to physical health to whatever that you need we're here to support you and when we say support it's in the terms of actions and not just words we will continue to find the gaps and services will continue to find the and synchronize the resources that are needed to take care of all of our veterans and all of our military families so uh thank you for all of your support once again thank you no thank you all and judge thank you for like I said now it's official thank you all and I know that um everyone came up here but all the veterans that are in this room please stand up all our veterans thank you all for your service to our country but to our city also thank you and may God bless everyone representative Kennedy who was a Vietnam veteran and a helicopter pilot I wanted to say that I was born in Minneapolis but the Army took me home because I came here with the Army and uh and I found my permanent home here and so when you talked about people in the military retiring I thought you were urging me to retire but hopefully that's not what you meant there are so many people you run into on your day-to-day basis and then when you end up talking to them you found out they came here because of the military and they decided to stay so I'm one of those like I say I was born in Minneapolis but the Army took me home when it took me to El Paso so thank you to the Army thank you we could probably spend another five hours and we wouldn't run out of things to say about our veterans and the men and women that have committed to our country Okay so thank you all mayor we do have public comment from this Turner on this item yes ma'am we also have delirious montagnas but I don't see her in the queue judge I'd like you to know I've challenged other veterans to try to measure up to our community that's going to go so one of them's in Clarksville Tennessee what is that I don't know but I do representative Kennedy I asked the Army to either send me to Fort Campbell or Hawaii I got four Bliss I got all the sand but no water oh thank you all the sand but no water [Applause] thank you there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro tem olinar seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the resolution on item 30. on that motion call for the vote the voting session is open in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the final item that was moved to the Forefront is item 32 and this is discussion in action on a resolution declaring May 23rd veterans at breakfast day this item was submitted by representative Kennedy two things I love veterans so this all this means is that representative Kennedy is buying breakfast for everybody here's my make sure that's what that means start of a good day right thank you mayor whereas in May of 2010 the United States Army first sergeant retired Dan Webb formed veterans at breakfast with the cooperation of the new clock restaurant located at 8409 Dyer in northeast El Paso huevos country so by the way um whereas Dan Webb formed veterans at breakfast to provide a comfortable relaxing relaxing atmosphere where like-minded veterans from all military services military occupations and ranks could come together enjoy a cup of coffee in a social setting while working together in support of our veterans community whereas the mission of veterans at breakfast is to provide comfortable atmosphere for veterans regardless of their branch of service to gather socialized Network discussion issues receive informational updates and raise Community awareness of issues affecting veterans whereas veterans at breakfast charges no registration free no membership fee nor a formal commitment to be a member but welcomes veterans to meet share experiences and information and capitalize on networking opportunities and whereas veterans at breakfast supports our community by conducting food drives during Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays at Candy Drive during Easter which is the largest veterans community effort in support of El Paso's children and a summer cookout which brings Fort Bliss units and soldiers together with El Paso veterans to share a free meal and enjoy socializing mentorship and networking it also provides food and clothing to El Paso's homeless whereas veterans at breakfast recognize his veterans birthdays and newcomers to our veterans community recognizes sick and shut-in Veterans family members and departed loved ones also has a veteran of the Year Award with Rec which which recognizes individual veterans who have supported our veteran community whereas veterans at breakfast works with the El Paso veterans and writers association the veterans One-Stop Center and other veteran organizations in support of our veterans and Community the collaboration has resulted in the distribution of over two hundred thousand pounds of food and other necessities for our veterans Fort Bliss El Paso and surrounding communities and finally whereas Dan Webb the president and founder Monty Montgomery public affairs Gene yellowk Treasurer along with its members invite all to the monthly breakfast held the last Thursday of each month except December starting at 8 30 that's zero eight thirty for you in the military um and 8 30 for the civilian types resolved by the city of Council of the city of El Paso the city of El Paso proudly honors and recognizes the significant contribution from veterans at breakfast to our community and May 23rd shall be known as veterans at breakfast day signed by our mayor Oscar Lisa [Applause] sugar Roman good morning sir good to see you sir uh morning everybody represent Farrell good working with you we had a bad weekend didn't we yeah um you know we have served our country but when you guys our elected officials take the time to work with us to support our fellow veterans that is something that cannot be matched and it's very deeply appreciated veterans are breakfast when I started the VRA helped me get formed work with me patiently puts up with me Dan is a saint in some ways um they're just amazing and their impact on our community has been so positive but they're a team player they work with us they support the other groups representative candy I thank you for allowing me to present this through you this recognition it's our first time working together um I appreciate you thank you for your service representative molinar thank you for your service all right Dan you're up thank you thank you so much mayor and representative so we are so honored on behalf of veterans at breakfast to be able to be uh presented this uh resolution this morning uh if you have not been out to Veterans at breakfast I I trust that you come out and you will indeed come back uh we are we are loving and welcome our veteran organization like none other so uh I invite you to come out we we meet this Thursday by the way at 8 30 at uh post 58 on on Vulcan Avenue uh I cannot say enough about veterans that have not already been said so I'm not going to say too much about veterans it's just that we're we're glad to be a part of this community and and play a part of uh what we've what we deserve and what we have earned in this community El Paso have been been good to us and have been good to me I'm a little guy from Alabama and I tell you I knew I was going to retire out here and I stayed here and I wouldn't go no other place but El Paso and I just want to say one other thing there's a there's a representative that that set among you his name is Joe mullinar he was one of my Cooks believe it was not years ago uh he used to me he used to meet in my kitchen every meeting and we'll cook up the eggs and everything and so uh we're still there we started off with one individual I started off with one individual and we had time to have over a hundred people that attend our our monthly breakfast we want to thank you for giving us this opportunity thank you so much thank you I know there's uh some veterans that have walked up here if you all could introduce yourselves I would appreciate that Holly hollyfield thank you so much thank you man I can't do anything Richard Britton retired US Army thank you [Applause] Dorothy bird civilian because you know we do have civilians that do help out with veterans at breakfast because we believe in our military community thank you thank you make a move to approve we have a motion in a second he's looking at me to I'm just here Dan to honor such an amazing man part of our advisory uh board and just has done so much for us and a big part of the veterans Capital USA Dan not only is a veteran but as a person you're just an amazing person and along with Daryl here on this side uh equally thank you very much for all you do and that energy that you have to assist the community thank you thank you Motion in a second yes sir we also have public comment from Ms Turner again good morning mayor and Council in my official capacity as the chairwoman of the transgender and diverse Veterans of America guys if you need anything all you have to do is call me okay that goes for any veterans organization we're here to serve our veterans you put that uniform on we're family your brother your sister it goes for your family too thank you thank you Miss Turner thank you very much mayor uh yes veterans at breakfast um was a cook there for a long time way before I was a city representative out in Diana and it was all an honor and a pleasure to see so many people come together for the community so many veterans come together and it didn't matter who you are we fed you would talk to you we listened to you we made sure things were good things were happening and so representative Kenny thank you very much for sponsoring this item there is a motion made by representative Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor Pro tem molinar to approve the resolution on item 32. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor there's item number six I believe there are some students here that are also here to take photos with Council may we take item six next thank you item six is a resolution renaming vocational drive to Opportunity Drive thank you mayor hi I'm Maribel if you could bring the Riverside um students to the Forefront and if this morning's honorees will please remain in Chambers Council will take photos with you momentarily thank you there is a there's a resolution um on behalf of the Isleta Independent School District they have requested um to change the name of vocational drive to Opportunity Drive um this is part of my district as well I've attended the Vocational High School program and I've always wondered why does the street name vocational but I think it really is appropriate that we align our efforts and our street name and align them with Isleta Mrs Ginn would you share a few thoughts on on this item yes ma'am good morning mayor Lisa and City Council Members my name is Maribel Guillen I am the principal at Riverside High School and also at the career center at Riverside High School and so we're here today to ask and thank you for consideration to rename vocational drive as representative Hernandez mentioned education in in the education world it's always evolving and changing and so back when I was a student at Riverside High School we refer to programs such as cosmetology and culinary and so forth as vocational programs and so fast forward now to 2023 we don't refer to those programs as vocational anymore we refer to them as Career and Technical education and so there is a big shift now in in the education world where we have students that are interested in different careers and so in high school it's our responsibility to give them the tools necessary to explore those talents and so for example at the career center at Riverside High School we host all of the Isleta Independent School District high schools and they come and they study things such as culinary arts cosmetology gaming cyber security electrical trades and so we have 10 different in programs and I'm very proud of our district we are now getting a brand new building it's in the works uh and so with the new building and the new programs uh this is the reason why we feel that uh the street uh behind Riverside High School in the Lower Valley uh is used to refer to as vocational drive that we move with the times and with the new building and that we rename it opportunity Lane and very interesting is the fact that uh the name was proposed and voted on by our students and so really sometimes as Educators we need to remember that our students are also very capable of coming up with even better ideas than the adults and so when we brought this forth our students got together brainstormed a bunch of ideas and then they came up with the final vote which was opportunity Lane and this new building that's all opening up is exactly what it's going to be it's going to be opportunity for students that want to open their own businesses that want to study these very well paid jobs nowadays and so they're going to have the building and now we feel the street needs to uh you know kind of evolve with the times so to date with me we have a representation of um all of the Isleta Independent School District high schools we also have our associate superintendent with us which is uh Sylvia Rendon and she was instrumental as well in in making sure our building gets put together system principle in charge of the career center Mr Ben Melendez and then who's a veteran and then David Castro who is the counselor in charge at the career center so this is us and we want to thank you for your time and just kind of give you a little bit of background as to why we we would like to propose this change in the name thank you will everyone introduce themselves real quick please I'm from Riverside High School and I'm in the architecture program good morning my name's uh ilani rakovo I'm from Bel Air High School as a senior and I'm in the cyber security program good morning my name is renevia Nueva I go to Eastwood High School and I'm studying cosmetology good morning my name is Mackenzie Weber and I'm a senior at Eastwood I also attend the welding program at Riverside High School hello my name is Destiny Perez I am in culinary arts and I attend Riverside High School I'm Martina Alvarado I attend Riverside High School and I'm in audio video production hi my name is Andrea Flores and I attended via high school and I'm in the cosmetology program good morning my name is Ken Guerrero I attend Isla high school and I'm a part of the real estate program hi my name is Jorge Salazar and I am from Bel Air High School and I am in the game design program hi my name is Romina Perez Aguilar I'm a junior at Eastwood High School and I'm in the culinary arts program so these are students and this is Ms Rendon she is our associate superintendent of high schools hello good morning thank you thank you thank you thank you for that change and I know board trustee Mr posteo sends his regrets he really wanted to be here today but absolutely I think this is a wonderful idea that the school is is set for an unlimited possibilities I hear that there are new programs now in the program and and all of the friends I've made in the program are lifelong friends who all continued in engineering and Architectural Pathways and so congratulations to your efforts and thank you for bringing this to our attention and I would be glad to to make a motion in support of the the name change from vocational drive to Opportunity Drive there's some motion a second Miss Prime yes sir the motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve the resolution on item six on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously congratulations thank you you know one one last thing I'm going to say with uh congratulations to everyone and um thank you for everyone for being here um when the veterans were all here and the judge talked about the veterans and remind me of my father who's a World War II veteran that passed away about six years ago but uh he was always very proud the worst hat and I remember when I first got elected and we did Veterans Day I had the honor of having him here and taking his picture with all of us so it brought back some great memories and of course from great people that continue to serve our country thank you and uh I'm glad to see all the students were here to see how this community loves and feels for their veterans it's something really important in how we feel for Fort Bliss and how we're one community so it um it was great to have all the students here to to really that represent the future of our city and our country but also to see how we feel of the people that protect and the Finn are borders and make sure that we have the right to be elected officials and we have the right to have a voice so thank you again may God bless everyone thank you is there a motion to research into recess [Applause] there's a motion and a second Teresa is the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess at 10 31 a.m in order to take photos with this morning's honorees council members if I could get your attention real quick we're going to go ahead and start with Texas Tech University in terms of the photographs followed by the veterans organizations the items for the veterans organizations we're going to do this out in the lobby area the young women's steam research group if I could get your photograph outside in the entrance of the building itself as well as the students here from The Vocational AKA opportunity future opportunity if I could get you guys to meet me outside we're going to take group photos out there and then of course we're also going to take photographs with the internal Auditors group in the lobby area as well as the National Gun Violence group it's just you okay so we're gonna go ahead and do the law in the lobby area so if I can get the council members in the lobby area for me while I get the students outside students outside thank you foreign how are you sure last one thank you what's up foreign today oh yeah there's one or Olive just a handful just a few foreign is together foreign family exactly exactly units exactly foreign foreign yes wow [Music] technology you might wonder your hair what is it okay thank you oh my God motion to reconvene resume there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1104 A.M if you want to continue with the council items the next Council item is number 31 and this is discussion in action to approve a resolution that the city of El Paso accepts a recognition as a great American defense Community authorizes that the city's Chief military officer facilitate the placement of banners along Airway Boulevard and that the city council of El Paso declares that the expenditure of District 3 discretionary funds to support the placement of recognition banners along Airway Boulevard leading to the El Paso International airport serves a public purpose of honoring service members and supporting the Fort Bliss vision and economic development efforts this item was submitted by representative Hernandez thank you mayor um the city of El Paso has this this wonderful recognition and we're they're preparing for a visit um based on this recognition this June and so I've been working with the chief military officer on how we can appropriately honor our community most importantly when those tourists and and those honorees come to our community to to provide this award we want to make sure that we give them the first best impression which is the corridor along Airway um from the the airport down to I-10 and so we're excited to to help sponsor some of those initiatives and I'll read the resolution into the record whereas El Paso Texas is the home to Fort Bliss which is the second largest military installation in the U.S is the single largest employer in the region and is home to more than 2.5 million people whereas a substantial part of El Paso's Outreach strategy is Guided by The Landmark El Paso veterans needs assessment that we was launched in 2020 which shares the story of military life beyond installation fence lines and is imperative to the one Community Mission and whereas the city's military and Veteran Affairs Department sets a high standard with an impressive collection of Outreach programs designed to meet the needs of military veterans and their families and whereas the city of El Paso and Fort Bliss partnered to create Sun City Bliss which provides updates resources and City happenings to Veterans military families and residents in the El Paso region and Arizona City's social media City TV and Fort Bliss platforms and whereas the association of Defense communities is a 300 plus member organization dedicated to building strong communities that support America's military and every defense Community State in the nation and as the association of Defense communities hosts the Great American defense communities gadc program which recognizes and celebrates communities with an exceptional commitment to improving the lives of service members veterans and their families and Raz with great honor the association of Defense communities has recognized the city of El Paso Texas as one of its 2023 Great American defense communities and whereas City representative Cassandra Hernandez wishes his wishes to promote this honorable distinction by allocating a thousand dollars to support the placement of recognition banners along Airway Boulevard leading to the El Paso International Airport now therefore be it resolved by city council and the city of El Paso that the city of El Paso proudly accepts the recognition as a great American defense Community authorizes the city's Chief military officer to facilitate the placement of banners along Airway Boulevard and that the city council of El Paso declares the expenditure of District 3 discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars to support the placement of recognition banners along Airway Boulevard leading to the El Paso International airport serves the public purpose of honoring service members and supporting the Fortress vision and economic development efforts further the city managers authorized to execute any related agreements amendments to such agreements and documents necessary to carry out the purpose of this resolution and I make a motion to approve second thank you and then the the only other comment I make in a CSM Albright is not here at this moment but he will extend an invitation now to city council and with those additional events will be and so this is part of those efforts thank you Motion in a second his hair is a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 31. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item is 33 and this is a presentation and discussion by the El Paso harm reduction Alliance on the importance of Citywide Narcan distribution how the city can further Implement harm reduction strategies and testimony from Community stakeholders mayor would you like to take 33 and 34 together representative would you like to take 33 and 34 together yes ma'am thank you for that thank you item 34 is discussion in action to approve a resolution for the city to enhance harm reduction strategies to help mitigate the opiate crisis in our community these items were submitted by mayor Pro tem anello and representatives Canales and Salcido thank you and I would like to um I would like to ask the harm reduction Alliance to come up and introduce themselves before they begin their presentation good morning good morning my name is Luis Garza I'm the chief medical officer for project Media Health Center thank you Dr Garza for being here good morning council members and mayor my name is Jamie Bailey I am a woman in long-term recovery and I serve as one of the chairs for the El Paso harm reduction Alliance as well as a peer recovery support specialist with project Vita good morning good morning mayor and Council my name is Christopher Bailey and I am the project Court one of the project coordinators for project Vita I'm also the lead chair and the convener for the El Paso recovery oriented systems of care which is a coalition of service providers for substance use disorder as well as stakeholders in our community good morning my name is Christine zimmerly and I'm one of the project coordinators for project punto de partida project a harm reduction Center in northeast El Paso and I'm a woman in long-term recovery from substance use disorder which means that I have overcome my problematic relationship with substances and I'm one of the chairs of the harm reduction Alliance good morning good morning Council thank you for having us I'm Adan Dominguez I am the program director for Recovery Alliance for the the drop-in centers that are in northeast San Ramos and Central El Paso La punto de partida and I too am a person in long-term recovery thank you for having us thank you my name is Marisela Tavares I am part of the harm reduction Alliance and I work for project punto de partida I am a peer recovery support specialist and I am Outreach lead thank you thank you good morning mayor and Council my name is Paul Enriquez I'm also in long-term recovery I am a recovery support peer specialist for Punta de partida and also a member of the harm reduction Alliance thank you thank you good morning everybody my name is Ray Fontano I'm a peer recovery support specialist with an integrated Outreach for the unhome program I also am a member in long-term recovery thank you good morning everybody my name is Katie O'Brien I'm a peer recovery support specialist at this project of Sarah demos location thank you very thank you good morning everybody I am also a peer support recovery specialist I am also the uh chair of the re-entry peer advisory Council and a person in recovery myself thank you thank you Chad if I didn't say that [Laughter] Council my name is Gilbert Shepard I'm in a long-term recovery I'm a particular I like to just call myself as a recovery coach and we're on the front lines out there in El Paso thank you thank you good morning Marion Council my name is Taylor Freeman I am a woman in long-term recovery and I am a peer support recovery support specialist with project Vita thank you hi my name is Tino Ortega I work with Alliance of border collaboratives under the project hope um project and I'm in charge of uh Outreach thank you mayor council Ronnie Spooner and I'm a man in recovery thank you sir with that I would like to invite you to um to start your presentation thank you good morning members of city council and federal fellow citizens of El Paso again my name is Luis Garris I'm the chief medical officer for project Vita Health Center and I am here to today to talk to you about an issue that affects so many of our fellow passions which is substance use disorder as all you know substance use disorder is a significant public health problem in our community it affects people of all Races age socioeconomic backgrounds the good news is that there are proven programs and treatments that can help people recover from these disorders and regain control of their lives however to make these programs effective we need your support research has shown that the most effective substance use disorder programs are those that provide a comprehensive range of services including counseling medication assisted treatment and support for families and loved ones unfortunately most of these programs are underfunded and struggle to provide the services that people need in addition for uh funding for substance use disorder programs we also need your support for other critical initiatives in harm reduction Narcan is a medication that can reverse opioid overdose overdose and save lives we need funding to make Narcan more widely available to First Responders and especially to community members decriminalizing finally fentanyl testing strips is another important step in the fight against substance use disorder these strips can help people determine whether the drugs that they are using contain Fentanyl a deadly opioid that has caused a surge in overdoses in recent years and finally we need support for safe syringe programs which provide clean needles and other harm reduction supplies to people who use injection drugs these programs have shown to reduce the spread of infection like HIV and hepatitis C as well as connect people to health services and substance use disorder treatments as chief medical officer for project Vita I see firsthand the positive impact that these initiatives can have on individuals and their families they not only save lives but also reduce healthcare costs and improve Community safety I urge you to consider the importance of funding for these programs as you make decisions about the city's budget we cannot afford to let our friends and neighbors suffer in silence we need to take action to provide the support and resources they need to recover and Lead healthy productive lives thank you for your time and attention and I look forward to working with you to Medical Paso healthier and a more Vibrant Community thank you thank you doctor [Applause] I'm here on behalf of the El Paso harm reduction Alliance to present on funding for Narcan and support for harm reduction here in El Paso as an alliance our mission is to provide a space to advocate for the human rights of people with substance use disorders and to promote the principles of harm reduction to improve quality of life for individuals and their communities overdose death is now the leading cause of injury death for U.S adults with 170 Americans dying every day from overdose of these overdose deaths almost 68 percent involve a prescription or illicit opioid there are some concerning statistics on opioid use in our country every 19 minutes someone dies from the misuse of prescription drugs every year more people die from a prescription overdose than car accidents half of all Americans are on prescription drugs and on average each person has about five different prescriptions overdose has become the leading cause of unintentional deaths in our country drug overdose has even superseded deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents multiple organizations listed here have said that opioid use disorder is the epidemic of Our Generation It is believed that our generation will be the first to have a shorter lifespan as a result of this the advocacy group families against fentanyl examine CDC data and determined that fentanyl has now become the leading cause of death for people ages 18 to 45. in 2019 and 2020. overdoses cause more deaths in the United States annually than guns suicide homicide and car crashes according to a bipartisan Congressional report published in February of last year two-thirds of the nation's overdose deaths between June 2020 and may 2021 involves synthetic opioids like Fentanyl according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine from 2019 to 2022 nationally we have lost more people to opioid overdose than both sides did during the 10 years of the Vietnam conflict locally here in El Paso 97 people died by opioid overdose in in 2021 this was according to data that the medical examiner provided in January of 2022 and there were still some pending deaths that were waiting to get reported on we know that this number is vastly underreported as well that was nearly twice the number of opioid overdoses that than there were in 2018. this is part of a deadly Nationwide trend of skyrocketing overdose deaths and that number is only growing as a result of new substances like xylazine fentanyl caused most of these deaths there are four different opioids listed here as having caused these drug-related deaths in El Paso they include Fentanyl heroin morphine and methadone as Dr Garza mentioned Narcan is a life-saving medication it comes in an injectable form and is often referred to by its generic name which is naloxone it is also available as a Narcan nasal spray Narcan reverses overdoses by reversing the respiratory suppression that is a side effect of opioids once that respiratory depression has occurred it only takes four to six minutes for brain death to occur National EMS response time is seven minutes so even under the best circumstances when 9-1-1 is called a person can still experience uh over a fatal overdose from brain death Narcan is an opioid antagonist and it pushes the opioids off the opioid receptor in the body it attaches there and remains there for 30 to 90 minutes not allowing the opioids to reattach and the in the individual wakes up and a life is saved it's kind of like getting the wrong key stuck in a lock I often get asked why we're able to carry and administer Narcan here in Texas without a prescription in answer to this question there was a Statewide standing order that went into effect following the passing of Texas Senate Bill 1462 in 2015. this legislation said that Texans who carry and administer Narcan in good faith in an attempt to Save a Life are protected from Criminal and civil liability as well as professional disciplinary action for those who are licensed health care providers in March of this year the FDA approved norcad nasal spray for over-the-counter non-prescription use the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription FDA commissioner Robert Calif stated that the FDA remained committed to addressing the evolving complexities of the overdose crisis as part of this work the agency has used its regulatory authority to facilitate greater access to naloxone by encouraging the development and approving an over-the-counter naloxone product to address the dire Public Health need approval of over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray will help improve access to naloxone increase the number of locations where it's available and help reduce opioid overdose deaths throughout the country sub chapter e of chapter 483 Texas health and safety code permits any person or organization acting under a standing order issued by the prescriber authorized by law to prescribe an opioid antagonist to store and distribute naloxone to any person at risk which is really any person using substances of experiencing an opioid related drug overdose or to a family member friend or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of experiencing an opioid related drug overdose as long as a person or organization acting under a standing order does not seek or receive compensation for these actions this provision acts to permit such groups such as non-profits drug treatment centers and other harm reduction organizations to distribute naloxone to those who might be able to use it to save lives the law also permits any person to possess naloxone even if the person does not have a prescription for it the law permits any person who acts in good faith and with reasonable care to administer naloxone to another person who the person believes is suffering an opioid related overdose anyone who does so is immune from Criminal prosecution civil liability and sanction under Professional Licensing statutes I'll turn it over to my colleague Christopher thank you thank you good afternoon Council my name is Christopher Bailey I'm a man in long-term recovery what that means to me is that I haven't had cause to touch a drop of alcohol or drug since August 7th of 1997. I started using when I was eight years old thank you I started using drugs when I was eight years old I was just a kid and I can tell you that it wasn't long before I picked up my first opioid and the first opioid I picked up was out of a medicine bottle in my grandmother's medicine cabinet we were both at risk for overdose both of us were the key factor in this and what I'd like to do before we continue on with this presentation is to take you back to the invocation that we had this morning one of the things the gentleman said when he prayed for all of us is that we look in the face of another human being we're looking back at the face of our creator and I will tell you that I will go one step further to say that what you do unto the least of me you do unto me for far too long substance use disorder and addiction has been stigmatized as being a moral problem that we are bad people trying to be good when in fact most of us are sick people who are getting well this simple fact of the matter is that we need some help in order to do that in order to help individuals do that and it it is a far cry in order to do that to have the cities buy-in to be able to achieve that and that's why we're here today in the presentation of this problem I'm not an individual because I am in recovery who likes to just come up with a problem and complain we do have Solutions if you look at this chart this information came by an open records request from the El Paso Fire Department and according to this information as of 2022 you can see the increase of Narcan deployments in first responder interactions with individuals the trend line is very telling Narcan is increasing uh and opioid use uses are increasing as are overdoses we know that there is settlement money that is coming both to the city and the county from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that began this opioid epidemic to begin with we implore the city of El Paso mayor and Council to allow some of this money not all of it but some of it to go towards funding the supply of Narcan to be distributed throughout the various shelters Outreach organizations Resource Centers and local government agencies that can therefore be given to those in need throughout our community in any capacity when we're waging a war against an addiction it is the proper deployment of tools that achieves the victory Narcan is the life-saving medication used to reverse overdoses caused by opiates heroin Fentanyl and Vicodin are just some examples in 2021 107 000 people died from opioid overdose in the United States 97 of those deaths were in El Paso alone and I can communicate to you that if I look around this room there's not one person in this room whose life has not been touched by addiction in some form or another this is not including the deaths that often go unreported or appending verification and the reason why we say that at least in the state of Texas is that we have 11 medical examiners to supply um death certificates for over 234 counties in Texas as a result of that most of those go to justices of the peace who do not have the money in their coffers to pay for tax reports and so most overdoses fatal overdoses go unreported since March of 2022 the non-profit opioid crisis center punto de partida has given out at least 240 doses with a retail cost of 16 920 of Narcan two police officers who have sought the life-saving medicine due to lack of resources in 2021 531 Narcan kits were used by the El Paso Fire Department alone Narcan helps to prevent fatal overdoses and it saves lives while I think it seems obvious why it's important for traditional First Responders such as law enforcement the fire department and EMS to carry Narcan what about Narcan community members why should the Narcan I'm sorry what about community members and Outreach members why should they carry Narcan there's actually a very good reason for this over the past several decades more than 250 000 people have experienced an opioid overdose 77 percent of those occurred outside of a medical setting and outside of first responder interaction every second of response time matters as my colleague mentioned earlier when someone's not breathing um seven minutes means the world opioid-induced respiratory depression can lead to permanent brain damage in as little as four minutes and death can occur in as little as four to six minutes consider this and the fact that the U.S national average EMS response times takes about seven minutes meaning meaning that the time from calling 9-1-1 to helping help arriving can take up to seven minutes if not more for individuals living in a rural setting this response time can be up to 14 minutes so again when someone isn't breathing every second matters this highlights the importance of community members having access to Narcan so that they can administer that first life-saving dose while they wait for EMS to arrive on scene and I would remind Council that we had a lot of individuals come up for proclamations and to be recognized students veterans children all of whom could have been at risk for this overdose either accidental or through um a night gone wrong they may not have made it up to this Podium today also consider that 80 percent of Overdose reversals are not performed by EMS or law enforcement they're done by people just like you who may be community members peers or family members of someone in need of help further one-half to two-thirds of people who use heroin have experienced at least one non-fatal overdose and once someone has experienced an overdose it's much more likely to happen again and it's much more likely that it will be fatal and eight eighty percent of people who use drugs have observed an overdose at least 80 percent this is just one more reason why we should all carry Narcan and why we need the city to help fund Narcan there is a multi-pronged solution to the opioid crisis first decreasing the number of opioids being prescribed to the minimum needed after painful procedures such as surgery or dental work is critical it's also important that we look for other alternatives to pain management for example non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as Motrin which can be oftentimes more effective in managing chronic pain than opioids properly disposing a prescription opioids no longer needed is also important there are many prescription take back days one can participate to get rid of an unneeded opioids and I'll remind you where I got my first dose another solution is access to evidence-based treatment fortunately when talking about opioid use disorder there are several FDA medications available that can significantly improve recovery successes these medications include methadone buprenorphine also known as Suboxone or Subutex ornaltrexin Vivitrol unfortunately this isn't true for many other types of substance use disorders one thing that's important to note um though is that prescribers should avoid discontinuing discontinued prescribing of opioids to dependent individuals without ensuring they have access to treatment services while we want to limit the number of prescription opioids in our community and prevent individuals from developing a problem with them it's also dangerous and frankly unethical to cut someone off who has become physically dependent without providing access to treatment services and for those that have been cut off by doctors I would ask you to investigate and imagine where they get their pain relief from doing so may Force individuals who have become dependent to look for other and possibly illicit opioid sources which can increase their risk for overdose co-prescribing of life-saving medications like naloxone and Narcan with all prescription opioids is also very important and should become best practice many states are now requiring prescribers of opioids to co-prescribe Narcan with every opioid prescription to ensure anyone at risk for overdose can have access to it which is truly anyone taking opioids finally community-wide access to Narcan and harm reduction supplies is a must this doesn't mean just law enforcement EMS or fire but also friends family members and significant others of people who use opioids we also need access to um FTS or Fitness fentanyl testing strips and the ability to carry and use them without fear of criminal prosecution I can tell you in the state of Texas our Outreach workers that hand out fentanyl testing strips they risk their freedom or at least being cited if not arrested for carrying fentanyl testing strips because they're currently outlawed and against the law um a study involving a community-based fentanyl testing strip distribution program in North Carolina found that 81 percent of those with access to fentanyl testing strips routinely tested their drugs before use those with a positive test result were five times more likely to change their drug use Behavior to reduce the risk of overdose amidst a growing opioid overdose epidemic we know that fentanyl testing strips save hard-working Texas money save countless lives and therefore we ask for your support to find a way to decriminalize them here in El Paso I also would be remiss if I did not mention safe syringe programs we are also petitioning the city and elected officials to support safe syringe programs or what are commonly known as ssps in order to reduce overdose deaths and the spread of infectious diseases including HIV and hepatitis C in our communities theaters these diseases are not just confined to communities of use ssps deliver life-saving services to people who are unable or unwilling to stop injecting drugs so they and their families can remain disease free ssps are evidence-based cost-effective and have demonstrated great success in both disease and overdose prevention and are proven effective in getting people with substance use disorders into care and into treatment all without increasing crime and illicit drug use in jurisdictions where they operate safe syringe programs are associated with a 58 reduction in the incidence of HIV infection among people who inject drugs this is a key fact other cities in Texas like San Antonio have successfully implemented such programs using Federal funding a bill that would have allowed needle exchange programs in Texas largest counties passed the state of State House of Representatives in 2021 but was not taken up by the Senate safe syringe programs are intended to prevent the costly Downstream results of drug use HIV hcv hep C abscesses and other illnesses among a population that rarely has health insurance by Distributing sterile syringes and properly disposing of use syringes we are able to help prevent these diseases and therefore the burden for emergency medicine in regard to hospital use every dollar invested in ssps has a return of seven dollars in HIV and HPV hcv treatment non-fatal overdose care in ERS and icu's cost taxes approximately 20 billion annually in addition to saving money safe syringe programs also encourage positive and healthy changes amongst participants in fact participants are five times more likely to enter substance use treatment such as medication-assisted treatment like methadone Suboxone and Vivitrol and safe syringe programs benefit people and communities economically from both an economic and public health standpoint working together we can help prevent deaths from overdose in El Paso we can prevent more broken hearts we can prevent broken families we can promote a cost-effective and compassionate approach to care we can keep our community safe thank you for your time Council thank you [Applause] can we take public comment on item 33 please press yes ma'am you want comment on only item 33 correct okay the first person that signed up to speak aside from the presenters is Paul Enriquez to the list sir Paul Enriquez good morning you have three minutes thank you as a recovery support peer specialist I have participants interactive addiction many of them are using Fentanyl I took testimony last week from one participant who's actually in Tree in a treatment center when he overdosed it back in April of this year he was at home he told me I was trying to quit fentanyl for the last five years and it felt like there was no way out I felt like I was going to be an addict forever and I was just tired of disappointing my family I kind of gave up on myself I had overdosed plenty of times it's just this last time was intentional I was just done with life I didn't want to live life anymore that's what led to the overdose I asked him was Narcan used to bring you back he said yes his mother had used Narcan on him when I asked him what his thoughts were on being administered Narcan he thought he told me it saves lives I'm not gonna lie it was a really bad feeling and a really bad process after I was hit with the Narcan and that's when my mom took me to my first n a meeting that was the first time I heard anything about recovery I didn't know that was an option so she didn't hit me with the Narcan I would def I definitely would have died and I wouldn't be here today working on my recovery I asked my participant do you think you would have approached police or called the police if you knew someone that that overdosed his response was I don't talk to Cops I don't talk to Cops I didn't know cops carried Narcan so maybe so maybe I would have asked them since I'm not using now but while I was in my active addiction I definitely would not have asked them working at Punta de partida since June of last year we've haven't we've had incidents of overdose in the office one such instance was a gentleman overdosing outside our office and we were not aware the paramedics were called when they arrived on the scene they did not have Narcan so they came into our office and asked us this is just one instance of many where paramedics and police officers are not being supplied with Narcan last year in October of 2022 I had an episd teacher call our office and asked us if we would be able to provide her husband with Narcan she she sent her husband to our office to provide Narcan for them they were going to be chaperoning a school trip and wanted to be wanted to be prepared in case any of the kids had overdosed this teacher told me that she knows kids as young as 13 and 14 who are using Fentanyl and she was very grateful that we were able to provide the Narcan for this trip thank you my time thank you the next speaker is Marisela Tavarez followed by Gilbert Shepard Chad horn and Katie O'Brien good morning you have three minutes hello good morning again I work for project Monto de partida I am a recovery coach and Outreach lead we we're an opioid crisis center by the way we do Outreach three days a week three to four hours each day we get to see firsthand what fentanyl is doing to our community in the months of March April and this month combined we have had 63 fentanyl reported overdoses nine of them did not survive the fentanyl crisis keeps getting worse every day right now in our office we have two boxes of Narcan left we don't know what we are going to tell our community when they ask us for Narcan and we have none none for them if you all can help us with Narcan or funds for Narcan our community would really appreciate it lives are on the line here this is a life and death situation thank you thank you the next speaker is Gilbert Shepherd followed by Chad horn good morning you have three minutes hi I'm going to Shepard on I'm a long time user of heroin but I'm also a veteran of my captain from the Army and so um I got hit by a car in Shreveport Louisiana and I was given morphine and everything but let me tell you when I got back to El Paso I became a heroin addict and it took a long time for me to get off of it but today as I work as a recovery coach I've seen some miracles happen on the streets of El Paso and just because of Narcan never heard of it but I've seen people turn blue and right here in their office and if it wouldn't happen if it wasn't for Narcan they'd be dead right now and their ages really get to me because I'm 65 and these kids are um 30 25 they never had a chance and I can remember as a heroin addict I was always lucky you know what I mean I never thought it would happen to me I didn't think I'd ever overdose I think I'm lucky every time I take a hit I remember that but sometimes when you're not lucky it's a good thing to have a friend around and nowadays it's a good thing to have a friend around who's got Narcan in his pocket and that's why I'm up here today to just uh let this Council know that if we can fund Narcan we can save lives and uh and that's very important to me and it's very important to our community and that's all I really have to say my name is Gilbert and thank you thank you sir [Applause] is Chad horn followed by Katie O'Brien good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning um I really didn't prepare for this correctly but I do feel like I was meant to be here today I've struggled with addiction since I was 17. my mom was an addict and I fell into it because that's really all I knew I used intravenously and by the grace of God I don't have any diseases I um heard something shared earlier about driving around while your oil is leaking doesn't make any sense and refilling it with oil every 50 miles doesn't make any sense but if you don't fill it with oil the car is not going to work and I believe well if we do hand out Narcan that doesn't mean that they're going to get clean the next day and they're not going to flip their life around but it gives them the chance to and it is a miracle that I'm Not Dead the things that I've been through I am now I'm at a point in my life where I am before all of you wonderful people I'm in a position to advocate for people like me I was terrified and I was lost and I'm now in a position where I get to work with the court system to help people who are getting out and to help them know that recovery is a real thing and it's a lot easier to hear from somebody who's been through it and that is why I believe harm reduction is very important it gives the opportunity for people who are scared of police and scared of authority to still have a chance to find Hope and to find their own recovery and I definitely do appreciate your guys's time and you guys willing to work with us on an issue to hit so close to home to me thank you thank you sir the next speaker is Katie O'Brien followed by Christine zimmerly good morning you have three minutes good morning last Friday I was able to save a life a a woman came into our location and she was in distraught and said that there was a person overdosing in the parking lot when I as I went she the guy the gentleman was blue he did not have a pulse I had to administer four doses of Narcan and we did call 9-1-1 and if I would if we did not have this Narcan we would not have been able to save this life the gentleman would have died in our parking lot he would have this this narcad is so important to not only to our organization but our community that's all I have to say thank you thank you man the next speaker is Christine zimmerly followed by Adan Dominguez so I've worked as a peer recovery support specialist since 2019 and I've worked in harm reduction centers since I started as a peer recovery support specialist and I lost my first peer to opioid overdose in 2019. and and uh the most difficult thing about that was that this person's partner called me on the phone and asked me for Narcan but I was in central El Paso and they were they were in Horizon and the opioid crisis only continues to get worse in January of 2022 I had a family member overdose required Narcan to be administered six times and after they woke up in the hospital finally they decided to seek recovery we don't know when someone will seek a change when they are sick and using but what we do know is that if we don't keep them alive they won't have the chance 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and that is why the El Paso harm reduction Alliance is working hard to train community members and partners how to administer Narcan I work in the center where Miss O'Brien talked about I was there when the overdose happened and we ran out of Narcan that day we did find some from another facility but we are very low we have one box right now remaining in our Center and people come to us for Narcan every day I love El Paso I love this community I'm here to advocate for El Paso wins lives please help me thank you thank you our next speaker is Adan Dominguez followed by Lonnie Spooner and Omar Carmona good morning good morning Council my name is adando menges I have the uh honor and blessing to be uh the director for the opioid crisis centers we were funded uh about four years ago as the opioid answered to the El Paso's answers to the opioid crisis recovery Alliance the agency I work for is a recovery Community organization it's Unique in the sense that all of our employees have lived experience with with uh some kind of substance use disorder and so we are very familiar with the progress of this addiction and I wanted to address the stigma that hasn't been mentioned before there's a pre-contemplative stage where it frustrates a lot of people because there's no telling if there's going to be a decision to go into recovery but we work in the cracks and crevices of that area where we provide education and support to those individuals through a an empathetic approach and it is evidence-based we are funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration uh and through state agencies we've amassed about two million dollars in the last few years in in creating these programs that introduce harm reduction into the uh the model of a treatment or we're not a treatment facility but we we go into the cracks and crevices to educate the community we've done education programs in libraries and schools and universities and uh we we try to educate people as far as the the progress of the addiction the denial stage where many people don't make it out of but we uh we offer hope uh through education and awareness um we uh are the little guys I consider ourselves in the model we get overlooked uh for funding opportunities and yet we have saved you know our two programs alone the Santa demos and punto de partida have saved about a thousand I mean a hundred lives in just the last three months so the shortage of Narcan could not come at at the worst time for our community we do Outreach to the community at least three times a week and distribute Narcan freely to people who may need them and educate them on how to use it and our sources for the Narcan that we distributed dried up because of the covet funds that were available that made these freely available so we ask that you we don't get overlooked as a recovery Community organization in the funding scheme and the distribution of funds so and by the way I also am the uh the director for the board of uh directors for the El Paso Coalition for the homeless so these are populations that often get overlooked and under minimized in value so I I ask and beseech this account to take us into consideration thank you for your time the next speaker is Lonnie Spooner followed by Omar Carmona [Applause] good morning you have three minutes ladies and gentlemen I see you against her in past month I've lost four two two friends two Associates and nearly lost another associate defend or overdose uh the last the last friend who who recovered those Narcan Narcan available it's really bad we got kids I've run into I run into youngsters v1617 already using they're smoking it and they're already hooked on it and it's a you you see him on the street panhandling so they can so they can get another another pill these pills go five dollars a piece there's a there's an even stronger batch out there that's deadlier and heroin addicts have already told me the the day they don't even want to come in contact with it it's so strong it's it's really bad uh programs like Punta de partia they help out with narcam I myself I I don't use fentanyl but I have a lot of Associates and and friends and people I consider family who have been affected by this is uh fentanyl thing uh the part the part that gets me is uh younger guys you know getting hooked on it and there was one uh a young guy we call Wilson and he was I believe it was a 19 to 20 year old young man and wasn't available but time to paramedics arrived he was already dead I've had uh Associates who have OD'd four times and now you know I I advise and get help you can lead a horse with water we cannot make a horse drink so you know investing is what's available to save lives it seems bad out there it's really bad and it's getting worse and it's it's stronger stuff hitting the streets at the moment I speak right now and if there is no action this thing's going to go out of control thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you the next speaker is Omar hermona good morning you have three minutes good morning honorable mayor Lisa good morning good morning honorable Council my name is Omar Carmona I am a local criminal defense lawyer at the CLM Law Firm for the last 16 years I've been able to represent uh many juveniles and adolescents in this community I am one of the lawyers that's eligible to receive Court appointments at the Juvenile Probation Department and I have seen firsthand the dangers that drugs are causing especially these opioids in our schools when Mr Bailey was speaking earlier he had mentioned that he started using narcotics at eight years old and I saw some eyes light up unfortunately I'm not as surprised anymore what's vital to this community the future of this community is education and prevention initiatives like Narcan safe syringe programs are vital I am seeing firsthand how lives are spiraling out of control at such a young age it seems like as El pasoans almost on a daily basis we are talking about kids with automatic weapons a lot of cash on the streets our law enforcement is doing everything they can to prevent this but they are also spread very thin so I ask that the city can consider these initiatives and appreciate just how vital they are thank you thank you sir to the record by the El Paso harm reduction Alliance and it reads dear mayor and council members I'm writing to express my enthusiastic support of El Paso city funding for the life-saving medication Narcan to be distributed at least to the city's First Responders if not throughout various shelters harm reduction Outreach organizations Resource Centers and local government agencies Narcan is a life-saving medicine used to reverse an overdose caused by opiates Based on data provided by El Paso's medical examiner on January 26 2022 in 2021 107 000 people died from opioid overdose in the United States 97 of those deaths occurred in El Paso these deaths do not include those that often go unreported or which were pending verification Narcan retails at around 141 dollars per dose since March of 2022 a local non-profit opioid crisis center has given out at least 240 doses of Narcan with a retail cost of 16 920 of an arcan to El Paso police officers who have sought the life-saving medicine due to lack of resources in 2021 531 Narcan kits were used by the El Paso Fire Department alone the number increased to 645 in 2022 each of these doses used represents a life saved we know that Narcan helps to prevent fatal overdoses and saves lives the results from this funding will contribute a great deal towards helping to save lives in El Paso I look forward to City Council Members supporting this worthwhile Endeavor and helping improve the health of our community sincerely Alliance of Border collaboratives project Vita Endeavors punto de partida recovery Alliance Fernando Gonzalez UT Health Science Center San Antonio project beta help students for public health president of SPH trigoberto Delgado PhD MBA UT Health Mary Allen Hernandez border substance abuse Council John W Martin deputy director of the Opportunity Center Camille Castillo executive director of El Paso Coalition for the homeless Ivan Tapia acps and Charles Garcia Trinity Center Homeward Bound Inc chief executive officer that concludes public comment on item 33. thank you Miss Prine we have a pro tem followed by represent Canales and represent Salcido thank you thank you mayor thank you to everybody who is here today for for giving the presentation for sharing your stories since I put this item up the agenda came out on Thursday I've heard from a lot of media and they keep asking the question why are we doing this now um and you know I've shared with all of them a story about how I had a relative who passed away from an overdose two summers ago but hearing the the speakers today I you know I was reminded of the very first opioid overdose that I experienced in my life 21 years ago and I keep thinking that if 21 years ago when I was 17 years old at the funeral for my childhood friend if you had told me that there was something that you could provide people to prevent this I would be shocked that we were even having this conversation today right shocked at the conversations happening at the state level that there would be any kind of limitations on something like this but I digress the real reason that we're even able to have this conversation today if we're being fully honest is that we have been I guess a awarded a large sum of money through the opioid lawsuits that have happened Nationwide each Community received money and we have received I believe missing units 384 thousand dollars um and and that's huge for us right that really gives us the ability to do this um in a way that we would have never been able to do before right we have these conversations during covert covert with the influx of arpa funds really allowed us to address issues that we've never been able to address before and I think it's really important that we as a council and if you go through this resolution and you see the things that it talks about and I'll get into them a little bit more in depth it's our responsibility of this Council to make sure that we are allocating those monies appropriately and that we are coming up with a plan for the future because 384 thousand dollars is a lot of money when it comes to funding something that we don't have in existence but then that money runs out and if we don't plan now it's going to be wasted dollars right and so um I want to talk a little bit about the the groups that were here today and the work that we've done so many of you on Council know that I don't like to to write any kind of legislation without Community groups and it impacts I'm really happy that I've been able to work with the harm reduction Alliance that they reached out to me I think their organization in general is a reflection of that peer support is extremely important these are the individuals who know what is needed that are on the ground that understand what the outcome should be but I also you know spent a lot a lot of time talking to Chief nagasino about what the plans are I mean a lot of what you see in this resolution is you know was already planned by the police and fire departments planned by the city a little bit goes a little bit further and we can talk about that but this was not something that was just written without the guidance of both the community and staff and so I do want to talk a little bit about the database portion here I Know Chief and I had spoken about that and it's a little it is I think something in the resolution that will be the hardest thing to do but we heard from members of the public on how important data is we as a council are very data driven and it is extremely important that we are working our hardest to get that data for community members for this community to understand what the issue is these are things that have been talked about at the state I know that I had shared with Chief nagasino that Austin had launched their program last week and and kind of shared a contact with him what I didn't tell him is after sharing that with him the staff member from Austin said this is going to be a learning experience right we don't have all of the answers we're not launching this knowing it's going to be a hundred percent but we're doing it because it's what we need to do and it's the right thing to do and I think that's really how we should be looking at this I've heard a lot about you know is this going to solve the problem no it's not and and quite frankly it's not within the council's purview or authority or knowledge to be able to take on this larger issue of Fentanyl and overdoses in the opioid crisis but we do have this tool in front of us and it's the only tool that we have and it is extremely important that we are putting it to the best use that we can we've heard Amazing Stories from community members today about the individuals that they help or that they have tried to help and if right if this policy can save one life it's extremely important that we are putting that this forward that we are approving this that we are giving the direction to the community that it is important to us to be there as assistants as many of the individuals spoke today are because they've experienced that you may not you know for Council up here you may not have experienced this in your life you may not know anybody who has had an addiction or has passed away from addiction but your neighbors do the people in this room do your constituents do and it's extremely important that we move forward to protect them I want to talk a lot I think there are some great things that were spoken about I think Mr Chris Bailey in his presentation his slides talked about the Outreach it's really important that we with the health department with our police departments with our fire department are making sure we're getting out Outreach for prevention and access to treatment I think those are extremely important things in this resolution it's not enough just to provide Narcan but to really Point people in the directions in any way that we can and I don't think that this action ends today you know hopefully this will pass but I think we've heard from the the community that there's a lot more that we need to do right testing strips uh the decriminalization of testing strips we heard from the governor that that was a priority of his unfortunately it's being held up at the senate for politics this is not an issue that should be revolving around politics we should be doing everything we can to be making sure that individuals have access to those testing strips and are not afraid to get access to those testing strips um I I just I want to give one more shout out to everyone that spoke today to the harm reduction Alliance they've done a lot of work on this they do this work every day making sure that those Partnerships continue past today that we are there's language in this resolution that talks about when Narcan is going to expire coming up with a plan which happens what happens to those doses where they are going you know I think it's really important I didn't hear anyone from the group mention it today but I think it's extremely important to know that the individuals that you heard speaking today have been supplying our own officers our own EMS officers with Narcan over the last few years and it is important that we recognize those Partnerships that they created and we you know we pay into that in a way for a lack of better terms that we become a full circle partnership I also want to give out a shout out to Renee kladeski who used to work for El Paso matters there was a four-part in-depth story in El Paso matters about a year ago that really highlighted I think something else that's really important and hasn't been talked about today and it is the willingness in the eagerness of the people that work at the city of El Paso the police officers the EMS of wanting to have these resources of reaching out to nonprofits for these resources reaching out to their Superior saying we need this we recognize that this is a gap in our service and having that information that was was presented in El Paso matters I think was invaluable for move moving forward today and so I just wanted to acknowledge that mayor and with that I will pass it on to my colleagues thank you thank you for that representative and I think you know you talked about the money we have and we talk about the need for narcon I think that I'd love to see where we were so proactive that we didn't ever we didn't need any more did we spent that money to be able to educate people and to go out there and make sure that no one eight years old again you're right uh when um Carmona said that our ice opened up when you told us you're eight years old so I know we need narcon and I know that a short supply because of obviously it's being used quite Hanley that I'm hoping we can have a overabundance of it because no one's using it any longer because we're spending our money to educate and make sure that we go into the schools we talked where we need to talk and make sure that um we become proactive with narcon we're becoming reactive right now and I want to be proactive so we never have to use it again and that's really important that we go to that level and use our money for both aspects of it and I look forward to seeing where you guys come back in a year or so and go hey by the way you got new you know anybody needs any narcon we we got no use for it any longer that would be the thing that I'd love to see you guys come tell us so let's get proactive and let's get out there and make sure that we don't see the youth in our community be affected by something that is very deadly representative canalesh thank you mayor um I'll be really brief because I think it's a really simple decision to make today um thank you again to the harm reduction Alliance uh everybody that we heard from it's incredibly valuable to have you here today to hear about the important work you're doing and hopefully to be able to support the work uh going forward uh having naloxone or Narcan readily available uh and accessible to people across the community is so important it will save lives as we've heard from speaker after speaker today and yes we need it deployed with our First Responders but also in our city facilities for example in recreation centers in uh Parks facilities and public-facing offices the the more widely it's available in the community the closer it is to people who need it um since the the conversation about today's action uh first began the the city manager and and staff really jumped into action and have been working hard to make this happen it was one of the first things that I discussed with the city manager when I took office and thank you to Deputy city managers uh Mr ohm and Mr D'Agostino they've worked really hard to make sure that we we have the capacity to help with this um I hope this is just a first step that we take as a city government in supporting the the broad range of vital harm reduction uh strategies that really will help El pasoans to be healthier and safer um and I hope we can continue to support you all in the important work that you do every day because it's so important for us here in El Paso thank you mayor thank you sir representative Salcido thank you mayor and good afternoon Buenas Tardes I just want to thank you all that came out in a shared your personal testimony that took a lot of Courage I want to thank mayor pretend for putting this item on the agenda and representative Canales for for sponsoring as well um I always want to say that I like to work proactively always on anything and this is no different this item is pretty straightforward it saves lives I will say that I don't condone the use of opioids in or any drug for that matter but in but I what I do support is saving lives and that is what we really want to do here we want to make sure that we're bringing awareness education and prevention there's a few uh stats that really shocked me and it was before the pandemic the use of fentanyl was about five percent used and from the ages of 18 to 45 after the pandemic it Rose to 95 percent you know we have actually no PO pandemic right now so we need to be addressing it as such as no different than the pandemic we addressed just recently our beautiful Community Rises to the occasion we need to rise to this one um you know I I understand the addiction I grew up with a father that was an alcoholic and there was a disease I understood that with the disease he tried so hard to leave it and you know he didn't he passed away when he was 50. um so I know how hard it is you know it's not the will that you want to leave the the drug it's the drug is just a lot stronger and it takes a lot of support from the community from your family to really help you all right and so we want to be a community partner to you all to everybody that that has an addiction to help you all overcome it and so we want to be able to provide solutions for that so you know this graph really just kind of shows you the leading cause of death between 18 to 45 years old fentanyl has been the largest I mean look at it like diabetes cancer to heart disease car accidents homicide covid-19 suicide we need to really address this as a community we need to work together we need to find ways that we Aid and help and and it's tough I want to commend you all that it takes a lot one day at a time when you fall off you know I know that that you just get back on right and you need that support and so I'm no doctor but from what I've read and understood um the way that the drug narcam works it basically overcomes the actual Fentanyl and so it really takes over and it it saves your life because it's it uh your heart is like reducing in speed so that's interesting to just even understand that a drug can overcome another drug but more importantly you live another day so we just need to help you once you live another day how do we get you to the next day and and moving on forward um our beautiful Community always Rises to the occasion this is no different supporting this item today is supporting saving lives in El Paso so I'm here to support it I want to thank you all I want to thank my colleagues for this item and looking forward to to working with you all with this addiction thank you thank you ma'am could I say a few words yes sir please so talking about the the award that we got in the film Chief D'Agostino for sorry I know y'all are looking over here it's uh he's also firm former um chief of the fire department go ahead Chief thank you sir and so I want to talk about about the funding and so the vast majority of the funding was identified for educational purposes so that's exactly where we want to take it is to educate everybody on the effects of of Fentanyl and opioids and how Narcan can help but also that there's programs available for people to get treatment and so that's the primary focus of the funding uh working with the city manager we've been identifying where we could put Narcan into City facilities right now we're doing we're looking at co-locating them with our aeds so we want to make sure that we have aeds in all of our facilities we're making sure that's getting outfitted and then we want to actually have an arcan within those same units it's the same storage cabinet it'll save some money it'll allow the city to go farther with its dollars with that we're also looking at expanding to to our public transportation system as well and so that would be offering having those kits on board a bus so if someone needed it somebody had an overdose while on Pub on public transportation they'd have that readily available as far as our First Responders we are that that is a baseline now all First Responders when they go out they have Narcan on them and so all the fire trucks and ambulances as well as our police squad Vehicles as they go out Patrol Vehicles as they're going out on a daily basis they're making sure they pick up their Narcan from a controlled environment and taking it out in the car with them for their tours thank you thank you sir thank you chief for that I also I want to recognize other Partnerships I know emergence Health Network it has also applied for samster Grants to be able to supply the city and police officers with more Narcan so I think there are a lot of options um that we've been doing and we need to be exploring but I just wanted to ask Miss Pine I'm going to make a motion to approve but I would also I know that we took public comment just on item 33 I know there are some duplications of sign ups for 34 but I just want to give individuals the opportunity to speak if they they had something additional or different to say on item 34. thank you second the motion is there anyone that spoke on item 33 that would like to add additional comments for 34 if so please come up to the podium and stay turning and you'll have three minutes thank you I'm uh Christopher Bailey man in long-term recovery um I really want to communicate the impact of not just looking at leveraging funding for this El Paso is rich in so many different resources um we not only have a community that is built on the idea of fronterismo where a neighbor helps neighbor but we have Partnerships established where we're able to leverage those things the key factor here is that we are laying on the radar of the city that this epidemic is here and it is going to get worse and the amount of Narcan and education while I understand education we work in the school systems and I can tell you that prevention in the school systems really the drug problem is already there it's already there so what are you preventing what are you preventing in this capacity what we need to work on is having honest discussions not just within school systems but at the community at large with regard to the nature of this epidemic and teaching every household how they can get Narcan into their homes and how to utilize Narcan more importantly because it may not be a 16 year old kid in their room in front of the PlayStation it could be somebody's 80 year old mother these aren't just individuals that walk in the streets these are people that live in homes these are people that hold jobs they pay taxes these are individuals that are on prescription medication if you remember the presentation a full 70 percent of overdoses happen with not just with illicit drugs but with prescription medications come with a label with a doctor's name on it and the fact of the matter is is that when people are cut off which is now the protocol without a direction to services without a direction to treatment options without a direction to Partnerships in the community what they have they have no choice but to look for illicit sources for the alleviation of their pain my suggestion to the city strongly is to consider at least carving out some of this money to get into the hands of the individuals that have direct contact with communities of use as was pointed out earlier when it comes to Emergency Services well it's only 20 percent of overdoses are reported by Emergency Services First Responders a full 80 percent happen with community members thank you thank you Mr Bailey you asked me probably the easiest question I'll hear today what are we preventing the death of a child to understand that if it's there we want to let them know it's there and to stay away from it and I can tell you that preventing the life of a child is something that uh I want to make sure we prevent so that was probably the easiest question hopefully I'll ever have in my life thank you foreign good afternoon you have three minutes thank you I agree that education is very important and one of the things that the El Paso harm reduction Alliance does is provide education on overdose prevention and our cat Administration we have trained the El Paso Psychiatric Center the El Paso Public Health Department we have been tasked with training all of Region 19 Educators teachers Administration we've been invited to Clint ISD next month to train them we have been asked to train Horizon PD we have done many Community overdose prevention trainings we capped them at 100 and we meet our capacity every time we are providing education and we do this free of charge we need funding for Narcan without the Narcan people will die and the problem is only going to get worse because of the introduction of drugs like xylazine and it's not only people that are actively using opioids or fentanyl are countries drug Supply is extremely tainted we're finding fentanyl even in cannabis so kids in high school that are experimenting with things like cannabis are annoyingly using fentanyl which is why we also need your support in decriminalizing fentanyl testing strips here in El Paso I agree that prevention and education are very important vitally important and we are working on that but we do need your help and support in providing funding for Narcan the fact that punto de partida and projecto sanare must only have two doses left when they have saved over a hundred lives in the last three months is very scary to me it's very scary I've been to too many funerals of too many people that have died and I I implore you to please help us to continue to save lives and we will do our part in educating and helping with prevention and training and educating children I coach in the school districts as well I provide services to high school and middle school students but we need your help as well thank you thank you and you know I do want to tell you we do hear you all loud and clear and we do need to be partners because we thank you for wanting to be our partner we thank you for wanting to reach out and we thank you for letting us know we knew this and we know this but to be up here took a lot of Courage from some of some of y'all and we thank you for that and we will be your partners we thank you for that thank you mayor that's that's what we wanted to hear uh we are saving lives at our level and I don't hear the funding scheme that the city is laying out includes our portion of the services that we're provided for providing as as non-profits who are directly in the streets in the communities educating and providing the Narcan I'm hearing a lot of First Responders already having it and we've already discussed how by the time the First Responders arrive it's it it's it's really uh already and not a prevention it's it's a reaction so we're we're reaching out as the non-profits that are in the cracks in the premises educating and preventing the lives getting the Narcan in the hands prior to the incident happening so that it's readily available before the 9-1-1 call doesn't so that's what we do and so I'm I'm just asking that the city considered that portion of the scheme in addressing the the opioid crisis thank you all for your time and our decision thank you for being here but we're all here to save lives thank you thank you Mr Dominguez good afternoon again Mr horn you'll have three minutes um I wanted to uh when Chris pointed out that prevention in schools is a difficult thing I think at least the way I view it is I mean I had I heard don't do drugs and I never really believed I was going to do the harder drugs when I was in school but I made that choice and um yeah I made that choice and that's on me but really the only Community I feel like they could have brought me out of that was the one that I'm currently a part of which is the harm reduction and the peer support and hearing somebody who's been in my shoes and who has been homeless and who has been in a place of hopelessness and despair where it seems like using needles is my only decision not even my only decision but the right one I think that's why harm reduction and peer support is so vital and prevention is a I don't even know how you would tackle that but I know that harm reduction is what brought me out of my addiction and peer support is what brought me out of kind of that isolation that I chose to take part of and I think that that's what he was trying to say and I hope I'm not out of line with that but that's how I view the topic and I do greatly appreciate working with all you guys say uh beyond my wildest dreams it feels good to be a part of a community again so thank you guys so much thank you Chuck [Applause] remember that we have representative Rivera thank you mayor can I just uh judge do me a favor and speak into the microphone yes sir I'd like to ask uh to the augustino a question here when I when I had a the meeting with El Paso harm reduction lines or I'm sorry yeah reducing Mass the conversation was held with the PD and fire and they had mentioned somehow getting these these narcans to to to them sir do you have any idea what the process what the stage is right now yes and so the the initial thought is how do we expand the availability of Narcan within City properties and City purview and so that looks at putting them on the on the buses as well as City facility especially parks and libraries facilities where you have a lot of community involvement and so with that they're working on a plan now on what's our rotation base because we know they have a shelf life so we want to make sure we're we're taking them and restocking at an early time frame in their lifespan so we can give them out to those who have a direct contact with people who might need it and this way it doesn't just expire on the Shelf so that's that's the plan that they're identifying right now we don't have that all worked out but the team is working diligently to figure out what that rotation is going to look like so that's the biggest issue right now uh figuring out when they they expired in oh yes they are tracking of all the expiration States so we're not allowing them to sit there but we want to just set that trigger so if it's if it's a 24-month drug you know maybe the trigger is at 18 or 18 months and so every year and a half we rotate it out so that it gets out to the community and given out from a different venue and so that's kind of what they're looking at but they haven't determined what that ideal number is going to be okay and and just has this uh what's he what's the percentage of the funding that that was received here um going to education and then how much is it going to purchasing more Narcan for our First Responders the vast majority was education and very little to actually purchasing the product but I don't have those numbers in front of me okay thank you mayor [Music] thank you ma'am I wanted to clarify a few things I want to read a part of the resolution it says now therefore be it resolved by the council in the city of El Paso the city council supports the city manager and current efforts to address the escalating Public Health crisis caused by drug overdose drug overdoses and addiction and encourages greater interdepartmental coordination and Regional coordination with Public Safety healthcare service providers as well as the El Paso harm reduction Alliance um it says it mentions the uh Community Partners El Paso harm reduction Alliance mental health Consortium several times in this resolution and I think it's really important to mention because with the passage of this will require that partnership when it comes to strategies when it comes to the disbursement of drugs right so we are not working in a silo we are working together Chief I know you mentioned you and I had talked about it didn't want to speak for you because I know it wasn't official you know there has been conversations internally about how we can get Narcan out to community members I think we really want to see more of those conversations happening together which is will be done with the passage of this and I also I know that I started the conversation talking about the 384 thousand dollars because I do think it was really important in starting this conversation as a city but I think you know just want to be very clear to council this resolution does not just live within that 384 thousand dollars it is a document of the city meaning that there will over time time B required funding outside of that source and and that's what I said I think it's very important that we start proactively having those conversations before we run out of that money and then don't have a plan right this this is not entirely tied to those dollars um it is a a document outside of that but I do think that that funding is an important part of this conversation as it wasn't entirely Nationwide recognition that there are individuals who are responsible for the situation that we live in um and you know should also be responsible for helping us through that and so with that mayor I will call the question I appreciate you doing that thank you the motion was made by mayor Pro Tim anello secondary by representative Canales to approve the resolution on item 34. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor may we move to call to the public I would appreciate that thank you and thank you all for being here and um we look forward to continuing to work with you all because um together we won't fail so thank you we now go to call to the public the El Paso city council is local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of City Council may we ask the the members of the public that are not participating and call to the public to please exit the chambers all persons in attendance are expected to displace Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business or may any member of the public use this foreign for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic commented on be brought forth on a future agenda this afternoon we have nine members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Melissa harcrow Miss harcrow's topic is women Veterans Day events Miss harcro Stars sixth place to unmute your telephone and you'll have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon everyone I just wanted to put out another reminder to the public and to council about the women Veterans Day events that are scheduled uh next month first we have on June 9th the women veterans conference we are asking for only women veterans to attend this event it's going to be at the VFW Post 812 that's at 2400 Davis Seaman Road it's free to attend free lunch free business clothing giveaway we'll have a silent auction and the next event will be June 11th it's going to be a fun run walk called take a walk in her boots that is open to the public it is a 35 registration fee but it comes with an exclusive t-shirt designed by Viva La Mocha just for women Veterans Day and it's from 7 A.M to 9 A.M at Old Glory Memorial has also been very generous to create some additional merchandise for our event and they have that available on their website at vivallamoka.com and the women veterans brunch is also on June 11th from 10 a.m to 1 p.m that's going to be at economy Wholesale grocers at 411 North sarawaka it is free to attend there is going to be a free brunch and for anyone who's interested in participating they can contact myself at 915-867 6979 or Alexis McRae at 915-383 -5180 and I did send out the Flyers and the information and thank you to those of you who have been sharing the event with your your constituents and I ask that we continue to do that please share with all your communication platforms so we can get the word out and we can celebrate the uh these events especially with Memorial Day coming up we have had 177 women killed and uh multiple conflicts since the Iraq War and we really would love for everyone to join us in honoring their service thank you so much for your time have a great one bye-bye thank you Mr Prime I'm going to reach out for 10 minutes I want to make sure the people that are here to speak to the public to us we give them the the courtesy of being here and we've lost half the council and I want to be respectful so I'm going to take a 10 minute recess to make sure everybody gets back up here yes mayor thank you the regular city council meeting is in recess at 12 37 PM for 10 minutes come on foreign that's terrible that's terrible besides that thank you but I got a problem thank you well thank you Miss Pride hello hello hello Council can we return to the Dyers please Council can we return to the Dias please do this all right Miss Pine we have a full Council now we can do call to the public and then after that we'll break for lunch thank you yes sir there is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion in a second to recombine the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 12 47 PM we're on call to the public the next person that signed up to speak is Elizabeth Crawford I don't see her in the queue we'll move on to Marilyn Ortiz I don't see her in the queue Ron Cuomo speaking regarding Animal Services Ron Mr Como he will be followed by Ephraim Salcedo and Steven strommer yes it will need the Elmo please yes I have some pictures I'd like to show City Council um So today we're going to do another show and tell um this is Betty that's her dog her dog got loose actually both her dogs got loose she posted on Lost and Found pages and she went out to go find her dogs a woman saw her dogs running in a field in northeast El Paso and what she thought was lucky was there was an ACO officer in the 7-Eleven next to the field so she went over and pointed at the Strays and went the ACO officer told her they're not injured they're not aggressive we're not picking them up it took a while for her to find the lost and found post and she proceeded to notify Betty where her dogs were last seen when she got there one was dead thank you El Paso animal services for ruining another family we hear they're only picking up injured and aggressive strikes this picture this dog sat on the side of the road five hours because they wouldn't pick the dog up where was the injured dog being picked up when El Paso Animal Services was notified the owner had to go find her dog because somebody called her and told her I went to the location with my chip reader because I was going to try and find the owners because El Paso Animal Services didn't go pick up the injured dog okay we have discussed over and over of the dangers of community members bringing Strays into their homes this dog was an owner's dog he found astray he took it home because Community Sheltering is so wonderful his dog's dead because he brought it into his home and had no idea this dog had behavioral triggers our community is not trainers they are not vets stop treating them that way thank you again for failing El Paso Animal Services this woman took her dog for a walk isn't that a nice thing to do save El Paso put a leash on your puppy go take her for a walk this is what happened to this young lady she went for a walk with her dog and got attacked by strays how many Strays are we going to leave on the street I have a serious question where is the money going they're doing half the work and getting paid more money what are we doing folks stop ignoring the community members thank you Mr Como the next speaker is Efrain Salcedo his topic is make City representatives and mayor healthier he will be followed by Steven Strummer Lisa Turner and arnulfo Hernandez good afternoon Mr Salcedo you have three minutes how you doing how are you I'm doing great and yourself good thank you okay yeah I want to congratulate my theory rep and also Mr Chris Canales you guys are doing on you okay well done job and also my three rep is you now are you here that's very easy to take care of it what you need to do not you ourselves take the stress out of the persons and that's it it doesn't cost a penny when I have more time I'm gonna tell you how to do it now I'm gonna ask you one question to all of you and then I'm gonna tell you what kind of diseases you have and if you don't take care of them you're gonna lie from those diseases okay listen pay attention or pay attention very careful when you are sleeping do you wake up with any noise or you don't wake up who wake up with a noise like this nobody you wake up me okay you have the accelerated system you don't take care of yourself you're probably gonna die from cancer okay simple as that let me tell you something you didn't tell me you get real mad like this right I'm not lying you get mad like this but you you control your arm yourself okay now the people who who's on wake up at night they have the passive system they can eat anything and congratulations them I congratulate them because you take care of yourself you're gonna be like me I'm accelerated system but I know how to control my my sense see you can see me Ephraim I'm 72 years old no inflammation at all okay I'm here to help you and I congratulate all of you guys because we have to start with us so that way we can be a lot better uh City in El Paso is going to be thank you capital of the world thank you no I thank you see you in two weeks in two weeks and you'll be free of any kind of disease thank you that's very easy the next speaker is Steven Strummer Mr strummer's topic is American flag poem he will be followed by Lisa Turner arnulfo Hernandez and Marilyn Ortiz good afternoon Mr Strummer you'll have three minutes sir how are you sir hello beloved precious American flag it's in honor of Memorial Day it's about our hideous dirty flag up on the Glory Road Transfer Center which I do not like he is not not not a dirty rag it is instead the American flag and if you think my words untrue it's fought in World War one and two and yes it's been on battles far it's seen the blood and tattered scar yet it's not not not a dirty rag it is instead the American flag red means blood Valor who unable ships of lives of who of San Juan Hill the Mekong to me to honor their service who Grenada Europe lands of far it has tatters it's been scarred yet it's not not not a dirty Ray it is the greatest import of American flag the blood of Courage which will not cease a Valor and bravery which will increase fought against the mighty foes I thought to tell you but did you know Korea in the Frozen Earth upon great life it's given worth at Pearl Harbor far for me serve great feats I'm telling the it it's not not not a dirty Ray of greatest import ant All-American flag I thank you for hearing me thank you sir the next speaker is Lisa Turner Miss Turner's topic is women veterans two will be followed by Arnoldo Hernandez Marilyn Ortiz good afternoon Miss Turner this afternoon already ah women veterans I'm active in our El Paso women's veterans and anything that you all can do to help us would be greatly appreciated uh The Pact act while it's great pretty much left women out so we got together came up with a list of conditions affected by burn pits and what they put into burn pits to burn and send it up locally to our dab and our two Congressional reps and hopefully it'll move up the chain another issue we have as women veterans is you have a lot of single women they can't get into the VA simply because they're working a full-time job and they have kids and the VA closes and they don't have access to kit to care I don't know how we can fix it I don't know if there's anything you all can do to step in to fix it but it's an area that we need to look at for our women veterans junis we'll be women's veterans month so y'all come out and walk or run or whatever it is all I can do is roll on my car I'm good for maybe 50 feet but after that it's too dangerous for me to even be standing and I can only do that in heels I can't do that in flat shoes I'll fall strange but anything y'all can do to help us we greatly appreciate it thank you thank you Miss Turner the next speaker is Mr Hernandez's topic is the streetcar study he will be followed by Marilyn Ortiz and Miss check good afternoon Mr rajnandez good afternoon good afternoon sir mayor City Council um about a month or so ago the city council tasked the city staff to compile data on streetcar operation and costs the uh actually the item was put on the uh on the agenda by mayor Oscar liser to have the city manager reduce the schedule and have it operate during special events um Mayor Lee sir pointed out that three cars turn out to be mostly empty and the taxpayers money is going to waste it cost about three thousand dollars three three million dollars to operate the petroleum system mayor we are we as a taxpayer appreciate concern for the taxpayer money but I would hope that the city staff comes back with a more Amplified definition of costs not just dollars and cents but the cost on human usage of the streetcars uh specifically the folks that uh Mr kanada spoke about the students that you said to go to UTEP the folks that live south of of um Paisano that need to come down to this site to see their doctors or get around they don't have a car or if they have a car they're um impaired to such extent they can't use the car it becomes a mode of transportation for them so it's not just about dollars and cents it's also about the cost on the folks that use the the the the event um I would hope that in terms of coming back with ideas that they would come up and expand the operation of the trolley cars in so-called Spurs that can bring and increase their ridership to um to the streetcars that you also consider staff that is considered perhaps a Spur from the Montana area over to the Beaumont hospital and the new VA Clinic that's going to be developed or constructed within I guess 2020 by 2025 since Fort Bliss is is the largest employer in the city and they have a great number of folks that work in those localities that would increase their ridership um mayor Lisa that year after we are lucky that we have uh at least in about a month or so a new interim mayor who is steeped in how Fortress works and perhaps through grants through the state and federal monies we can create those Spurs uh to serve the veterans and the spur perhaps on 6th Street the railroad ties are still there rails that run all the way to Bowie High School that can increase the ridership from folks south of uh Paisano and I I would hope that uh thank you Mr Hernandez thank you thank you very much sir the next speaker is Marilyn Ortiz Ms Ortiz star sixth place to win major telephone is pride month and Memorial Day good afternoon Miss Ortiz you have three minutes Miss Ortiz go ahead thank you good afternoon mayor Pro Tim councilman councilwoman um thank you concerned citizens yes we're proud of our our veterans and rightly so that are some that have lost arms or legs or who are blinded or horribly burned and victims of our freedoms but the word pride has been twisted to tolerate even to encourage sexual sin sexual Rebellion the kind of stuff that God hates it's wonderful that these local organizations are counseling about and fighting against illegal drugs and also counseling about and warning against over-prescribed drugs over-the-counter drugs and Drug overdoses God bless those with prior abuse abuses that have overcome their abuse and have used their experiences their their their experience to humbly counsel others to recovery and I think God is just pleased with our humility more and with our pride this is a wonderful demonstration of the humility that God loves there's there's no and there's no higher authority than the word of God most people recognize John 3 16 for God to love the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life but if you go down and if you just skip down 20 verses the Bible also says whoever believes in the son Jesus says this whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him in Genesis 6 we see an example of of man's wickedness and prideful Rebellion the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was evil thank you um was only evil continually so he sent a big plug and we now only know his family no his wife his three sons and their wives and the paired creatures the beasts and the livestock and the birds only those people survived the flood of the Earth but he promised a rainbow he proclaimed the rainbow to be a a covenant between himself and All Flesh that is on the earth that's the significance of the rainbow so when we see the pro when we see the re the Bell would you see the bow in the clouds God says I will remember my Covenant that's between me and you and every living creature of All Flesh God seeks us God counsels us to embrace humility More Than Pride in Matthew 18 we see Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem and he hears us thank you you've reached the three-minute limit ma'am thank you is there a suspension of the rules of order to allow Miss check to sign up to speak after the sign up period yes absolutely I think Michelle said she signed up but you just didn't see it come on up Michelle 's topic is usually right or wrong save America not sure if that's the same topic for this afternoon good afternoon Miss check Big H uh may God bless you every one of you and this is the love of God country into Safe America Mr Mayor in 2017 at your first term I guessed you two hard-covered books this is the first one I gave to you as a witness that I wrote the truth and I am nervous because I do not take three minutes my three minutes was up in February when I had a lady sing Alpha Maria so if you take a lunch break I ask you please every one of you as an order to make a sacrifice and let me give you this gift because this takes more than three minutes to explain and for all every one of them because full Bliss is one heart one soul and this belongs into the city council I stole three tulips in 1945 from a Nazi house Villa and I gave to my American two soldier who rescued me lilacs and the three stolen tulips they were red and I want to explain it to you in your lunch time El Paso owes me 12 minutes when I could not speak to my three minutes because they were not allowed to speak and on the Wilson rules and I don't want to give a puzzle black eye and I explain it to you at your lunch time if you accept me I invite myself this is what I would like and this explains why and if you don't can read it please let my city representative number three read it please this is right now for all of you if you accept her at me for lunch we can work out some your three minutes are almost up but we can remember we had an hour about a month ago in my office and you're always more than welcome to come I please let let this read now to you and I'll look at it after we get done with the three minutes I'll go look at it okay okay all right but I gotta hurry make sure they don't eat my sandwich and then I'll come right back out this is yours and Dave this is you will take and I have it attached to a little doggy in honor of my journey thank you Miss check thank you thank you Council the next statement was submitted by Raul Escobedo and it's signed by Augustine Galicia and it reads please have city clerk read during city council meeting public comment and it says lately there has been a narrative regarding Sun Metro that needs some clarification that narrative is that someone or someone's at the city resolves on Metro's deficit situation at first it was whispered and quietly acknowledged now however the administration is basically taking credit for fixing the situation without divulging the whole story during the March 28th budget preparation presentation the OMB director presented a slight of financial Transformations which included Sun Metro's 27 million dollar turn around inferring some impetus had occurred at next council meeting the city manager stated that the 37 million dollars deficit was caused in part PR because of Prior Management's inability to say no to project requests this is concerning in fact that 1B and CM staffs what differs so greatly on an important amount and that euron kefirs were more in the range of 22 million additionally no one on Council caught the discrepancy or ignored a 10 million dollar variants and figures reality is that there were no significant cost reductions implemented no significant recommendations from cross-functional teams or black belt teams no magic bullet the deficit was resolved by two factors the increase of annual sales tax revenue approximately 10 million dollars annually in Sun metrics case and more importantly the infusion of 70 million dollars of FTA cares funding grant funding due to covet funding that had few restrictions unlike the city's covet funding and could be used for salaries operation maintenance and even Capital even if not directly covet related additionally no Grant match was required in essence a cash infusion for Sun Metro which is in large part why Sun Metro now has a capital plan not because of Any strategic planning unfortunately previous Council talked about spending over half the capital funding to renovate the Union Depot because it's historical in people have attended Quinceaneras and weddings there as with many City decisions regarding Sun Metro this provides no benefit at all to Sun Metro something only ripanello picked up on to his credit CFO cortinas did mention at last meeting that the infusion of federal funds helped resolve the deficit however he must have felt compelled to his fit the narrative and added that no other efficiencies had been implemented canceling routes and then re-implementing them is not a strategy nor should one get credit for adding service Council should ask for the list of efficiencies implemented finally there was indeed a cream of the crop cross-functional team sent to Sun Metro about four years ago which reported back to Colonel Weston that they found no significant operational or managerial deficiencies or significant room for improvement a narrative I assume not shared with mayor and Council my understanding is that a similar conclusion was provided in their first draft by current Consultants which were asked to go back to the drawing board and dig deeper because it does not match The Narrative of mismanagement and inefficiency thank you I reached the three minutes but Council I did share this via email with all of you mayor that concludes call to the public this afternoon thank you do we have a can we recess for 30 minutes there's a motion and a second to recess a city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the mate he has in recess at 1 14 PM for 30 minutes foreign thank you thank you is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1 48 pm all right um what's the next item Miss point the next item is 35 but representative says see those nights all right we'll skip that one okay that brings us to the first reading of ordinances these are items 36 to 40. there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by alternate mayor Pro temolina to approve the introduction of ordinances these are items 36 to 40. on that motion call for the vote mayor this is Carla Niemann over here item number um voting session is open you said in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez Salcido Fiero Canal is not present for the vote maybe if I could ask we do have Bond Council here from out of town on item number 53. if we could move his item up sooner rather than later he does have a plane to catch go ahead he's the last item on the agenda yes go ahead let me get with mayor Pro Tem very what item I'm sorry item number 53 Laura okay item 53 is discussion in action to approve a resolution approving amendments to the Articles of Incorporation into the bylaws of the city of El Paso Health Facilities Development Corporation and containing other Provisions relating to the subject with Norton Rose Fulbright Bond Council the city he looked like the guy was on teams yesterday yes sir this item is actually uh does it an existing Corporation of the city it was first formed in 1981 this item is amending the Articles so that the board of directors of that Corporation will now be reflective of the city council so it won't be a subset or a different group and then on going forward basis the city has received a request from benvid Senior Services to amend some existing loan documents that were issued through this conduit issuer and so in a subsequent meeting we would bring those before you but the first step would be just to go ahead and have the board reflect the city council foreign so you have an existing Corporation the board currently the article of incorporation currently say the board of directors are six members so that's really kind of not consistent with the with the number of City Council Members so these articles are now making it nine members and it'll be all the members of the city council let's pray yes the motion was made by representative Kennedy seconded by mayor Pro temanello to approve the resolution on item 53. on that motion call for the vote Council list is on item 53 the voting session is open it's representative Salcido thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously I hope you have a safe flight home sir thank you sir 15 seconds of Fame today not present mayor would you like to return to the council items uh we'd like to return to representative shall see this item number 35. thank you sir item 35 is discussion in action to direct the city manager to identify budget adjustments to reduce the property tax rate for the next fiscal year 2024 such as but not limited to no new revenue or by reducing four cents per 100 of property value to further ease a burden on the taxpayers and while still maintaining a high level of all city services and present the recommendations at the first proposed budget meeting go ahead ma'am thank you mayor so I put this item on the agenda so that my colleagues and I can start having that conversation to talk about suggestions of solutions found some ideas from one another so that we can work together in lowering the taxes so I know it's never too early or too late to start working on on lowering the taxes for the city of El Paso so I'm just looking at ways that we can leasing the taxpayers of what they're spending with ultimate High inflation that we keep seeing with appraised values that keep going up high we need to find aid for the students of El Paso we need relief so I know that they are tightening their belts so the city of El Paso needs to do the same so as we start the budget process for 2024 I just want to set the tone that I want to focus on tightening our belts as we move forward but I know that it's not going to be just one solution from us I I definitely think it's going to be a collaborative effort from all entities that tax our dollar so we need to work with our County with episd ysd sisd UMC EPCC and we all need to really work together so that we can lower the taxes for the El pasoans I know that we are about 29 cents of the dollar I mean 29 of the dollar so that's 29 cents so that we can provide the best Services uh to the city of El Paso so I'm looking just for the solutions to look at what the non-new revenue will look like um possibly also lowering it four pennies how would that look like as well and I want to hear my my colleagues suggestions of what they think they want to add so that by the time the first budget season uh meeting starts we at least have some good scenarios of how we can tackle this down so so with that is why I brought it up but I really wanted to start that conversation with with my colleagues here and talk about I know that everybody shares the same sentiment about lowering the taxes and I've heard that time on so I want to work together already so that we can we can really achieve that moving forward with that being said just want to lend it out to my colleagues if anybody wants to say anything or suggest but that is my reason of putting this item on the agenda well I just want to make sure that um lowering the taxes is just not enough this year I want to make sure that we have no additional revenue and I've been very very adamant about that and I've had this conversation more than once and I'll have it again that uh I will not support any additional Revenue this year and you know we can talk about lowering the taxes based on the collection of taxes in your ride where about 30 percent of the uh the tax rate and 70 is controlled by other entities but and that's the only thing we can control is our entity and I want to make sure we do that but I know that uh I will not under any circumstances again support any additional Revenue not just lowering taxes but no additional Revenue this this coming year so here it's time to start working on it now because it's it's going to take a lot of a lot of us but the I know the average and I don't know somebody I think the average bill right now looks like it's going to go up between 10 to 13 percent somewhere in that area and I want to make sure that um we we look at um moving forward as uh as the budget season starts Miss Cody when is the board when is our when will we start our talks and budget talks and you were the lucky one that was in here so I got to ask you afternoon mayor um Nicole Cody director of management and budget but we will start Council briefings in this June in about two and a half weeks or so and then we're planning on having the the count the budget workshops hopefully the week of July 10th and so um and we're also at the next council meeting we've invited Central Appraisal District to come and present they said they'll have it it's a good opportunity they'll have updated numbers regarding the protests they've seen and then they'll also be presenting to council during a work session thank you Mr cortinas when do when do we anticipate the validation of the taxes it is required to provide those would you like Tuesday so no later than July 25th we'll get the certified values and it's at that time that we actually do the calculation for the no new revenue and the voter approval rate so it's not until that date that we actually do those calculations it's up until that point we're doing estimates based on what we think that that new Revenue rate is going to be so again that's July 25th is when we receive the certified values thank you I didn't you're right I didn't hear that it was hard to hear yes sir thank you for that but and so that's the day that we determine and uh so when do we set the rate now what meeting will be set to the taxable rate moving forward so we'll have an introduction for the rate after July 25th uh the usually it's the first week of August so it'll be that that's when we'll actually ask Council to set the rate okay thank you for all that information there's uh representative mayor Pro Tem thanks mayor um and so I don't disagree uh with this recommendation I'm just not comfortable with the language and I completely agree with what representative Salcedo has said so I'll see you though I apologize but that's not what the language actually says so this language actually I directs city manager to identify those cuts yeah and I'm not comfortable with that I think that it's too soon right we don't have Community budgeting but we do have the chime in process I as a representative go to my community and ask what they want um and and we haven't even got Council requests yet and so to be cutting the budget without knowing what the need or the want from the community is I think is is it's too soon I also have always said this and I will stand by this I I don't like directing a city manager or staff to make those cuts I think if counsel you know I really believe that the city manager should say this is what my departments have asked for this is what we think a perfect Budget moving forward should look like and we as counsel with the input of our community should make those decisions and so happy to you know ask the city manager at CFO for options when it comes to a budget what the revenue looks like but I'm not comfortable with the wording of this item today thank you representative Salcido thank you mayor just for clarification um no absolutely I I'm looking for ways that we just um for them to come up with something already so that we have some options it really isn't cutting anything I just want to see what scenarios look like so it gives us a base a standard of where to start um so if on the wording um if we need to just change something it's just really just for them to just come up with their recommendations really what it is I mean we all know Council votes on what we want to do so staff always recommend so I'm just directing them to recommend so we have a starting point at least not necessarily are we going to do those options I did say the no new Revenue I want to make sure I what does that look like you know give me some good uh what do you all recommend and then I also wanted to see four pennies because that's what we did last year so I just wanted to this is just the base to work off of and so really wanted to hear the the the council's input and thank you mayor pretent for sharing your your input into this so it really is just a conversation that we're about to have just for them to to recommend not necessarily nothing so Stone starting point really that's where we're at is where where what my intention is for for the intent of this item thank you ma'am representative thank you mayor and you're going to find this hard to believe mayor but I agree with both my colleagues here I think they're both absolutely on point um we really do need to start the conversation we we really need to look at and and I'm just speaking for myself on one vote but a zero-sum budget and what you know whatever it was last year no four cents cuts no we're not gonna do smoke and mirrors and tell people we're cutting their their rate and then having an increase at the end of the year this is a zero-sum budget remember and we need to um move forward that and and so I absolutely agree with both my colleagues here and thank you for putting this on it's a good starting point thank you representative zivera thank you mayor before anything I like to Miss Cody or Mr cortinas can you tell me what that reducing four cents per you're saying a hundred dollars is that what you're saying uh is that what you wrote did you write it correctly per property tax value what what kind of what kind of reduction are we seeing here it's hard to hear you sir I yeah Miss Cody maybe you can help us well that's not your I think you he's gonna log back on really quick well let's let's give him a second sorry thank you for your patience okay camera can you hear me okay now yes okay I'm gonna leave my camera off I don't know if it's my connection at home but we just started the development of the budget for next year for this upcoming year um the department heads is all about the city manager last week so we're still in the early stages of developing the budget what that's going to look like Mr you still sound kind of far can you get a little closer to your mic I guess okay so we're still in the early stages of developing the budget for next year yeah all of the Departments have just met with the city managers last week and so we've got a couple more rounds of follow-up before we actually develop and what's going to be presented to the council a little bit later in the month of June I would say the celt was already been proactive with the approval of the paper Futures fund you have two items on the agenda today item 37 and 42 item 37 is to amend the first 10 boundaries which will allow for the excess revenue or the revenue from the uh currently committed to the terms to come back to the general fund so that's going to be some additional Revenue item 42 is a contract that we're reducing the overall contract amount again just delighted that the actual expenditures that's going to help as well and then we again continue to always look for any adjustments that we can make to to lower the impact on our taxpayers so as far as what that impact is we don't know the exact amount yet we're still working on that I will add though that as part of this budget process we want to make sure that when we do the briefings with the council members uh you're one-on-one briefings and then we'll present the budget in July so we saw the budget not only for the upcoming year but what the budget is going to look like in fiscal year 2024 and 25 as well because we will have some changes in the overall Revenue that's available to fund the budget going forward and so just ensuring that you know we're clear and very very transparent about what the budget's going to look like not only for the upcoming year but in future years as well okay all right thank you okay thank you I didn't hear much of it unfortunately I didn't yeah thank you representative Kennedy um okay I agree that we need to start looking at what we're doing with the budget we've all talked about that um the three key words I like is no new Revenue but no one's surprised that that's my stance uh I don't my concern would be starting to run scenarios when we have no clue what four cents per hundred would do to the bottom line because the valuation is not set yet I think that I would be comfortable in saying that we're absolutely interested which is required by law you have to show us what no new Revenue would look like right on the tax rate I mean that's required by law yes sir it is yeah so we're going to see that because statute says we're going to see that and I think that I would be more comfortable just knowing I think it is time to to start expressing wishes to start pulling back on taxes but I think that what I'd rather do instead of have this action take place and start talking about scenarios when we don't know what the real effect is is to basically say you know go you forth and save money um because there's a there's a feeling I'm hearing and I know I personally am looking at maybe holding the no new tax revenue as a body I know I personally that's where I am is no new Revenue and I mean that's where my vote is from the beginning do you want to amend the wording I just I just don't I mean I think that it's good that we've told them where we are coming from and I think that that might be all we need to do is just tell them hey here's where we're coming from I don't know that we need an action I think that it's pretty clear where the impetus is and I know that that you and Mr cortinas both are going to be and you know Colonel Weston understand and are going to do everything possible to bring back scenarios to us with the least impact on the taxpayers because I mean we're not going to start just writing blank checks out of this group I would think I know I won't but I think that we've probably accomplished it just by the conversation is told them we're going to need to see options in including the no new Revenue as a as a Forefront instead of a tag on the end of the budget that's what I was Miss Cody what is the uh I know our fund balance is at 91 days and probably in the last five or six years we've added 10 15 days per year to get it to 91 if in 14 we were at nine days and today we're at 91 days you know we've added what's one day's addition to the fund balance about two million dollars 1.5 I think Robert Robert has that I don't so if we had a 10. it's about last year I mean we had a close we 1.4 so let's say 14 million dollars that we we've added almost or more than that 14 to 20 million dollars into our budget to increase the fund balance and whether it comes from savings or where it comes from those savings we know where they're coming from we can tighten the belt on items like that so I'd like to be able to look at that and and see that our fund balance is where it needs to be now and that we don't need to try to allocate if we have from last last year we can move them forward because it's still when we talk about adding days to the fund balance it's still money that was whether safe from Project SAFE from wherever still money that was from the taxpayers our only Revenue to the city basically is the taxpayers so I want to make sure that we see that and that there's a huge opportunity there the that we've reached where we want to be and continue to make sure that we take that into consideration as we move forward in the budget this year let me just make one more comment uh hello the members of the council Carrie Weston Chief transition officer and I so I don't know what you heard when when Robert was was getting his remarks on the budget I think one of the important things that we do as we meet with you and we talk about different scenarios whether it's uh you know no new revenue or however we're we're putting this together and we bring those to you and have the individual meetings one of the key things isn't just to look in a snapshot of what we can do this year but how that impacts the future years so we'll we'll provide you that and show you what's happening this year as we look at these different scenarios and then what we anticipate based on how we're structuring that making those recommendations to you as a council what the impact will be over the next year or the year after and Robert that that was the plan for any of the scenarios that we bring forward correct that's correct really because one of our concerns is that we have seen strong sales tax growth that we know that we've seen increase in property values over the last couple of years but we want to make sure that we're looking ahead and obviously we want to make sure that the council is aware of any decisions that are going to be voted on as part of the budget this year that we know what impacts could have potentially arise as a result of some decreased Revenue in future years and so absolutely and so one of the things I did mention I don't know if you heard or not is that we've already started looking ahead mayor and so if you want to prove the paper Futures fund which is going to be a use of the fund balance for this upcoming year and then there's also two additional items on the council agenda today item 37 which is the contract which we're relating to the actual expenditures it's about a quarter of a million dollars less than what it had been in the past and then also with the amending of the tours 10 boundaries and so that's going to be additional Revenue coming from that church back to the general fund which is going to provide some additional Revenue going forward to help again just some of the budget adjustments we've been working on there's some other things that we're working on as well and so absolutely we have the council we're obviously looking at exploring all potential adjustments to get to best budget that's going to deliver the services but obviously have the least impact to the taxpayers and also being conservative I mean I think one of the things that that Mr Cortina staff done a good job in the past and now is being conservative with the revenue projections so so that when we're showing you those that that you're that you're confident you're getting an accurate depiction of what those estimates are going to look like based on this on appreciate it yes sir thank you and one of the things I want to make sure every year we seem to talk about not raising taxes and lowering it and every year they come back and they say well we're going to have to cut Public Safety or it's going to affect Public Safety I don't want to go down do me a favor let's not go down that conversation it's not a genuine conversation Public Safety is our number one priority and will continue to always be so I don't want to have that conversation moving forward this year please representative molinar thank you thank you mayor representative thank you very much for sorry representative molinar I don't think this speaker is working can you hear me now yes sir all right anyways so we can talk about taxes and what we're going to do and what we can try and do but to me just like Robert mentioned uh it won't be until later in or I believe you miss Cody mentioned towards the end of July when the Central Appraisal District will give us the values of properties so our constituents have been hit hard 21 22 and I'm they're doing another appraisal here in 23. for me I've lived here long in the city of El Paso and this is unprecedented three years in a row and our taxpayers are just getting slammed the property values are going up and yes if you're going to sell your house it's a good thing but overall people are not going to be selling their houses they want to live in the houses they want to stay in El Paso they want to raise their families here in El Paso and yet I'm not blaming the Central Appraisal District but the process that they do is just unprecedented we can blame post-covet things we can blame supply chain issues we can play blame the real estate market the low Market the high Market whatever but at the end these people are paying more money more money out of their pockets that they have to decide hey what are we going to pay our utilities our property tax am I going to get a new card send my kids to school college education whatever and they sometimes these These are really really nail biting decisions that they need to make and we get constituents calling our office sending us emails where they they they're ready to pack their bags and leave El Paso that's very unfortunate so I just wouldn't make sure that whatever we're moving forward that we concentrate on the best practice what can we do to help our community as a whole because it affects everybody living here in El Paso you see a lot of people moving out of the city into the county whether it's in New Mexico Horizon City Socorro whatever but there are people moving up because they just cannot handle that tax burden and it's our job and our responsibility to help them thank you thank you I just one one comment on it that the Central Appraisal District is not an agency of the city it's an agency of the state and so I think that's important for our taxpayers and our citizens to know that they don't they don't report to the city city manager or any of us they actually are armed of the state represent Canales thank you Mary yep and I think an important thing to note on that too is we don't control the way that they conduct their appraisals in any way all of that policy comes from the state legislature and and through the state comptroller's office we really have no say in the way that the the appraisal district conducts their appraisals or what the results of of any individual appraisal is you know we we receive the the values from them later in our budget season and until then we we don't really know what that amount is going to look like um and so for that reason I I don't have to speak very long on this because I've heard uh my colleagues have mostly covered it but I just think that it follows that this proposed action today Falls a little bit too early in our in our budget uh cycle and and the prescribed timeline that we have to make decisions about our budget and so um I I you know we've we've heard from other members of the council uh that it's important to them that we look at the no new Revenue rate again as you answered earlier Miss Cody we we have to uh look at that information by law and that will be provided to us by your office by law correct um and so I think we'll definitely have to have that conversation um I want to put on the record that you know the the rate of inflation for the 12-month period ending last month in April was 4.9 and so for the city to keep providing uh the services we provide it will be more expensive for us um I think that's something for us to consider down the line as we look at the budget for the the upcoming fiscal year 24. um but again I think it's a little bit premature to consider this specific action today thank you mayor thank you sir representative Hernandez followed by everyone else has spoken so then I remember guys we we do have a limit of two times per item and I think we were starting to reach our two times per item so make sure we we see that representative um thank you uh representative for placing this item on the agenda um like you I I don't disagree that um if if that's the temperament and the tone that Council wants to give staff it's our it's our responsibility to give this much lead time to Mr cortinas as they just mentioned they're in the process of developing a budget and if you are if council is considering a no new Revenue rate I think it'll be better if you have that knowledge and that direction from counter earlier than later um considering the complexity of an over billion dollar budget so like like others have said you know I'm waiting to see those um overall appraisal rates on July 25th um but even when you get that you are the staff is already identifying the priorities and departments um and this will be a lively conversation we will have conversations over the next several weeks um and and I think just getting more information to to staff to be better prepared is prudent and and good fiscal not only budgeting but fiscal responsibility in our practices um so so I'm happy to support looking at what that look looks like representative Salcido understanding that nothing is set in stone and I'm happy to support your item today and I appreciate your leadership on the matter thanks you still want to speak afterwards okay representative I I just wanted to add mayor that uh I know we've worked kind of hard to set up all those other you know funds that to raise our our sustainability to 91 days I wouldn't want to touch that unless you know absolutely what was this made for that's you know the purpose of that fund was what it's made for but uh I guess the point that was brought up by the mayor was rather good it would be have a chance to kind of skip right that's what you're indicating like skip one year at least and maintained the 91 days for for now until later tat said something else we're we're not uh we're not limited on you know funding the other services that we need to provide for constituents that would be okay with me but uh yeah I'd rather wait till we have all the briefings and everything and all the numbers in place from both of you thank you thank you sir do you want to speak sir thank you I will be the our last speaker on the item will be representative Salcido thank you mayor and thank you mayor for your comments uh thank you for my colleagues for the suggestion one of the things that I keep hearing of course is the No-No Revenue that's that's it's resonating um so City attorney Neiman on my motion um what would be the best wording so I do make sure it's broad IT addresses what the council is asking for but yet not limited to moving forward so if you can kind of guide me on so I would recommend if you want to take any friendly amendments in regards to what some of the members of council are are bringing up in terms of of what some of them are reticent to do at this time that maybe we'll get the item moving forward exactly so I think here I think one of the things I keep hearing is the normal Revenue that one resonating so leaving that alone in uh redacting the you know the reducing the support cents I mentioned that it's just a conversation but if we want to remove that I really want to just be basically set the tone that let the taxpayers know that we are willing to work towards a fiscally uh budget and so that is really the intent here so if I can motion to remove that uh the the four cents um we do like it's per law the No No but I think that we're hearing that so we want to make sure that it's it's set so that everybody knows that that's what we want to look at scenarios for that so I I would motion to I or Laura to to take that wording off or do I need to make a motion for that you want to you want to make a motion to amend item 35 there hasn't been a motion oh so of course what why I make a motion to approve you want to make a motion to approve and to strike out the words or by reducing four cents per 100 of property value yes and and of course we'll leave such as but not limited to because if they there's any other suggestions please share but I think the no new revenue is what I'm hearing from this Council loud and clear we're looking at ways that we help the taxpayer and I'm hearing that so it's thank you to this Council that that you know we all see the what what everybody's going through um so taking that off that would be my I guess motion to to remove that yes ma'am so what's the motion this point so the motion would be to direct the city manager to identify budget adjustments to reduce the property tax rate for the next fiscal year 2024 such as but not limited to to further ease the burden on the taxpayers and well-made still maintaining a high level of all city services and present the recommendations at the first proposed budget meeting is that correct representative you wanted no Revenue in this yeah I I did want to leave the non-revenue I know per state you have to say it but I think the council has mentioned it so I think we want to leave it on on the wording um Laura I think representative Salcido if this helps I think that the the question was regarding whether it should be four cents per 100 because we don't know what the valuation is I should remove that sure so those words are stricken out so you would only leave that's right I believe that that's what the council wants to discuss the no new Revenue yes and then not have the or by reducing four cents per 100 that's property value correct who was the second on that one there is no second yet well representative um so again I'll read the motion it was made by representative Salcido seconded by representative Fierro and this is to direct the city manager to identify budget adjustments to reduce the property tax rate for the next fiscal year 2024 such as but not limited to no new Revenue to further ease a burden on the taxpayers and while still maintaining a high level of all city services and presents the recommendations at the first proposed budget meeting is that correct that is correct that that resonates the voices of this Council also just wanted to to I guess point out that that we're looking to work together right towards this and and be able to reach something for for the city of El Paso to to listen the burden on them but I also do have one question aside from that and I don't know how do we get there but um as I did mention it's a collaborative effort I'm talking about every entity that taxes a dollar um I know we have an I.T program and I don't know I'll look at you all city managers to to for guidance but um I know we have an IT Pro uh Department that can create a program and I wanted to create something where it's like you know a GPA calculator where we as a county I mean all of us the text the entities that tax the dollar all really look at lowering it at the same time so that the dollar really gets lowered as a whole for the taxpayer so it's I don't know if I'm probably like uh explaining what I want to really do but it's just a calculator that calculates if if uh episd is lowering it a certain amount and we are lowering it at no no no revenue is the dollar really actually being lowered across the board because what we really want to do when the taxpayer is going to win is if we lower it all across the board because we have entities that all tax the same dollar so it's creating a program that basically we can plug in those numbers and looking to reach out to our own uh representatives to see the county and the wise ysds and siasds how they can work with the city of El Paso so that we really as a as one voice of all pestilence work together to really tackle the taxes as a whole the whole dollar so that those are my goals don't know what direction you need for that um looking to create a app or whatnot a calculator but you know I'll I'll let you all tell me a little bit more okay thank you representative um we'll definitely look into it the only concern I think just initially is just the timing so it really becomes a timing we all adopt our tax rates at different times and so it's important I think when we look at the timing of it and how we would update that information but it definitely is something we'll we'll look into and come back to and maybe bring it back yes representative saucedo for the record senior Deputy city manager Tracy Jerome will work together with the communication strategic Communications team and the IT team again as Ms Cody has stated there is a there there will be time challenges because again everyone the budgeting is done at different places at different times but that does not mean that we can't be even more transparent and I think what you're looking for is transparency so that the taxpayer can actually see who's doing what when am I correct absolutely so that they can see who Lord it who who didn't who was that the known Revenue right and actually secondary to that is just really wanting every entity to work together right I understand and I guess and like you said we're gonna have we have some challenges already that you're mentioning everybody has different times where they set the the rate and that's good to know I think uh it's starting maybe the conversation they're hearing me right now uh working with the county um the you know the episd everybody and and letting you know that we can maybe have a strategic plan moving on forward from this year to moving on forward in the future that we all kind of really work towards continuing to lower the taxpayer dollar while still providing the best services for the city of El Paso and and you know at that point in time you know El Paso wins when thank you thank you thank you we will look into that we'll keep you updated on that and all the council thank you mayor Pro Temp followed by representative Kennedy I heard of the asking you to present that as an option right which you have to do by law anyways okay right um okay uh I'll save my personal comments on that um but I'm not comfortable with this database I think we would be really uncomfortable if the county published what we were doing in a in a representation of what we passed uh I think we would be a little bit upset about that unless you can have everyone on board to say yeah sure we want to do this I think it could be um I mean it could be just considered I just could create a little bit of tension um and I'd also like to know what the cost of that is right because you know it when we ask it to do programs like this it's very expensive and so it's a little ironic to say we don't want you to raise any revenues and we want you to cut the budget but we also want you to create a program so we definitely want to see what something like that would cost and I would want to have both the county and the school board participating versus their information just being posted okay thank you I think you're representative Kennedy again I agree with the goal of trying to present the picture to everyone of what our portion is and what everybody else's portion is and I think that we already do that when we send the information out once they set their tax rate which is in a state of flux until they vote on it and then it's simply a matter of updating a chart is that about right because we won't know until then right we'll reflect on that and my concern is that the goal of we want to get a handle on taxes is great but what we're doing is saying we want you to do what your statutorily required to do and semi stick our nose in other governmental entities tax rates and I'm concerned with that I'm not concerned with the goal and I agree with the goal and I think everybody in this room understands the conversation that's gone up out here and I believe we've accomplished that by putting this item on and having this conversation but I I hesitate to become overly involved in other governmental entities Beyond doing the what we do now which is as soon as we know what the city's tax rate is we put that out when the county gives their tax rate we put that out and say so in your dollar here's who's getting your tax money and and I think we've done a good job of doing that and I think that we maybe need to step that up a little bit but I'm uncomfortable taking that as a Direction so that's where I am there's no item on there at this point on that just the motion was on something different but the other one there is no item on it and those really no motion or no second on that item so right so there's nothing on that okay Miss Prime yes mayor so once again I'll repeat the motion just so everyone's clear so the motion is to direct the city manager to identify budget adjustments to reduce the property tax rate for the next fiscal year 2024 such as but not limited to no new Revenue to further ease the burden on the taxpayers and while still maintaining a high level of all city services and present the recommendations at the first proposed budget meeting the motion was seconded by representative Fierro on that motion call for the vote mayor there's a tie there's a time here all right thank you and the voting session and the motion passes five to four Representatives Hernandez Salcido Fiero Rivera and the mayor voting I Representatives Kennedy anello molinar Canales the motion does carry and I just want to make sure that we understand the motion that there was no motion to come up with a dashboard to kind of point out and pinpoint what other agencies are doing because that's probably really as representative Manilow and represent King said it's probably a really bad idea to try to show what someone else is doing you know we can only show and we can only control our actions and that's what we need to show only and continue to do that but to try to pinpoint and kind of highlight someone else was a really bad idea okay thank you mayor would you like to return to pick up the item that was moved from consent to regular this is item number nine may we go to item nine that was moved to thank you mayor item number nine was moved from consent to regular and it was to approve a resolution ordering the adoption of City Charter amendments passed at the May 6 2023 City special election representative Rodriguez did you I mean I'm sorry oh my goodness I'm sorry I think so I'm trying to um this question sure for for you Mrs Neiman or your team or Kristen hi um I'm I'm trying to understand what what the process will be for the adoption of all of the charter amendments will be um and I'm sorry if you've discussed this in the past I'm just I'm just not quite sure um where we're at with some of these items are we going to for each item or will ordinance or resolution be adopted for each one or is this the final action that will happen any additional information on on some of these propositions would be appreciated absolutely Kristen Hamilton Karam from the city attorney's office the process is completed when Council under the the local government code chapter 9 section 9.005 once city council adopts an order ordering the adoption and the except accepting the election that is the final step the the amended language that was on the ordinance that the city council passed back in February 7th will then be adopted and incorporated into the the charter effective your approval of this resolution that is on the agenda today that is the final step in incorporating that new language into the city Charter um this the res the Charter amendments that passed um I can go over those if you would like the proposition C passed what that proposition is is it allows the city council to reschedule meetings for City holidays but it requires that the city council have no less than two regular meetings per month proposition D passed and that allows the mayor to cancel a meeting if it's required due to a federal or state or local declared emergency and Kristen can I ask you about prop C real quick um yes our Rules of Order do we have to to amend any of them after this is adopted I don't believe that there is anything in the rules of order regarding your I'm sorry no you're fine I was trying to clarify my that's just the the house rules The Rules of Order you you knew what I'm talking about yes ma'am yeah there's no changes that have to happen there this is sufficient I don't believe there's anything in the rules of order that state what your uh meeting calendar is okay but we can look at that just to verify Mrs Prime and I can look at that just to make sure that there isn't anything that we would need to adjust in the Rules of Order um but that would be by resolution of council that you can change those meetings uh Proposition E is the one that was to align to common practice and to to federal state law so that allows the city clerk no longer is required by Charter to print out copies of ordinances it allows for emergency ordinances to be placed on an agenda with one hour public notice which is allowed by state law and then it allows us to go through our regular practice to hire hearing officers the previous Charter language sort of had the hearing officers as though they were employees of the city and they are they are independent contractors okay proposition I passed and that is the pension plan so it removes the cap and it kept our City's contribution to the pension for police and fire at 18 which is what it has been for quite some time and and um so with the charter changing is there any additional action that we would have to do or notify the pension fund of any changes my assumption is that annually the OMB would work with the pension fund to determine the actuarials for that year um and so I'm just trying to understand logistically how that change would happen so under the charter currently there is the cap of 18 plus the one half this removes the 18 the cap on the and it starts at 18 percent the state law requires a process and procedure in order to change the contribution percentage of the city so the default now will be that the process required by state law would need to be undergone in order to adjust the city's contribution to the fire and police pension fund under that process it does require an Actuarial report that shows a certain percentage of underfunding of the fund as and it also would require simultaneously a change to the the contributions by the the members that are contributing to the pension fund at a percentage as well so this will just create a reversion back to the state law process to adjust the contributions to the the pension fund okay but if there was any change necessary that would come a council would be notified yes ma'am if there is a change recommended by the Actuarial report that would have to be um approved by City Council in order to activate that change okay okay and then um proposition J passed and that is the internal audit function so it changes the internal audit function from previously reporting simultaneously to the city council the foak and the city manager now to only city council the the Sheep internal auditor shall be appointed by and removed by and report to the city council and then the chair of foak shall remain shall maintain operational oversight of the internal audit function and then the city manager is responsible for implementation of any audit recommendations and then on this one will Council have to move forward with the contract I'm unsure what this means now Council under this council is to re a point the chief internal auditor therefore you know it's it's worded in the same way the appointment is worded the same similarly to the city council shall appoint the city manager and the city council shall appoint the City attorney this says also the city auditor shall be appointed by so um we expect that Council will need to make that appointment okay um is there any additional I mean my assumption is that once this action is taken then Council will have the prerogative to move forward with um making such appointment yes right okay and so um is there any additional timelines or guidance that you can provide Mrs Neiman or Mrs Hamilton so the council could move forward with placing an item in the future regarding the appointment of the auditor like you would any other appointment right so this this is just the beginning of that process in terms of instituting the change in the charter and then Council would have to proceed with the appointment would it be the council is at Hall or the full Act so the art the amendment mayor states that the internal auditor shall be appointed and removed and report to the council as a whole and then now that this appointment is under city council you know what we have with our city manager and our City attorney is that we have um you know a strategic plan we have an employment contract and then we have this the standards of an evaluation or things that we are benchmarking the performance of an employee um my assumption is that this Council will have to have a future work session or strategy on put setting forth those expectations those processes the procedures as well as the employment agreement of the internal auditor is am I understanding that correctly and that does seem like the appropriate process okay for Council guidance okay and and mayor I would just lean on your leadership here to to provide a more holistic and and some Provisions to give some guidance to council and how we move forward with this with this action I agree with that and I think we need to we'll do that in a meeting we'll bring it back and have Council agree to it okay I think that's a excellent point I appreciate that no no problem um I just wanted um just some more clarity because I wasn't sure if this action did that or if there's subsequent actions Council had to take after the adoption of this resolution correct that that Council does still need to take the action to appoint that position um there may be additional changes to policy procedure code that um through the internal audit um internal auditor and your city council will be forthcoming okay thank you Kristen for all the information and uh I think I'm the first person to get to say this congratulations on on your recent achievements thank you very much I appreciate that representative Hernandez thank you one question that one representative Andres was speaking though that came to my mind was we have to have uh two Council meetings a month but we don't have to have any work session meetings a month that's not a regular meeting correct those are go ahead it's a great question mayor the uh the work sessions are established through a resolution of city council that allows for the I I would have to pull that resolution up but there is a resolution that governs that meeting being set every week the day prior to the city council meeting so there's a resolution that says we have to have two work sessions a month because I don't I don't recall that no there's a the resolution and Miss Prine might be able to um assist with that a little bit more directly but the resolution um states that the city council will have a work session on the day I believe it's the day prior to each city council meeting that is not required by the city Charter it's a resolution of counsel and Council you know has the authority to amend those resolutions at any meeting okay so we can say we don't want to have one tomorrow we wouldn't have to we just have to take action on it yesterday you can take action to amend that resolution okay we can we can get that resolution to you sir into the council and I have that resolution and it says um it was from 2021 from February of 20 20 21 and it states under item two it says standing city council work sessions commencing on Monday March 1st 2021 and continuing every other Monday thereafter the El Paso city council shall conduct a standing work session for the purpose of reviewing the agenda prior to the Tuesday regular city council meeting and any other matter which a city council representative and or the city manager determine is appropriate for a Monday city council work session or executive session items as determined appropriate by the City attorney however if there is a city holiday or other closure on such Monday city council will conduct a standing work session on Tuesday of that same week and I uh Just for council's information that resolution has been in place for several years prior we did amend it in 2021 I don't recall the date that it began um I think that it may have started in maybe 2016 or so that the works the standing work session started um and I believe Ms Prime that there is a statement in there that discusses that that how that meeting can be canceled it says item three says by adoption of this resolution the city council work sessions are regularly scheduled and approved by a majority of council this resolution shall constitute notice to the city clerk as required by section 3.5 a and no further action by the mayor or city council shall be required to call city council work sessions on the Monday immediately preceding regular City Council meetings or the Tuesday immediately preceding regular Wednesday City Council meetings on weeks at the council meeting is affected by a city holiday or other closure number four says that the city manager is hereby authorized to set the agendas for the standing city council work sessions and to cancel a standing city council work session in the event he determines there is no need for a work session or if a quorum of counsel is not available to attend the standing city council work session thank you so mayor Pro Tem think you mayor I mean in regards to the auditor I think there are also some other things that need to happen and I'll let representative Kennedy talk on that but there needs to be a rule and procedure of orders for the foak as well as the I think the type of books that we use but I'll let you explain that more um I had a question Kristen kind of on the process of how we went about disseminating information on the charter Amendment so um you kept referring previously to if there was a financial impact of the charter Amendment the city would be required to share that with the community can you talk a little bit more about that yes ma'am under the local government code section 9.004 the state law requires that the fiscal impact an estimated fiscal impact be provided to the public through newspaper postings that must occur for two consecutive weeks prior to the election date and So based on the mailer that the city of El Paso set out for proposition f um it doesn't it was not or the way you interpreted it was that if there was ever a financial impact right because for a proposition F to have had a financial impact someone would have had to gone through a citizen petition the passage of proposition F did not itself cause a financial impact correct correct it's it's about if the change to the Charter would create a fiscal impact so the the language does not say the the election obviously causes any election causes a fiscal impact to the city the requirement is that if the changed language in the charter would alter the the would create a fiscal impact would impact the city fiscally so my first question is based on that local government code you were required to pass put this in the newspaper you were not required to send it to mail to each constituent voter that's correct okay and so but proposition I that representative Hernandez mentioned based on your explanation if that cap is removed and Council goes through the process it could have a financial impact on the community it could but it does not at this point same thing so my question to you is why did this uh why did our management and our staff decide that they would send out a mailer essentially speaking against proposition F because of its Financial impact but not at all disgust proposition I because based on your explanation I and F would only have an impact if there was further action taken but from where I'm sitting it seems like there was a decision made to speak about the financial impact of one and not the other the proposition F I believe is the one related to the initiative petition process correct yes ma'am which would only have a financial impact if someone went and gotta put not if someone went and petitioned for an off-council or an off mayoral election so it was not automatically financially impacting the community correct and that was stated I believe on the information that was put out to the public um the proposition F would have a financial impact if that happened we can we can know that and we would not we do not know you know if there's going to be or need to be a a change or an increase to the cities called contribution there's no way we could determine if or when that might happen um and there's no way we could determine how much that would be that one was that one does not the language to today after you adopt if the city council adopts the resolution would not create a an immediate fiscal impact that could be estimated but either currently the because currently F could if the if there is a petition I could also I mean you're like you're standing out of both sides eight years I could have a financial impact to say that F could you could also say that I could I'm going to stop my questions there mayor I just I wanted to express how disappointed I was when I saw that mailer from the city um really not being fully or I would say being a little disingenuous about all of the financial impacts and it really did feel like we were just picking and choosing the ones that we wanted to share with the community and it did seem like we were definitely lobbying against some of those items so thank you mayor revealed my time representative Kennedy um on item J um where it says the internal auditor shall be appointed and removed by and report to city council the internal auditor has always been appointed and removed by city council correct this internal City auditor was previously appointed by the city manager with the approval of the city council the recommendation came from the city manager and the city council then ratified the appointment of removal right because the city manager couldn't appoint him or remove him it had to be approved by city council correct the language currently the the language prior to this change is getting there is it 3.2 or 3.6 on or after that the date of this amendment this cheap internal auditor shall be appointed and removed by the city manager subject to the approval of city council so the city manager does The Selection process and brings forward his recommendation or her recommendation to the city council for approval and so there's not the the selection process in the previous Charter is by the city manager apparently and this internal auditor currently has a contract correct uh that would be a question for HR I'm not familiar with that I believe he does with city with the city yeah he does he currently is under contract with the city I'm not sure if he's under contractor if he has an offer letter the members in the audience the the city manager's office is answering so you can't hear what they're saying I can't I apologize and then once once that's done um legislatively answers to foak who then brings it back to city council but the internal auditor himself is appointed and removed by city council correct now at this after this after this is approved yeah after this resolution is adopted today okay okay it would be appointed or removed by city council and then because there's been some changes and I'm I'm looking because Miss Neiman and I have already talked about this there's going to be a new internal auditor Charter that'll clean up the communication and all the different portions right so Juan Gonzalez is here from our office he's he's signed to work with Bullock and I believe that he's he wanted to ask them to explain to the Rojo Council what the process is going to entail uh Juan is also the city attorney's office um the foak members would have already heard this before but um we considered changes to the internal audit office Charter during the last full act meeting and I cautioned that we wait until we passed this resolution so that we can see what the charter implications are and then make sure that any code amendments that need to be made to kind of align and harmonize the charter changes are instituted and then we can then tie them into the charter of the internal audit office and then of course update any policy procedures that are required to make sure that they all kind of flow based upon what the voters approved and it from what conversation I'm kind of using this for conversations we've had as we're looking at best practices from other cities and things that have been done in other cities that have this type of answering correct I believe so I mean it makes sense to kind of lean upon that so if there is any kind of conflict in the future or some issue that we've have something that we can learn lean upon to interpret it very quickly and and hopefully in a manner that uh allows us to move forward okay thank you okay thank you and with that um yes sir no sir yeah so there's two motions three seconds and no votes motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by mayor Pro tem anello to approve the resolution to approve the resolution on item nine on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we now turn to page 12 item number 41 and item 41 is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for physical exams drug screening and drug and alcohol testing services for the city's Police Department between the city of El Paso and occupational health centers of the Southwest PA DBA Concentra Medical Centers there's a motion made by mayor Pro Tem anello seconded by representative Fierro to approve representative comment on this I I was just going to ask for the Department had some purpose of this is this just for city employees yes or is it for all testing within the police it'll be for all testing requirements even for the trainees that are coming in but it's just for onboarding city employees yes okay that doesn't matter to confirm that thank you Mr Pine on that motion made by mayor Pro temanello secondary by representative Fierro for item 41 call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 42 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-0369 will and Axle alignment steering and suspension suspension parts and service rebit to Stanley Monroe DBA Stanley Spring and suspension there's a motion made by representative Molina seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 42 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor can we take items 44 to 49 together I'd like to take 43 also yeah sorry I apologies it's almost to approve 43 to 49. yes item 43 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement a deed and other documents necessary to convey to Casa's Genesis LLC land legally described as a lot 3 block 5 Mesquite Trails 2 in the city of El Paso item 44 is a public hearing on the ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement ID and any other documents necessary to convey to Philip and Henry LLC land legally described as lot 52a Block 14 Sherman unit 4 we plot Ace in the city of El Paso item 45 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement a deed and any other documents necessary to convey to Rene Alejandro science and Cynthia and science land legally described as track 25-c and track 25-b-1 Block 17 Upper Valley service in El Paso County Texas item 46 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement ID and other documents necessary to convey to Punta de agua LLC land legally described as Lot 2 list Northeast 4 portion of block 4 Pecan Grove subdivision in the city of El Paso item 47 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement indeed and other documents necessary to convey to Casa's Genesis LLC land legally described as Lot 1 block 22 paseos Del Sol unit 2 amending Platt in the city of El Paso item 48 is a public hearing on the Northern South Horizon the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement indeed and other documents necessary to convey to Marco Maldonado land legally described as a lot 25 block 3 Colonia Miramonte Edition unit 1 in the city of El Paso and item 49 is an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement a deed and other documents necessary to convey to Terry Taylor and Susan K Taylor land legally described as within section 28 Township 15 South Range 5 West New Mexico principal Meridian Sierra County New Mexico there was a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Fierro to approve items 43-49 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 50 and this is a public hearing on an ordinance vacating .081 acre portion of Oregon Street right-of-way located within Alexander Edition in the city of El Paso move to approve there's a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative Rivera item on item 50 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 51 is a public hearing on a northern submitting title 12 chapter 12.88 speed limits 30 miles per hour by adding item five desert pass street from South wrestler drive to a 0.300 feet past desert trail drives move to approve there's a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 51 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously and item 52 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 12. speed limits 40 miles per hour and 35 miles per hour by adding 107 Socorro Drive between 8.400 feet southeast of South Side Road and the southeast city limits second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Canales to approve item 52 there is no public comment on that motion call for the vote voting session is open and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to the end of the agenda there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the city council meeting for Tuesday May 23 2023 is adjourned at 3 03 pm thank you Council