e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e well good morning El Paso and good morning city council we are going to call our meeting to order Miss pre yes sir good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday February 4th 2025 Mayor Johnson is president presiding in council chambers along with mayor protim Chavez representative AO representative Roa representative Treo representative nio and representative Leon it is 9:01 a.m. will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain Rabbi Levi Greenberg I will begin this prayer with an act of Charity almighty God Sovereign of the universe look favorably upon the mayor The Honorable members of the city council and all of us gathered in this chamber and all those watching online this morning and bestow upon us the joy of life good health and prosperity this week we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the leadership of a global spiritual leader of our times the laich rabbi scharon in 1950 in the shadows of the devastation of the Holocaust the rebbe galvanized a shattered Nation to rebuild and guided millions of others toward a better life with a tremendous focus on the value of the individual based on traditional interpretations of the Bible he taught that our turbulent work world is truly a Divine garden and we are its gardeners to reveal its true beauty through our acts of goodness and kindness the rebba taught that every individual and in fact every individual action impacts the entire universe he emphasized the importance of education and good character and instilled hope for a brighter future in the lives of countless of people across the globe the rebit taught that education in general should not be limited to the acquisition of knowledge and the preparation for a career instead the educational system must pay more attention indeed the main attention to building character with emphasis on moral and ethical values education is not limited to the classroom every person is both a student and a teacher for Life Learning the best from others and setting an example for all to learn from almighty God bless mayor Renard Johnson and The Honorable members of this distinguished Council guide them so that they will always be conscious of your presence and will strive to enact laws with honesty and integrity in accordance with your Will May our city serve as a beacon of light for people of all faiths and walks of life may El Paso help achieve the goal so powerfully stated in our pledge of allegiance that America is truly one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and let us say Amen thank you and this morning to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance our students from C Vista Elementary School MacArthur Elementary Intermediate School and Burgess high school we have at the invitation of City representative Dianna malado roacha we have Joseph bomo Lola Beno Sarah benom Ricky orina Eva orina Zoe Vias Lucas chavz Lucas Vias and Alysa Chavez alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all she's gonna tell you where to face all right she's really good yes abolutely Sarah lcky Zoe here you are Zo s [Applause] right that brings us to the mayor's proclamations for those of you receiving a proclamation this morning your group will have up to six minutes collectively to speak at the podium the first Proclamation is El Paso Children's Hospital dat representative aavo [Applause] please thank you mayor oh it's always exciting to have the Children's Hospital here it's so good to see you Cindy and everyone else I'm I'm going to read the proclamation and then you can say some words after whereas each year thousands of children in West Texas Southern New Mexico region require specialty pediatric medical care and whereas El Paso Children's Hospital hital was established by the community to be the first ever and only separately licensed Hospital dedicated to Pediatric Care and whereas the hospital is continually recruited Pediatric Specialists and now has over 20 Specialties led by world renowned Physicians and medical experts making it easier for families to stay in El Paso for specialized pediatric treatment instead of traveling out of town and whereas February 14 marks 2025 marks 13 years since the hospital's grand opening now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that February 14th 2025 shall be known as El Paso Children's Hospital day signed the honorable mayor Renard Johnson thank you Mayor Johnson thank you to all the newly elected city council representatives and of course those who've been in their positions for for longer than that we appreciate your all support um I am joined here today with some of our wonderful children uh first of all this is Christopher can you say hello Christopher that's a a young hello to you all and I also have next to me Max this good-look young man right here these are two of our patients at El Paso Children's Hospital the level of care that we've been providing for the last 13 years has really transformed the community you know I've been in healthc care for over 30 years and I didn't quite understand when I went into working at El Paso Children's Hospital what the difference was between a true Children's Specialty Hospital and a hospital that has an a CH excuse me a children's Wing this is lifechanging for our community I'm a mom this is where my kids grew up I'm a graduate of Andrew high school and uh you know this is where I grew up and I want to make sure that the kids of our community they have the level of care that they need for generations to come we owe it to our children and that is what this organization is doing doing through our partnership with Texas Tech Health Science Center El Paso Dr Lang and his whole team as well as our partnership with University Medical Center you know one of the things that I think that a lot of people don't quite understand is that we are not recipients of taxpayer dollars from the county we are a not for-profit entity and that means that we have to be good stewards of what we do at the hospital from an operational standpoint and as terms like I tell everybody quality of care is our number one priority you all see behind me the great individuals and this is just a few of them but these individuals I know are the ones that make the big difference in working with the kids I wish that our physicians had the opportunity to come today they send you their regards they were busy taking care of children and so um what I do want to share with you all again is that this is what it's all about it's about bringing advanced technology and the highest level of skills and working with our Physicians to be right here in our city to transform that level of care um I'd like to go ahead Max do you want to say a few words sure all right perfect hi my name is Max Chine and I've been a patient of the opazo children's hospital for my entire life um when I was born I got sent to Dallas um and and thank God that I'm still here cuz when I was there I went into cardiac arrest I have what's called a large ascending yorta and thank God for my doctor Dr Schuster he's been with me for my whole entire life and I I still go and see him every year and thank God for him Max actually did not know I was going to ask him if he wanted to speak so he did that all of his own accord so you can tell what a great young man he's turning into to be and he's going to be our future leader right within our community and then this is little Christopher Christopher's parents as well as Max's parents can you all come up real quick thank you all what is life-changing is for the parents too when you think about a child who is extremely ill and they have to leave the community like Max had to all those years ago that's what our Hospital does it keeps our children right here at home we owe it to them we owe it to our parents to the grandparents to make sure that the kids are surrounded by their family when they need that highest level of care so this is little Christopher you got to wave hello he's not going to but Christopher had a brachial plexus injury it limited his range of motion for his arm recently we were able to celebrate him and how far he has come more to go though um at the UTEP men's basketball game and Christopher was able to wave to the crowd and everybody stood up and waved back to Christopher and so because of these children and the parents what they've endured we're very you know very very proud to be able to say that this is what we do every day and that's what these individuals behind me do so thank you all very much for recognizing the hospital and the work that it's done we appreciate you all in your support wow well we we want to on behalf of the city we want to say thank you for everything that you guys are doing and we know that there's just a few of you in the room today and there could be many many more but Christopher and Max um incredible stories and uh those are stories we will never forget and thank the Children's Hospital uh for what you're doing for all the children's not only the children in our community but other communities that are flying here for treatment and uh we're so glad to have you in our community and thank you thank you all thank you [Applause] by come on this way guys quickly quickly quickly come on in come on yeah yeah go get in there right about here you can't see I should be able to up here I'll double check okay we have a couple hidden faces ma' right here in the green just kind of come in a little bit go how about you guys flip the other side like that that's good perfect weall kind of tilt in that way okay we make sure we see everyone's smiling faces um all right this side over here M right here in the front can I get you to move over to this side for me please and then ma' in the gray can you take a tiny step forward for me please and and can take a little step out beautiful awesome all right now everybody just go and come in awesome there we go sir in the bluish great yes awesome can I get you to take one little step this way for me perfect all right and then officer right there can I get you to come this way a little bit for me perfect all right sorry guys GR we got to make sure we see them all all right I think we're good are we ready big smiles one two three would anybody like me to take one we have 87 more ready one two three almost took a selfie there we go anybody else thank you all [Applause] don't and for the record representative Canales joined the meeting at 909 and representative Fierro join the meeting at 9:119 the next Proclamation is Martha Rio Day and The Lunchbox Day represent leemon thank you mayor so the proclamation reads whereas El pasan Marta Rios opened a small restaurant The Lunchbox in 1985 her dream was to open a restaurant that would support her family and whereas Martha Rios took immense pride in serving her clients in the 60 seat restaurant due to the limited capacity you often found couples sharing a table for four just to get service every seat was taken and whereas her top two Specialties were delicious gorditas and Calo de she later developed Ved a more extensive menu that included daily lunch specials and whereas after a few very successful years she moved to the current location at 667 North Carolina Drive and with the help of her children it became a very popular restaurant and whereas now 40 years after opening The Lunchbox Mara Rios is retired and very proud of the success her children have been able to build they opened a second site martita's lunchbox located at 3623 Buckner and added a drive-thru window during the pandemic and whereas The Lunchbox is a true family business run by Maria Olivas Martin Rios and Luis Rios that not only serves true Mexican food but they also are a very CH charitable family they often hold fundraisers for various organizations and for many years ran the gordita booth at the Santa Lucia kmes they represent the very best of a local family run business and now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the week of February 3rd shall be known as Martha Ros Day and The Lunchbox day Martin good morning to everyone good morning to all our citizens Mr Mayor uh City Representatives M lion thank you so much for those kind words um you know and and again thank you for this recognition you know special thanks again goes to our our parents our mother who is in her mid 80s now and didn't feel up to walk it into the cold this morning but you know she she sends her her thank yous as well uh we certainly want to thank our father who's you know seeing us from above we lost them in 2015 but it has been a special 40 years it's it's it hasn't been without its obstacles certainly you know I think we all found out during the pandemic but family Unity uh wonderful customers wonderful leaders is something that got us through it um we continue to look forward towards the future and grow with this beautiful city that we love um it's been an honor being in Partners in education with schools especially those in our area Isleta Belair Riverside and over at maras with Eastwood and burges we look forward to those to maybe another 40 years we pray more beyond our lifetime um and and I just want to say thank you to my family you you know behind me is my sister Maria my brother Luis my sister-in-law Claudia and my wife Laura um we've all come together worked hard and we look forward to Growing With with this beautiful city thank you congratulations on 40 years and we're looking forward to another 40 and all the great meals that you provided this wonderful community so thank you guys very much thank you Mr Mayor thank you [Applause] well Beau than you so much [Applause] of course thank you I think my signs are still there the next Proclamation is Black History Month representative uh Canalis thank you May uh before I read the proclamation I just wanted to acknowledge one thing and that's that uh El Paso lost uh someone who I think was very important to Al Paso's black history last week that's General Edward Grier uh we recognized him last year with a proclamation for his 100th birthday um and and I wanted to acknowledge uh the the wonderful contributions uh he he made to El Paso over his 100 plus years of life life uh Proclamation city of Al Paso Texas whereas Black History Month was established to honor the remarkable achievements contributions and sacrifices of African-Americans throughout history and reflect on the role of African-Americans in shaping our community in El Paso and the world and whereas the 2025 Black History Month theme African-Americans and labor highlights the profound ways in which all forms of work free and unfree skilled and unskilled vocational and voluntary have shaped the collective experiences of black people and whereas El Paso's story history includes the trailblazing legacy of John and Mary Woods the first noted African-American entrepreneurs in both El Paso and htis whose courage and perseverance in the early 20th century helped Forge vital economic and cultural connections between our two cities and whereas the greater Al Paso area is home to over 24,000 African-American residents whose enduring contributions continue to shape our community and Beyond influencing art music science business and politics and inspiring progress unity and resilience for future generations and whereas Community uh Community landmarks such as the McCall neighborhood center and the Alp Pasa Museum of History a city operated institution offer a vivid portrayal of the experiences and contrib tions of African-American residents playing a vital role in preserving and sharing their stories and whereas initiatives and organizations like amplify El Paso black El Paso voice the black Roundtable the El Paso black business Network and many more serve as vital pillars of support offering resources opportunities and lessons in perseverance and solidarity to stimulate growth and empowerment for the black community in El Paso now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that the month of February 2025 shall be known as Black History Month signed by our honorable mayor Renard [Applause] Johnson good morning first um well first let me introduce myself I am Dr Jacqueline B Richard and I'm here on behalf of Monica Tucker and the Black Op Paso voice so uh i' I'd like to say thank you to the city council members to uh Mayor Johnson and a special thank you uh to representative Chris Canales for really always supporting us and um working with us to be able to uh present this today as we navigate the current climate in our nation it is imperative that we emphasize the importance of observing Black History Month and educating uh our community about its significance Black History Month is American history and it's disconcerting to see attempts to downplay or dismiss its relevance however it is up to us to take a proactive stance in promoting awareness and understanding of uh Black Culture and black uh the contributions of black Americans in El Paso we are fortunate to have organizations and events that champion this cause the the El Paso black um business Network first quarter session titled black Americans and labor align with the national Black History Month theme and um there we will be discussing issues such as Youth and Young Adult employment challenges military employment challenges and emerging Industries the inaugural El Paso black Hall of Fame on March 1st 2025 is another notable event that showcases the importance of recognizing and honoring individuals who have positively impacted the El Paso Community through collaborations with the minority business development agency which is under the El Paso Hispanic chamber of commerce we can create a supportive ecosystem for black entrepreneurs and professionals the mission of black El Paso voice is to establish a hub for the community to learn about black history culture and life skills and uh promoting a more inclusive and formed Society by supporting these initiatives and events we can work together to ensure that black history is celebrated and integrate it into American history rather than being marginalized or erased it is our Collective responsibility to educate Empower and un uplift the uh El Paso Community we must continue to push forward with passion and purpose and today I also have two members who um who have some words uh good morning uh mayor and city council members uh my name is Curtis Smith and I just want to tell you about something else we have going on in El Paso on February 27 as a part of Black History Month we will having the uh El Paso El Paso uh inter Club Council will be having the Black History Parade we're moving to the Northeast this year uh we will be starting from uh Blue Ridge and Diana and we'll be ending we'll go down Hondo Pass and ending at the uh Tobin Wells nation's Tobin Park I'm sorry so it starts at 10: and it end at 12 and uh we will uh like to see you out there just waving and say hello all right thank you good morning mayor and City Council Members as a local business owner in aposto Texas and the proud owner viran Boutique by gone receiving this recognition from our city in honor of Black History Month is truly incredible honor as an African-American entrepreneur this moment is more than just a recognition it's a testament to resilience hard work and the impact of black excellence in our community to be able to contribute to this Legacy uplift others and Inspire future generation is a responsibility we don't take lightly this recognition is not just for us but for every dreamer every entrepreneur and every individual striving to make a difference we are deeply grateful to be part of this movement and we remain committed to empowering elevating and set standards for excellence in business and Beyond let's continue to build grow and celebrate the richness of our culture not just this month but every day and my name is Charles W Smith Jr well thank you guys and uh we are looking forward to celebrating black history month and I will see you at a number of of events throughout the city this month so thank you guys and thank you for everything you're doing thank [Applause] you for [Applause] the next Proclamation is the black El Paso democrat's 39th Annual Poli iCal awareness and awards banquet day and the proclamation reads whereas the black El Paso Democrats was founded in 1982 by the late Ariel Washington the colonel the original leadership of the black El Paso Democrats was initially part of a nonpartisan organization named the black Coalition recognizing a need for partisanship and advocacy for the interest of the black community and whereas Colonel Washington and his leaders carefully and personally invited members that they thought would be receptive to the needs of the black community and become responsible for including blacks as equal functioning Partners in the de Democratic process and whereas over the past three decades the organization has sought to serve the best interests of the black community of Al Paso and the community at large by educating and serving the public working with other Democratic entities towards common goals and advocating for a better governmental response to public needs and whereas throughout the years the chairs have been Ariel Washington ois Hopkins Gerald Washington Donald L Williams and and since the organization was chartered in 1982 Dorothy M bird was elected as the first chairwoman in the organization's history on November 15 2015 and whereas a black El Paso Democrat celebrates its 39th Annual political awareness and awards banquet with the theme uniting for a better tomorrow which will honor our First Responders and teachers for their vital contributions to the health and education of our community now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that the historic contributions by the black El Paso Democrats be recognized and that February 22nd 2025 shall be known as the black El Paso Democrats 39th Annual political awareness and awards banquet day signed by our honorable mayor Renard Johnson well good morning my name is Dorothy bird and I am the chair for the Black Op pasle Democrats and it's truly an honor to be here this morning with the mayor and members of city council and then some of my members are here with us as you know this is our 39th Annual political awareness and awards banquet it is during this month because at the same time we celebrate Black History Month this Gala is to recognize notable Community leaders and activists to honor them doing our banquet with Awards last year I started uh uh we thought of a new thing to start to honor parts of our community last year we honored the military and we gave two monetary donations to two small food banks this year we're going to honor teachers and First Responders and this year we're doing it a little bit different also we are giving a monetary donation to a teacher because let's face it so many teachers they are truly underpaid and they use their own funds for their classrooms so any teacher that will attend our event that is a full-time teacher will get a surprise and for First Responders they have a scholarship fund we will be making a small donation to their scholarship fund and also this year our speakers are congresswoman Veronica Escobar which is the 16th District uh congressional district Senator C Caesar Blanco is our other speaker which he represents senatorial District 29 we are truly pleased with those two as our speakers for this year and just to give you an idea of what uh kind of awards that we do present I will give you uh the names of it we have a community service award fighting a good fight for Betty halberton community service award a place of peace peace and worship Destiny Church Civic and a pol political rights award keeping a dream alive the mar Luther King Jr committee veterans and Military Affairs award a place a soldier place of knowledge which is presented to Veterans at breakfast The Rising Star Award this award is always special because I like to acknowledge the youth in our community and it depends on what age they are since this lady is is in the younger category she get will be receiving the rising star Youth and action award and tubby leg and if she was a little bit older we give out the guid and light award because they're you know a little bit older in the community the chairwoman's Heritage Legacy award the NAACP unit 6175 El Paso Texas which is the oldest NAACP chapter here in Texas military service award to the veteran of the Year 2025 dubo Wakefield chairwoman's Golden Star Award gold star Gamers is going to Monica aosta because this was our second year that the gold star children were able to participate in the ghost star event which included attending the football game for the sunbowl association for 2024 and also it like I said it started in 2023 First Responders Trailblazer award goes to D Venus tiny Parker put political service award always a teacher goes to rof Williams Civic and political rights award fighting for a better tomorrow goes to Michael aaka the chair for the uh alasse County Democratic party and now I would just like for the ones who are with me to introduce themselves and as you know we are here because of the Black Op pasle Democrats but the membership is not restricted to only black Democrats others may also join thank you good morning I'm Bonnie Baker I just retired from yd uh School District after 39 years my name is barbar Wilson I'm a proud retiree from the federal government I worked at William Bowman for 27 years and I am happy to say that I'm retired I am affiliated with the central labor union I'm on the executive board with that I am also part of the afg E Federal that's the American Federation for government employees and then I am on the black El Paso Democrats as an officer good morning mayor good morning city council I'm Ramona Moore I'm a part of the American Legion Post 832 I'm sitting the executive body as the first vice chair um I'm glad to be here and thank you for this honor today and um I'm a veteran also and I serve in my committee and I'm still serving with the reserve uh uh my unit is 832 thank you [Applause] and I I don't want to say too much more about me but I'm truly an advocate in the community all of y'all know who I am so I just want to say it is a pleasure being here this morning with you and thank you so much and I hope to see y'all at our banquet thank you thank you guys so much uh for what you're doing in and the banquet honoring teacher and our First Responders what a better way to celebrate them and congratulations to you guys thank you thank [Applause] you e e [Applause] and the final Proclamation this morning is Pebble Hills High School Spartan marching bandid representative uh Nino good morning thank you mayor if I could have the Pebble Hills High School Marching Band Spartan marching band join us up in the front please and while they make their way up front um mayor thank so much for allowing me to read this Proclamation um I know that me and the mayor were texting on New Year's Day ensuring that we tuned in to watch uh this incredible achievement that happened for our community and I also do want to mention that uh this recognition was also in partnership with county commissioner Jackie Butler um who's here today um you know we've been in conversation of ensuring that we do Empower our community specifically our youth um and now I would love to to read this uh Proclamation Proclamation for the city of op Paso Texas whereas the Pebble Hills High School Spartan marching band under the direction of band director maximos Siera has demonstrated exceptional Talent dedication and commitment to Excellence in music performance culminating in their selection to have performed in the 136th Tournament of the Roses Parade on January 1st 2025 in Pasadena California and whereas the band's outstanding achievements have brought Pride to the school the community and the city of El Paso this prestigious event known in its Rich history and National prominence has never featured a marching band from elb Paso in its 136 year history making the Spartan marching band's participation a historic first for our city and whereas the 272 member Ensemble compromising from musicians dance team called guard members has engaged in in in preparation showcasing their commitment to excellence and bringing Pride to the Sor Independent School District and the entire op Paso Community and whereas the Pebble Hills High School marching bands accomplishments reflect the hard work and perseverance of its students staff and director Mr Sierra as well as the support of their families and the community exemplifying their heights that can be achieved through dedication and community support and whereas the city of op Paso therefore recognizes the significance of this achievement and the positive representation it brings to our city at a national stage now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and City Council of the city of op Paso that February 4th shall be known as Pebble Hills High School Spartan marching band day for the Exemplar achievements and continued dedication to the Arts and we extend the congratulations to all of the members for their hard work and success and congratulations again for the Pebble Hills High School SP Spartan marching band for your day thank you and Mr Sierra um I will ask also I know commissioner Butler did want to share a couple of comments Mr San uh if you could also introduce uh some of the members that are here with us today and also uh if maybe the students could also just mention their name and uh thank you again for being here with us today good morning mayor good morning commissioner Council uh Jackie Butler County Commissioner Precinct one uh we had the immense honor of recognizing uh Hills Spartan marching band yesterday at Commissioner's Court um and I want to thank representative n for for for including us and uh ensuring that both at the county and the city level were able to recognize the Great accomplishments of uh this group of students um as a former band Kid myself I can attest to the grit and resilience that these kids have uh those early morning band practices and uh evening evening practices as as well um I think nothing prepares you more for life than being in marching B so congratulations to you all uh on behalf of the entire County we're extremely proud of your accomplishments and we can't wait to see what you do next so thank you I'll say I'll say a few words uh I kind of got I got the Goosebumps right when you said uh band day for Pebble Hills Spartan marching band is a February 4th but today's today is a great day I am happy that the Pebble Hill Spartan marching band was given the opportunity to show everyone that we've achiev what we've achieved through the hard work and commitment uh these students deserve this I'm really I'm really happy that but on January 1st 2025 they achieved greatness they were on National Television representing El Paso uh their school their Community or District um I'm blessed and it's it's more than just looking beautiful out there with our our color Garden dance and the music but developing these students and it's a Memory that we'll have forever we'll always remember this it's probably a once in a-lifetime Opportunity because there are hundreds of of bands that apply and I think there's only like 10 that get accepted so we're very blessed and lucky and again I thank you and we have a couple we have our principal Mr Ramirez is over here always so supportive and our admin in Fine Arts for sisd we have Miss Candace Prince over here always capturing the Great Moments we have one of our board members our band booster uh board members Cameron Sierra and she also is my wife so and then we have Dr crap tree Dr Cecil ctree and Mr David Manda and he's here too with us so I'll keep it short and I mentioned yesterday I'm just the conductor of a process and that process is to develop our students and to and give them give them opportunities and to make sure that they're ready for for the next step which is whatever they decide to do college or whatever but I'm really happy and blessed and I'm glad that um we're able to be here today thank you very much and mayor I forgot to mention on Thursday this Thursday uh the 6 at 6 PM we will be doing a community celebration at Pebble Hills High School along with commissioner Butler also the congresswoman and we've also invited state senator Blanco uh you know we're just inviting the entire Community to come together and celebrate this accomplishment and specifically I'm I'm I'm very Pride proud for for you guys and um thank you for being also part of District 5 yeah and you and you know we we have so much to be proud of I mean we are we were beaming with immense Pride when we watched you on national TV and to know after 136 years that is huge you guys what you've accomplished so you have so much to be proud of you put El Paso on the map those early days paid off and the energy that you gave us coming into the building this morning was incredible commissioner Butler thank you for what you guys have done at the county to recognize them we're going to celebrate you guys not only today but for the rest of the year and we're going to look forward to seeing you again next year okay so whether we're going to the the roseb wherever you're going we're going to be celebrating you but congratulations to the entire team congratulations picture right here sure she can she can figure it out say oh you brought it for me yes of course always it's always a little wobbly yeah it's a little scary uh yeah just right in the middle whoever you'd like to all right okay so if you can't see me I can't see you looking at you right there yeah there we go feel skitt there we go perfect all right ma'am right here I have your face fit in a little bit that's good sir can I get you come out a little bit there we [Music] go in the front can I you take a little baby M right here can I get you to come there we go uh right here in the front can I get you to scoot just a little beautiful all right representative how are you doing all right now if I can get all of you guys to just it all in okay so we might need to do one extra little row towards the front so can I get the first like six to just come in a little bit all right and then you guys stay back there just kind of there we go and then can I get you guys to kind of fill in those gaps right in the middle there we go that's looking good right here on the end can I get you guys to come on in for me please you three can I get you to come right up here towards the front for me please all right and then gentlemen we have a group right in here I can't of your faces so try to find little windows for me don't hide from me it's fine we want to see you this is a big moment all right good all eyes on me right here with the blonde hair can I get you to come right there a little less for me a little bit more there we go and then can I get you to come out just a little bit for me that's good want you to come a little bit this way for me there we go all right I have one hid the gentl with the glasses M other with the glasses I'm sorry I pointed right with two pairs of glasses all right looks good and if you're in the front can I get you to just come down a little yeah and then if you're in the next one a little there you go there we go all right I think and can I get you guys to come in a little for me over here all right we ready everyone can see me right big smiles one two three we have a lot more all right ready I'm sorry you guys are getting a leg workout all right ready one two three oh my gosh if I would have drop we go I think that's it right thank you guys thank you e e e you you wa okay Miss bran you want to keep us on schedule yes sir Council we need a motion to recess this meeting to convene the mass transit Department move to recess we have a motion in a second there's a motion in a second to recess a regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting is at recess at 10:00 a.m. good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board for Tuesday February the 4th 2025 it is 10 a.m. president presiding is board chair Johnson also president council chambers our board members travez ACO roacha Trejo noo Fierro lemon and Canales Mr Mayor Mr chairman there is no public comment okay all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by the mass transit board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding any items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved the mass transit Department board May however be consider any item at any time during the meeting the only item on the consent agenda is the minutes is there a motion to approve second who moved and we do have a motion made by board member noo seconded by board member Canales call for the vote the voting session is open m Mr Mayor Mr chairman thank you sir and the consent agenda has been approved unanimously the first item on the regular agenda is item number three and this is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024 d0 528 Brio RTS Landscape Maintenance to Carlos I Salazar doing business as mean clean LLC for an initial term of 3 years for an estimated amount of $780,000 60 the award also includes a two-year option for an estimated amount of $520 and $40 the total contract time is for 5 years for a total estimated amount of 1,3 and $100 okay is there a motion all right there's a motion is there a second second any discussion call for the vote and we do have a motion made by board member leemon seconded by board member Roa voting session is open Mr chairman thank you sir and the item has been approved unanimously last item is discussion and action that the Sun Metro agency safety plan is approved and adopted is is there a motion to approve second there's a motion and second any discussion hearing none call for the vote and we do have a motion made by board member leemon seconded by board member Fiero and this is to approve item number four Mr Canales thank you sir and the item has been approved unanimously is there a motion to adjourn so mov all those in favor I anyone oppos and the mass transit Department board meeting for February the 4th 2025 is adjourned at 10:04 a.m. thank you is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting is back in session at 10:05 a.m. Council per The Rules of Order no use of personal cellular devices nor personal communication should take place on the day as while the meeting is in session once you obtain the floor from the mayor you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per item please speak into the microphone and refrain from any side conversations at the day is while the meeting is in session for those of you joining virtually please make sure your M microphones are muted to reduce any background noise that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routined 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 time during the meeting mayor pro thank you Miss pan I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page nine item 19 postpone three weeks per Mayor Johnson page nine item 20 move to the Forefront of the agenda per representative Fiero page 10 item number 22 move to the Forefront of the agenda per representative Fiero all right there's a motion is there a second second any discussion mayor we do have some members of the audience that signed up to speak on some items on the consent agenda okay we have on item number six miss Patricia Osman and item six is a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the Texas commission on Environmental Quality Texas Volkswagen environmental mitigation program all electric grant program requesting an estimated cost share of $500,000 with no match required from Air Airport Enterprise funds good morning morning and uh nice to see a lot of new faces and some that I've recognized but uh the reason I did want to speak on this is that this is a matter that uh involves a grant and as a citizen in with our new federal climate uh we understand that our local Grant funds are going to be vastly affected and I'm hoping that not only this this project but every other project that deals with a grant that the city has gone ahead and done a complete accounting and calculation as to how that's going to impact if like uh our federal department has already closed the US aid department and they froze funds earlier that is what they are planning because unfortunately uh Elon Musk has already stated that uh he stated that with Vivic in one of the GOP Senators so uh as a citizen I would like to request from every one of the council members if everybody can request that calculation as to everything with a grant when all of those grants are lost which we should be calculating that they very well could be in a democratic City especially with how our state legislature legislation has also gone um so that the citizens know what the impact of the loss of those grants are going to be to our taxes because it is no longer going to be a matter of being able to be dependent on other people's money and it's going to be quite frankly um on the backs of every taxpayer and resident in this town thank you and M signed up to speak on item seven and item seven is a resolution that the mayor signed an interlocal coopera cooperation agreement between the city of Al Paso and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center to provide online medical direction to the Emergency Medical Services system for a term of three years with a 2-year option to extend good morning Miss Turner good morning mayor council uh the only reason I'm up here on this item is simply because several days ago I got a letter telling me that Texas Tech had been hacked in September of 2024 and my medical records were now in the hands of a hacker that was like the fifth time this year that a community prider had been hacked and my records were in someone else's hands so my concern here is this the security of the transmission of any information concerning anybody how secure is it going to be is it going to be protected I've already learned that Texas Tech can't protect medical information and since you're going to enter into a contract I would hopefully think that you would make sure that any information that you share with Texas Tech Will Be secured thank you and Miss Turner also signed up to speak on item 8 and this is a resolution authorizing the city manager or designate to sign an agreement for Professional Services with countrymen and Company PLC for a project known as architect and Engineering Services for fire station 7 renovation project for an amount not to exceed $219,400 I uh selected this because the contract is 219,000 and it's boiler plate language when we say see manager can make CH approve changes up to $50,000 this is basically nearly 25% of the contract there's two of them on here today with that so I'm asking is that something we should look at when a contract is this low and maybe reduce it to maybe 10% of the contract instead of something be like almost a quarter of the contract just an observation thank you thank you turn Miss Turner signed up to speak on item nine and this is a resolution to sign an interlocal agreement with the town of Horizon City Texas for the provision of Public Health and environmental services by the city of Al Paso to the of Horizon City my question here is simple how can anybody in this nation deal with public health when the CDC has been basically shut down did you know there's an outbreak of TB in Kansas if it wasn't for somebody making a Facebook reel I would not know that they had a serious issue with TB in Kansas there is no medical information coming out food recalls we don't know so how are we going to provide that kind of information to our citizens in that situation so I'm going to ask the mayor and Council to see what you can do to make it safe for us let us know if there are any recalls find out what you have to do because our federal government has just decided to say forget it we don't care if you die thank you thank you Mr Turner mayor that concludes public comment on the consent items okay we have a motion and a second any further discussion call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by mayor protim Chavez seconded by representative Fedor to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously we now turn to page N9 to item 20 that was moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda and this item is a presentation and discussion by emergence Health Network of their 2024 annual report on activities collaborations and Partnerships with local entities and this item was submitted by representative fto represent feto thank you Mr Mayor it's um it's a privilege to put this on the agenda I want to thank um Miss doter and her team for all they do for our community it's uh you make it a a healthy safer place for us and and I know that um it's um you do it for out of the love um but thank you for everything you do for our community thank you Mr Mayor hi good morning Christy Dy CEO with the emergence Health Network and we do have a PowerPoint I'm not sure I don't see a a clicker up here will you it if you please bring up the power it's there now the arrow right here okay that's new awesome all right thank you all right guys sorry I'm a little technology challenged I should have brought my Chief Information officer with me but anyway thank you guys for having me this morning uh what we try to do every year is put out an annual report to give the community h a snapshot of what our last fiscal year looked like and so this is fiscal year 24 which ran from August uh excuse me September 1st 2023 to August 31st 2024 uh what we'll do is um we we do a digital uh a complete digital report you won't receive a a printed report but there's a nice link that we send out that you can get on and peruse the report because it is interactive there's a lot of information so I'm just going to give you some high level information today so the first thing we want to talk about is our community impact and that's really the focus of this report this year is what have we done for Al Paso and so you'll see here some of the highlights and this is just a a a sliver of what we've done but I wanted to just share with you some highlights of some really important programs the first program I want to share with you is our ID day abilitation Center this is an amazing Center um out on Lomand and what it does is it provides a day activity for individuals adults with developmental disabilities uh they come in they do socialization we have laundry facilities we have a kitchen and so what we focus on instead of their disability we focus on their abilities how can we strengthen what they can do to take care of themselves and so if you see there's a a little success story there talking about a young lady who was struggling a little bit graduating from school once she got involved into the program she got the she became more confident and her independence uh her independent skills increased and so really looking at that as just it's an amazing center it's one of my favorite places they have the best parties I always go out uh for their parties and they just have it's just it's so heartwarming to see what they're able to do every single day and it also is a little respit for their families because uh individuals with developmental disabilities typically live with their families and so what we're able to do is bring them in have a they they have friends we have dances and they're able to do things um with with Co with peers and give their their family a little rfit uh next up is our school-based services we're very proud of this initiative um ehn was able to stand up these uh school-based services without having to um ask for financial reimbursement from the school districts we were able to do it with grants and different ways and so we're very happy to say that we um are in uh 10 campuses three with Cano two with fabin and five in Al Paso ISD and we had just recently received some additional Sams some money we hope that comes through uh to be able to uh expand some of those uh campuses those are the districts who've been very active with us and as you can see right now we've serve uh in fiscal year 24 we did did serve over 5,000 students in those school-based campuses and and one uh students as young as 5 years old are receiving services on campus next up is another uh really exciting Adventure we have mental health first aid uh we have been able to train over 2,000 people in fiscal year 25 in mental health first aid and I'm going just because we have some new faces I wanted to let the the mayor and Council know one thing we did um a couple of years ago is we were actually able to train all the Sun Sun Metro bus drivers in mental health first aid and that was that's that's something the city needs to be proud of not every city is doing that uh it is important to our our both our our bus drivers we we train teachers because they they're going to interact with somebody in a psychiatric crisis throughout their career and we were also able through the work of of city council and the mayor's office perfor to change the city Charter to uh recognize nonvisible disabilities as a disability to receive free and reduce fair so uh we thank the city for that and it's made a huge difference for the people that we serve next up is our crisis intervention team and again thank you to the the city for being the uh Pioneer in El Paso for bringing CIT into Al Paso we currently have CIT with Al Paso Police Department the sheriff's department the um city of sakuro police department and then we've also expanded and I'll talk a little bit about this in a minute to school-based CIT and I think we are one of the only cities in Texas that has that again we've done that through some grant funding um some funding through the state legislator uh Senate Bill 292 and so we're very excited to continue that that initiative um I can tell you that we're coming up on an anniversary I I remember we started CIT with the city on Valentine's Day in 2019 so we're coming up on our anniversary with the the City PD and we've grown we now have 20 teams on the streets and um it's there's there's still more of a need I can tell you 20 teams is great but as we as we uh more people learn about that service uh where we actually have an ehn clinician riding in the police car with a specially trained police officer it's it's had a huge impact I've actually seen body cam footage from some of those calls that could have resulted in use of force it could have resulted in an arrest but it actually resulted in getting that individual the care they needed and the partnership that we have with um our law enforcement Partners is priceless uh next up is another wonderful partnership that we have with the city uh if you don't know uh ehn is the answer of 988 we also answer our local crisis line um um but what is really wonderful about our partnership with the city is we are embedded in the 911 Center and so 988 is answered at 911 but we took it a step further I can tell you other cities Austin they also have their 988 and their 911 Center but I think we've done it the best and what we've done is we actually have integrated that process where our staff have access to the cad system so the computer AED dispatch system that communicates with our law enforcement that are responding to these calls we we can as La as mental health professionals provide information to those individuals responding we can tell them they've missed this individual's missed their last three appointments they're clearly out of medication this is what's going on with them again we're going to get that person the help they need versus simply arresting them and taking them to jail and I can tell you that the partnership with 911 has been pretty impactful and it's just continuing to grow uh last year alone we answered more than 25,000 calls through our our crisis line um next just some more highlights is uh we are uh embracing AI as your local mental health authority and developmental disability Authority some people are afraid of it but we are embracing it um our staff is very grateful we do have an AI uh system that we have embedded in our electronic health record that is actually helping our clinicians write their case notes it's not doing it for them and they do have to read it and approve it but what if you know anything about Healthcare the code is the key and so we have to drive those notes to make sure that it's it's supporting the right building code and so this AI system helps us with that again the clinician does have to read it and and approve it but we um definitely are we're reducing uh staff documentation Time by 30% and so what that does is put that staff back in front of a client and it helps with burnout so we we need to keep our our staff um happy uh next up we're very excited about Opening Our restorative justice center um it is a center for individuals that may have a mental illness involved with any form of Criminal Justice System probation parole um they could just be uh have some charges against them it's a beautiful Center and we're very proud of that and it's continuing to grow um and then we also recently uh partnered with the county and we're also receiving funding from hhsc to add a Diversion Center to our extended observation unit at 1600 Montana what that's going to do is actually add a component the observations CER a unit can we sleep people there they can stay there for up to 48 Hours um receive medicine see a doctor get linked to services with the diversion piece that we're adding to it through their partnership with the the county and HHS that may be they may be there two or three hours so instead of if somebody does get arrested an officer can bring them to the Diversion Center we can maybe get them a meal they can get a shower uh figure out what's really going on get their medications filled and move them out into the community really trying to preserve our resources uh especially our emergency rooms if you know a lot of times individuals with uh mental illness end up in an emergency room that's not where they need to be so we're adding another component to our our crisis system um we are excited to say that in this past fiscal year we hosted a town hall talking about uh fund expanding funding for ID services in Texas and I can tell you this is top of our priority list for our legislative work this year um if you know any ID we have an amazing position we call attendant care those are the individuals that go into the homes they are helping these folks with daily living um making sure they have their needs met prior to the last legislative session the rate the hourly rate for the attendant care was $730 an hour I think 760 I think I'm sorry last session the the the Texas legislator thought they got a win and moved it to 1060 we actually pay our attendance $14 an hour um right now the last we heard as of this morning you know Senate finances have happening these last these today and um yesterday we heard that it's moving to $12 an hour which still is not a livable wage so we are pushing as a system in Texas to get that um we were pushing for 15 uh one number thought thought out there was 17 but uh rep Moody was there with us to educate our community on the need to really advocate for that day that day um attendant wage to be above $15 an hour uh next we were very proud to partner with kvia and receive the Frank M Adams award which is a an award within my industry that's very prestigious if you have ever watched KVA they have be mindful and so Avery Martinez who we know he's no longer in El Paso but he was an amazing uh mental health reporter and that that did receive uh Statewide recognition so again and kudos to Al Paso for designating a reporter to mental health uh as I talked about before we do have school-based CIT that is an amazing initiative that we are so proud of to where we don't have clinicians in the ISD police cars with their law enforcement Partners what we do is we have a team dedicated to to school uh School law enforcement and right now we are in canoo ISD fabin sakuro Al Paso and then we also have remote options through tablets with um Clint and um Santa lazario so we are excited to say that we have touched most of the school districts when they have a psychiatric crisis they can call us and have the EXP s there immediately and something else will'll be um rolling out literally rolling out in the next couple of weeks is we have purchased two mobile clinics they're just Vans they look like normal Ford vans and inside though is a state-of-the-art technology to where we can roll that that van anywhere it needs to go and that person can see a clinician they can see a doctor we can do any type of assessment they need very comfortable uh very therapeutic environment the children's one does have a PlayStation in it I lose my it people sometimes because they're testing it but really trying to imagine being a parent and you get a call and your your child's in a psychiatric crisis you drive to the school you're panicking police is there you know things are happening so if we can roll that clinic to that school that that child does not have to ride in the back of a police car nor do they have that parent who is also probably having a moment having to put them in a car and take them somewhere so we're again we're big on access and trying to meet the need where it happens uh so something else and if you get on our website please check out our our our report because it's pretty cool how this adds up but we did bring in $ 18.8 million in grant funding in fiscal year 24 and if you look at some of these areas it tells you where those dollars went um we are very excited that we are a hub for training and distribution of nooc Zone to First Responders uh we've done that in a lot of the rural communities that surround Al Paso because n lockone is life saving we also um expanded into our youth crisis Outreach and the the van is going to be driven by our youth crisis Outreach team so if they need that they can take that where it needs to go uh School based Crisis Intervention teams as well as um really looking at uh expanding access and services for our youth we really need to Target Our Youth and make sure that they're getting the services they need so again an addition $18 million into our community is we're very proud of uh next we always like to add in our annual report our revenues over our expenses and as we're we're proud to say that we um our our revenues do exceed our expenses and we served over 36,000 people last year in our fiscal year and um we also that the 12 over 12,000 people in our County jail so we are the contracted mental health provider under UMC for the downtown and the annex for mental health services uh we also try to break up our our services by demographic our annual report is used a lot by students we can tell you that a lot of our hits are from students doing research and so we'd like to try to provide that forward- facing information for them uh so as you see we have it broken down by gender ethnicity age for our Behavioral Health Unit our division which served over 8,000 individuals our ID same uh breakdown with over 1,500 individuals collaborative care it's a very unique division of ehn where we actually provide Primary Care Mental Health Services substance use all under one room um sounds easy it's really a little complicated especially when you're talking about uh electronic health record systems they're not always talking to each other or as as easy to use but we're very excited that we served over 4,000 people in that unit and the other part of that division is that division is the reason Al Paso your your mental health authority in Al Paso does not have a weit list for services so what we did is we created this unit for folks that um may not meet meet the have the need for the intense state funded services but they they they need something and so we were able to create this whole division that provides that care and we do not have a wait list for services and we don't intend to to start one and then our crisis and emergency uh Services which most most are familiar with served over 6,000 people and then um our diversion and so what we have under our diversion division is inded that we have diverted from an inappropriate level of care whether it's a a jail emergency room and we even consider diversion from a psychiatric bed a success because we've kept that person in the community and we've kept them stable and that is our annual report uh I know I went through it really fast happy to take questions please take a look at it online and we'd be happy to go over it with you in more detail if if you'd like so appreciate the time any questions for Christie you Christie thank you so much thank you for your support thank you we now turn to page 10 and this item was also moved to the fourth front and this is item 22 and it's a presentation discussion and action regarding party halls or entertainment venues and residential swimming pools within the city of Al Paso this item yes good morning mayor and Council Nicole Cody good morning um uh Nicole before you begin we got a couple uh representative uh ver thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr Cody and before the presentation and I first and foremost I know that you and the city manager have done a lot of work on this but I need to put a little history to this um this is an issue that touches all of our districts in some shape manner or form and you know before I go any further I need to tell share with everyone that I'm very Pro business um I believe in entrepreneurship and and this is not anything to do with anti- um business or anti- entrepreneurship but these entum V venues um that advertise backyard events such as weddings that hold up to 200 people with with um and Etc there's swimming pool parties that are being used in these homes in our neighborhoods so these these events have un unended consequences such as parking such as parking blocking driveways trash allegedly there's underage drinking there's issues with some of the neighbors feeling that their personal space is being invaded by people who are there for a party or for a s event looking over their backyards I've heard complaints such as there's they're throwing bottles and beer bottles over and or just are just hearing so this is something that we need to address because of these unintended consequences and our office has gotten many many emails and very many phone calls in regards to this but I do appreciate you you doing all the work and I look forward to the presentation thank you Mr Mayor thank you Miss roacha thank you mayor I appreciate it as a new member of council I can say that uh my office has already received several complaints about um about this particular issue however in the spirit of making sure that I do my due diligence because I do not have quite the the knowledge and understand I understand that there's work that's been done however I do not understand um the data and that's what I really want to see right is the data but before I do that um I I I particularly know that um there are some individuals some Bad actors in the in the space that there has already been some uh methods to kind of minimize their um their activities and so for me what I do and and I I'm G to say this now I move to separate the agenda item regarding party halls or entertainment venues and residential swimming pools into separate items and the reason I say that is because I know that there are already some we need we I need to look at things individually and that's just for my own personal personal um uh method and I also move to delay any action on them until further meeting so that I can do my due diligence and that I'm able to review the data and also provide the public in my district and in other districts more time to provide me information on what we're what they're voting on and what they're going through I don't have the data available to be able to say I have constituents that feel this way or that way and so that um I feel like it I need the time to review it thoroughly with including the community's feedback and also understanding the work that uh that your offices have already done so that's that's my statement okay so we have actually a motion to separate the the Halls from the swimming pools right I believe this is a presentation am I correct so there's no action item correct um so we thank you sorry we were asked to look at this item as our Representatives it looks like there's said last year so this was really to bring forward and help you understand the clarification that was needed within the code and really our Focus here is on education so had this been a recommendation for an ordinance a major ordinance change then we would have gone a different process in terms of doing inform information for the public when we had this meeting initially uh we were talking about adding additional information when the staff went out and get their homework we realized that the only thing we need is to clarify for people and we would like to do an education campaign and so today we're not asking for we always put action just in case you're directing us to do something in terms of the Outreach or other things but this is really to give you clarification so you understand what those next steps are so if you're saying you know we would like additional data we don't necessarily have you know number of call data or even identifying some of these pieces which Miss Cody and the team will go through so it really is information um and so that was the purpose of bringing this forward in this way and this is the reason why we wanted to make sure we had clarification for the public so that people can have some feedback on this okay so this is just just a presentation correct all right so miss roacho would you like to Second you resend your second would you like okay all right thank you good morning good morning Nicole Cody um Deputy city manager and so you'll see entertainment venues and swimming pool rental update so today we're going to talk is an in informational um and educational presentation and what we're really going to focus on on and you'll see behind me is uh both Kevin Smith and Tony Dela Cruz from our planning and inspections department and they're going to be able to provide you exactly what we have in the code and the current ordinances that we have in place and so it'll be for both the use of Residential Properties for planning party halls or entertainment venues and uh looking at residential swimming pools and then also we'll talk about we have um Steve Alvarado here from our code enforcement and we'll talk about a strategy that we're proposing for enforcement as well as educational and Outreach for the public I'll turn it over to Tony good morning Mr Mayor City Council Members Good morning Tony the lauz planning and inspections department so I'm going to cover uh go over our current regulations as they pertain to party halls entertainment venue something that we classify under dance halls next slide please overall this is a current definition that we have in our city Cod a dance hall is basically a place which principal use is for Furnishing facilities for dancing right now those specific uses are allowed in the C5 and C4 District and under C2 and C3 they're allowed under a special permit which would require approval by city council they are not permitted currently in any of the residential zones so as previously mentioned we already have a definition they're not part of the permissible use tables for residential so what we're trying to do in this presentation is also provide verbiage to those definition that really clarifies that component of the code next slide please overall what we're recommending is simply adding small sentence at the end of our current definition that clearly identifies to the property owners throughout the city that the use of Residential Properties for dance halls or entertainment menues are prohibited they're already there the verbiage is currently in the code we're just providing additional clarification for that with that I'll pass it over to Kevin he's going to cover the swimming pool components thank you another slide oh let's see next slide oh the enforcement strategies I apologize for that so overall as part of the enforcement strategies that we're looking at is we're going to be searching for all the venues that are currently not permitted within a residential Z first thing that we're going to do of course is going to be sending them mail outs informing them of the current regulations that are in place and if we move forward with adding that uh Second sentence then of course we'll provide that information as well along with that with the collaboration with PD code enforcement we'd have to do sweeps on the weekends which is primarily when the complaints are coming through um because part of the requirement is that we have to actually catch him in the act of renting out these venues we cannot simply go off of posting that doesn't provide enough information to our courts to say that at the specific event at that specific time that location was being rented it has to be something that we have solid proof so we can move forward with Municipal Ton Tony can you give me an example of what that solid proof looks like that's the hard part sir because at that point it would be really going out to the establishment and having either a rental agreement that that place is being leased for that specific individual at that specific date us just saying we we found a listing that you're renting it but not having that proof will not stand up in court okay uh we have some comments here some questions representa tro have you all looked into how other cities are handling these venues or properties the majority of the cities that we've looked at throughout the state prohibit these in residential areas okay thank you represen good morning question when it comes to enforcement who would be the person that would be liable in regards of having responsibility will it be the the the OWN owner of the property or will it be the one who's renting it is that something that we have navigated the conversation in regards or overall the enforcement uh would fall on the property owner the property owner okay thank you Tony yes sir we have another question representative uh Chavez yes ma'am thank you mayor so in your experience and enforcement how many people have you actually been able to to find for example given your parameters that you just described uh let me check with st Al he's primarily deals with that component and the reason why I'm asking is because I I don't know if if there if that's really something that's that's doable right if if you're really able to determine whether that proper prop is being rented or not given your definition right now and so I'm wondering if maybe we need to modify that and how we could modify that in the future so that it's actually enforcable and not just something that's written but not really enforcable because we can't really quote unquote catch someone you know in the ACT does that make sense yes it does okay thank you good morning mayor Council Steve Alvarado code enforcement director with the El Paso P PD currently excuse the voice fighting a cold uh to answer your question right now we have not enforced this uh as of yet there will be investigative skills that we will enact um asking the right questions contacting the responsible party at the venue or the residence that's holding the event um ask those questions uh are you the property owner no I'm Steve Alvarado um and there's nothing that that prohibits us from issuing a citation after the fact we don't have to ISS it right there on the spot we could go back do some more investigative research um and make some contacts with the property owners and do it that way so we will look to enforce it as the best of our abilities mayor if I may further in the conversation we're going to be talking about how we do an Outreach campaign for the community and so part of the work was to go and really understand what was happening in the community and part of what we think is happening is that people don't know the rules and so really utilizing some effort to make sure that people are attempting to rent or people are utilizing their facilities in this way that we're really pushing out that information and then we move to you know a phase of ensuring that we're talking about compliance and utilizing our newly um uh arranged code enforcement department to move in those areas and so I think the education is absolutely necessary and so as we start to uh get feedback from people we were starting to monitor you know where these items are posted doing some mail really getting out there in terms of messaging and then utilize this if we need to but I think it needs to be that two-prong approach as you'll see the staff present to you today and just to add one one further thing there's nothing that excludes us from issuing citations for noise violations sound violations anything over 70.0 uh we could issue the property owner a violation for that as well as the sea we levels so just wanted to add that thank you Steve thank you sir good morning mayor and city council Kevin Smith with planning inspections so I will cover the swimming pool portion of the presentation currently in our zoning ordinance we have two definitions for swimming pool uh what is called non-commercial typically we generally consider that residential and in commercial pools generally the definitions are the same for both of the tool two they talk about it being a body of water um but the difference is at the very end and what's shown there in blue so the residential or non-commercial swimming pool is defined as um it's intended for recreational purposes and for the exclusive use of the residents of a residential use and their private guests the difference is on the commercial definition for a swimming pool it's intended for recreational purposes which is the same however and open to the public upon payment of a fee and that's really where it crosses the threshold from a residential to a commercial is the payment of a fee to go along with that is under the licensing to under a residential or non-commercial swimming pool there's no license required but in a commercial swimming pool a license is required plus you have to have different elements there and mostly it's for health and safety so as you look at it that's are there on the screen some items such as depth markers safety equipment um ADA requirements annual water testing uh parking and minor supervision those are all required in a commercial swimming pool but it's not required in a residential swimming pool um restrooms is another one as well whereas a a non-commercial or residential pool it does not require it typically there is because it's with a house a home but a commercial pool does require restrooms so there really are some differences this is required um as per our city code as well as the International Swimming Pool and Spa code has similar verbiage uh for them as well in terms of requirements under licensing so similar um to as we look at the definitions um this is already existing in the code and the are in red is what we're proposing at a future time to bring forward to city council to strengthen the code and Dallas has similar definition that clarifies that um it cannot be rented except that private swimming lessons may be may be given under the home occupation use and that's similar in Dallas so as we have a lot of new members of city council to amend an ordinance as such as this that's in our zoning code first it has to go through the public vetting and through legal review it goes to the city plan commission for their consideration and recommendation and then finally it's brought before city council at a future time in introduction and then um public hearing after that so with this um there there is an extensive number of pools that are in El Paso and and part of the concern is we as as Miss Mack mentioned is it's a little bit difficult to identify how many of these are being rented out these residential pools are being rented out for um to to the public and so they're roughly 177,000 pools in El Paso so we need to get out the information to th them through through mail and Nicole will cover this a lot as well in terms of the Outreach um PSAs press releases and then as similar to the entertainment venues that Tony covered is uh doing sweeps as well um we we've heard um similar situations where um neighborhoods have been inundated with people having a pool party their neighborhood is is full of of cars people making noise and typically those are on Friday and Saturday so working with our code enforcement team to um to if we can catch them in similar um it's similar to the um entertainment venues we need to catch them in the ACT that's really the um how how we need to do that um Nicole I'll pass over Nicole to talk about the public Outreach that is being proposed in terms of this because this is this is a lot of it is already existing in the code and this is educational how we can inform the public about what you can and you can't do on their residential property so cool thank you Kevin so as the city manager said it really is a two-prong approach and there is a great deal of Education that we need to do for our residents and part of that is included in this communication Outreach plan so we're looking at assuring there's a dedicated web page not only through press releases to ask the media to assist us in getting that information out we also have social media ads and postings that we're planning on doing in coordination with our strategic Communications Department of course um we will also be working on media interviews our City TV along with any type of community meetings so if you would like us to be able to come out and talk to your residents to your constituents about this issue of course we're happy to do so as well as any newsletters as and targeted mailers so we really want to inform the property owners of uh the existing code and what's already in place so they're aware of uh the current restrictions so inside we're planning on bringing this uh or starting this communication campaign in the spring of 2025 for both the party halls and the residential swimming pools and as Kevin mentioned um bringing forward any po potential additional language as we recommend thank you Nico thank you guys for the presentation thank you you we have uh representative uh ASO thank you mayor I how a few questions one when we voted on this a few months ago one one thing that had come to mind was that these are already zoned residentials so they couldn't be happening anyway so what do we have on the books that can do the enforcement without an ordinance change so the what we presented today is exactly as it reads language yes sir so it's exactly how it reads currently in our code and that's why we're recom mending doing very targeted um enforcement sweeps but really um ensuring that as city manager mentioned it's that two-prong approach that they're informed okay that it already exists so then so then if we have that it's kind of seems more enforcement has fallen by the wayside and we haven't really done it so now we're going to really step up the enforcement right okay and then do we have any data on police calls or the most um egregious cases of residential homes being used for entertainment venues you know at this time I don't believe we have anything to provide but we can definitely start um either go back and see if we can identify those because it is difficult because they might be calling about the noise or it's after 10: and it's really loud or and we haven't identified that it was specific due to an entertainment venue rental but we can start tracking that and be able to provide that to counsel in the future future I I think that would be really helpful just cuz I know when we voted on this a few months ago um there was that gasa Extravaganza that was a major one so we know the address there right so really I I think what would be helpful for me on this is to kind of zoom into the ones that have the major complaints the ones that have the most calls right when we when we're thinking about other issues when for code enforcement I've started encouraging my constituents to start calling because then we go look and say okay there was 20 calls in this last period of a week and that's the type of data that I would really appreciate around this so I I really do share what um representative malono Roa was saying around getting the data for for me I see the the party halls entertainment venues as something that really should be the priority and in terms of polls I'm not really seeing that a lot in my district so I want to get more data to have a better informed decision around that and so I know that we got a complaint or not a complaint I'm sorry an email from Jose Rodriguez around the pool at least I got it in my inbox this morning but I think if we kind of treat these as kind of case studies on saying okay um Jose Rodriguez is complaining about a poll where he lives so let's go check this out and understand how many calls are happen happening and have that brought back to council I think that would be helpful and I know we're not I we're posted for Action so action can be taken on this right so I'm kind of seeing your summary on slide 12 that you're you're already going to do some notifications and you're doing a whole communication Outreach and and that I understand but I still kind of think that we need a little bit more information before we move forward with that so move forward with the community outreach yeah just because I think from from the team's perspective is on the swimming pools it's it's truly a safety concern and we want to ensure that our code is being met uh regarding the swimming pools it's and I understand maybe there's not a lot of complaints regarding that but I do know it is it is a sa it's a priority for us in the safety of the community I I just want to make a decision based off of data that that's the the puzzle piece that's missing for me so I I totally understand the the safety concern with polls absolutely but if we don't have the data to support that that's where um like have we had any drownings at at one of these pools I I would hope we wouldn't wait until there's a drowning no totally totally but I mean that's part of the data that I would be asking for right or are we getting the the pools um is it a weekly thing where they're trashing the whole neighborhood like those are the calls that I want to see to inform a lot of this right sir we understand that there are some apps that are available for people to be able to rent these pools throughout Al Paso so we already know that people are using them for this purpose and so we will be starting there in terms of the targeted work we absolutely will have a better sense of the data um in terms of how we move forward is really important when we talk about enforcement across our city that it's even and it's fair that we're not targeting anyone individual we're ensuring that we're being fair and we're trans uh that we have been very clear about the expectations and so it is important for us to make sure that information is out there in terms of clarification even if we did not make the change in the ordinance understand that this is something that we need to be able to push out we think that the clarification is for the Public's benefit so that you're not trying to you know decipher and understand what is written Although our staff Le that is already in our codes and so we will work on figuring out how we do the data piece through um Mr avado Whats his teams in place in about next month or so and and I understand the the whole thing about going everywhere and not targeting just one individual but I think that we also have some something to look at right where we have constituent complaints already and that's a good place to start because those are the people that are coming to us and saying this is a huge issue how can we tackle this and I would treat this as like any CR that we submit we we send it out right whe whether it's noise things or duplic things or code enforcement um I think we have a lot there to kind of start there and see how we can tackle it from there absolutely we'll all work together right uh representative Canalis thank you mayor um yes thank you to the staff I know you've been working very hard on this we provided you Direction in September of last year um to draft ordinance changes specifically aimed at prohibiting the use of private residences as as party venues and and uh separately to look at the swimming pool uh rental issue so I I feel that what you've brought us I understand there concerns but what you've brought us is exactly what we asked you for back in September so thank you for that work I'm looking at uh swimply right now swimply is the I think the leading I don't know I don't want to wait into that it is a large platform uh for private rentals of swimming pools I see 75 I just counted them current listings for El Paso I think it was 82 when we had the conversation last year um I I know they they pop up as summer approaches so um there are venues all across the city that are being used this way um we have a listing of them here I think it's a it's a good place to start um and uh again this is something that has been in our zoning code for a very long time um I I think I this these were my comments back in September that uh we need a a an more refined plan for the way that we conduct enforcement and I appreciate now that the that that Mr alvado and the code enforcement department is is incorporating that into what we're looking to do um but we did again specifically direct the the drafting of the ordinance changes and so um I look forward to when you bring that back to us I know the timeline said spring 2025 uh so I anticipate we'll see those soon um again I I have no problem with a request for more data of course we want to make decisions based on data um but for the especially for for my new uh colleagues on the council know that especially as summer rolls around you will begin to receive many complaints about uh violations of this portion of the of the zoning code um folks who are being very disrespectful to their neighbors uh a lot of disputes between neighbors regarding swimming pool rentals and pool parties and House parties in rental venues um and and this didn't come out of nowhere so this is very much an an action that we directed last year driven by uh complaints and I think a I I don't know what caused it but a a a strong escalation of those complaints in particular last last summer uh and so uh you know this is this is an action that we we took for that reason in in in order to address the community concern that we were hearing from a lot of our constituents so thank you for the work and uh I look forward to you bringing us the uh amendments to vote on in the next few months thanks thank you mayor represent Chavez thank you mayor so uh just give you a little more context I just want to Echo uh representative fierro's sentiments about being pro bus I also am Pro bus but I also Echo sentiments from uh representative aavo and roacha in terms of data I I did have the opportunity to meet Francis one of my constituents in district one uh probably in August early August she complained about a house next to her that continuously had these types of events um she did try to reach out to the city several times um and nothing was done by the time I reached Francis again probably in November she had decided to leave El Paso for the same reason because she could no longer tolerate you know the disturbances that she that were occurring in her neighborhood so I just want to emphasize that I know that we can um talk about you know uh ordinances and trying to enforce them but we need to make sure that we have the tools necessary for that enforcement and I know that sound was mentioned and and and I understand that that's another uh way to do it but I I just want to talk about you know like speeding right we all know that people know speeding is illegal and they shouldn't do it and yet we know people speed but it would be counterproductive for a police officer to say I don't have the tools to catch someone speeding but if they're not wearing their seat belt I I will stop them for that so if we're trying to enforce for a specific thing let's make sure that we have the tools and resources so that we can follow through with that um so that I don't have to encounter more constituents like Francis I know I have some constituents here today to speak about this and I know that it is a big issue for district one and so I would love to collaborate with you all of you more to make sure that we're doing the best thing that we can for our community I do think it's a quality of life issue and we need to address it so thank you so much yes ma'am thank you represent brocha thank you so the only question I have is you know we we talk about the ordinance or the zoning already being in effect and I too went on I went on swimply yesterday just to make sure that I kind of understood what what the city's facing and what code enforcement faces as well so I know that pools will be open if they're not already open like March 1st April 1st is what I saw um but here's here's my concern with catching them in the act the owner typically is not on premise so you know swimly does a job my my understanding is they do they do a job of of making an arrangement with with the renter um and it could be it could be a family party or a birthday party or photo shoot or any any of those um events and there's an end time so my question is is that you know you have code enforcement go out and you get these Bad actors and keep referring to that so sorry about that but those um those repeat offenders right that have these parties with over a hundred people in these locations what what steps are are there punitive damages that code enforcement gives it do you ticket them like clearly you know I I see that there's there's concern for it so now we have to see okay you're going to go and do this Outreach and on the other end who is ticketed if the owner is not on premise what are the steps so so those are questions that I have to be able to say okay maybe the owner's unaware that you know that these renters took it to an extend it and and I'm speaking for the ones that are generally just trying to make um extra income speaking I'm not speaking about the ones that that are the repeat offenders and I know we we saw uh Mr Rodriguez that also sent I believe us all an email in regards to his situation but I'm but also I'm trying to make sure that who who's targeted here when you go and you catch these people in the ACT yes Steve alvado again representative great question so let me let me give you a foundation of of our core process sure um basically we will receive the complaints and and we have a new Council welcome everybody I look forward to working with each and every one of you um we have a nighttime enforcement team currently in place for the last year and a half or so so this team works every Friday Saturday nights until 2: in the morning um so they're out there taking noise violations readings along that line we're also responding to calls from PD Dispatch for House Parties loud parties and we go out there and we do the same thing with the noise readers um but if I go out to my house say the code enforcement comes to my house and I'm a Airbnb or or one of these short-term reent excuse me not anybody in particular a short-term rental owner um in my contract for what I've seen is if uh a John Do's renting it it says in there no loud parties no drinking outside a lot of you know no blocking parking violations etc etc so um but the property owner is ultimately responsible so we would give the property owner myself a notice of violation or notice of Correction because we usually actually to do Outreach so you know do the same thing with with all the restaurants and bars that we interact with so we'll go out there hey you're over the sound meeting I know your levels I know you're new um you need to keep below 70 and there there's your your warning if you will uh we'll come back to next night and if they're up at 90 or so well we're going to issue a notice of of violation basically it's going to be a court summons to go to show up to court at a later date in time for the violation specified you're over 70.0 of the noise ordinance your your sea weight is is higher than what what is allowable in our ordinance current ordinance things along that line uh our team of course when it gets closer to Summer we're going to have to either expand by having more team members work overtime uh we currently have 46 full-time employees under code enforcement as you all know we're going through a transition we're bringing in other sections and we'll be around 135 cross functional team trained so they could do multiple aspects of the enforcement So currently co- enforcement doesn't do food safety or Property Maintenance Interiors violations but in a few months we will be as we start training and and getting certified and being able to address various violations and bring more more customer deliverables you know the customer has a better experience and we address these issues in in a timely manner so what happens to the party itself if you're targeting the the owner and the owner the notice goes to the owner or the violation What happens to the party itself when you catch them in the act so when we catch them with code enforcement as you well know we're not law enforcement arm that's why so we we I tell my team not to interact because you know usually there's alcohol there a proclivity of having alcohol and other other things that people just aren't the right state of mind um we'll have to call a a police officer uniform officer to come out and then make contact with the owners to have them hey you're over the sound limit you need to shut it down um at that time that doesn't happen so often usually people are standing outside hey you know PDS here because we drive black and white units they look like you know it's part of the the you know Force multiplier uh process so you know we usually go out there we'll talk to them and a lot of times we make contact and people people are civil you know hey you're over the sound limit we're getting complaints can you please lower it you know um we'll come back out and that'll be the first warning get another call from dispatch later we'll go back out there and they're over we're going to send the owner a notice a violation to go because the owner property owners are ultimately responsible for their property his or her property is there a fee associated with that violation the the fines vary once we go to Court they could be up to $1,000 now um and when we go in front of the judge you know they'll make that assessment and you know charge them for fees we're looking at different um enforcement tools moving forward um that we'll have to talk with our legal team in City leadership as well to see what we're going to bring forward um I have a lot of ideas 33 years in government so it's just a a lot of ideas from Southern California I know California work but uh um but you know I I want to make it a better Community we have a great Community here a lot of great people in the city I love El Paso I've only been here two and a half years but you know I see us moving forward and bringing new ideas and bettering the city thanks Steve I appreciate it thank you representive tro thank you thank you for that thank you mayor for that great information I you know I too am am Pro uh Business and Entrepreneurship but I really see this as a safety it's a safety issue not only for those that are renting the venue but also the community as their be drinking and things of that nature very different to an Airbnb where there's regulations and and you know no most of them will tell you no partying drinking videotaping things like that uh and so looking at the seriousness of this you as well as not having lifeguards right and first aid kids things like that how can you look at this more as a safety issue and to be able to provide more efficient or effective enforcement beyond the citation what happens if the individual does not pay the citation what what what happens with that citation is there a warrant or how what happens with that sure I'll I'll answer that question first representative um so if they do not show up to court or if they they're guilty and they don't pay the fines and a warrant will be issued for the the property owner um since they are private pools currently code enforcement inspects all public pools um hotels uh city parks things along the that light uh they're prohibited in residential so they're private pools we don't conduct the inspection so we don't look for safety issues we don't require a a phone to be there you know lifeguard or any life- saving devices floats things along that line so um since they are private pools we're not doing that aspect of it right now but those are great questions and I'm all for it public safety is our number one priority for all every resident here in El Pas Paso so what would be the steps you you mentioned you know you have to catch in the act and then there's a a warning possibly the progression of that sure I walk you through that so we would do the research like like I mentioned earlier we don't have to issue the notice of violation on the spot many of our no OBS notice of violations noobs are issued after the fact and that goes to the restaurant so we could come back do our research check the county assessor um parcel numbers see who the property owners or if it's an LLC company send a notice to them him or her or or the Corporation letting you know that hey you had violations on this date and time this is what we found um list of the violations whether it be noise or any other particular violations that we did find uh the gates aren't closing latching it's pool safety if there's a pool in the backyard we want to keep people from you know event for happening if that makes sense uh we'll work with them and hopefully they get in contact over our our timate ultimate goal is compliance here um is to bring them into compliance we we don't want to you find you or do anything as that but if it comes to that we will go through that process if you we give you a notice that some is that show up to court we'll work with our city attorney's office by all means and show up to court go through the whole present the evidence that we have at hand pictures of documentation that these are the violations and then ultimately the the judge will make that ruling okay thank you represent the Mr Mayor before I go for my second time to speak or ask questions I'd request that we hear public uh comment please okay Miss Prime yes sir we do have 13 people that signed up to speak on this item each person will have three minutes to address Council we'll begin with Steven Greenberg followed by Debbie Torres Sylvia Caron Patricia Osman Heidi seon Marcela Caro Jose SOS Teresa Chava good morning Mr Greenberg you'll have three minutes and you can monitor your time on the screens throughout Council it will appear green once you have 30 seconds left it'll turn to Yellow once you have 5 seconds left it'll turn to Red at that time please provide your closing comment thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak about this most important issue you have a written copy of my comment and a map of the swimly properties from past summer so let me just summarize the San points El Paso we have a problem a big problem over 10,000 complaints last summer many of them involving swimming pools disruption to residential neighborhoods impacting property values and potentially Insurance costs the city was asked to revise the ordinance to ensure these prop problems don't happen again thanks to everyone involved in this effort unfortunately the propos osed revision Falls far short of what's required the revision is too narrowly focused on swimming pool parties it should be broadened to include other outdoor events for profit like weddings Raves Etc the swimming lessons exemption should be deleted it's a gaping loophole to screaming to screaming to be exploited to justify more outdoor pool parties for profit even more serious as is mentioned here is the absence of a mechanism for Effective enforcement no penalties like fines of mentioned this ain't going to work too many of the code violators ignored code enforcements requests to stop an enforcement strategy needs to be developed that stops the illegal use of outdoor resid resdential property language like caught in the act hobbles such efforts and should be omitted from the revision come up with an imaginative but legally sound strategy for dealing with this serious issue why is this so important given all the other challenges you're confronted with right now besides property values declining in affected neighborhoods there's a matter of reputation if it becomes widely known that El Paso doesn't enforce its residential zoning code might companies considering our city for expansion might decide otherwise when learning of this deficiency aren't we all interested in attracting more companies to set up here to broaden the tax space thank you very much for considering my perspective one that I know was shared by many others thank you for your time the next speaker is Debbie Torres followed by siia Caron and Patricia Osman good morning good morning mayor and Council my name is Debbie Torres I live in district 7 in The Mission Valley and serve as president of the Poo Vio neighborhood association I am here to express my strong support for item 22 on today's agenda uh residents including my husband and and I in our neighborhood have experienced uh several serious difficulties with a homeowner on our street who holds regular public entertainment events and this does include uh he has a swimming pool on his property so he's doing both he's having the public entertainment event he's having the swimming and often both things are going on at the same time these events have occurred for the past two years the homeowner has freely admitted that he charges the party host to use his property he does not provide off street parking so large trucks often spill onto our already Narrow Street or worse they begin to park diagonally to create create more space which just makes the situation worse there is no regard for blocking driveways or gate entrances of other residents on our street and of course this presents a safety issue in the event of emergency medical or otherwise some residents have attempted to discuss this matter with the homeowner but to no avail situations like this create an atmosphere that is in direct direct contrast to the city's goals to enhance quality of life for its residents and provide safe and secure neighborhoods while the strategies proposed in the presentation today are a good start I believe as Mr Greenberg previously stated it is critical to include more specific and stronger consequences for violation of the ordinance for example Hefty F Hefty fines for failure to comply with the ordinance and subsequent legal action for continued non non-compliance should be included and explained in the ordinance as far as caught in the act goes uh it's not going to work uh it's going to create issues concerning uh a sufficient staff uh as as evidence there was a neighbor uh just next to me who had a problem with somebody breaking into their house during the day while they were there and her daughter actually arrived before the police uh car did because the police car was on another call so I want to thank you for your time I ask each member of city council thank you Miss Torres to consider this item and support it thank you thank you the next speaker is Sylvia Caron followed by Patricia Osman Heidi C Marcelo good morning good morning city council good morning my name is Sylvia Kon I am president of the Mission Valley civic association and deal with a lot of neighborhoods and neighborhood issues uh de okay talk to me remember we got the new reports from P I'm sorry we have a hot mic will you please make sure you're on mute if you're on teams thank you go ahead Miss Caron I apologize for that I I'm usually prepared with a big piece of paper and read it off but I didn't do that today uh I have a big home not a big home I have a little home but I have a big family I'm a sibling of nine I have uh five kids 11 grandkids and four great- grandkids so we throw a party we throw a party that even goes to rent a portable bathroom outside for the boys boys are outside and the girls are inside uh the music fairly loud until about 10:00 11: and then we muddle down we take responsibility to uh take care of our neighbors in our neighborhoods all the time other people all most of the people do the same thing but when you rent out the item the house the pool whatever that's not your house and you could care less what things are doing um destruction through the house or the property maybe they care or don't care but uh this is an item that should be looked on it very seriously because it's happening all over and like I said a lot of us do have parties but we're responsible but when you start renting out things uh to other people they don't care people are coming into your neighborhood that are not familiar with the neighborhood they don't care about your neighborhood and that also could allow for um theft of cars burglary of a vehicle a lot of stuff that people come into your neighborhood that you're not familiar so yeah strange cars come into your house strange people come into your neighborhood and they see a pretty car a pretty truck and everything and they might not do it that night but they'll come back and get you so um please seriously think about um accepting this uh type of maneuvering of ordinance and I know there the city's doing their due diligence about wording it I'm concerned with you I know I can see what lot of people and I know it okay you know the city should be doing something better in St telling us what to do and how to do our things but it's it it causes a problem it causes a problem with the neighbors and the issues and of course safety thank you very much thank you m thank you welcome back Miss lion the next speaker is Patricia Osman followed by Haiti C and Marcel good morning well Mr Fier you and I spoke about this matter when you brought this up um so there so uh there's a few things in regards to this one um I don't think entertainment as was discussed prior when I was here uh was ever really solidified as to what is entertainment okay uh what is the size uh second I understand the rules in regards to residential I think that that should be clear for a lot of people but I'm really curious as I brought up with Mr Fierro and I probably should have brought it up with Mr Canales and uh I on my own um because is this going to be enforced equally and and in what I mean is econ ically equally okay because I do know of several residences that are owned by some very wealthy individuals in our city that are used for venues they host um the meetings for the board of directors of El Paso Electric they host GOP fundraisers both State Legislative and for the governor they host quite a bit there's also and that and that's a negated Community there's been which I've spoken to this body before not all of you but some of you um there is a BDSM group that is also in town that was working out of the Willows another gated community and they were renting out that house for various entertainment purposes they also had a poll but are we going to be able to enforce this with people who may donate to you as well as anybody else that is just trying to make a little extra and yes you are correct Miss Chavez this is a quality of life issue because if the city hadn't Stripped Away so many pools for at at a reasonable price for low-income individuals and you can't these these camps they're not affordable $10 per person try to get in a regular family it's cheaper for them to rant somebody's home than to go to like a camp Cohen it is a quality of life issue but I also want to make sure that it's it's an equality issue that we are also targeting you know whether it's one silent Crest homes over there by the Paso Country Club and I can sit out there and I know people who live out there and I I'll make those calls to those homes as well if need be so that everything is just as equal thank you thank you the next speaker is Heidi SE followed by Marcela Caro Jose cisos Teresa Chavira Denise arano Jesus arano Mario Mendoza Isabelle chakon and Lisa Turner good morning good morning good morning my name is Heidi sens and I'm here repres representing the AL Paso shro Alliance I am the President and we just want to let you guys know we appreciate the city's ongoing Outreach and the collaboration we built together we're committed to Contin continuing this work to stop Bad actors while also educating our community our alliance remains dedicated to supporting responsible host and ensuring that short-term munals operate in a way that benefits both residents and our local economy we look forward to streaming in our partnership with the city to create a fair and sustainable short-term Ral environment for everyone I here representing the short-term Ral Alliance we were asked last year by the representatives to be involved during this planning of educating and doing Outreach so we're really thankful for giving that opportunity and I just want to thank everyone um for allowing us to continue being part of this thank you thank you the next speaker is Marcela k missio star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor and Council my name is Marcel Cario and I resigned the Mission Valley in district 7 I too believe this is a quality of life issue I do have issues as well I do have a person who does rent out his his house in the swimming pool for the same thing that's going on around town and accountability must be um taken into this um ordinance hopefully this is a great start and I just want to say I have I give the support for youall to continue with your um Mission thank you thank you the next speaker is Jos netos Mr C netos if you're in the qar 6 pleas to unmute your telephone Jos netos star six please I don't see his phone number in the queue we'll move to Teresa chavita Miss chavita star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes hello um good morning uh Council and mayor can you all hear me yes ma'am okay yes I just wanted to speak a little bit about this um first of all I wanted to thank the work and the presentation U that was done from the the city I appreciate that because we have the answers that we were asking back in September I did approach this group also in September about not in favor of um these businesses um first of all I'd like to say that now that we know that the code can be we should begin with just enforcing that code before we put this on the back burner again um I think that only U procrastinates things and we already know that it is against the code it can be enforced and we should start there and then maybe go on to more diligent um ways of catching them in the act you know those kinds of things that were brought up earlier um to the representatives that want more data um I have to say to you I know that you stated that you didn't have you know complaints and you didn't have you know you need to look into this this has been going on going since September and maybe something that should have been reviewed prior to taking on um the district seats also it doesn't uh you represent all of El Paso when with your vote not just your districts so I would encourage you to um look at this as soon as possible to um look at what is uh happening in the city the other thing I wanted to touch on was that um the these businesses are also taking revenue from the city and that's something that you're in charge of you uh proposed these parks that were um hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax money that was put into these Parks so people could enjoy quality of life issues and that is where the quality of life um that's why that was or done these businesses are not registered they're not paying city taxes for these um businesses also it's taken away business from those city parks because people can find and it is cheaper probably but that's not um everybody's looking for a cheaper deal but it's taking Revenue away from the parsel where people can have those parties and have people that events at those locations so I really need to look at encing things that are on the code already um we cannot wait any longer just so you know the uh the parties that I'm talking about it's not about sound it's not about parking it's that it's a violation it's in a residence and so let's look at that to start with and let's move on that please um we want to look at the fact that the one that I am speaking of is an inside residence they have already uh started parties so it's an inside pool so it goes on not only on Fridays and Saturdays there during the summer it's every day um sometimes four times a week like I stated before uh it's indoors so it doesn't matter the weather so it can happen all the time I'm not trying to curve anybody's extra income but there are rules to make an extra income and everybody just this is a matter of following legislation following ordinances and following the rules we have to stop this um looking at well what of this person and that person let's make the rules the rules are enforced let's follow the rules and um I'm hoping that you all will move on this as soon as possible thank thank you thank you the next speaker is Denise arano followed by Jesus arano good morning you have three minutes good morning city council my name is Denise arano good morning and um thank you for having me this morning a lot of new faces I wasn't able to be here last time but I was able to phone in um by surprise uh you heard my neighbor uh she's my right neighbor and um I am the person that probably strike this pool band to start um all intent was meant to be safe I did reach out to my city representative uh art Fierro uh to have a meeting and to show him what safety cleanliness first a kits fire extinguishes buoys sharp hooks um that I had in my home I wanted to show the other side of the coin um not just in Revenue but what I took in as responsibility to rent out to people um I did something to my pool which was make it shallow um it was 8T and I cut it down uh creating a safer space and so uh the family environment that I created in my home um it is it is a bigger home uh my neighbor stated it in the previous um meeting uh but um something that I was not able to do was when I uh spoke to rep uh representative Federal was he told me not to take a f something that you lack to and you're missing is that my neighbor uh she is in the criminal justice background as her title previously before and her spouse is um chief of police of episd and so I feel targeted it's not just to show the effect of uh what you know but who you know um who you know and who you call to to make things happen to close us down I don't not only show um I not only give this space to people to come to my home and yes it is indoors so it is controlled I control the temperature I have humidifiers um I have exhaust systems I have put AC and Refrigeration it is a private space for you and your family now I have a big space a driveway where you could park and yes sometimes it spills over to the the street and my husband um wish he'll talk next um he we we're there we are there in in the party we're hosting we're taking care I take pride of what I'm doing I have responsibility these are children and they're not alone and unattended their parents are there they are responsible people that have children I have two of my own I have created a space for them and um I know and I have stopped uh doing parties uh as of October I respect that I respect that you guys are trying to take a decision and I don't want to make it worse and so um I've backed down and I I hope that you guys can take into consideration I wish you guys could come out to my home I wish that these representative here creating this presentation could take a look I have facts and I have to show you thank you the next speaker is jesuso followed by Mario Mendoza Isabel chakon and Lisa Turner good morning good morning CLE my name is suaro good morning the city is proposing to ban pool rentals tell me how is a city going to differentiate when have a PR party is City enforcement going to harass me my family because gu every time we get together like they did last year responding to fake complaints like the smell of weed coming from our house our guests um Vehicles blocking driveways and L noises music after 1 p.m. we know the rules and we enforce them at every Gathering we had unlike other neighbors crying wolf to our seed enforcement is a waste of everyone's taxes and resources as a small home based business we worked with other small businesses from our pool rental uh we were able to provide work for business like tables and chair rentals balloon decorations snack bars jumy balloon rentals DJs food catering pool cleaners lifeguards trash REM businesses and many others by Banning pool rentals you are making all these businesses lose part of their income not just from rental but from from my rental per from hundreds of pool rentals throughout the city we have a big family and lots of close friends we are also involved with our church and our church events now are you going to send seed enforcement when we have small cell groups at our house when we have discipleship classes when we have men's classes when we have women's classes or when uh our youth group wants to have gathering at our house what about when our church wants to have baptisms or at our house is it illegal for my parents church or my wife's parents church to want to have any of these events at our house we had quite a few Church events at our house last year and it was a wonderful even with all the harassments at all uh all of our events were family oriented we are we are the host my wife attends the family and I make sure no one parked illegally we have safety devices in our house and in the pool room as well as video surveillance all around the house for everyone's protection including our neighbors all Gatherings were over by 9:00 p.m. the latest then the pickup and the cleaning and everyone leaving will take another hour or so no glass bottles of of any kind were ever allowed in our property and the amount of people was always limited the only thing we didn't like was our neighbors taking pictures and recordings of our guests and their vehicles at every party had little kids and most of the time they would leave beef in their bathing suits I don't think it's appropriate for grown adults to be taking pictures of them or recording them we are just looking to provide a fun time for families and their kids that want to do something different we enjoy sharing our space and we enjoy seeing everyone happy well almost everyone even though we didn't get any support from our Representatives district 6 we invite city council members and the city staff to our home to see for yourselves what we offer to our community thank you thank you the next speaker is Mario Menda Mario Menda Isabel chakon Mario Mendoza yes good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning uh Mr Mayor good morning welcome to Al Paso thank you uh L one our district uh for the low valley um this this is uh very strange uh it impacts every one of us when we have uh parties pinatas uh swimming parties uh we rent our home as well just like uh Mr Denise and uh Mr Adano and and it's a difficult situation because H how how do we control our parties who who who invites who invites Who and the most difficult part of it it started last year uh with Mr and Mrs aro's neighbors we have never had any issues or these types of issues have never come up until they started renting their indoor swimming pool we have our controlled environment just like they do we have and we have invested thousands of dollars to um make our backyard a I I I don't know the word but it it it it is a beautiful backyard it is a a very you would think you in in Roso many lights many cameras when we have parties and we invite or they invite over 75 people we have two off duty police officers one in the front and and one in the back and they are constantly patrolling who is drinking who is not drinking um earlier someone stated that there's multi-million dollar homes on the west side in the Willows they themselves host parties I've gone to some of those parties and there's no police officers in in hand but they still uh rent their their their properties to make money maybe I don't know we rent our house not to become millionaires or pay the electric bill Etc we rent it because people want to be there because of the environment it's a safe environment um and that's all I I I I know that you all have invested thousands or maybe hundreds of hours doing research on how we're going to present this to renting or not renting swimly is another platform um they have invested thousands of dollars as well so please consider your decision on how we're going to thank you Mr M fix this thank you thank you Mr Mayor next speaker is Isabelle chakon will be followed by Lisa Turner good morning good morning it might be afternoon already good morning thank you for being here Mr Johnson this feels a little different I'm on the opposite side this time uh but thank you so much Mr art FOH for bringing this up and thank you for all you elected officials being here and and dealing with this um our concern is a few things uh we already have a team from what I'm hearing of 46 employees and they're already doing calls so where is the log of how many they've actually gone to um that's a concern of mine since we com contined to talk about this who are we actually talking about how many um uh tickets were written um things of those Natures I think by now we should have a little bit more data on what we're actually or who we're actually talking about my concern is property rights infringing on property rights as the city we don't want to hurt nobody yes we want to help everybody but we keep in mind that some of these people are exercising their right of owning their property and so in moving forward um education is priority and that's to educate not just the owners but ourselves as well before we uh restrict people from certain things that they might have a livelihood coming from that we don't want to hurt anybody in El Paso we want to help everybody um using the tools that you already have in place I think um as he was saying he's got 46 employees already so the definition of ordinances and Zoning um should be what he knows he can use already so I'm a little baffled at at why we don't have the data if it's already been something he's been working on and so that that that's my main question and concern I thank you all for making sure that we handle this the right way thank you thank you and the final speaker is Miss Lisa Turner good if we afternoon or morning we're still morning good good morning mayor council good morning uh let's be honest here we're talking about these things happening in residential areas these parties lower the valuation of the properties surrounding these places now they're in violation of El Paso code they're in violation of chapter 265 of the Texas administrative code they're not meeting that and the one thing you all should have picked up on is the ones who came up here and said well we have parties what they did not tell you is they have a certified lifeguard on duty now you're renting out your property your pools then you better have a certified lifeguard on duty that is a safety issue you have rules for public swimm swimming pools they're not following them they're not following the the the rules the walkways the distances this we are talking about residential areas if you live next door your life is turned upside down every time they have a party restaurants have a limit to the number of people they can have in these pools should have a limit to the number of people they come in if they have 75 people I can guarantee these regular swimming pools are too small for 75 people you need to think about the people who live around this now let me say this they are running a business therefore they are not zoned they haven't sought a business license and on top of that since it they've turned their home into a business they should not have a homestead exemption on the property so I do not want businesses I don't want a business in my I don't want to live next door to one of these I don't want 50 PE people I've never known partying next door it disrupts my life it'll disrupt your life and how long does it go on 3:00 in the morning these things are in violation of your code and Texas law they should be shut down thank you thank you mayor that concludes public comment on this item okay we have a couple uh District uh representative fto thank you Mr Mayor and first and foremost I want to start with um thanking everyone who waited patiently to share their views on both sides of the issues um somebody mentioned property rights and how we could be or maybe we're infringing on property rights if you look at the definition and I'll give you the Reader's Digest version that's for the old people in the room um that means you know using having the authority the legal authority to use your property for your resources What It also says at the very end as an example is as long as it doesn't violate any laws the one thing that we've learned today is that there is no ordinances that allows whether it be a swimming pool or an entertained venue to be held in the neighborhood there's that's breaking the law you know I I believe I I want to start off by thanking the city manager Miss Cody uh code enforc that whole team you did a fabulous job but I want everybody to remember this is just just the first step and it's the first step on keeping our neighborhoods safe on you we talk about people renting our homes or backyards um for for commercial users there's plenty of places throughout our community where you can rent a commercial facility where you can buy a commercial facility and rent it out legally where you can pay your taxes where you can have insurance um and pay your your taxes to not only the city of El Paso but also the state of Texas miss arano you and your husband and and your father well you and your father K of Vis me thank you very much and you're absolutely right you had um some great safety measures in place but again I can't emphasize enough there are no ordinances to do this legally in neighborhoods we talk about Bad actors it's not the Bad actors who are who are making the situation any better or any worse it's people that are breaking the law and doing this in their neighborhoods you know we we we as a council owe it to our the citizens of our community of our districts to have them have the the quality of life that we all share in our neighborhoods to be safe and for them to follow the city ordinances again to the city manager and the team I understand this is the first step this is a living document and I think that we need to uh combine everybody's input today everybody's thoughts and move forward with something that's going to make our community safer and move forward thank you than Mr Mayor thank you uh representa leemon thank you mayor I it's it's very true I I see this as a very very first step what I really appreciated was hearing the other side people who already have a pool Mr and Mrs arano Mr Mendoza because it does show that there is another site and and we need to take that into consideration I would ask that that perhaps as you do your reviews that you invite some people like them to be part of the team that does the review safety is everybody's responsibility and the thought of a child drowning or an adult drowning at one of these events is unforgivable and we simply could not um deal with something like that but I think you've got a you've got a clear directive I Believe on what to do what you all are going to do next and so my only thing is just bring on the other side so that we can have a full explanation of it all thank you represent Alo sorry I didn't realize that was next um so I I guess for Miss Neiman I wanted to give you an opportunity to explain what this caught in the act provision means because I feel that there were a few questions on that why are we waiting to catch people in the act so so legally um we have to be able to have something in writing that explains to our Code Enforcement Officers what the violation Is So currently we don't have something codified that our Code Enforcement Officers can say the following things have to happen for you to walk in and say you're in violation of this ordinance we have nothing that says these are the things that need to happen for you being a violation of law what we know is that we don't permit people to conduct businesses in residential zones so these homes while they're being used as a residence and people live there on a day-to-day basis with their family we don't allow people then then use the home as an official business to then rent out their pool the pool is no longer a pool for my house it's now being rented so there are no Provisions in place to prohibit that except for the zoning code which says you can't use your home for commercial purposes that's what we're talking about so our people wouldn't be able to walk in and it's like many of these people are saying here today right how do you know that I'm renting it I could just be inviting people over there's nothing that says you have to have the following proof that you're renting so it's it's it's a difficult conversation to to have to explain and then codify for our code enforcement folks to be able to do what we believe the council may be interested in regulating okay thank you I the other question say something else assistant City attorney it's a it's a burden of proof issue also that our prosecutors required to be able to uh prove it in court um that there was a violation and part of that is catching them in the ACT okay thank you for that and and something that I also wanted to ask is from the comments that we heard from the public I kept hearing how do you know if it's a party that I'm just having with my family versus me renting it out so how do we handle that right and then on top of that it seems like what we were also hearing throughout everything that's been said throughout this discussion has is the Sound Ordinance and how we put that in to all of this yes and that that's once again Steve Alvarado code enforcement director once again we we have to show that they are writing it out for that purpose a lot of times we we don't know but we we will do investigative work um or due diligence as well uh look at you know if I talk to Steve Alvarado but you know Mary Alvarado owns it I'm not related and then we're going to have some more questions ask we could also checks or you know who's paying the the trash bill water bill um things along that line to kind of tie it together how how are we doing that um I'm sorry what was your second question represent you had also talked about the Sound Ordinance um at length throughout kind of sprinkled throughout the conversation so I kind of wanted to hear more on that sure and and I need to correct myself from earlier I said we're not enforcing it the calls that we get usually from 311 or PD Dispatch are referen to loud music loud parties um they're not stating specifically stating there's there's a short-term rental here or there's a pool rental we're usually going out there for the the sound violation noise violations that we're currently enforcing anything over 70.0 of the AE is a violation and anything 8 Debs higher than the Seaway from ambient would be a Seaway violation for the Sound Ordinance as well so um we're doing the same thing with with restaurant nightclubs things along that line and it would be applicable to the private residences that are holding these parties as well and that goes for people yelling screaming as well um a sound is a sound you know um Amplified sound is usually one we're going after though okay and then I was comparing notes from September and I see that the direction to the city manager and the City attorney was to draft an ordinance that prohibits the use of Residential Properties as entertainment venues and return within 120 days the proposed ordinance should address issues related to Neighborhood disruption zoning compliance and Public Safety and what we are getting here today I think is two different things that are similar right the entertainment venues and then the pools so my question is do you consider those two things to be the same thing and that's why you did it that way I think they are similar in aspect um and we would approach them in the same manner um we're not going to be able to differentiate if it's a a short-term rental or a a swimming pool rental um swimming pool rental is something new to me I didn't realize they existed up until about a year ago since we started working here but we would go out there and do the same investigative skills and ask the right questions to see what is going in fact going on um our ultimate goal is not to shut people down we want people to enjoy their their residences but we just want to make sure they're they're you know applying to all the rules and regulations and ordinances that are in effect at that time one item I just want to make sure we clarify so there's no confusion is we were talking about party halls or entertainment venues under the code and U residential swimming pools as well and so that's the enforcement portion that we're looking for for those existing codes not short-term rentals at this point correct and so that's why I was looking at the direction so that you would consider the rental pools on swimply an entertainment menu it's actually very specific and I can hand it to Kevin we're talking about a commercial use of a residential pool and so it's it's very um clearly defined in our code yeah again um there are different definitions in our zoning code that um for these different items uh one is entertainment venue um currently classified as a dance hall under our current zoning code and then the pools you have residential or non-commercial and in commmercial pools um and then just to further clarify too these are existing ordinances in the books already so they already exist and um they are not allowed in residential districts I want to make sure Council understands the public hearing this is these are currently in effect um in our zoning ordinance so um the education and Outreach portion uh is to help um the neighborhood the the public know what you can and can't do on the properties for these these items and then when it gets to it then as was mentioned by Mr Alvarado then the enforcement teams will go and force as they um as items come before their attention and so if it's uh if it's um kind of going back a little bit so if it's a private property and they say I'm having a family gathering you might ask for an electric bill to prove that the owner is there with their family I mean I I I I know it's kind of like a work in progress right but yeah we wouldn't ask for ask at that point um if I'm reaching if I'm talking to Steve Alvarado and I know um John de owns the property or Jane do owns the property we would ask some more questions um you know are you renting you're leasing it comes down to having the evidence of proof beyond the doubt to show that they are taking money in to you know rent this property and as a venue or a a PO pool venue if you will so okay and then I wanted to have an understanding of timeline for next steps um I think somebody mentioned at some point it goes to one of our commissions and then we'll take it into first reading second reading what what are your thoughts on that and then is it still going to remain these two separate things even though the direction from September said entertainment venu is right and then I feel like everything that was said it still kind of blurs the line across everything so it it I find this to be really difficult to make the public understand and aware of what is happening yeah it can you bring up the presentation again please so on this slide here it talks about the uh the the next steps that is is being proposed is the public Outreach that Nicole covered um work with our um public information office to um strategic Communications to get the word out to the public so that they're aware and there are quite a few different aspects to um that talks about the communication Outreach plan and that's here on this slide here what I was mentioning about the um the code amendments specifically for the code amendments is those have to be work with our legal department to um on the language for those work on the Outreach go to our city plan commission they are the um the body that is tasked with making recommendations on on code changes for the zoning code um to city council it'll go to them for a recommendation and then finally it'll go to uh city council for introduction and a public hearing um so that is all proposed here in the spring as before the summer really ramps up I know we're experiencing some hot days right now but um before we really get into um when these are going to be used for um for renting either on the pool portion or also the um party Hall Entertainment venue okay and then so it's spring could be March April May June right but I guess what would be helpful is do you need direction for you to bring us data in the next 30 days 45 days or something like that because I would really like to see the data before we even start getting to talking about zoning definition amendments um we we can get whatever data you need but I want to make sure Council understands these are already prohibited so you cannot do these already um we can look and see what data can be can be received but again these are not allowed already for our zoning code without any amendments to it um but we can it depends what uh information Council would like to have for for more information okay do you what do you think m m Is there further clarification that's needed no you feel okay yes I mean we're going to start our whole process with community outreach as we typically do and ensure as we're out in the community we're Gathering information we're making sure that we are providing people you know as much information as we have as term in terms of feedback this will come as two items as Council as staff has uh uh talked about because it's in two different sections of code and we have to bring it forth in two different items um I think that we'll have opportunity to provide you with the feedback That We Gather from the community which I think is going to be the most powerful piece of what we do next okay and I would appreciate if we could throw in some of the police calls code enforcement calls almost like a map a heat map of where it is because I I also want to understand that okay well we we'll gather that data thank you well thank you guys and thank the the the public for coming together and providing input and taking your time I think you know and staff and and and Miss Mack thank you for for having your staff bring us to this point we can only get better as we go forward and and we will and uh we've got a lot of input that you heard today and Council has a lot of requests that they like for you to consider as we move forward so we look forward to to seeing what you bring back to us here uh in in the spring and and making the decision on this but I do want to thank the public for taking the time to come out and and and provide their input on such an important topic so thank you guys so much okay miss pran you got to catch me up on where we're at now mayor we just need to pause for about 10 seconds and it'll be noon in time for a call to the public perfect there it is noon so if we may go to call to the public sure the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens 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 all persons and attendance are expected to display Civility and Decor 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 nor May any member of the public uses form 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 brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have eight members of the public that signed up to speak and Council I'll ask you to please refrain from slight conversations we'll begin with Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford's topic is the pink house and racism good afternoon Miss Crawford you have three minutes good afternoon thank you so much good afternoon this month of February is designated as Black History Month we remember the contributions of black Americans throughout the decades and the centuries I really enjoyed studying the Life of George Washington Carver a scientist and agricultural expert one I love is regarding the Creator he said I love to unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every day at every moment of Our Lives if we will only tune in and remain so the height of God's creation was on day number six we are told in Genesis 1 so God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them we are created in the image of God abortion is the destruction of tiny I had the privilege in 2018 and 2019 of serving with some dear brothers and sisters outside the infamous Pink House in Jackson Mississippi named Jackson Women Health Organization the Abortion Center the Abortion Center was listed as a defendant in the do case that overturned Roby Wade thank God the pink house was forced to close in Mississippi the tragedy The Pink House rebranded itself as The Pink House west of Las Cruses New Mex Mexico serving Outside The Pink House brought extreme emotions for me great great joy serving with the beautiful families of Jackson Mississippi standing for Life pleading with God for the lives of these babies I observe this team they save baby after baby after baby on that sidewalk they careed for the moms for the families afterwards it was and great great sadness Jackson Mississippi has been one of the most depressing cities to live in I was problem was all about past segregation but what I real what what I realized over time was another huge issue where are all the kids I sense that Jackson was purely absent of children around the city and soon came to understand how even more than the racial segregation openly decried in Jackson there's a much crer underlying reality the targeted genocide of the black pre-born children of Jackson Mississippi so a pink house which once prayed upon the black minority population of Mississippi Now Praise upon the primarily Hispanic population of New Mexico as well now as Native Americans and targeting also the ladies of El Paso um Martin Luther came Al um very vocal very vocally prolif she Champions civil rights of The Unborn she speaks boldly against the targeted genocide of black americ City one of the sickest forms of racism is abortion I can't forget my in apost 2021 going to s for life outside the plan before a holy thank you Miss Crawford thank you the next speaker is Barbara Valencia Miss Valencia's topic is Animal Services step up and take responsibility she will be followed by Ron Kom good afternoon good afternoon my name is Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue at the October 24th 2023 city council meeting I exposed the failing foster care system at Animal Services where dogs and cats were placed in foster homes with little to no follow up being done February 2024 approximately 1,000 of those animals in the foster homes were missing or unaccounted for um many of those animals were showing to be in the foster homes for an extended period of a year or more and had not been spayed or neutered intact animals purposely put out and left in our community by our shelter leadership to breed and add yet more animals to our pet overpopulation crisis in February 2024 the director stated we've identified the shortfall in our foster program we took action to address the issues identified one year after that statement and nothing has changed the issues still remain and this is just a sample I'm showing you this puppy has been in foster care for three years has yet to be spayed this kitten has been in foster care with animal services for two years not neutered yet this puppy has been in for two years he is not neutered yet this kitten has been in foster care for three years yet to be spayed this puppy has been in for three and a half years and she is not spayed this kitten also three and a half years years not spay this puppy has been in foster care for one year she has yet to be spayed this kitten in 18 months not spayed this puppy for for 13 months not spayed this kitten has been in for 18 months and has yet to be neutered animals after animal after animal continue to fall through the cracks of a failing system the city is responsible for these animals to ensure they are being properly cared for and being spayed and neutered not to be put back out into the community unaltered to further drown our city in more unwanted litters the community is fed up our tax dollars pay for this department we pay for services that we are not getting and the top leader at Animal Services remains unaccountable while the department consistently fails failing the taxpayers failing the community and most importantly failing the animals giving the leadership a free pass for over two years has only magnified the animal crisis we are now in since the leader of this department is not being held accountable the responsibility now falls on all of you sitting up there elected by the people of El Paso to step up take responsibility and proactively address the animal crisis including the need for a qualified director and a complete and thorough independent audit of animal services this has been ignored for far too long today the community is saying no more thank you thank you the next speaker is Ron Kom Mr kom's topic is exercising my constitutional right to the rescue 1983 Animal Services it will be followed by Claudia contas and Patricia Osman good afternoon Mr col good good to see you again actually took a break for a little while well welcome to all the new people and good to see the other people still here um I got to apologize because you guys walked into a disaster and a crisis caused by the previous administration when it comes to Animal Services um you heard a conversation about finder to Foster I had run into the gentleman whose Top Dog I guess I can't say who he is um in the city manager's office after we found out there was a thousand Strays missing I asked him what he was going to do about the failed finder to Foster program his comment to me wasi can't intake all the Strays it's interesting we used to but that also kind of goes along with the comment from the present director in his office to me that he's not going to house a bunch of Strays well ladies and gentlemen what's he doing in the seat of animal services the director if he's not interested in doing his job okay we have another issue the director was on channel 7 this weekend talked about this the new school the new shelter he said we have two buildings has anybody seen that place misinformation is unbelievably allowed to city council to employees to ASAC to the media and it's time we get truth honesty and transparency in our shelter now if I can do this quickly hopefully uh 82602 stray means roaming with no physical restraint beyond the premises of the animal's owner or keeper 82633 each stray dog be declared a public nuisance each unrestraint or straight dog be detailed uh detained or impounded by local rabus Control Authority or that office designate Animal control officer use of the disruption to the shelter system brought on by covid as an opportunity to re-envision the way shelters operated in other words they snuck best friends in while we were in trouble the the first two the 82602 and 033 our state laws our shelter are is directed by the state of Texas to intake all strays not just the ones that they want to not to leave the ones on the streets that have been hit by cars and hopefully they don't have to pick them up not so that Shel rescues like Karen and I have to go and find a deceased dog that the the community had been calling on for three or four days and nobody bothered to pick it up until we got there I called the director to get it done this is insane the shelter needs to be fixed thank you thank you it's a pleasure to see everyone the next speaker is Claudia contas Claudia contas asa's topic is Raising awareness about cat cruelty in El Paso and how can we help good afternoon hi it's my first time here I made it on time I want to thank everybody honorable people of El Paso the major city reps because I'm sure you'll do your best to help our animals and also I want to take every I want to thank everybody that helps the animals the police department animal cruelty unit also the animal services because I've been working uh by myself I feed stray animals I am under the Trap nearer return program and I've seen a lot of Cruelty not a lot of people understand it because they're not there I would feed lower valelly dire the the most difficult places of El Paso and I think we need to work as a city together to bring awareness to tell people not to be afraid to report cruelty because we do not want to live this monster to the Next Generation okay we are here to talk about money everything that's fine but as a city with Godly values we are Christians Catholics we cannot be letting letting this go by um sanitation is picking up a lot of dead animals I have the numbers but things are higher like the number is higher than this one uh last month it was 220 the month before was 245 and I believe the numbers are way higher than that because I just moved sometimes I don't have the time to move to call and report dead animals um I spoke to the person that's picking up the animals they're saying most of the times it's um cats they're seeing a lot of sacrifices beheaded animals and I'm here to represent the animals that are dying slowly in our cities they're being poisoned they're being beheaded they're being mutilated and I think it's enough and by the you know if we have God first I brought my Bible here to testify that everything I'm saying is true and also it takes a lot for us to build a case take it to court and I want to make sure the judge judges understand that the value of a cat and a dog is the same so I want to request a private meeting with a major respectfully and thank you so much everybody that worked together to help El Paso we have Mexican roots and we H We are brave also take into consideration that the firefighter that poisoned cats and dogs his free charges were dropped he was not innocent as he is saying thank you so much everybody thank you the next speaker is Patricia Osman Miss osman's topic is purchasing ion wave city council duties in legal Public Safety deck Plaza and grants and unethical practices good afternoon you have three minutes so I'm going to give a quick introduction to myself if not all of y'all were catching City Council meetings Since U only a few of you remain but the reason why I started speaking at city council is because I I went ahead and applied for a grant through the community human development program I was approved for this grant but in the course of this it ended up that I discovered a lot of corrupt and unethical practices okay I reported those I did HR reports I did ethics reports and some of those people are now gone but that does not but that triggered the fact that it's not that's there's so much more wrong so although there are issues wrong with Community human development that also bed on to purchasing we still don't have a purchasing director but either way so really quick yesterday y'all were talking I wish I had shown up then about procurement yes ion wave every one of those grants need to be on ION wave okay because they're not right now there there's there's a way in which ion wave is being used that not everything is listed on there and procurements are being fun we're I'm going to say this right now we're funneled to employees of their own departments okay as far as the deck can we please call it what it is it's going to be a tunnel 22 weeks ago we had a huge accident over here on the freeway and if you cover that it's going to be worse when the accidents are there all right right now uh emergency vehicles can actually come from down and handle vehicles that are down there you're creating a tunnel you can make it look all pretty on top but it's a tunnel it's going to be a traffic Hazard and I haven't seen one person speak to the traffic safety issue that tunnel will create okay and as far as uh El Paso Electric let's discuss meta we all knew that meta was going to end up causing a huge strain on our grid yet our pass city council decided to vote it through and yet the citizens of El Paso are now going to have to pay so that meta because a data center is not a call center there's not a lot of jobs it's no different than a Bitcoin Farm it's just computers that are putting a strain on our local electric grid and making citizens have to suffer and pay as far as ethics I think there's something coming up so I'll go ahead and uh put that then either way I think you all need to understand the history of what what has occurred what occurred with me and I will be sending a lot of the emails that I sent out to your previous uh office holders to you all so you all understand what occurred thank you because everybody should know thank you the next speaker is Carlos SS Carlos SS Leandro Cardona Mr cardona's topic is pollution and burning trash in sudes good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon Mr Mayor and uh members of city council uh my name is Leandro Cardona I'm an electrical contractor here in El Paso I uh stand before you with the plea for for your help my complaint and my plea for help might sound a little trivial when all and there's bigger issues happening at the moment but even just listen to me and don't respond to my complaint I at least hope to open your eyes and your lungs to the unfairness of being committed across the border it's so unfair and so unhealthy to wake up in the mornings to the conditions we're are being subjected to by living next to huis Mexico by no means am I referring to the people of huis they two are being subjected to the toxic elements being given off by the trash that is being burned at night in the city dumps they burn the trash at night so that we don't see the smoke and then we wake up in the morning to the tire the entire city being engulfed in toxic fumes and smoke from the from the trash being burned at night I've reached out to congresswoman bonica esad for help in this matter she responded by saying that she doesn't have jurisdiction I've gone to four news stations and emailed them with pictures and my complaints and nothing I'm hearing hopes for being heard and opening your eyes to the unhealthy conditions we are being subjected to by me reaching out to the news media I was hoping that someone would see it and maybe do a segment showing the smoke and the toxic fumes coming coming from wattis and maybe embarrass someone over there into making them do something about it like I said at the beginning maybe this isn't something important to Y all especially when everything that is going on right now with migrants and tariffs but uh maybe Mr Mayor if you could call the mayor of wadis and you know reach out to him with this complaint uh some days um I'm hoping okay so what is with this problem I'm hoping in opening your eyes to see how bad the situation is some days are good good but some days are real bad and whenever your eyes are burning and itching for no apparent reason I hope you remember me and then look out into the City and see how bad the smoke and pollution coming from Mexico is thank you for your time and for the opportunity for me to speak thank you thank you and the final speaker is Lisa Turner Miss Turner's topic is the use of Peart good afternoon Miss Turner good afternoon mayor of Counsel had me in the morning you got me in the afterno I want to talk about PE cards and where you can use it in this town you presently allowed to use them at Walmart or Sam's Club or whatever or Target I'm asking you to disallow that why am I asking you to do that well Walmart Sam's Club Target big box stores who decided to say you ain't a straight white male you don't matter okay so I don't think we should be allowing our money to go into these stores as council members I've gone over a lot of these things you goe you go buy candy or whatever you'll hit Walmart or you'll hit Sam's Club I would want to ask you all to go to Costco instead support a local company instead but to support these people who have said they don't want Dei in other words they don't want none of you I mean eight of you out of the nine that are up there they don't want you they don't want my city manager simply because you're not a straight white male so and that's what it's all about you sit there and watch anybody know what happened to uh the Hispanic serving institutions the latest EO they pulled support pulled support for basically UTEP and all tribal schools it's time that my Council stand up for its Community which is somewhere between 82 and 85% Mexican-American it's time that my Council take a stand for all minorities it's time that my Council say we're going to do something it may be small but we're going to do it we will not spend our tax dollars with companies like Target or Walmart or Sam's Club we will spend to though with Costco because they've stood up against the pressure and they haven't buckled those are the people we need to support and I'm going to go get a Costco membership so I can do my small part I already do part of my by shopping in New Mexico and not Texas lovely to got it in New Mexico so I'm going to ask you to do that please thank you thank you Miss Turner mayor that concludes call to the public this afternoon thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to go into executive second we have a motion in a second is this on a particular item let it on the agenda Laura it's ex I think we need to introduce an item before we retire to Executive session so we're going to retire for ex1 is that correct yes sir okay so there's a motion made by representative n second it by thank you not sure who second second thank you there's a motion and a second to return return to Executive session all in favor I I anyone opposed and the city council of city of Al Paso May retire to Executive session pursuant to section 3.5a of the AL Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss executive session item one investigation regarding former elected City official under 551.071 consultation with attorney and 551.074 Personnel matters it is 12:24 p.m. no we're downstairs when walk into the chambers we're going to go in you think you'll be here soon okay this e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for Miss PR I move to come out of executive session second there's a motion in a second to come out of executive session all in favor I anyone opposed and the regular meeting is back in session at 20:2 pm. and we're on Executive session item 1 mayor proen motion made seconded and carried that the city of Al Paso authorizes the implementation of a training afforded to City Representatives regarding their roles as supervisors over legislative AIDS authorizes a comprehensive ethics and harassment training for city council and employees assigned to work for members of council including their legislative Aids on the specific parameters and restrictions related to election activities under applicable state and local local law and authorizes the City attorney to engage outside legal councel second second we have a motion in a second any discussion on this Miss pry yes the motion was made by mayor potim Chavez and read into the record seconded by representative Canales on ex1 on that motion call for the vote no voting session is open it's not showing up on the screen okay representative threo I thank you and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously mayor would you like to return to page nine where we left off on the agenda yes we're on item 17 that's correct sir item 17 is discussion and action to approve a resolution that won repealing the $25,000 discretionary fund expenditure approved on October 24th 20122 to improve the Westside Community dog park and lower Tom Le dog park as those projects may be better addressed with other internal City funds and to now return the funds to the district one discretionary account and two to repeal the August 13 2024 transfer of $2,165 87 out of the District 1 discretionary account and to no approved the transfer and return of $2,165 1887 to the district one discretionary account from the city's general fund and this item was placed by mayor protim Chavis all right is there a motion on this one motion to approve second all right discussion Miss Chavis thank you mayor uh I know it's been a long day so I'm going to be brief but I do want to have a few minutes of your time to discuss these two um amounts the first is when I took office I was reviewing the financials for district one and realized there was an expenditure conducted in September of 2024 for $25,000 when I did question this expenditure we did a little digging and it was brought to my attention that it was due to a resolution that was passed uh in October of 201 22 the resolution uh was done or conducted because of an initiative that was from a previous representative in 2019 again the resolution was passed in 2022 the expenditure occurred in September of 2024 that time uh difference meant that Tomley Park was no longer in District uh one and again when we did some digging along with the city manager and others it came to my attention that this initiative had already been uh started and almost completed through other funds uh from Parks and Recreation I did have the opportunity to speak with representative Canales about it he did confirm uh with me that the park improvements had been started and almost actually completed and that the funds had come from a different source and so with that said I requested the funds be returned to district one that's the first part of of item 17 the second is the $ 52,1 16587 uh those funds were returned to the city's general fund and I have uh walked around several times met many people constituents from district one I strongly believe that these funds belong to the people of district one I know that there are many safety initiatives and other things that need to be done for the district and I am here to represent my constituents and strongly feel that these funds will will be uh of of great use to many different neighborhoods for different reasons that uh I will uh convey to you at a later time so I want to thank the the city manager for helping me um just in terms of finding um all the information regarding these funds I want to thank representative Canales for his great work in District 8 and for that um work that you're doing in Tom Lee Park and and just uh I would encourage everyone to um to stay tuned because we have a lot of things happening in our district so thank you represent Canales thank you I asked to speak only to throw that thanks right back to you I wanted to thank representative Chavez who came to me uh right away about this um you know I I was around in in uh 2022 I didn't actually remember that resolution being passed um but again Tom Lee Park I and I explained only because I received an inquiry from a constituent about this particular item uh it's it's in District 8 now and and as rep uh representative Chavez said it has been funded through other means and is nearly complete uh so uh These funds aren't necessary and uh I think I'm very happy to return them to district one so thank you seeing no further discussion Mr Prim call for the vote mayor we do have public comments okay this item we have miss Patricia Osman sure followed by Miss Lisa Turner okay good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes good afternoon M PR okay thanks uh the reason I'm speaking on this matter is I hope all City Council Members understand that or at least I believe you should know the history of um what has happened within your districts the areas um with constituents and so forth and how it affects not not just those in your own District but everybody else um part of your explanation I I still question because uh if it was if those were funds were released when when that when Tom Lee was in district one then they should still remain but aside from that um we also have the Westside dog park and I know a lot of people I know I used to go go there also um there's a lot of people some of these funds are for that as well so it just makes it makes me wonder why it is that you're fine with pulling that $25,000 back into your discretionary fund even though the Westside dog park is part of that um so that's your own like I said discretionary fund uh regardless of those other that that other park it doesn't matter whether Tom Lee is now covered with some funds what you are asking though is that then the West High dog park be covered by the taxpayers when some of this fund could have done that so you're sticking more on the taxpayer in that regard um in regards to um your predecessor throwing that back into the general fund okay um even the general fund goes back to help everything in District One it helps everybody throughout the city and I don't expect that my any property taxes just in my area just be spent I don't think anybody any citizen in this town does but we do all know that your discretionary fund is used so that you could go on vacations say conferences you know to somewhat better yourself but either way it seems rather odd that you're asking for this back to be put in your personal discretionary fun es and yet you're still stripping it from like the Westside dog park and that you you're saying other projects but that is not Tom Le Park I I believe that is in your area too correct yes no because we're only we've only discussed Tomley or I I just supposed to speak and nobody's going to answer in regards to whether the Westside dog park is in district one yes yes it is in district one but um if Miss Mack would like to speak a little bit about that so you're stripping funds from your own District too no ma'am that's thank you thank you thank you m next speaker is Miss Turner okay good afternoon good afternoon and just in case anybody doesn't understand my position on discretionary funds I will say it again I consider discretionary funds a taxpayer slush fund and you should not have it now when Council passes a resolution authorizing the spending of discretionary funds at that point I expect those funds to be SP spent I don't expect those funds to pop up years later not having been spent that tells me you all didn't do your job that tells me Mr cortinis didn't do his job that tells me my city manager who oversees Mr cortinez didn't do their job so this is what I don't like now you're repealing 25,000 but you're getting 50 2,000 so where's this other 27,000 coming from I see you repping 25,000 for the Westside Community dog park and L Tomley dog park and $52,599 is going back into District On's discretionary funds there's $27,000 missing no no there there's there's two different those were two separate expenditure items they're written as one understand is if you write it out in the sentence and you add the Tom Lee lower Park and the west side as one I I'm Miss Turner there's a number one and then there's a number two and there there two separate items there you're repealing a transfer okay let me ask you that what was that $52,000 going to be spent on those were discretionary funds that were given to the city's fund those were previous uh discretionary funds from district one that were given to the city's fund from a previous representative Mr Chavez Chavez what we can do is after this you can yes I'd like a better understanding for this because as I read it these things are together you have two you know the totals don't add up okay it doesn't math right thank you thank you uh representative Canales if it's welcome I'm happy to try to offer a brief explanation uh the the the resolution approved on October 24th 2022 I believe was the former former District One Representatives attempt to obligate his remaining discretionary funds before the lame duck period and he left office um and and he committed These funds to projects that were already fully funded so those funds weren't necessary um and then the second amount was the former onetime former uh district one representative uh decided he no longer wanted discretionary funds he obligated them to no specific purpose just not for the use of his office as district one discretionary funds so that explains the two sources of funds any more discussion on this one miss Prime that concludes public comment sir okay call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by mayor potim Chavez seconded by representative Federal to approve the action on item 17 on that motion call for the vote representative thr I thank you and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 18 and this is discussion and action to request that the elected El Pasa Municipal Court judges participate in a planning meeting of city council during a future Council work session to coordinate efforts and establish strategic planning sessions to incorporate the Municipal Court judges into the city's strategic plan this item was submitted by Representatives oo and N is there a motion on this one yeah I I moved to approve and I could give some context to is there a second all right discussion representative asto thank you mayor I put this on here with representative n just because well there's been a lot of different conversations that I've had internally with staff and one thing that I did when I got here about a year ago was meet with the municipal judges and I realized that that was the first time that city council had reached out to those judges they were really shocked that I brought them together in one room and as I've continued to talk to different departments we're kind of seeing that that communication is really key to have an understanding of how we do things on our side of policy they have the judicial branch while still respecting individual branches right at the city so there would be the first time I think ever or maybe in a very very long time that they would be included in our strategic planning session and I know that Miss Mack is working on getting us into strategic planning in the next month or two so this would invite the Municipal Court judges to our strategic planning and then they would be added to our strategic plan for the first time so I'm really excited about that and I hope everybody else approves it and I don't know you have anything in you no may represent thank you mayor uh I want to thank rep uh for bringing this forward and asking me to collaborate this with him and and I do know I also had a conversation with this Mac in regards of you know engaging the Municipal Court judges I think it comes down to the collaborative effort I I understand that they are also elected officials but in order for you know we we work hand inand they um pretty much uh enforce the the policy that the city of op Paso does implement and a question for Miss Mac I know that we touched base a little bit about um we did veloped strategic planning uh session last year and we came up with this strategic plan um I know we're going to be meeting soon to go over a a strategic budget right a session what could that look like in regards of possibly inviting the judges to be part would we be adding more to the Strategic plan that we already have or H how can that look our strategic budget section was really for you to give us an opportunity to talk strategically from a budget perspective we were not looking look at a change to the Strategic plan um as you know we have uh several of the advisory committees that have done separate strategic plans I think we've done one for osab and for um the animal services so I think you also have here a work session so I think we just need to work through you know what the dialogue and conversation is they already fall within a strategic plan in some ways but I saw this as just wanting to get together to just have a conversation a common conversation about goals and so we can figure out what that looks look like and we'll make sure we um go ahead and send an invitation and then work with staff to formulate what that looks like for us moving forward thank you for that and again thank you uh Dr o I think it's a great opportunity for all of us to collaborate again and um I'm looking forward to hopefully you know having the support of our colleagues as well for this item thank you represent leemon thank you mayor as um as I review the agenda prior to our meeting I really go through all of it closely and it's difficult when the backup doesn't have a backup or sufficient information this was really sketchy and so I'm wondering Miss Mack if we could um I knew we used to have good solid backup whenever we put an item on the agenda and it's very helpful um for us and I'm wondering if that's something that could be done for the future thank you any more discussion on this item we have public comment okay we have Miss Osmond we also uh represent Alo okay so um my representative I attended his community meeting and he had spoken about this and in in part of what in which you had mentioned to the community was um because citations there's there's a lot that that you know ordinances you put out their citations and then they go to Municipal and so forth and and in speaking of that okay I'm in full agreement there needs to be full more far more cooperation and and part of that being because of the level of citation in our city all right we've got city of El Paso Code Compliance episd EPCC utip MPS const DPS state troopers sheriffs epd our city is is actually on the list of cop cities for the nation we are highly citate in fact you would consider our city taxation by citation and I think when you all do your ordinances we do need to coordinate understand everything else that the citizens are being what other citations what other laws ordinances mun Municipal codes are being enforced on top of everything else that's on the books because quite frankly you can say that you're lowering taxes or at least our last city council had but in reality our citizens are being taxed tremendously in so many other ways besides the fees building fees you've got every citation out there so I agree there there needs to be in fact a more larger meeting done not just with the Municipal Court who actually has to deal with a lot of these citations for the various entities but but I would expect that maybe a larger meeting with lot more of these entities all the rest of the entities that do end up giving citations to the citizens in Al Paso need to be done in other words something in much more broader scope than what is just being proposed I think what's being proposed should be just the first step and that's more to have more consideration for the citizens of El Paso let let's not make it harder for everybody because although the city has raised wag is over $15 an hour most citizens are still on minimum wage which is 425 a lot of this city is on poverty wages thank you thank you that concludes a public comment on this item represent o yeah I just wanted to address a sketchy comment I thought that this was a pretty straightforward item that I think if you read it it's really just invite the Municipal Court judges to a work session there there isn't a lot more substance or um a plethora of more documents that could be added to this backup and I think that as we kind of see our Council requests each office is really going to detail as much as possible some people may request a presentation so on a presentation there may not be any backup on that maybe just a sentence or two on the reasoning so um didn't really appreciate that and I just needed to throw that out there I thought this was pretty straightforward and common sense but um that's it thank you any more discussion on this item Miss briyan call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by representative ASO seconded by representative noo to approve the action on item 18 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously the next item is number 21 and 21 is discussion and action to direct the city manager to initiate a rewrite of the policy for the evaluation of 9% low-income housing tax credit applications including consideration of a geographic index for local location based scoring amend Point thresholds for eligibility for letters of support or letters of no objection also including an alternative method by which in a given year the city May designate only one specific location for which it will consider application and that the city manager shall return to the council with an update within 120 days of the approval of this item and this item was submitted by representative Canales is there a motion on this one move to approve second there's a motion and second uh in Chris you have discussion yeah thank you um I guess I'll start off with the disclaimer that I understand uh low-income housing tax credits in the entire process are very tedious and complicated um and not always easy to understand so uh I I've done my best uh particularly in in the backup documentation to try to explain as clearly as possible um what the changes are and what they would mean um I brought these changes up uh to with uh some of the uh developers who uh apply and and have a history of applying for low-income housing housing tax credits um they have largely agreed that there needs to be some sort of change in this process um to make it more understandable for them to have a better grasp of what exactly the city is looking for um and I think for years you've seen the discussions amongst the council when we consider uh the the annual applications to the 9% low-income housing tax credit program uh that we have found similar difficulty in evaluating uh submissions and I think in frankly in uh receiving the types of submissions that we want to uh given the criteria that we put out and so it's very important to me I think that we uh take a comprehensive look at the scoring methodology that we use uh the materials that we're providing to the to that we're putting out publicly for the potential applicants um outlining what it is that we want to see in their applications um I I don't think I'm going to beat my own writing so I'd like to I apologize it'll take a minute I'd like to read through what I wrote in the backup uh to to make sure that we uh we understand what it is that we are voting on um and I think you'll see the difference to what we end up discussing in a in a later item during this meeting about in concerning this year's low-income housing tax credit cycle so uh I'll I'll read what I wrote so the 9% low-income housing tax credit program is a key mechanism for financing affordable housing projects in Texas and Nationwide the city plays a vital role in determining which projects receive support through letters of support or letters of no objection which add points to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs uh tdhca scoring of applications as the demand for affordable housing in our region continues to grow it is essential that the city's policy for evaluating uh low-income housing tax credit applications remains transparent strategic and responsive to both housing needs and Community priorities this agenda item proposes directing the city manager to conduct a rewrite of the city's current policy for evaluating 9% low-income housing tax credit applications to ensure that the process aligns with evolving needs and objectives the changes will include but not be limited to Geographic index for location-based scoring the new policy will introduce a geographic index that prioritizes housing developments in areas of greatest need based on factors like accessibility to public transportation employment opportunities and Community Services uh this will help to focus affordable housing investments where they are most beneficial to Residents and the broader city um I'll I'll break off only for a moment to say you'll see in in our current uh our current evaluation uh we have a small defined geographic area that is called that we call tier one and some small radius uh Bubbles as they become known around brt stops known as tier 2 uh and anything outside of those is essentially treated the same and so uh this would uh you know make it so that any point anywhere within the city has a score um because some places outside of the tier one and tier 2 zones are better than others uh minimum Point threshold for for eligibility for letters of support or no objection uh establishing a clear Point threshold for developers to meet before the city can provide letters of support or letters of no objection ensures that only projects that align with the city's priorities and objectives will be supported uh this adds an element of accountability and consistency to the process uh and then designated location for applications the policy will also include an option for the to designate specific locations each year where applications for low-income housing tax credit funding will be considered possibly on City owned properties uh this targeted approach ensures that affordable developments are located in areas where there is a strategic need for housing uh which could help enhance resident and neighborhood outcomes uh and lastly a timeline for updates uh I I I be offering a small Amendment here but the city manager will be required to return to the council with a proposal for the new policy within 120 days of approval uh this ensures transparency and provides an opportunity for the council to assess the effectiveness of the proposed changes and make adjustments as necessary um I think that this is this is uh something that's overdue again we've been uh having this conversation year after year after the low-income housing tax uh credit process is over and we say man we really need to do a better job of this next year and come up with a better policy but the council has never directed staff to to do that uh aside from just saying it verbally so I think the time is right to to uh redo this this evaluation process um and with that actually I'd like to uh I I'd move to amend the the language uh and Miss PR I have it ready to send to you again let me do that now before I start reading reading it uh and it reads discussion an action to direct the city manager to initiate a rewrite of the policy for the evaluation of 9% low-income housing tax credit applications including consideration of a geographic index for location based scoring and minimum Point thresholds for eligibility for letters of support or letters of no objection and also including an alternative method by which in a given year the city May designate only one specific location for which it which it will consider applications uh and that the city manager shall return to the council here begin the changes with a recommendation for approval of a final policy informed by the ongoing work on an updated El Paso Regional Housing plan within 240 days of the approval of this item second okay there's just the final comment and that um staff had asked for a little bit of additional time again we take action on this year's round today uh it'll be a year from now that we take action next so 240 whether it's 120 days or 240 days uh that would be give plenty of time before the next cycle um and so uh I wanted to give staff all the time that they'll need to to conduct this work and again align that with the findings of the El Paso Regional Housing plan that they're already working on so we have a motion to amend um is there a second yeah okay represent Leon second discussion uh representative roacha and I just wanted to thank uh representative Gales for bringing this I it's much needed at least in my discussions with um with the parties involved in the applications that we'll be talking about later I find that there's a definite need to expand that that uh quote unquote bubble into uh into the areas of most need so thank you for that represent n thank you mayor and thank you rip Canalis as well for bringing this item forward and I wrote a little statement that I just wanted to share and it gives a little bit of background and kind of also you know the the growth that we've seen in the entire Community as as all you know I'm always grateful to have conversations Center centered on affordability especially when they involved Investments that can help a pasoans address critical gaps in our community when we talk about affordability it's important to recognize that it means different things to many different people what may be affordable for me might not be affordable for my neighbor for my colleague or a friend and to me affordability goes beyond than just the cost of housing it it also includes Public Safety infrastructure education accessability opport opportunity and most importantly family you know the current policies that we currently do have they are outdated and that's why I'm extremely thankful that rep Canalis has brought this forward um just like rep uh um de malono shared about the Bubbles they no wrong no they no longer reflect the realities of our community uh since 2018 when this data was used to sh the policies that we're currently using op Paso has experienced significant changes we faced Global pandemics business closures jobs losses and personal hardships uh that have shaped our community's needs um as we develop this new policy we must meet people where they are I know that there's measures that we're going to take um and there's also very specific measures but I would love to continue the conversations because um for example in District 5 we've seen I've seen firsthand the rapid growth that has happened over the F last few years we now have a new uh Beast Urban Park we have a regional Command Center a new Albertson of platinet fitness and there's many new local businesses none which is existed in 2018 this growth is a clear example of how quickly communities grow and evolve and why our policies must evolve with them on a personal note I have a family member who lives in affordable housing um while 95% of my family lives in District 5 this family member does not have the opportunity to live near us because there's not affordable housing accessible near my family or evenly across the the community I know that we talk about the Bubbles tier one tier two but um I'm excited to see what uh the policy is going to bring because you know in District 5 we have I like to call it two different sag Goa rad kind of divides a community that has lived there for 30 40 years where these some of these families bought their homes for 40 $50,000 and then I have a another set of community that has homes for $300 $500,000 and some of this population is also aging so they need accessibility to these uh you know affordable housing and also planning what it means to eventually one day um provide them you know the opportunity to become homeowners um so I'm very thankful again for rep Canalis for for bringing this forward I know we do have an item coming forward but I just wanted to share a little bit about my background about District 5 and kind of also you know we just got down with the campaign Trail and a lot lot of people are asking for affordable housing in District 5 because again it comes down to meeting people where they are um and they want to be with their families thank you any more discussion on the amended motion Miss bran call for the vote on the amended motion yes sir and so the amendment was made by representative Canales seconded by representative Leon and the amendment is to strike out the words with an update and strike out the number 120 and replace with with a recommendation for approval of a final policy informed by the ongoing work on an updated Al Paso Regional Housing plan within 240 days of the approval of this item on that Amendment call for the vote and the voting session and the amendment passes unanimously and we do have public comment mayor on this item okay if may call the first speaker is Hilda Viagas Hilda Vias I don't see her coming forth and I don't see her phone number in the queue we'll move to Britney meí Miss meí star six please to unmute your telephone Britney mein star six please to unmute your telephone we'll move to Sean star six please to unmute your telephone SE good afternoon Miss that's slan go ahead you have three minutes Sam go ahead ma'am you have three minutes we're not able to hear you Britney medin you're also unmuted go ahead you have three minutes we're not able to hear you in in U in the meeting either of you Britney medin or san we'll move on to uh miss Patricia Osman I'll call you again to see if we can hear you good afternoon Miss Osman you have three minutes Mr Canales I have a couple of questions um is the 9% an increase or is is it a stay the same uh 9% is the name of the program 9% low-income housing tax credits um that's and that's a that's a federal uh program through HUD and the states it's passed through the state so with this particular program and I agree uh we need low-income housing across the city not just in certain parts of the city but um this is this is definitely something that's for the property developers not that the actual citizens you know something going to them in in what I'm more curious about because I know that last year there was um there's somewhat of an uproar on another development that was put through stating that it was low income but then when you looked into the prices you know lowincome individuals weren't really going to get into that so in this program is there a cap as to what is considered low income or is it it's just a percentage of their development has to be low income uh no so um I I think I'll answer the first part first so last uh am I correct in assuming you're speaking about the south Mesa Hills property you know what it wasn't just the South Mesa Hills there was another development where when the properties went up for sale the prices were outrageous and there was like you know what people really on low income wouldn't be able to afford those so just just to be clear uh nothing developed with 9% low income housing tax credits will be units for sale uh these are these are all units for rent um and and all of them do have there's there's some Nuance with what uh different types of units have have different thresholds for uh the percentage of the area median income that that uh they have to meet um but you're talking about a range from like 30 to 50% area median income for eligibility to 80% uh area median income for for eligibility to reside in uh tax credit funded Apartments okay and the reason I asked mainly because when I when I saw this as far as low income I don't know how much you get on social media I know sometimes you're on next door but um there there are very various um pages that put on there and people are asking like people are living in their cars they're single mothers and there's people asking for diapers and infam and and clothes some lady uh had to hand wash her clothes put it out on the line and somebody stole all their kids clothes so there are people who really need much more affordable thank you Mrs Osman thank you next speaker is Miss Lisa Turner and then I'll return to Britney medin and saman good afternoon Miss Turner good afternoon mayor council several things we in this city have a lack of affordable housing we know this doing one project a year doesn't solve the problem I implore you to use your 380 agreements to help address this problem you will probably get more units built in this city to address that problem now there's a interesting problem that deals with a lot of veterans because of their disability compensation they're not eligible for any kind of help recently HUD changed that HUD will no longer look at a veteran's disability income as quote part of the income calculation I would like to see you do that here when you go in you do income calculations for this that those individuals you know whether it's a pension or a disability income will not that income will no longer be added into the calculation so in other words if they don't have any earned income their income is zero okay but uh again we have a we have a great need for this and one of the areas where I think that you can help attack this problem is with your 380 agreements so I would ask that you would ask staff to look at that and ask the builders in this community if it's something feasible and come up with a plan thank you yeah thank you mayor I just want to clarify we play a very small role in in uh just the scoring portion for low-income housing tax credits um this is a it's a it's a HUD program that we're not making the rules and regulations for um this I think this this is a very positive change but it does only impact our very small portion of the scoring that the city gets to impact yes and and uh 380 agreement for housing is is uh can that's waiting into something else but we do have an infill uh development incentive policy that we are revamping but also already leveraging to build to build new units so that's something that I hope we expand into the future M Prime the next speaker is Britney meí Miss mein star six please to unmute your telephone I believe we've we've worked out the technical issues miss me good afternoon you have three minutes hi good afternoon um my name is Britney I'm with um so as CH we choose to defend our education environmental health and housing in order for us to live here and build community with our neighbors we don't want to leave Barisal we don't want to be displaced and pushed out of our neighborhood we are creating the community we want to live in a community with just and dignified housing because of this we are staying up to date um with the salaad housing projects roll out um home has already shared with us that they have no intention of having any kind of priority to address the housing crisis in Theo and the risk of homelessness for women children and Elders even those that were initially displaced from the salad shutdown and are facing eviction because of cities plans like onward alamea we are seeing that home does not meet the needs nor do they understand the barriers residents based in the chamisal the private managing company involved who are contracted to manage public housing are adding a burden to an already vulnerable Community with their inability to roll out an accessible process there has been mishandling of information of important information and sensitive documents applicants have been removed from the list unjustly or have been threatened to be removed from the list additionally home doesn't do infield development and they only do large scale this leaves an enormous housing Gap and further displaces the um displaces our residents the historical neglect and discrimination in the chamisal is felt in the way that home fails to recognize the needs of accessible housing but also is evident when City plans either completely leave out the chamisal or fail to address or bring in funding that maintains housing affordable in the cham chamisal and renovates the existing housing instead we continue to see the prioritization of private developers that displace families and elders and gentry fire neighborhood the onward ala plan itself recognizes changes made in the chamisal without protections will lead to displacement the city has yet to move forward in protecting residents in bar chamisal even though the regional housing plan of 2019 recognizes the great need for housing in the chamisal and onward ala recognizes the high displacement risk without feed prioritizations in Salasar from public housing without protections from the city there are no protections for the women children and Elders in the chamad investment in the chamisal for just and dignified housing is long overdue one that considers the in income the vulnerability of our community and provides long-term stable housing for the families in the Lal once again we are here asking where are the anti-displacement strategies that onward alamea said they would bring forth and where is the chamisal housing task force that will address our community's needs thank you thank you the next speaker is Sean star six please to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes hi good afternoon this isan can you hear me yes ma'am okay uh we as Chamis have witnessed Chamis residents deal with deplorable living condition elders and children living with leaky roofs accumulating M core pluming gas leak no insulation no heat or air conditioning neglect and infestations yet little to no relief instead residents are faced with rent hikes and threats and addiction the city's Regional Housing plan identified chamisal as a priority area if we have not yet seen them address these living conditions or provide uh the resources I just emailed each of you uh income map detailing and explaining uh the income levels and the housing crisis in B Chamis I asked that you open that email uh now as I reference it Rio chamisal and ranks amongst the poorest neighborhoods in the city of agaso according to the 2020 census the two zip poos in our neighborhood 79901 and 05 represent median incomes ranging below 18,000 a year Bam's demographics include 96.9% Latino Spanish speaking 92.8% low income 81.6% with the majority living below the poverty line 58.1% um the households are mostly women and children with 68.3% the city of adopted onward Alameda which is pushing gentrification the city itself has stated that the chamisal is at high risk for displacement but nothing can get done to protect residents and preserve affordable housing without specific affordability requirements these new policies the city's most vulnerable would be forced to move moving families under these conditions would add to their financial burden making it even harder to survive further in 2019 the qualifiers were slimmed and act uh the previous entities were asked from qualifying for these programs we need small scale housing there are limitations to home public housing as cited in Britney's previous public comment and we're asking the city to prioritize Lao chami recognize the historic neglect and discrimination invest for the most vulnerable or rent are rising Define affordability for the chamad which has the lowest annual income compared to the whole city rather than using a general lwi income bracket and we want you to recognize these serious discrepancies declare a housing crisis in babio chami and address the need for alternate housing uh outside of public housing hes we are asking for you to create a housing task force for the Rio chamad which includes you all as representatives and other elected officials to address this longtime uh neglect we are a high priority area with predominately poor Spanish speaking La transport thank you ma'am you've reached the three minutes thank you that concludes U public comment on this item sir okay so we need to take the uh action on the original motion that's correct so there was a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative leemon and this is to approve the item as revised Y no discussion call for the vote on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously Miss Prime yes sir can we move item number 25 up because the presenter has to leave here soon absolutely yes sir item 25 is presentation and discussion on the city's ethics ordinance and code of conduct hi this is Juan Gonzalez for the city attorney's office um Miss Neeman wanted to set up a uh training a comprehensive training regarding the city's ethics ordinance and the code of content outside Council Frank gar is going to assist us with this good afternoon May and Council good afternoon um if we go to the next slide um I taught uh at St Mary University Masters of public administration program a class called ethics and public officials and this is a slide I started every class with because these were students who wanted to be in the public sector they wanted to be either city managers they wanted to be elected officials public officials and so I basically told them whether you're an elected appointed or employee once you go into that career you live in a fishbowl and your actions will be reviewed and analyzed by individuals in the community by the media and opponents so it is a fact of life that elected official you are in a fishbowl now my presentation focuses on the rule rules that apply to the elected officials there are a lot of other rules that I do not cover because they apply to board members or to employees but I wanted to focus on the rules that apply specifically to elected officials what's the purpose of NX code if you go to the next slide it's to avoid headlines like this and yes we know that very few people know what newspapers are anymore but in the old days there were had newspapers all over the place with newspaper boys and girls selling newspapers yelling what the headline would be and these are types of headlines we're trying to avoid so what's the purpose of an Ethics code raise your hand if you know the difference between right and wrong everybody's hand should be up okay because whether it was our parents grandparents teachers nuns ministers whomever they were part of our Lives teaching us what's right and wrong that's not the purpose of an Ethics code the purpose of an Ethics code is to help address potential conflicts of interest because there are sometimes your actions you may believe it is not a violation of an Ethics code but the perception is not good so the purpose of an Ethics code is really to avoid situations that could be a conflict of interest it's also for the purpose of accountability and oversight also political reasons you yourselves at elected officials want to avoid situations that would put you in political Straits so the purpose also is to help you as an elected official to accomplish what you're wanting to accomplish as the elected official and not put yourself in that situation so what's not an Ethics code violation next slide um these are two individuals who are elected officials in the city of San Antonio Mario Bravo is the individual on top and he was the boyfriend of councilwoman Andis sanova he helped get her elected to council before he was on the council after she was on the council he was elected to a different district and also elected on the council their relationship broke up while elected officials it raised serious situations on how they treated each other but it was not an Ethics violation while ethics complaints were filed the ethics Commission made it very clear discourage Behavior was not code of was not ethics violations so those are the things that you need that your code is very clear are what are potential code of ethics violations and we're going to cover those but discource behavior that would fall under your standards your code of conduct and that's an area we'll also cover today also there are possible ethics violations that are also criminal Behavior releasing of confidential information bribery those are ethics violations but they're also criminal violations and then the two most common ethics violations we see our conflict of interest when someone is voting for something when they should not be voting for something or participating in something when they shouldn't be and also nepotism nepotism is covered in your City Church Charter section 3.3 okay so specifically what is your code of ethics you can find the next slide your code of ethics is found in title 2 chapter 2.92 why do you have a code of ethics well it's good practice plus your city Charter requires you to have an Ethics code your ethics code is broken up into three articles the purpose and the policy and purpose for the reason for the code of ethics article two is the standards of conduct and article three the ethics review commission an Ethics complaint will only go to the ethics review commission if it's a standard of conduct found in article two if an allegation comes in that's not in article two the your ethics commission does not have jurisdiction over that complaint so we'll talk about the ethics review commission and their jurisdiction their duties the complaint review process the hearing process and then finally the disposition so let's go with regards to the policy and purpose of your code one to establish that re ethics review commission so that there's an independent body who's reviewing the complaints also to improve public confidence in the Integrity of the city to avoid conflicts as I mentioned earlier everyone in this room knows the difference between what's right and wrong but there are great areas and this ethics ordinance is there to help you avoid those G great areas and avoid those potential conflicts the purpose also is to establish minimum code of ethics standards of conduct for you to require disclosure this is best practice in the that there are a lot of times where you're still going to be able to take action and vote but you're required to disclose either gifts or campaign contributions and so forth It's a disclosure requirement that's very important you're required to report again certain gifts received by certain individuals and then the most importantly I think one of the most important aspects of your commission is to outline the process to handle complaints the resolution of those complaints and the penalties associated with those complaints so who must comply with the ethics code you the mayor and council members but also any candidate for elected office when they announce they are then under the ethics code Municipal judges city employees whether they're part-time or full-time city employees must comply with the ethics code members of all boards commissions committees and other bodies created by the city as well as any board member appointed by city council if you appoint an individual to a separate body that's not a city body but he's a city appointee to that body they are required to comply with the ethics code now depending on the position you're in will depend on which code Provisions apply to you your code has some provision visions that apply to executive level employees and would not apply to other employees you have other Provisions that apply to elected officials that do not apply to appointed officials so those all Provisions you have to look very closely as to what applies to all but overall your ethics code applies to the individuals listed on this slide so what's the first standard of conduct advancement of private interest you the official shall not use your position to improperly secure unwarranted privileges for yourselves relatives or others you find out hey there's a zoning uh case that's coming before us and a factory is moving in on this part of town I'm going to call my uncle Betto to go buy property in that area so that he can benefit from it that is you m you're advancing a private interest in violation of the city code another example but you represent to a person that they can provide an advantage to that person you tell somebody I guarantee you I'll get you that zoning change that's a violation now if you tell that individual I like what you're proposing I will talk to my colleagues and I will make every argument possible during the meeting but the decision is the counsels that's okay you're not telling them I guarantee I'll get you that zoning case next slide another standard of conduct is you shall not acquire an interest in or be affected by any contract transaction zoning decision or other matter as you may know I represent a lot of cities a City attorney in Bear County area and I have having this situation all the time where a council member says can I vote on this it's the zoning case but it's next door to my house is it okay if I vote on it the answer is if you usually if you get that notice within 200 feet then it's better or that you not vote because as the member you're going to be affected by that zoning change and the larger the zoning change the more of a financial interest that property is going to be affected which means you have a financial interest in that decision also you shall not participate in making or influencing any decision or action in which they know they have an F any financial interest distinguishable from that of the public same example right there not only it's a large zoning case it's going from agricultural to to to uh Factory and high uh High industrial and so you know the property value is going to increase dramatically and you own property right next to it clearly your interest is distinguishable that from the majority of the public and therefore you should not vote and take action on that matter also you should not provide any service for compensation to a person organization who is requesting an approval investigation or determination from the city so you have a private business and you have a firm that you provide architectural services to and you know that that company or that client of yours is going to go before the city they're paying you as part of the employment and now they're before the city so there is an example where you're re providing services for compensation and you should recuse and not take action on that matter also a very important one is you shall not utilize City resources either by a mission or allow City resources to be utilized for personal benefit or the personal benefit of any other person can't ask staff to go pick up your cleaners okay that's using person City resources for your own own personal benefit this includes using City resources for election campaign purposes you may not use City staff for those purposes you may not use City resources for those purposes I handled an investigation with the city of San anonio ethics uh commission where an elected official used the city issued laptop and he took it in for repair well what did they find nothing but campaign information on it all of his campaign contributions individuals he was targeting it all campaign related using the city laptop for those purposes prohibited by this standard of conduct the code also prohibits the uses of City resources to produce distribute personal campaign materials which we just mentioned this what well that was the code of ethics this is the election code I wanted to tie the election code right after the code of ethics because not not only is an Ethics violation it is an election code violation to use City resources for personal campaign materials the prohibition applies to any officer or employee of the city the prohibition applies to spending authorizing the spending of public funds for any campaign purpose when any of my cities are doing a bond election I make sure I review the materials that are going to go out to make sure it's factual and can't be argued that they trying to convince voters to vote one way or another with that bond election materials if they were deemed to be favoring one side or the other it would be a violation of this election code provision also the officer employee would violate the prohibition by using any City equipment for personal political campaign and not permissible to use or authorize the use of any employee again for the city for a personal campaign under the election code it is a Class A misor the most serious type of misdemeanor out there so standards of conduct again this is the most common conflict that I run into and that's when an official is about to vote on a matter and they come and say hey I may have a conflict let me tell you what the facts are and then if it is a conflict then they have to recuse and not take the action so you shall not take any business on behalf of the city with any business entity in which they have a financial interest you shall not personally participate in the decision if the officer is negotiating or has an arrangement concerning prospective employment I'm negotiating a contract or I'm negotiating an employment with IBM and IBM is showing up to get a zoning change but at the same time I'm negotiating employment with IBM I can't vote on IBM zoning change because I'm there and that would be a violation of this provision chapter 171 which is the state law that applies to every public official elected or appointed it states that you cannot take action if you have a substantial interest and they Define substantial interest you own 10% share or 10% fair market value of that company funds received exceed 10% of gross income for the year of that family okay person related by first degree by blood or marriage so your spouse works for that company and that company is Seeking a contract with the city more than likely 10% of your gross income if if you include your spouses exceeded that therefore you're not going to be able to vote under state law you're also not going to be a to vote under your local ethics ordinance as well does that mean the contract can't move forward no that does not mean you go to next slide it's disclose and recuse you must subst from voting and involvement on the matter the city clerk will have an affidavit for you to file when you have a conflict of interest under chapter 171 or your ethics code you are required to refrain from discussions with staff or other officers regarding the matter that you have that Financial substantial interest I recommend that if you filed that affidavit leave the dis while the matter is being debated you are you required to legally no but the perception is well are they trying to influence the person by staring them down or trying to look at them a certain way for them to vote a certain way it is always best that if you filed that affidavit to recuse yourself you should not be on the dis it's best for yourselves to protect you from a potential allegation that you did still try to influence also you shall not accept any other employment or engage activities incompatible with the discharge of your duties or which might impair your independent judgment in the performance of your duties this applies a lot more to city employees than it does to officials but I have seen where officials this become an issue with officials um also you shall not recklessly disregard the established practices or policy of the city relating to your duties confidential information you should not use your position to secure official information about any person or entity for any purpose other than performance official duties someone moves down the street and you're like H Chief can you do a background check on someone for me because I just don't trust that person no cannot do that you're seeking confidential information that's not part of your performance of official duties you shall also not disclose other than in the performance of your duties or as may be required by law any confidenti information obtained while in office as City Council Members you're going to receive a lot of confidential information especially while you're in executive session that must remain confidential even when you've left office the only exceptions once it becomes public then that re restriction no longer applies or if you're reporting illegal or unethical conduct the courts have found that the confidentiality does not apply when you're reporting illegal or unethical conduct but at all other times no matter how many years you've been out of office that information you learned while being confidential must remain confidential also you should not personally represent or appear in behalf of the private interest of another before the city council or any other City board or department or staff if the representative person's interest is adverse to the city this includes litigation if being compensated now if you're subpoenaed to testify against the city on a certain case you're not being compensated you've been subpoenaed you have no choice but if you're showing up and they're paying you to be there and you're testifying against City it's prohibited by your ethics code an officer shall not intentionally knowingly also assist or induce or attempt to assist or induce any person to violate the ethics code gifts this is another standard of conduct that you must follow as an elected official gifts you cannot solicit or accept any gift for yourself or relative from any source that exceeds $75 influences or rewards rewards official conduct or the official knows or should know is being offered with the intent to influence official conduct how would you know well you have a friend who's an architect and every year for the last 20 years you've exchanged a bottle of bourbon and it's always a 30 to $40 bottle of bourbon well he now has a contract coming before the city and this time he gets you a k suburban and it's $1 a bottle you should know that that increase in the gift is it being given to you to influence that potential contract for that architect so those are things that if you don't feel comfortable about it ask is it a situation where one of those situations where you would not accept the gift now as elected officials under the code your required report gifts on a monthly basis any gifts you've received that don't fall under the exceptions you are required to report also you cannot solicit or accept any gift from anyone doing business or seeking to do business with the city or registered lobbyists if the gifts exceed $10 now there are 11 exceptions to the gift rules for example travel you're traveling on behalf of City business either the city or a third party are paying for you to travel on behalf of City business that's acceptable special occasions it's your birthday it's a wedding now I will tell you when I was City attorney of s Antonio the mayor came to my office and said hey I'm getting married what gifts can I accept C and what gifts can I accept not accept I said well mayor why is it an issue I mean if you're it's you have an exception it's your wedding he says well I've invited a lot of contractors and lobbyists to my wedding well in that case if they give you part of your China pattern that's okay if they give you a trip to China that's not okay it depends on the the value and so forth and so forth whether it's going to fall under that exception or not exception I did want to ask and I didn't why are you inviting why are you inviting contractors and lobbyists to your wedding but I didn't go there but uh so that would be an exception if it is truly a gift for that special occasion political contributions are accepted from being reported under your gift rule events that you're invited to as part of your official duties um if you go to the next slide whether it's a chamber event or any event as part of your official duties I had a council member Jeff Webster in San Antonio tell me the day I was no longer in office the invitations quit coming because while you're in office you're going to be inv invited to chamber events you're going to be invited to other events and so forth and if you recognize or speak or so forth that's part of your official duties now you still have to disclose a lot of those gifts but it falls under the exception of that $75 limitation because it is you're being invited as a result of your official duties City Council Members also have a financial disclosure requirement your financial disclosure requirement next slide is not found in the ethics code but is found in the city Charter the financial disclosure requirements found in the ethics code apply to all your boards of commissions and city employees yours is specifically outlined in the city Charter and it says each person elected to office before they can be given the oath must file disclos closure form you must disclose the name of the employee employ your employer and capacity for which you work for officer and spouse and that includes self-employment name of a business entity in which the person or spouse has a financial interest uh partnership interest for office and spouse now you don't have to disclose the amount you have of financial interest in either the the business entity or the partnership but you must disclose that there is that business entity or partnership you're also required to name any nonprofit or business entity in which the officer spouse serves as an officer or director and then any real property owned by the officer spouse within the state of Texas you must disclose all those things in your financial disclosure report and you must file an annual sworn update disclosure while you're in office another standard of conduct that you'll find in your ethics code is Camp campaign financing in addition to the state laws you have additional campaign financing regulations in your ethics code your code applies to candidates office holders and packs who are involved in City elections the code is not applicable if a city officer is running for County state or federal position they still have to comply with the state campaign regulations but an Ethics complaint was filed against a former elected official and while the person was a city official they were running for a state representative office and an Ethics complaint came in that they were violating the campaign Financial uh regulations it was not within the jurisdiction of the ethics review Commission because it was not a city office these rules only apply if you are running free city office um Cod is again campaign contributions you must make C uh part of the regulations is if you make a campaign contribution must make the contributions in your name may not make contributions on behalf of another party it is a violation for any adverse party in any pending litigation against the city to contribute or donate funds to any candidate for city office if the litigation seeks recovery from the city in excess of $25,000 the duty of the candidate is to refuse to accept any contributions that is offered by a person who is known to have such litigation if the candidate unknowingly accepted the money not knowing there was litigation because a lot of times candidates don't know all the lawsuits and so forth but once they become aware that they accept a contribution violation of this provision it is the duty of the candidate to return the contribution within 10 days after the candidate becomes aware with regard to disclosure of campaign contributions elected officer must verbally disclose any contribution of $500 or more prior to discussion vote on a manner benefiting the contributor so you know that a zoning case is coming before you and the developer who's bringing that zoning case before you contributed $500 or more to your campaign you must disclose that prior to your vote does that mean you can't vote no you can still vote but it's part of the disclosure requirements you're at least disclosing that that individual did donate the $500 the $500 is an agre amount received during campaign or term of office the donor is also required to disclose the $500 or more contribution prior to council action and then the elected officer must disclose in writing within 30 days of receiving $500 or more contribution have occurred after the vote occurred and then with 30 days at the end of the fiscal year officers will report all campaign contribution and the city does post the contributions on the city's we website so now we get to your ethics commission your ethics commission I've worked with in the last few years um is responsible and they have jurisdiction to review alleged violations of article two standards of conduct again it has to be under article two I've handled complaints against elected officials your City attorney usually delegates those away because the City attorney is hired and fired by the elected officials so for perception purposes if a complaint is filed against an elected official your ethics code requires her to find a third party to handle it I've handled a few of those and in my review I've dismissed or recommended dismissal of a few of those because it did not fall under violation under standard two article two it has to be a standard of conduct that falls under article two the commission cannot hear complaint points that do not allege a violation of the ethics standards of conduct the commission's duties are to review evaluate and provide recommendations on issues as requested by the city council they have the authority to issue advisory opinions in the manner set forth in in in the code they also review evaluate and issue determinations and provide recommendations to City Council on complaints this Council and previous councils have heard recommendations from the ethics review commission city clerk once you get the complaint the city clerk will review the a filed complaint to ensure it's properly sworn and complete if it is not a sworn complaint the city clerk will reject it before she even forwards it to the City attorney it has to be a sworn complaint if the complaint is complete the clerk will forward it to the city attorneys or their designate within 21 days of receiving complaint the City attorney will either dismiss the complaint because it falls outside the ethics review commission's jurisdiction that is the only ability for the City attorney to dismiss because it's not within the jurisdiction when I was uh signed one specific case against an elected official former elected official the individual says you should dismiss it the evidence isn't there but they're alleging a violation of the code of conduct the standards of conduct I don't have the ability to dismiss it because you don't think the evidence is there I can only dismiss it if the commission has no jurisdiction it is the B the responsibity of the commission to hear the evidence and they can dismiss it if they don't believe the evidence is there the City attorney does not dismiss for lack of evidence the City attorney can only dismiss for lack of jurisdiction if it does fall within the jurisdiction the complaint is referred to the commission so the commission will then conduct a hearing and they must schedule a hearing within 30 days of being referred the complaint shall provide copies of all relevant documentation to the members of the commission while the complaint is pending members of the commission are prohibited from discussing the complaint with anyone not on the Comm commission or the City attorney or designate now what information does the ethics commission receive they receive the complaint the individual who the complaint is against has an opportunity to also provide a response that response is then also given to the commission so the commission has the complaint and the response from the individual alleged to have violated the ethics code only eligible Commissioners will hear the complaint if a commissioner recuses themselves they refrain from voting or discussing the matter a commissioner must recuse themselves if they themselves have a conflict of interest if the commissioner filed the complaint they have to recuse and not be part of that decision-making process your code allows ethics Commissioners to follow complaint if they believe an Ethics code has been violated also a commissioner must recuse themselves if a complaint is against the council member and that council member appointed that commissioner that commissioner must recuse themselves and not participate in that hearing also if a commissioner worked for campaign for the individual accused of violating that individual is also not allowed to to serve uh on the hearing general rules for the hearing the commission may establish time limits and other rules relating to the participation of any person in the hearing parameters for opening and closing statements most of the times that I've dealt with these the the chair says 20 minutes opening statements for each side before they go into the uh arguments uh the roles of the complaint and the responded are clearly outlined limitations regarding testimony for non-relevant or cumulative Witnesses and then the presentation and direct questioning of witnesses the responding the complaintant have the right to attend the hearing and the right to make a statement and to present Witnesses the respondent the complainant may be advised by their legal counsel during the hearing but the legal councel Believe It or Not cannot speak unless the commission gives them the permission to speak on behalf of the client in every ethics hearing I've dealt with the the chair has always granted permission for the the rep legal representative to speak on behalf of the complaintant or respondant if so if necessary but we all know how lawyers get so if the they were out of hand the commissioner the chair could actually say we're not going to hear from you anymore we're only going to hear from the complaintant or the respondent it is up to the chair as to uh whether the attorney will be allowed to to speak also respondant the complainant or the legal counsel may not question or cross-exam examine Witnesses except if the commission has granted them permission to do so again in all the hearings I've dealt with the chair has always granted permission for the cross-examining and questioning of witnesses by the by legal counsel the ethics review commission is also not bound by The Rules of Evidence most of the commission members are not attorneys not judges and therefore the rules of evidence do not apply but will rely on evidence that are reasonable prudent person commonly relies on in the conduct of their personal affairs the commission shall hear relevant evidence but shall not rely on hearsay commission has the authority also to request Witnesses and production of Records I've had hearings before where the commission will break into executive session to to start discuss and say you know what we didn't hear from that witness both sides say they rely on that witness but we didn't hear from that witness the commission has the ability to call that witness in so they can hear from that individual themselves the chair through the assistance of city council shall be able to compel testimony including subpoena Witnesses if we have someone who says we're not coming the chair has ability to come to the council for the council to issue subpoenas for those individuals to appear if the complaint or the respondent are unable to attend the schedule hearing because the initial hearing is scheduled without getting input from them it's just scheduled by the commission uh they may request a continuance to the commission by mail or email at least five days before the hearing the complaintant and respondant shall receive one automatic continuance they have they don't have to show any reason why they just ask for the continuance however any other request from continues shall be delivered to the commission and the chair will determine if good cause is there to Grant the the continuance or not disposition after hearing the complaint the commission will issue a decision within 30 days based on the information present the hearing every hearing I've had the decision is made at the conclusion of the executive session they've not waited the 30 days the order might take a few days after they've made their ruling but they usually Rule the Day at the at the end of all evidence is heard they break into executive session they come out and announce their decision that's been my experience with your ethics review commission the commission has the option to dismiss the complaint because no violation and issue report of the and and Report the dismissal report the dismissal or they find a violation by clear and convincing evidence and then determine the appropriate sanction if any what are their options to issue sanctions they're issue they can issue a letter of no no ification which was a violation but it was not intentional a letter of admonition violation was minor and or not intentional but calls for more of a response than a notification letter of reprimand violation was intentional disre or disregard for the ethics code they were aware of the codes what the code said and they disregarded anyway and then finally recommend removal from Office the ethic commission does not have the authority to remove any appointed or elected officials that has to come before the city council only the city council can remove an official and if they recommend removal it has to be come with a letter of recommend forward to the commission I mean forward to the city council there's also the opportunity for reconsideration the ethics commission finds a violation the individual individual who has been deemed to have violated the ethics code can request for the commission to reconsider however your code is very clear they can only be granted a reconsideration if there is newly discovered evidence that was not presented during the original hearing and must provide within 14 days of the commission's disposition report advisory opinions if you're not sure whether something may be a violation of the ethics code this is an opportunity for you to ask the commission before the action to determine whether or not it could be a violation so it would be a written request to the City attorney any official May request an advisory opinion regarding whether his or her proposed conduct would violate the ethics code the City attorney within 30 days would present The Advisory opinion request to the panel of the commission the ethics commission should meet to confer and issue an opinion or panel May decline to issue an opinion or refer the commission the full commission to make the determination a person who in good faith acts in accordance with an advisory opinion issued by the panel or commission cannot be found to have violated the code for conduct approved in The Advisory opinion however it must be the person who requested the opinion councilman a can't say well councilman C got that op opinion that said it was okay so I did the action no it must be for the person who requested the opinion and the opinion must fairily and accurately disclose all relevant facts I request an opinion and I'm giving you fact a b c and d but I forgot to tell you about facts EF and G well that opinion is only good for those facts she presented whenever I write an Ethics advisory opinion I clearly outline the facts as you provide it and basically state that this ethics advisory opinion is based on these facts so that's your ethics code and now briefly your code of conduct why a code of conduct well it's an agreement of standards of how you should treat your fellow City officials and city employees it's your expected standards of conduct as a elected officials it's a framework for Behavioral standards and conduct between individuals and the elected Council as a whole it's in line with the city of core values and you're held accountable for violation of your code of ethics I mean your code of conduct the philosophy of your code is that everyone must work together for the common good of the people of El Paso and not for any private or personal interest and that private or personal interest could also go back to your code of ethics and must assure fair and equal treatment for all persons claims and transactions you have pillars of code of your pillars for your code of conduct first is to comply with the spirit and letter of the laws of the city policy in other words follow federal state and local laws make decisions on acts and make decisions and act on the facts maintain an open mind and base your decision on the facts in the laws presented to you also an Ethics violation never disclose confidential information another pillar respect the city process perform duties in accordance with your form of government your Council manager former government is specifically outlined in your Charter maintain a positive work Place environment abusive conduct verbal attacks are not acceptable respectful Communications must continue in private between City officers not just when the Public's around this includes texts and emails and you all know texts and emails are subject to the public information act could always be released you have several standards your first standard is your conduct with City staff all questions and a requests for information should be directed to the designated staff member and for you at the council that's the city manager requests for staff of additional resources should be made to city manager treat all employees as professionals do not disrupt employees from their jobs is this realistic I say that because as a former city employee I would go in with my list of things to accompl accomplish and you never got to that list because you're responding to everything else the constituents or the public and so forth is need but still must try to let the employees get their jobs done refrain from personally attacking employees and then do not get involved in the administrative functions of city employees don't tell the city manager I want this person hired as chief of police it is the city manager's responsibility to make that decision conduct with the public you have a code of conduct with that be welcoming to speakers be fair and E Equitable allocating time to speakers be an active listener avoid debate and argument and I know that's a hard one at times no personal attacks of any kind and comply with parliamentary procedures wait to be recognized to speak make those MO in accordance with those parliamentary Pro procedures conduct with other officers attendance at other City board or committee meetings is discouraged based on the effect your presence may have at that meeting your code ethics code says you're allowed to attend other meetings your code of conduct dissuades you from doing so why if you show up to a zoning commission meeting and you make arguments why that zoning shouldn't be granted granted what's that person who's following that zoning application going to feel like when they go to the council and there's the individual who spoke against my zoning case at the zoning commission before it even got to counsel so I discourage elected officials from attending those meetings because of their presence if you attend great but don't speak that's my recommendations at those other levels you want to give the individuals the opportunity for a fair and Equitable hearing at the council also it's inappropriate to Lobby other officers on behalf of an individual business or developer also never threaten with removal of another officer for disagreeing on an issue and then be fair and respectful to all members of council and other officers conduct with the media if related to a city issue never say no comment simply refer that reporter to the assigned staff member of the city strategic Communications office now if the matter is personal it's a campaign issue it's a personal matter do not refer that to the city strategic Communications office that's one you would have to be responsible to answer at that time and with that I'll be more than happy to answer any questions I know I covered a lot um and I'm always available to answer questions questions at any time so feel free uh if you have any questions Frank thank you for the presentation any questions for Frank you so much nope no question thank you Frank mayor we do have public comment on this item okay from Miss Osman good afternoon you have three minutes ladies and gentlemen up in dasas just so you know you are the face you are the people who everybody else elected to make the decisions for us so what's going to happen is you're going to take the fall so aside from the code of conduct and the ethics you personally your legacy is what's going to get hit when something is wrong when something is wrong with the city during the time that you sit there and I and I say this because quite frankly the reason I had to start coming here is because I applied for a community human development Grant which I was approved for but after discovering ethics violations which I reported that quite frankly any citizen who has to do this has to jump through hoops if it is an employee then it's one after another you have to go through the chain of command to report it to everybody before you are allowed to report something to HR okay and then that is just a hidden manner within the city that the public will never know about and it doesn't get to the ethics commission if it is an Ethics complaint that a citizen files okay again we are going to be lucky if it does get pushed forward and I say this because last year I had to file an Ethics complaint because we had an employee that lied to the city attorney's office who then thus had to rep repeated that lie to the current that city council and when I filed those ethics complaints which is a really odd to this presentation because I had the former mayor in former representative district 1 send me a letter that they dismissed that ethics Comm complain so that seems rather contrary and I do have that letter and I will send that out to everybody I'll make copies of it and send that out so it's very contrary to what this gentleman just said but I think you all need to consider how difficult it is for the citizens and the citizens should know what happens because the retaliation that happened with me some of those people who still allowed it to occur because I never received although I was approved I never received the assistance on my home and some of those people who were involved are actually in this building some sitting in this room and that's the thing is that the Hoops the citizens have to jump to even get something out in the public so that the city citizens know what is going on that is wrong is outrageous now legislative quite frankly they would consider everybody else the Deep state but you all are the face they're making they're making the policy you're the face thank you mayor that concludes public comment on this item okay you want to move to the next item yes sir that will be item 23 and item 23 is a presentation and discussion on the FY 2024 2025 first quarter financial report good afternoon mayor and city council Robert cortinez so we do this presentation ctly we provide the city council an update on where we stand throughout the FY various fiscal years this presentation is a little bit different I have a few slides at the beginning I'll go through them relatively quick quickly we'll have a lot of discussion over the next several months and obviously with the Strategic budget session that we have planned for a little bit later in March obviously we'll have a lot more discussion but I wanted to provide a little bit of context as to what in went into the budget development and then that will lead into the actual uh comparison from current fiscal year to the previous fiscal year for the first quarter um again a lot of what you've heard already during your orientations a lot of what we really focus on city manager myself and City staff really focusing on ensuring that we're really focusing on the longterm when we bring recommendations forward to the city council this really just helps the stability and predictability going forward it really helps our financial management something that we've worked really really hard on to improve over the last several years I included this slide it's a really helpful slide we're constantly trying to find better ways how we can present this information not only to the council but to the community as well when we talk about cost drivers we talk about available Revenue sources we've had some of that discussion yesterday and today um so on the outside of this pie chart here you'll see the breakdown of the city's general fund Revenue sources and so when you look at the largest revenue Source there property taxes about 46% sales taxes the second largest component and we'll talk a little bit more about that those two Revenue sources alone make up 70% of the available revenue for the city's general fund property taxes are a pretty stable Source sales taxes with much different sto different story with a lot of volatility and then we have other Revenue sources that we rely upon as well but obviously those two are the the two primary ones that we'll focus on inside the pie chart here is the expenditures for the FY 2025 budget so overall 599. 6 million you'll see the largest piece of there no surprise our Public Safety departments place and fire um about 56% 57% followed by streets and maintenance Parks and Recreation so when you look at those four departments alone please fire streets and parks you're looking at three quarters of the city's Jour fund budget for four departments and so we Pro provide this information obviously a lot of this as far as the expenditures going to our city Workforce which we'll cover here in a minute and what you will really hear a lot about over the next several months as well again really focusing on our Workforce and what we've done in those areas so some of the budget challenges as mentioned revenues again property valuations have performed extremely well over the last sever years um but obviously we've seen a little bit of a slow down in sales tax which we had anticipated over the last 18 months or so our fixed costs continue to go up so we talked a lot about inflation obviously with our taxpayers being impacted through increasing cost in rent housing food gasoline the city is no different we've seen increases in utilities increases in Appraisal Services increases in some of our it contracts and then a lot of discussion has really been focused on our deferred Investments and uh coming up with strategic plans to address some of those areas so how do we balance the budget so a lot of discussion went into the last couple years of ensuring that we had no property tax increase which we managed to do um again at the direction of the prior Administration again really taking into account what we've been seeing as far as the impact of inflation and so we've identified new Revenue sources that were previously restricted to free those up whether whether was paying off for example the Plaza theater debt 3 years early that was a previously a a revenue source that was restricted to make The Debt Service payment for those improvements at the Plaza theater and so we were able to pay that off early which freed up some additional Revenue to come to the general fund uh one of the big ones here is the no issuance of debt which we have not done in the last two years again we continue to utilize bonds that we've already sold in the past to be able to fund our capital projects however you'll have a future presentation that'll update you all on what we're planning to do over the next several years and the potential impact that can have on the property tax rate uh one of the great new Revenue sources that we took advantage of last year and actually we're about to submit our application for the second year the state has a program the local government's disproportionately impacted by disabled veterans so we can get essentially a rebate or reimbursement um from those 100% disabled veterans that do not pay property taxes we can actually get a portion of that money back to the city and so this past year we got 1.9 million we've been pushing our legislative team to encourage the state to allocate more funding to that program they currently the state as a whole only allocates about $10 million the city of AP Paso's application was for $6 million Al loone so they have to prate it based on the number of applications that they get so we only got about a third of what we submitted but again that was a new Revenue Source we were able to take advantage of um some of the other actions that we implemented and we'll talk a little bit about this the vacancy savings how we utilize our attrition and looking at um that savings while at the same time ensuring that we're not impacting City operations employee compensation was a big driver this past year and so we decided to actually split the pay raises so we did half in September and we are going to do the other half in March and we obviously just did which you all have heard a lot about the recent increase uh that the council approved that will take effect later this month and then finally our payo Capital something we've been working really really hard to build up our funding available for facility improvements for vehicle Replacements uh for Parks amenities uh we did reduce that amount by $3 million in the current fiscal year some of the highlights and again this is a very very high level but we'll go through this as I mentioned over the next few weeks and months leading up to this budget process Public Safety again the Big Driver with the multiple training acms uh we just recently had the police department graduation we have multiple classes that either in progress or will be taking place pretty soon continuous investments in our streets which we've had a lot of discussion about and how we identify ongoing annual funding source to be able to address our streets and the maintenance that we have to sure we're protecting the payment condition index are quite of life and so we have now pretty much wrapped up we're come into the tail end of finishing out those capital projects from the 2012 C of Life bonds we just announced the uh expected datea opening for the Mexican American Cultural Center which is one of the last signature projects and then U that operating cost obviously was built into this current budget and so next year we will not see a big increase building in those operating costs related to those qu of Life projects as a mentioned as we've now come to the tail end to finishing those out and then our Workforce and what we've managed to do over the last several years and then the recent again the minimum wage increase going to 1575 that'll take effect a little bit later this month so this is a very simple summary slide uh we did several presentations last year leading up to our strategic planning session and you'll hear more about this again as we lead up into the date that we have set for later in March to go through some of this discussion but again really looking at the long term again as I mentioned Focus needs to be on how to identify funding sources to address a lot of these issues and not have to rely upon debt insurances or very reactive Financial manner to be able to address these things when they pop up unexpectedly because they do HBS go down uh swimming pools have major needs so we need to ensure that we have adequate funding to be able to address a lot of these key areas so whether it's the streets or facilities which two-thirds of them are more than 60 years old whether it's our Parks which continue to need improvements or replacements for our playgrounds uh one of the big items that you'll be hearing about relatively soon in the next couple months Grant match funding a lot of discussion obviously recently with Grant funds and particularly the federal government but we we've been working internally over the last few months to try to identify funding source to come up with the no funding match on those Transportation projects um a lot of discussion about it and the continued investment in insuring we're protecting the city's assets digitally and then finally our unfunded pension liability something we've been working on um internally now for a few months as it is one of the city council's 30 by 2030 strategic initiatives so this slide here I I've shown a few people this slide of the new council members and then something that we updated last year we contined to provide the council an update and so a lot of what you'll hear us present the city manager and myself is as we're going through the budget process for with very very difficult decisions of balancing the taxpayers and the impact we have on them but at the same time uring we're not impacting the city on their operations or some of these deferred areas so we have here what the budget is this is annual payo funding so this is money we've built into the annual budget to address these different areas so 28.4 million which is a decrease of 3 million from last year so anytime we do budget presentations I'll go and do community meetings I would say it sounds horrible to have to say this but if you would asked me for 2017 how much the city had in the annual budget to do any of these items the answer would have been zero city was debt financing every single one of these things as they needed to replace police cars by fire trucks do facility improvements invest in it any of those items was being done through debt and so we've made the push over the last several years incrementally obviously you can't do it overnight to increase the allocation in the annual payo we're up to 20.4 million so that's the positive the other side of that is that you'll see on the far right hand column the actual amount that we believe we need on each of these different areas to adequately fund what we where we should be as an organization to be on a a replacement cycle for Poli and Fire Equipment to be on a regular replacement cycle to invest in our streets so we're about a quarter we've made tremendous progress but we have a long way to go some of the major variances in this budget that was adopted last August again our Workforce the investment in pay raises and compensation for police and fire the investments in animal services with the new facility and then some of these items again are fixed cost so we had obviously the Citywide election we had our appraisal services which we pay into the appraisal district excuse me the appraisal District's budget um that amount continues to go up every year as they're facing increased Cost U some legislative changes with them as well they're going to be required going forward to start to have elections for their board members as well and so they've been set inside funds to be able to afford their election in 2026 uh we talked about the quality of life operating cost utilities or water costs continue to go up so as utilities are increasing their rates so we have discussions going on with El Paso Electric as their rates go up the city obviously will be impacted as well in our cost for not only electricity for our city facilities but all of our street lights as well potentially and then I mentioned the reduction in payo funding that ultimately led to the $26 million increase in the city budget so this slide and I'm going actually go to the next slide so what we had presented last June we provided the council a little bit more detail on how we and I know it's a little someone I apologize but it's supposed as backup if if you want to print it out and actually take a little bit more time to to look at the information but really what we did last year in order to balance the budget in order to get to that no new Revenue rate was we actually increased the annual amount of attrition so we look at all of the vacancies that each department has the budget staff will meet with them look at where they're at you know what do they have plann as far as hiring and they'll come up with an estimate and they'll come to an agreement and say okay we think we can hold x amount of vacancies just based on normal turnover the amount of time that it takes to fill positions with this current budget we did a little bit more digging and so we actually increased the amount of attrition this current year so you can see that out of all the vacancies that the city had at that point in time in June of last year we took savings on about 61% of those positions a pretty high amount and you can see by Department we have it listed so out of the almost 1400 vacancies we actually funded about 544 of those so that was as of last year and that that's all funds um to be clear and so we had another slide here it doesn't look like you get updated but I'll I'll make sure that it gets posted as backup and I'll kind of walk you through what we did with the general fund so on the general fund vacancies we actually had about 867 total vacancies as of January and so of those we took a saving um attrition savings on about 558 so right now we have approximately 250 funded vacancies that can be filled and so as we work with each of the Departments to better understand identify ensure that they're you know being aggressive make sure they have the recruitments open to be clear there's no hiring frees there's no delay in hiring we're actually pushing I think with Miss Max push to increase the minimum wage really speaks to our push to really ensure that we're not impacting City operations if we get to a point in time where we feel like we're running into an issue a budgetary issue where we need to hire more individuals we'll come up with the game plan a recommendation and we'll address that issue when we face it we're nowhere near having that situation right now now so while yes this is a concern I don't think it's a concern that no public entity or no private organization is isn't not facing right now hiring is very very difficult whether it's entry level whether it's our professional managerial even our Executives it's it's difficult Tim right now to be able to fill a lot of these key positions um fortunately that we're very excited so that February meeting later in this month we're going to bring back a presentation to cover a lot of the workforce Investments we've done I talked about how that's really the budget cost driver that we face every year we're going to make another push another publicity opportunity for us to take advantage of getting the word out about the increase in the minimum wage so the timing will be perfect for that really you get the word out that we provide a lot of opportunities not just forry level but career opportunities for people to take advantage of of working for the city and so this is um the first half of the presentation just wanted to provide a little bit of context of the overall budget and then the second half here we go into a little bit of discussion about where we stand for the first quarter so again this is going to cover the months September October nove November our fiscal year starts September and we're going to see the comparisons of that quarter compared to the same time in the previous year okay we'll do for revenues and expenses and then I'll Prov a little bit more detail on some of the key ones that we continue to monitor so overall revenues up 3.9 million or 4.4% the biggest piece of that is property taxes and so you may be saying well why is prop proper taxes up if you didn't have a tax increase well two reasons one property valuations were up so that means we were generate more property tax revenue and then two we did not issue debt or will not issue debt in this current fiscal year which means more of those property tax dollars will come to the Opera and maintenance side of the budget the general fund as opposed to need to going towards the debt service so basically it's a shift in that property tax revenue um sales taxes is um up only. 3% which I'll show you a few slides on that franchise fees something we continue to monitor um that again not a huge source of Revenue about 11% of the overall general fund Revenue but we continue to monitor that because it's trailing right now a little bit below what we actually budgeted in this current fiscal year and then our engineering reimbursements so we do charge our engineering cost out to the cost of the capital projects and the services that they provide so that's up just a little bit just again based on the actual capital projects and the timing of those on the expenditure side again overall expenditures are up by 6.1 million again the large piece of that is due to the salaries benefits and taxes of our city employees we also had a onetime increase in our it contracts of about 1.2 million so that payment came in the first quarter of this year we again had the uh election cost a portion of that is reflected in the first quarter the remaining will come in the show up in the second quarter and then our transfers out so the general fund subsidizes helped fund the animal services department and again as I mentioned with that new facility that came on online we have an increase in that area as well so this slide here again remembering this is only through the first three months of the fiscal year and so this is showing the budget the actuals and that last column is our year in projection and so as of right now again being conservative we only have three months of data right now we're not projecting a surplus and we're not projecting a deficit the bottom little footnote there is very very important so as part of the adopted budget the city council actually approved in order to balance the budget get to the no new Revenue tax rate the city council approved utilizing $7.2 million of our fund balance coming from our pay for future which was planned we had a planned use of that that's why we created the pay for futures um so 5 million of that was from the payer Futures fund and then the remaining 2.2 million came from the prior year as of right now we're not going to need to use that full 7.2 right now we're projecting in order to stay balanced 4.6 of that again remember that this is preliminary these numbers will change these projections as we get more data throughout the rest of this fiscal year primarily with the revenue side because there's a delay in the realtime information we get from not only sales tax with with franchise fees as well so for example sales taxes we won't get our December sales tax amount until next Wednesday so there's a about a two month two and a half month lag in that real-time information which is critical when I talked about the volatility of that Revenue source so December's obviously the largest month that's Christmas shopping holiday shopping time and so we're very anxious to see how that payment's going to come in next week franchise fees very similar those are paid quarterly so we won't get the October November December quarterly payments until should start getting them next week middle of February so there's a 45 day lag in the franchise view payments as well so as we get more of those data points again these projections are going to change the budget office this is what they do day in and day out they monitor revenues and expenses and they'll update these projections and again we come back corly and provide this information to the city council and then it's really not until we get to that second quarter that we really start fine-tuning our budget development Revenue estimates or expenditure estimates for the following fiscal year so this will after the second quarter will become sort of the base of what we're going to use for the following fiscal year so the format that we use um just to provide a little bit of comparisons so we show you the revenue categories we show you the current fiscal budget we show you the actuals collected for again the first quarter of the year and then the percentage collected again for that first quarter so right now we're at about 152 15.2% of the overall Budget on the revenue side and then the far right hand two columns there shows you the same time period last year just for comparison purposes so as of right now well as a the first quarter we collected 91.3 million out of the 5 99.6 last year we collected 87.4 or 15.2% so we're pretty much right in line on the revenue sources as far as the overall collections the one that we continue to monitor is on the franchise fees as I mentioned that one primarily Texas gas and so again we only have one quarter of data and so as we collect that second quarter we continue to monitor we'll see how that one comes in but overall Revenue sources right now projected only 1.3 million under budget again that's utilizing our our paper futures but $ 1.3 million out of $600 million budget that's 0.002% off so it's like 99.8% on so it's pretty close to what we had estimated again but one quarter we'll have more data points in the next couple months as I mentioned and then we'll come back every quarter here on out to the end of the fiscal year so property taxes as I mentioned it's the largest revenue Source we just monitor that one and so this is through December and very seasonal obvious end of January is the deadline to pay property taxes and so through December we collected 53% I was actually just looking they sent the January reports and so we're again right in line with the historical collections on property taxes property valuation growth as I mentioned early on in the presentation looking at again this is the largest revenue source and so we have benefited from pretty sizable growth and property values over the last couple of years um seeing almost d double digit growth over the last three years but we like to provide these slides for context because if you look back historically we don't typically see eight nine 10% increase in property values typically prior to covid we were seeing three three and a half on a good year um right before Co we're hitting 4% so we were seeing a pretty solid growth um I provided the going back to 2004 just again for context and so as the Fort Bliss uh base alignment was expanding property values were going up uh that lasted for a few years but then it came back down to again more historical type levels and so as we project out and we start looking at 2026 and Beyond we will not project out continuing at this trend of double- Digit growth and property values we know we're going to start to see a Slowdown and that's where the the importance of the economic development and what do we doing continue to grow the tax base will come into play but really just to provide some context as far as this Revenue source and the historical amounts that we see year to year on the sales tax collections so this is showing you September October November last year which is the light blue compared to this year which is the yellow you'll see September was down October was up and then November was essentially flat so the importance of December is going to be very critical going forward because again that is the largest payment that we receive in the year so that's going to be a key going forward not only for the rest of this fiscal year but as we develop the budget for next year on how much will anticipate sales tax growing in the following year again similar to property valuations it's important to sort of put it into context the historical perspective and so you'll see two sort of outliers in FY 21 and 22 just unprecedented growth in sales tax that the city had never seen and so coming out of covid we were all very concerned about what the financial impact was going to be with City obviously took a lot of actions no different than what a lot of entities did and then the the federal government pumped a lot of money into the economy we saw trillions of dollars of investment through whether it was grant funding or different types of assistance uh being cooped up in your house for you know multiple years people get money to get out and and go shopping and uh do some entertainment activities so we benefited tremendously from FY 2122 sales tax collection what that allowed us to do is we put a lot of that into our reserves ensuring that we had built up our rainy day funds again really to protect the city's long term so if you look back from 2015 to 2020 you'll see historically we're around 4 and half% growth in sales tax and then after fy22 we knew if was it going to last forever we we don't have crystal balls but we know just looking at the historical data that we weren't going to continue to see 13 to 14% increase in sales tax revenue so in FY 23 we saw um come back to reality FY 24 we had project Ed that and we were almost spot on with the uh budget last year this year again we're less than half of 1% growth in sales tax so right now we're projecting to be pretty much spoton with the budget for this year but this is going to be an important one that we continue to monitor not only again for this fiscal year because it's going to be important that we're utilizing those data points because again that's going to become the estimate for the FY 2026 budget when we begin to develop that out so it's important that the budget office and our comers office that we're coming up with very very very good estimates because we want to ensure that the revenue that we're projecting comes through otherwise if it doesn't we're having to make adjustments mid year and that's the last thing that we want to do uh the Texas Gas franchise fees so again this is one of the ones that we continue to monitor again the franchise fees make up overall about 11% so you see this year compared to last year um slightly down our our p Electric franchise fee continues to be up by about a and a half compared to last year and again we'll be getting the second quarter payments here probably hopefully within the next week or two which will cover the months of October November December again so they go based on on calendar years we have the El Paso water franchise fee again just slightly higher than same point last year licenses and permits again this Revenue source is not a major one but it is one that we continue to monitor just from the perspective of an economic indicator looking at what we're looking at as far as permits this includes residential commercial electrical mechanical Roofing all of the permits that the city does collect revenue on and then finally the bridges transferred to the general fund so the bridges does transfer um at the end of each month any excess above what they need to actually fund their operating cost they do keep a small portion as well for their Bridge maintenance fund and then the REM remainder does come back to the general fund uh provide that revenue for our city services which is very important as well so we'll continue to monitor this one particularly with the bridge Crossings obviously with everything going on at the national level we'll continue to monitor this one because again this is another one that although not a huge Revenue Source about $16 million a year a million $2 million reduction in any of these categories has an impact on obviously what we're going to look at on the expenditure side so similar to the revenues that I went through this is the expenditures so again providing the same format provides you the current year budget the actual through November the percentage and then the comparison to the prior year so on the expenditure side we're right at about 19.7 coincidentally right where we were about the same time last year uh personal services again is the largest driver that's salaries benefits and taxes for our our city employees that makes up about 71% of the budget so that's the one that we really spend a lot of time focusing on and doing pay Ro projections projecting out when departments are expected to fill vacancies and then I have a few slides so this is the projection again so $1.3 million projected under budget on the exponential side um some of that coming from different categories personal services were barely under right now one of the things we continue to monitor is overtime particularly for our police and fire departments uh we know that with their staffing issues and with emies that we have coming out line which is going to help hopefully offset their overtime here that's one of the areas that we continue to monitor um but overall again $1.3 million under budget right now on the expenses projected for the end of this fiscal year I provided this one here again because this is again this is the cost driver this is the main the main expenditure that the city has and you can see the growth year-over-year going from 74 million in fy21 up to 89.6 million in this current fiscal year here so we continue to see uh pretty sizable growth but again nothing that was not expected as far as the overall adopted budget um the electricity expense and water expense we continue again monitor their budgets we know that the water utility had their 8% increase in their rates so again that will have a little bit of an impact we weren't projected to be as high but again we'll factor that in to not only the projections for this year but obviously that may have an impact when we start to develop the budget for next year as well and then obviously they'll pass electric rate case will have an important impact on what we see as far as the overall electricity cost for the City Fuel and vehicle maintenance again not a huge expense category but I provide this because we talked a little bit about that pgo and how we're replacing Vehicles obviously the cost of gas has come down a little bit compared to the last few years so that's helped us a little bit we continue to monitor our vehicle maintenance as well thus the importance of ensuring that we're replacing our Fleet instead of of having it being in the shop and continuously being worked on which has an impact on our city services so we've seen that come down by about 200,000 again for this first quarter compared to last year Our IT contract something that we've seen again the impact of inflation is just across the board our it contracts but we've been significantly investing in replacing Hardware ensuring our data centers ensuring all of our cyber effort that we're being responsive to really being proactive to ensure we're protecting City's asset and then we have two more here Appraisal District again not a huge expense category but when they're passing on a million dollars every year of an increase again that's a million dollars that's going to Appraisal Services that can't go to one of our other categories and so something we continue to monitor as well we actually have a briefing set up with them a little bit later in March so they'll come in and talk to us looking at uh preliminary property valuation reports so we'll start that process in later in March and then we continuously get updates all throughout the summer and we'll provide all of that to the city council as well and then the last one I have here is on the twist assistance program something that we've taken a lot of pride in uring that we're invested in the workforce not only through compensation and benefits but also with encouraging them to go back to school get a degree get a certification um you know make themselves more marketable to be able to promote throughout the organization to be able to step up and fill in and and take on new roles within the organization ation um so you can see the the increase in the investment we've had in our tuition assistance or the activity in our tuition assistance program up by uh over 224,000 for this fiscal year and so with that that completes the presentation again projections right now preliminary this is three months of data we'll have more information as we complete the second quarter which ends in February we'll come back probably around the April time frame um present that to city council and then by that time we'll be getting pretty deep into budget discussions sharing a little bit more information related to FY 2026 projections and what we're looking at as far as cost drivers and any impacts on our Revenue sources and again so no action is being requested this is just an update um year projections not only for this fiscal year but it's good to remember so we're projecting out what's going to happen for the next seven months now through the end of August and then the budget office is task with projecting out what's going to happen out essentially 19 months ahead so we're doing this fiscal year and the following fiscal year which is why it's very very important that we're utilizing this historical data ens sure we're not being overly optimistic and what we think we're going to see on these Revenue sources I've bu the city 17 years Mr Max SM the city just about as long as I have and Miss represent lone has seen some of those years where the city would start a fiscal year and because they were overly optimistic on Revenue sources coming in two three months into the fiscal year they were putting freezes on filling positions freezes on moving forward different projects so we've taken a lot of Pride inuring we have really really good estimates so that you know we don't impact to the operations and that obviously we continue to build up our reserves we're not impacting our rainy day funds Robert thank you for the uh financial report very detailed and as you said there's a lot of unknowns on the revenue side that we have to watch you know especially with the bridges and things yes sir with the the uh political climate in in DC right now but uh we do have a few uh comments and questions representa Lon thank you mayor Robert right on always your presentations are just good it gives us a real good perspective of what to expect how we got here and potentially how we need to get to the other end along the way page 10 or slide 10 just something that caught my eye right there the parks it indicates that there's 25d rated Parks is it possible to get a listing of those Parks or what we have to ask thank you I appreciate it so what we plan to do so as I mentioned we did each of these different areas did presentation updates to the council leading up to the strategic planning session provided in-depth detail related to to each of their respective areas again this is just a summary of those key areas that I wanted to capture but yes ma'am we can provide that information with the council representative ofto thank you mayor I appreciate the presentation Robert you're the numbers guy and I might throw some stuff out and if you don't know it off the top of your head it's okay I was really looking at slide 14 with all the vacancies over 800 vacancies and as I kind of look at what's happened in the last two years I feel like the budgets that we've passed in FY 23 and FY 24 or FY 24 and fy2 have really been sustained by the vacancies that we have right all the savings that we've had there and as I look at the vacancies I feel like I could put it down into two categories Public Safety and quality of life right cuz we have 193 vac VES police wise and that is not inclusive or it does include the 91 vacancies that should be filled by may it does so if there's uh police officers that are going to graduate for example the ones that 20 that just did so this report and I don't know why it's not on there but we'll make sure we have the revised version but for the general fund so this vacancy report was ran in January so it doesn't reflect those 20 officers that just graduated that are move to their police officer positions okay so that so there would have been 20 vacant police officer positions so down to 173 then yes sir okay and then it'll be lower by May because I I just remember a few months ago we said 91 yes sir so we already have the positions in the budget so as same thing with fire as they graduate they'll move into those vacant positions that we have okay so I feel like that's a good dent that we're we're making in terms of Public Safety so and sir I just want to remind that both police and fire have quite a few civilian positions within so not just a uniform not just a uniform okay that's that's really good context so thank you for telling me that so I feel like we're doing a good job there and then I look at parks 179 and then I look at streets 94 and I feel that as I talk to my constituents and I'm sure some of my fellow colleagues on the Das feel this as well they hear a lot about quality of life issues streets right and and I think about streets a lot this minimum wage that we passed a few months ago is is really important and I'm really happy that we did that across the board but I think we need to start targeting that a little bit more because as I'm having discussions with streets what really stood out to me is that we are not paying competitive wages in streets so it's taking a lot longer to get the work done that our constituents are really really fiercely asking for and so it's getting to the point where there's other companies that will see our street workers out there and they say hey why don't you quit the city and come work for us we're going to pay you a lot more and so as we're going into this next budget cycle I really want to focus on that 94 and seeing okay yes we did an all across minimum wage for the city but what will it take to be competitive with other companies other contractors that have people doing that same work do we need to raise them 20 to $25 an hour to compete with them to get our streets in shape on top of adding a lot more money to it right but in terms of people power I think this is something that could really get potholes done or just Street projects finished in a more fast way than we have it right now so we do on occasion if a department has seen an issue with the particular area they'll send HR department hey I'm having issues filling whatever you name it they'll start looking at comparisons if they notice that it's been a hard to fill position they'll start doing some comparisons other cities other whatever uh local government state agency that may be taking our employees if we identify that we need to adjust the pay we've done that in the past for particular areas so it's something that we'll continue to do one of the things that we've tried to stop doing though is doing those one-offs we can bring more detail on that we were planning to come back with a staffing report on the 24th and so we'll focus on those areas so you can see what that looks like and what categories have moved over time and why we think that the moves that we've recently made will make a difference no I think that's great and I and I just see this one as let's be drastic about it let's keep these people that are working for the city happy because then our residents are going to see the changes that they really want to see so I I appreciate seeing that when you come back on the 24th on that and then I was looking at the sales stocks and they increase at. 3% and if I remember correctly we had a very small percentage in this last year and then the prior years was pretty significant and I think you were mentioning you know people were at home and it made it easier to buy stuff or whatever it was right so I'm also thinking about this in an economic development way where we really need to focus on that to bring more people to visit El Paso so the Out of Towners are paying for the sales tax and really seen a significant increase in this and I think a lot of that is also tied to the convention center right it's too small we can't host conferences anymore and we have too many hotels now the problem that reversed from 15 years ago and so I I think we really need to have a real strategic plan on really targeting these Focus areas sales tax more employees in certain departments to really address the dire issues that we have I don't think that we disagree so the convention center is obviously going to be a priority going forward and what we do with the future expansion of that facility I was at the convention center all weekend this past weekend for a volleyball tournament for my daugh there was probably over a thousand people in that facility so there really good to see that going on but yes absolutely conferences and bringing in out of challeng to the community absolutely that's going to be critical going forward and yeah go sorry I was going to also mention that we're bringing the a comprehensive Economic Development strategy to you all on the 24th as well okay that's perfect that's really great to hear and I'm just thinking about you know let's let's be I I feel like people in El Paso love their events and I want to see more stuff happening downtown whe whether it's black parties we have Neon Desert that brought millions in people in hotels people spending money at restaurants and stuff like that I I think the the smaller that could be the shortterm and then we have a longer term type of thing so really looking forward to what you're bringing on the 24th and then I also wanted to ask about the bridge Revenue are you monitoring that bridge Revenue right now as we are getting into a new federal Administration is there a sense um that we might have a drop in that bridge Revenue I think it's too early to say at this point but it is something that we'll continue to Monitor and obviously we'll continue to report back to the Council on any impacts that we're seeing with the crossings as of this point we haven't seen a a dramatic or drastic change but it is something obviously with the current environment that we'll continue to monitor again it's not a huge Revenue Source about $16 million a year but every 100,000 every million dollars that we lose obviously an impact on our ability to be able to fund all the services that we provide so right it is something that we continue to monitor no I appreciate that and then I know that you were mentioning the last three years we've had appraisals kind of Skyrocket and people are really feeling that a lot from my understanding this year we shouldn't see any crazy jumps and appraisals right and that should stay for about the next three years is that still the thought we will see we don't get the preliminary preliminary reports from CAD until late March but I will say because a lot of properties particularly Homestead or residential homesteads have seen more than 10% increases in their home values annually there's a cap 10% in your homestead can increase by more than 10% so if the value of your house went up by 20% over the last couple of years those increases will keep being reflected until you hit that market value okay so you get the 10% one year if it's another 10% the following year so there's an amount that the appraisal district actually provides US every year so we know what that value amount is over that 10% value every year and prior to the last three years historically we've would average around $500 million of property value that exceeded that 10% cap okay okay last year I don't want to give you the exact I don't remember the exact but I believe we like around $4.2 billion so much more property value that's exceeded that 10% cap that homeowners may see again that is going to change as the valuations change over the next couple of years but I anticipated us not seeing a drop off but obviously not as large as what we saw in the last three years almost even out but then that 10% thing is is really interesting and one of the other things that's impacting the overall and those are tax property valuations the slide that I showed you the other thing that impacted Us in the current budget was this was the first year of the called it the circuit breaker so not only is there the 10% cap on homesteads but then there's the 20% on all other properties not exceeding 5 million and so the city saw about a $6 million decrease in property tax revenue because of that exemption that was provided by the state so that was something that was brand new so that was $6 million of less property tax revenue that we saw because of that new exemption so um that was sort of a trial run I believe it was two-year program so something I was actually talking with the legislative team the other day if have they heard anything about that continue to go on for the next few years and so I believe there are some bills to continue that program at the state level because that will obviously continue to have an impact on our available Revenue sources okay and then the last thing I had was property taxes what is the percentage that is residential versus the percentage that's commercial I'll give you the breakdown uh it's I mean we hear the 7030 and that's pretty close okay yeah cuz I hear the 70302 and I I want to get the exact percentage to have a better understanding and then the second thing that I'd like to know is how long have we had that breakdown for how many years forever forever well as long as I've been with the city yeah years yeah and and so it's just been there stagnant right and I think that that's that's the real key to real TX really for our residents that really are demanding it right and I understand why but I just want to make sure that we think about that as well as we're going into the budget and it's not going to be fixed in a year but I think that's a good long-term plan for us to really focus on and so we're very excited with the with the sets the comprehensive Economic Development strategy coming forward before you all so one of the things that we really try to focus on when we do presentations with the community is really just to educate so we talk a lot about the tax bill breaking down the tax bill the five different entities that you'll see on your tax bill and economic development is a a topic that everybody has an opinion on and the point that we always make from the city's perspective of is yes we may rebate property taxes or sales taxes to an organization or to a company to relocate here or to locate here or to stay here but all those other four tax and entities are benefiting directly from that company either relocating or staying here in I'll pass on M and so the example that I love to give is the Trans Mountain Hospital Hospital the city did an economic development deal with them um we we have a youth strategic budget advisory that we do every year and so we presented at Ken High School one year the principal was talking about she got up and said our budget for Ken High School is a billion million dollars a year and she introduced city manager myself and she said they you know handle 1.3 1.2 billion doll budgets she was trying to put it into perspective so I thought a million dollar a year to run K high school that's how much revenue that that hospital generates in property tax revenue for Canal ISD alone yeah a million dollar in property tax revenue essentially funds Canal high school so when you look at from that perspective of the benefit to the entire Community not just you know one organization that is trying to help lead that effort I think kind of changes the dynamic and it changes the The Narrative behind why we do what we do with their Economic Development incentives yeah and it's the investment that's going to yield results that might take a while right but that'll be there at some point and help the schools inadvertently thank you represent Chavez thank you mayor thank you Robert for your wonderful presentation I think this is uh the type of information where we realize where the rubber hits the road and many of us ran on fiscal responsibility so we welcome these conversations I do at least um as a small business owner for 20 years I I remember vividly having to pay my sales tax on the 20th of every month so one of my questions which you answered was uh when when the city receives that and I think you said if I'm not mistaken two and a half months later right correct where you get to cash flow that correct so in terms of Revenue where you say you're uh .2% and um I'm wondering if you're on target with what your expectation was for this year yes yes we are okay and in terms of uh sales tax do you do historical projections or how do you project what you're going to be receiving because I know it's hard to tell what's going to happen in the economy it is hard so yes we use historical information we also have you had an item on the agenda related to sales tax audits that same company also provides Us sales tax data some confidential reports that we are provided related to actual businesses and so we're actually able to monitor different categories of sales taxes to see what's fluctuating we utilize those reports challenge with those is those are even more of a lag those are about a three-month lag so for example we have the updated report from November or sorry October that we just received about a week ago but we can utilize that to look at the different categories because sales taxes is multiple categories retail is the largest driver for our sales tax Collections and so it's it's multiple sources it's historical data it's current performance it's using those reports and just working really make sure that we're being conservative I mean I think the last thing that we'd want to do as staff and has provide bad recommendations of being overly optimistic on Revenue sources and and hopes and prayers don't really don't really pan out too well and you know you put in your hopes and faith and and things that we know just based on the numbers aren't going to play play out but I but I know it's also uh something we can take upon ourselves in terms of supporting other small businesses and making sure that as they grow their businesses they will eventually pay more sales tax and that will help our our City's growth as well absolutely I mean it's it's a strategy and that's why the the importance of bringing back that that overall strategy because it's small businesses it's Workforce Development it's all those things coming together that's going to have the overall impact on the community and really help Drive property Val valuation growth new businesses new homes Drive sales tax so it really is having that clear strategy and which is why I think you know that's really going to help us moving forward not only as a city of Pas but again it's there's multiple entities that are involved in that plan so it's going to be important that we're all sort of rowing in the same direction going forward absolutely um in terms of your general fund Revenue I know that you mentioned it's up 4.4% this year is that also uh in your projection or or what do you think the overall growth is going to be this year what is your projection we're a little bit off from what what I would like to see I mean overall though because we had again as I mentioned projected or budgeted $7 million use of our fund balance right now we're projecting to use 4.6 I mean all of the categories sort of balance out property tax is doing a little bit better sales tax is pretty much spot on franchise is down a little bit at the end of it if you look at the bottom line we're pretty much spot on with what we anticipated as far as the the adopted Budget on the revenues yeah and and you know I I think it's important to see both the top line and the bottom line right and so there's so much cutting you can do in terms of of employees or whatever else um may be um available to cut but we also have to continue looking at the Top Line and how to increase that not necessarily through taxes of course but like I said in stimulation of of economic development in other ways and so we're always working you know to improve our our budget process and how we share information not only with the council but with the community as well so one of the big things City manager tasked us with is really looking at how we're presenting the budgets and so focusing more on program based budgeting so it's easier to communicate not only to the council but to the community here's what this department does here's where these tax dollars are going to or you know people don't realize that streets of Maintenance does 15 different things so we're able to break down the budget by program it makes it a little bit easier for us to communicate you know some of the challenges and some of the things really and then also where the the dollars are going so that's going to be a pilot program we have four departments that we're going to start with so that'll really help I think help we the way we communicate with the budget going forward um there's some other things that we've got planned for this coming fiscal year as well but absolutely appreciate your comments thank you and lastly I just want to point out that um your vehicle maintenance seems to uh be lower this year than last year despite the 23% um amount of vehicles that have surpassed their useful life so I thought that was probably a really good thing right that you're you're not having to do so much maintenance but um hopefully that won't suddenly increase later this year correct and so we've started putting uh money in for so we've got 3.6 million in the annual budget now to be able to go out and do aside from police and fire it's a separate depart 3.6 million to replace vehicles for all of other City departments so whether it's Health it plan inspections Parks they all need vehicles to be able to get around town and heavy equipment as well and so we think about bucket trucks and side load just all sorts of different equipment that our streets of maintenance department speaking about streets that they need to be able to go out and do to to provide the service so I know a few years ago there was complaints about street light Replacements and fixing street lights it's because we didn't have the bucket truck or the equipment that we needed because it was in the shop and so having money in the annual budget now again not only financially helpful that we're not having to finance but also helping on the operation side of you know providing the resources that our departments need to do the job thank you Robert you're welcome great presentation represented tof hi Robert thank you for the for the information and everything you've shared on page uh 11 I think that's the area where you said there was no budget for this my voice is really bad I'm sorry I wish I could talk better but my allergies don't let me I hope you can understand me um looking at this is this correct what I just said as far as this is the area that didn't have any budget yes ma'am looking at this and and looking at streets and resurfacing I just I'm amazed that there was no budget for this what have you all been doing to work towards having a budget I see right now you have the 10 million where did where did those funds come to be to be able to add to the budget so it's all of our Reven sources that come to the general fund so we again have property tax sales tax franchise fees we have in the budget resolution we've got money that comes to the general fund from different franchise fees and we're allocating that for streets and maintenance department okay so it's not just resurfacing it's for the department but it's do the general fund Revenue so it's important so the 10 million again sted in 2017 but again that's only about a quarter of what we need on an annual basis to be able to to have a regular replacement cycle to maintain our streets at a um adequate level so it's this is general fund funding what uh what conversations are you having to be able to bring in funding additional funding for for this you know 46 milon 500,000 that's a lot in in the in the lacking of what we have for Street resurfacing what conversations are you all having to be able to help with that we will be bringing a strategy forward for Council consideration probably in about 30 30 to 45 days okay okay uh and then on the on the grant match and information Tech technology we're we're at zero for the budget so Grant match we identified a one-time source of Revenue to be able to fund the grant match we need for our n projects however that's onetime Revenue that we're utilizing and so we are going to be coming back with the recommendation to actually identify an ongoing funding source which will free up that money that we had planned to use for the n match to be able to do some other things um that we've got as far as recommendations so we have a recommendation again that one coming back again in probably 30 to 45 days as well okay and then on the it we were able to in December we did the year report the city council did approve using some of our Surplus about 1.2 million um that we generated investment interest and so we were able to utilize that we put it into our it Department to be able to do some Capital Replacements so um as we identifi funding we have allocated some money into our it department but on an annual basis we need to you know really really work towards getting into that $4 million amount because PA of technology is just moving so fast nowadays that we need to ensure that we're staying up to date the Cyber threats all around us we need to make sure that we're as simple as replacing laptops is you don't realize the threat that having an outdated computer can have on an organization and so uh we do our annual security training which you all should have already done it's a requirement now it's something that we started doing actually before this date so um again you'll see a lot of things that are are important with that but it is a very very critical area as well well it's something that we've invested in obviously like all of these other categories we just need to identify a strategy to address all of these and it has to be incremental we know that we can't go from zero to 100 overnight it's going to take time it's going to have to have a plan in place but it's about developing those strategies which we've been able to do over the last few years okay and then one last question regarding the facility and Renovations uh and park ad menetes are there grant opportunities for maybe lower income districts to be able to apply for those grants to be able to help with the facility Renovations and park amenities not that we've identified so for I think at least the last 10 years we've been able to utilize um some Texas Park and Wildlife money at the from the state level and those have primarily been utilized to um grow our inventory um we've been able to do all the mil playgrounds uh We've added to existing projects um that have been under underway but I can't recall any that were year towards any facility it's basically Land Management side of the house are there grants available is there something that you all can look into to see what we can do I can have the team come back but I know we were looking at all of our state available grants and our federal available grants because we had so many projects um that were in a queue I do not recall us identifying anything that was for um any investment other than sort of like um water conservation um as we were looking at our Parks I can certainly get that information to you thank you representative roacha thank you so much and thank you Robert for that wonderful presentation I I that was the one that was peing my interest I've been waiting for it all day so thanks for for for providing it I only have one question is there a way to provide like a dashboard that would continually update for you know I don't know if it's created through power beyond or if it's created through um through another platform but is there a possibility to do that so that we can have real time instead of having to wait for uh these presentations which they're super helpful but you know we we would really I well I should speak for myself I would really like to see a dashboard I don't know if that's even a possibility or if that's in scope sure I can go with the right Department we've looked at that in the past but it's something that should be able to do thank you I appreciate it you're welcome thank you Robert excellent presentation thank you mayor and Miss PR we've had members of the public here that have been here all day and we're going to move items 26 27 28 and 29 up yes sir so we can get those out the way then we'll come back to the presentation yes sir item 26 is discussion and action on the request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing be authorized to to issue purchase orders for solicitation 20251 96 automation controls to PC automated controls Inc the sole authorized distributor for an initial term of three years for an estimated amount of $300,000 this contract will provide parts and services for Control Systems used in City facilities Mo approve second there's a motion and a second any discussion on this item Miss Prime call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by representative lion seconded by representative FAL this is to approve item 26 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor protm Chavez not present item 27 is discussion and action on the award solicitation number 2025 D60 Municipal solid waste and recycling collection services to various City facilities to Waste Connections Management Services Inc DBA El Paso disposal LP for an initial term of three years and an estimated amount of 91,4 move to approve is there a second second all right discussion we a public comment on this one yes mayor we do we have Miss be Heist followed by Mr Chuck Heist good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon my name is be Heist I was born and raised in El Paso and I'm a UTEP graduate my husband and and I own Heist disposal it's a local small business that provides waste collections in El Paso we have had the city waste collection contract for 16 years since 2008 unfortunately a lot has happened with this contract over the past two years this is the third solicitation that has gone out since 2023 for waste collection in July of 23 the first of these solicitations was issued and Heist disposal was a low bidder however purchasing recommended award to Waste Connections doing business as El Paso disposal because they said we did not fill out the bid form correctly we provided details on our pricing of various sizes of rolloffs while the bid form referred to them as 22 to 30 yard dumpster it was the city's fault that our bid was not accepted due to the fact that they did not provide a clear and concise bid form in their solicitation city council did not award the bid even though we were about 6% lower all of our pricing was now available ailable to our competitor leaving us no chance to win a future bid now that our competitor could and would change their pricing significantly in October of 23 a second solicitation was issued after making changes to the bid form the new bid form provided line items to bid on specific sizes of rolloffs as we had provided in the previous bid this time Waste Connections was a low bidder they had our pricing and lowered their previous prices significantly city council did not award the bid to Waste Connections and Heist disposal continued to provide service but started using the Allied States Cooperative in September of 24 purchasing issued a third solicitation which required biders to bid on both Waste and Recycling and also expanded the scope of work they also clarified that the recycling collected had to be taken to Barco a recycling plant owned by Waste Connections this is the solicitation that's being presented to you today Heist disposal is a waste huler we are not in the recyc business and we did not feel that it would be wise for us to enter into a contract that required us to provide to provide Recycling services so we did not submit a bid the city only received one bid for this solicitation because there is only one vendor that can provide the city the services the way the solicitation was prepared we would like to ask you not to award this bid today but instead keep this contract under the Alli Allied States Cooperative as it is now uh we also had been um sent an inadequate competition survey which we responded uh with a letter and explain why we did not submit a bid and I had asked that it be shared with city council I was curious to know if they did or did not share that with you thank you B thank you the next speaker is Chuck Heist good afternoon you have three minutes hello you guys have probably heard from my wife more than me the three of you that are left everybody else is new uh we've been doing this for 30 years we have never been put through a contract situation such as this one I don't know how to describe it to you it sounds like you are a business person just from listening to your comments I can tell you right now if you're given a bid and you win it and it becomes public knowledge and you're competing against the third largest third largest trash hauler in North America I'm going to tell you right now even though they were higher than you and they get another chance to bid they're going to do exactly what they did they had our price guys do you guys understand that we didn't win it because they had our price and now the contract has been construed to a point where only they can do it 2023 July 2023 is when the first bid went out we're in 2025 folks there is not one reason why this has happened we have been a good vendor since 2008 we've done our job and we would like for it to continue to go through the co-op Waste Connections is also a co-op vendor they're on there and their rolloffs and their recycling can be utilized through that croop through Region 19 we would really appreciate if you consider this thanks for your time thank you chair that concludes public comment on this item okay representative Nino I'm sorry thank you mayor um couple questions one is in regards to the letter that Mrs Heist or information Miss Heist referred to it it's I don't see it in the backup is there a reason that could it or could it not be distributed Nicole Cody for the record um the inadequate competition survey was what I believe she was referring to historically we have not provided that as part of the packet but we're happy to email that to all of you if you would in mind and then secondly uh during the briefing um we were told I was told I can't remember if anybody else was on it but I was told that there was uh only one person who who request who filed a bid which Miss Heist just confirmed but secondly that there was no U complaints or issues from any other vendors correct uh good afternoon Paula sales with purchasing EST strategic sourcing so the solicitation that we did receive one one bidder and there were no issues with the procurement process itself the inadequate competition survey it is conducted when we receive less than two bits so it's part of our process everybody can send an email and let us know why they didn't bid so those are basically the questions you were invited to bid why didn't you um participate so that was the explanation that Miss Heist is talking about in an email Miss Mack um maybe in the future um purchasing can share that those letters with us especially since we have questions ongoing questions every once in a while about the lack of people responding to bids uh maybe this will help us understand also from from our perspective yes sir we'll take care of that thank you m ma thank you representa Alto thank you mayor I was um pulling something I'm sorry I wanted to ask I know this has been a lot that's happened with the way this was bid and then taken back and this is the third third time we bid right um or put this out for bid I what was the thought behind changing it from the prior ones and adding other services to this uh Nicholas with Environmental Services uh so we added recycling services as part of the contract because currently Environmental Services is performed those services and what as I explained in the briefings is um we have to purchase a new frontload vehicle or multiple front Lo Vehicles over the years at a cost of half a million dollars each currently we have three in our Fleet just to perform these Services which account for 60 collections a week of three days a week so there's I believe six collections on Monday 43 on on Wednesday and then the remainder on Friday so all the collections that get done can be done with one truck but we still have to have backup vehicles to ensure that just in case they go down we could still make these uh recycling collections for the sites so this is why we decided to include this as part of the scope also we included the rolloff containers on there so we could have a set price and we could have them um available whenever we have certain events like district cleanups and and Earth Day with ESD that that all makes sense so was it a convenience to just include it all in one instead of going out and getting everything you just described separately in another bid correct correct just to have it all together with one one one uh third party contractor to perform all these uh these services for us that way we could get out of doing the frontload services and we could use those vehicles for for other items like mobile home collections but you could have done it separately technically yeah but we probably wouldn't have gotten that many biders because you know when you remove the the recycling portion of it it's only accounts for 50,000 of the 300,000 annually and that's a very small number for typically so it would be best if we put it all together but then I would argue that only got one bit yes so that's not a lot of a lot of bids in in my opinion so I guess one one thing I don't know I mean and I'm beating a dead horse at this point with with the purchasing director and the the timeline kind of lines up with how long we haven't had a purchasing director and and that really really worries me and I know we we have one person doing two jobs and stuff like that but I I I think this just really speaks to how badly we need that to really look at these processes procurement overall I I think we just need one person really focused on that and I know that I I've been told that this this batch of candidates looks a lot better than the prior times that we've tried but I mean I still kind of think Baker til is not great and we're still with them and so um I'm not I'm not happy about how this has played out thank you represent leemon mayor yesterday we had a presentation and we heard all the wonderful things about the co-ops the the purchasing we also heard about local companies local vendors and now we get into the I guess into the roots of this mayor I'd like to remove my motion to approve this item representative Canalis I move to approve is there any more discussion on this one I I just I I have a question so we heard about the pricing you know in a procurement being available for everyone to see everyone's pricing is that the case in this particular type of procurement yes good afternoon Paul Salas um we do have to post those online for the public to see so it is part of um just meeting our regulations and and just our codes and uh putting all those online for any formal solicitations okay representative TR so you you all mentioned that there was a convenience to do this uh as one is there a cost savings associated with that as well Nicholas again yes it's a cost saving um so like I mentioned U the vehicles that we purchase we can now use them for residential collection which we we collect from the the solid waste fee so the it would be more focused towards what we're collecting the fees for on the solid waste side um technically you know we only receive approximately 2 82,000 annually for for this contract so that doesn't go towards purchasing any of the vehicles or any uh it doesn't cover our vehicles and it doesn't cover our employee salaries so that that would be the savings that we move those vehicles and our employee salaries towards residential collections representative Chavez thank you mayor and um I I appreciate the public comment and I appreciate the the presentation that that you gave uh to district one to me specifically um I guess my concern is um you know the three-year term with the two-year option only because there was only one person bidding for this and so technically speaking you know if we award this contract it's going to be to that single person that bid and it's going to be for five years so no one else will have the opportunity to maybe come back even in the shortterm um to compete basically so it's going to be a 5-year contract which I know is probably standard procedure I'm not saying it's not um it's just um it's just going to be awarded to to to this one person that bid and and everybody else is out of luck thank you representative roacha how how many companies are able to um to satisfy the requirements of the bid uh so anybody with frontload Services can satisfy the bid all we requires frontload service like I mentioned in the briefings you could collect trash and do waste hauling in the morning and you could do recycling all we asked and we answered in the addendum is that the truck be cleared out it doesn't have to be cleaned out power washed or anything of that sort just has to be cleared out of the material and then you could do the other um activities in the afternoon so it could be trash or recycling in the morning and then trash recycling afternoon vice versa just as long as all the materials cleared out of the vehicle thank you and how many companies kind of satisfy that there are four or five companies within the city that that have a frontload service four or five yes okay thank you any more discussion on this item M Prime please call for the vote I did not hear a second mayor I thought we had a second the motion okay we have a motion is there a second all righty this dies yep thank you guys we would Tove yeah good represent Lima I'd like to make a motion that we postpone this for 30 days okay and to be brought back is there a motion is there a second question for clarification to to do what what's the purpose of the delayed it just I just you know I just don't think that we got all the information that we should have had perhaps even in the backup um I keep hearing things about well there's no director and this you know and so I'm concerned I'm really concerned I felt very strongly when when I met with staff and I you know I made the motion but after I heard the public comments and then the discussion that took place I don't feel good about it and so I'm hoping that maybe in 30 days and I don't even know if that's a good time Miss Mack that there could be a review how can we make this better I go back to the two points using the cooperative and then the points that are allowed for local vendors I don't know how those played into this and I really don't want to take much much more of our time since people have been here since before 9:00 as well and that's why I was saying 30 days to allow you or staff to bring it back I'm I'm understanding that you're giving us direction to do something different than award this contract so can you talk through the timeline of how long this would be active aome so we're going to request that the the bids are going to be extended so we would need to be able to request that from the recommend the company that we're recommending to award and then in addition we would also need to request um from Heist disposal continuation of their current services so that also would be in play and then we can um of course provide everyone with an inadequate competition survey and then go through each of the historical on the bid tabulation one thing I'd like to point out as Paula mentioned it is our policy for all solicitations we do a bid opening every Wednesday at 2 pm and it's part of uh not only our policy but State regulation that we provide all information but this was not a low bid this was a best value procurement just to make sure we're all clear and so were the previous two okay represent Canales and then represent Fier thank you um I'm not I'm not sure what would change in 30 days um it would be pretty significant uh ask of the bidder to extend their bid for 30 days and they're left in the Lurch um because their bids Mis Cody when did their bids expire they're currently active uh but if we do need additional time we can extend the bids do we know when they expir though oh when they expired um let me grab that inform information for you okay um I'm concerned about the Optics and it has nothing to do with the service that that Heist has provided us through the Cooperative I think and and and for many years prior you know Heist has provided excellent service um but I I'm concerned about the Optics of not awarding a contract and then extending the current Service uh with the company that objected to the award um I I think it looks it that there's a perception that there's favoritism being shown to one company who objected um over a company that bid through the process that went through the full the full legal process um and then so I'm I want to put on the record I'm concerned about the Optics of that uh if uh this is not awarded today um is uh Heist the only provider that's available through the cooperative we would have to we would have to review that and come back to you with that okay yeah I mean again it leaves us with very few options right of course what would make sense because we have their containers and we have their uh you know continued service it would make sense to continue service with them uh and extend the time through the Cooperative if this was delayed for a period of time um especially given the the the relatively short timeline of 30 days um but again it creates a a perception that I don't necessarily think is the best represent fle thank you thank you Mr Mayor my question is for Mrs Mack would this give um appropriate time to come up with a solution or to to relook at this issue and and um it doesn't seem like the sense of the the council is a majority feels like this is something we want to move on today um is 30 days sufficient I'm not sure what you're asking me to do in 30 days that's that's what I you know I mean we we've had this contract out this is the third time I mean if we're not going to award the contract then we're not going to award the contract and the staff will look for alternative ways to provide for service okay that's what I'm hearing okay let's move on the motion you want to make your motion again represent leemon well Gman yes mayor I I make a motion that we post postpone item number 27 for a review of 30 days and for it to come back to us with full backup full information okay there's a motion is there a second on this motion M Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion that we rebid the the item and um let purchasing come back with a timeline for us what I would recommend then is uh if we could do is get the uh Council to reject the bid delete reject all bids and then they will in of themselves have to bring the item back for either long-term solution or a short-term solution as well to make sure that the services are continue to be provided Mr Mayor that's my motion second okay we have a a motion in a second is there any discussion uh represent Canalis Yes again I will just caution the Council there can be very unintended consequences very big unintended consequences of rejecting bids in a situation like this um you know it's very likely that this bidder will not desire to do business with the city again um you know this is now a third time and we would be entering into a fourth time of trying to procure the same Services um so I just want everybody to understand the potential consequences of of this vote any more discussion on on this item M Prime call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by representative Federal second and by representative Leon and this is to reject all bids on item 27 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 6 to2 Representatives Roa and Canales voting a Representatives Chavez acoo nro and Leon voting I the motion carries okay that brings us 26 27 28 28 okay that brings us to item 28 and this is a public hearing of an ordinance renewing and extending the special privilege license to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center for the maintenance use and repair of the service parking lot overhead bird netting and drainage pipes beneath the Ral Street overpass Bridge within a portion of city right away Along Alberta Avenue setting the license term for a term of 10 years with an option to renew for one additional 10year term I move to approve second there's a motion and a second any discussion on this item Mr Brian call for the vote Yes sir the motion was made by representative aavo seconded by representative leemon to approve item 28 it was seconded by represent Federal thank you motion made by representative ACO seconded by representative Fiero to adopt the ordinance on item 28 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 29 and this is discussion and action that the mayor of the city of Al Paso be authorized to sign resolutions of support Andor resolutions of no objection for the following 2025 9% Regional competitive low-income housing tax credit applications number one Pebble Hills Place located at North Sosa Road and Pebble Hills Boulevard Al Paso Texas 79938 proposed by Green Mills Holdings LLC number two Pebble Hills Estates located at Northwest Charles Foster Avenue and John Hay Street Al Paso Texas 79938 proposed by investment builders Inc number three ridstone senior located at 11050 Montana Avenue Al Paso Texas 79936 proposed by investment builders Inc and Number Four vs at austa located at swc of austa drive and Sosa Road Al Paso Texas 79938 proposed by investment builders Inc and Council can vote on each application separately is there a motion on this one M motion to separate the four individual properties please and yes Council can vote on these for applications thank you is there a second okay okay any discussion okay I you have another motion yes okay uh I move to to offer the uh for applications a letter of no objection as recommended by City staff second there's a motion in a second any discussion on this item we have public comment on this one yes may we do have three members of the public that signed up to speak we have Roy Lopez Richard deup and Diana Manser Roy Lopez I see Mr de coming up thank you sir Mr de well good afternoon good late afternoon me Mayor Johnson members of council first of all congratulations to all the new members of council um I'm I'm enthusiastic about the energy I'm seeing coming from this group and I'm happy to work with you uh for the record I am Richard De Thunder management consulting and I am a registered lobbyist with the city of El Paso today I hear I'm here representing investment Builders excuse me we first want to thank the mayor and each member of council for taking the time to meet with Mr Lopez and me and to listen to our requests that you provide us with a resolution of support for our three submissions and interjecting representative canala thank you for making the motion that you made earlier it's something we've been encouraging the city to consider for a long time so you are you have our Avid support and I would offer that if they consider a Community Development engaging the private sector to provide input throughout this process that you're proposing we'd be happy to help them so I won't go through all the three projects you've already seen them before we've presented them to you um but I want to I want to single out something here investment Builders is headquartered here in El Paso and has been developing and providing much needed affordable housing since the early 1990s Al Pasa has not been immune from the national dilemma of rising cost for all housing single family and multif family affordable housing is at the top of my mind for all of us as we see the demand for outpace to outpace uh the supply that's available increased cost for Real Estate materials and labor have only served to exacerbate and already challenging environment we applaud um the efforts being put forth by Council I do want to pose a question to the Community Development staff as you know from our presentations and from the presentations they've made to you scoring is critical to this entire process yet we just received this information when this item was posted we find that we have a concern the scoring done by uh the Community Development Department indicates for value four which is local presence the out of town firm getting a score of 12.7 out of a possible 15 but the question I have is why would that score be anything but zero if they're not currently already developing in the community how does that presence come about but with that in mind my my request in the seconds remaining is that you can consider providing investment Builders with a letter a resolution of support thank you for your time thank you Richard yes sir the next speaker is Diana maner yes good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon and thank you for time mayor and council members my name is Diana mener I'm with green Mills group and we applied for the resolution on behalf of Pebble Hills Place I know that we are not local I'm not going to sit here and pretend that we are but we are very experienced in affordable housing and our goal is always to build relationships in the communities that we build if you look at our experience chart you'll see multiple cities over and over again multiple counties over and over again we do anticipate hiring local we already have a GC that we're working with that works with the city we have an engineer as well we have also confirmed with them that they will be hiring everyone that they can local our goal from the development phase through the operations phase and going forward is to hire local although we are not local that is always our goal one thing I do want to point out about Pebble Hills Place as we talk about scoring and tear and all the different things that the city has in order to you know score these resolutions is that Pebble Hills Place is located on Pebble Hills and sarag goza road if you look look at what is there there is a grocery store across the street there is an Urgent Care next door we are right in front of a library and a dog park our residents will have this access within walking distance that is not what other applicants can say about their applications so what we want to say today is that we are in complete support of Staff recommendation of everyone getting a resolution of no objection thank you thank you that concludes public comment on this item all right representative roacha thank you I appreciate it thank you mayor so I'd like to to publicly express my support there's there's one um development that does reside within District three I was advised all four were in District Five that's incorrect the Ridgestone seniors resides or is planned for district three so I want to make sure that that goes on the record as well but I'd like to express my support for the Ridgestone senior development um proposed by investment builders in while I recognize that this development is not located in one of these tiered zones that the city has identified as a priority for new affordable housing it is important to Support options in the neighborhoods where seniors currently live many of my constituents have specifically asked for more Senior Living opportunities and this project helps meet that need our seniors deserve safe affordable housing close to their families and friends and the neighborhoods that they currently live in this project project addresses that need as we continue to work toward a more balanced distribution of affordable housing across the city now one thing that I will tell you and and the reason that I'm speaking out about this is because I know that only one to two projects are approved in any given year right um this particular project and for me it's something that constituents reached out to me while I was uh working at the polls and while I was out uh block walking there's a lot of seniors that don't want to move to a different location that um the city has provided so I think rep canalysis um issue or item that he provided earlier today um does address that and I know that it doesn't it goes against what was recommended however I feel that I need to represent the constituents at this point and so that's why I want to go on the record to um to EXP express my support for the Ridgestone senior project thank you thank you represent Canalis thank you mayor um yeah I made I made the motion to offer uh resolutions of no objection to all four projects and I want to explain why uh again for years we have seen uh applications come in that do not meet what we set out as the minimum requirements um uh for for a successful low-income housing development and I think we see exactly the same this year if you were looking at the scoring um you know Pebble Hills state scored 6 these are out of a total potential 100 points Pebble Hills estate scored 69.6 s Ridgestone seniors scored 7.67 billis at Augusta scored 68.7 Pebble Hills play scored 72.3 three I mean we're talking C minus to a D in quality um I want to specifically point out uh the the fifth scoring section the Strate Strategic investment areas um that specifically in the in the scoring criteria in the rubric it calls out to specific goals from plan El Paso and the alignment of the proposed developments with those goals so that one specifically it looks at things like uh whether or not it's located in downtown or traditional neighborhoods or neighborhood retrofits or new neighborhoods uh it looks at uh proximity to Industrial lands it looks at air quality it looks at Urban compactness it looks at public transportation uh nearby housing Supply uh walkability nearby affordability complete streets environmental risk and uh resident well-being storm water uh atmosphere and urban heat island effect it looks at uh energy avail ility it looks at uh natural resources and pro threat to Natural Resources all kinds of things um there are 20 possible points available there and I want to point out that of those 20 points Pebble Hills es skates received 1.7 richstone seniors three Villas at Augusta 1.5 and Pebble Hills Place 3.2 again that's out of 20 uh when we're measuring the quality of of Strategic investment uh for for the locations of these um uh again as I said earlier I I think we have uh maybe an overly restrictive uh geographic area that we look at in terms of what makes a good investment uh in terms of the the affordable housing that we're looking to to grow in El Paso um with the with the relatively small tier one and tier 2 locations uh none of the four of these applications come anywhere near the tier one or tier two applications um and so I I don't feel comfortable with saying that we support any of these we need the investment in in uh affordable housing uh regardless and so I don't have any objection to these uh I was very honest with uh the the representatives uh from the from the applicants who I met with and I said said and I think I can almost quote uh these these aren't my favorite applications I've ever seen but they're at least equally not my favorite um I I I don't think any of them meets what we're looking for so um I I think that resolutions of no objection is is the right response when we receive applications like this that do not meet the criteria that we have put out as as a in a council adopted policy uh for how we will evaluate these I don't think it would be fair to say that we support any one over another when the scores are like this um so I just wanted to explain why I made that motion um and again I don't want to discourage uh any of the applicants you know we need the we need the stock regardless we're going to need uh every unit we can get but we do want to make sure that into the Future these units are high quality for the people who are going to end up living in them thank you thank you representa Nino thank you mayor um I would love to see the entire presentation if we're able to so that council could kind of see the presentation but um you know three out of these uh four three out of these four applications are in District 5 and I know I did share my concerns earlier about advocating for addition affordable housing within District 5 and um you know when you look at the evaluation criteria um when comes to tier one and tier two in when when it comes to the EV evaluation criteria I know that I mentioned earlier that you know some of these um policies are outdated you know when it comes to the tier one or tier 2 criteria tier one is mainly in the downtown area yet we don't have a grocery store or we don't have access to a CVS or a Walgreens right and that's what I meant by meeting people where they are at and when it comes to you know I did meet with both um of the developers and or the four developments are happening in the entire city and again I mentioned that three of them are in District Five and um with two of them being located on Saga Road and I know Saga Road has its own challenges right um one of the biggest challenges in District 5 it comes to traffic mitigation I mean it took me about an hour and 10 minutes to get here this morning because Joe B Montana edmir Saragosa was gridlocked um and two of these the proposed developments are on Saga Road and I did share with both of the the two of the developments that are on Saga that I was very concerned when it came to the two of the developments that were being proposed on sosar road right because one of the developments it's a multif family use the other development is the senior um you know affordable housing but essentially um these are some of the hottest spots with when it comes to traffic I did request data from the op Paso Police Department in regards of tra traffic accd acents that happened on Saragosa just in District 5 and there's an average of one accident every day it's about 356 accidents per year for the last 10 years just on Sosa Road in District 5 and so that was one of my concerns so I know I I believe I could make a second motion right as well and am I able to only on only as an amendment to the main motion I'm sorry okay I would like to make an a an amendment to a motion to um and again I did share my concerns to do uh two letters of support one for the location at richstone seniors and the other one on Pebble Hills Estates and then do letters of no objections to vs austa and V Pebble Hills Place again sharing the concerns when it comes to the traffic mitigation and also sharing the background of advocating for additional affordable affordable housing within communities that are not just within the tier one area and tier 2 areas but also trying to advocate for further um um affordable housing in different communities thank you so there's an amendment to the original motion is z second on this one second okay and we still have um discussion represento um I was under the impression that instead of an amendment it could be another motion and then we would just vote on the first motion and then take the next motion if that first motion fails no can't we do that Miss Brian yes Council can make separate vote motions and vote on them individually yes so rep analysis motion is first and then if that one fails then we go to the second motion so rep noo is that something rather than an amendment do you want to do make a motion yes I I that's what I was thinking that we could do that we could first take the first motion and then it fails then we go on to the second motion well the first the first was was not a motion to vote individually we just said we could take them individually no so there was no motion there so then it would be repan his motion and then rep n right yes okay I just wanted to get that Clarity sorry and then um I I think that this is this is a tough one because I I feel like we want to advocate for our districts right and there's one in District three and three in District Five but I think for for me the way I look at it is affordable housing is so important to our community and we're going to get affordable housing out of this no matter what and so um I'm having those thoughts as as I'm looking at it I I think there's been a lot said by my colleagues on just amenities and location and stuff like that and overall I think what is really important to me is really fixing this so I think the item that we heard earlier today at some point I don't know it's like 5:30 already uh to really start moving on that in the next eight months is is a real big deal right and I and I shared a lot of stuff with you Abram I have a lot of notes so happy to continue having that conversation with you over how we fix this process and then really intersect it with economic development and intersect it with really fixing the infill policy that that is like my number one thing that we need to fix this um and then overall I just wanted to for transparency purposes I'm not sure I have to do this but um and Miss py might give me some better Direction but from Mr roio Lopez who is a senior vice president at investment Builder Inc I've received $1,500 and so I I realized that he's not the owner of the company and maybe that's why there was no contribution form filed for this but I just wanted to do that out of an abundance of caution thank you and this is from investment Builders correct yes and um if you could confirm with IBI or something if they do need to file that U but I I'm thinking that they probably don't because he's not the owner of it but if you could look into that I would appreciate it that way we'd let them know as well to file one on their end and what is the gentleman's name sir um roio Lopez Roy Lopez thank you okay M priman we're gonna need your help any more uh representative um Chavez thank you mayor if I could get clarity on uh representative Nel's motion because I I missed I think there were two supports and two objections and also U Miss pre I did also receive from Roy Lopez uh $1,500 in contributions during my campaign thank you yes ma'am the for clarification it was two letters of no objection for Vias at Augusta and pble Hills Place and letters of support for Rich Stone seniors and pble Hills Estates and I also would like for the um for notation that I've received a contribution from Roy Lopez for 1,500 as well any more discussion on any of these motions okay M Prime I'm gonna let you take these these two motions mayor I I recommend that you take each one individual okay like for example since representative Canales seconded by representative leemon wanted to issue uh resolutions of no objection to each one Council can vote on each one individually and then take the ones that don't pass onto representative menial motion I don't know I think it's because council did wish to vote on these individually okay so let unless Council wants to take them all together all together yeah I yeah so I I thought representative canalysis uh motion for no objection was for all of them all of them corre correct and okay so that will be the first motion this is a a motion made by representative Canal seconded by representative Leon and this is to issue a resolution of no objection to all four applications call for the vote on that motion call for the vote mayor there's a tie in the voting session and that motion does pass 524 Representatives ASO Fierro Leon Canales and Mayor Johnson breaking the tie voting I and then Representatives Chavez Roa Treo n voting nay so the motion does pass that's correct thank yes okay we'll now move on to back to page 10 this is to item 24 item 24 is presentation and discussion on the city's sexual harassment and violence in the workplace prevention policy good afternoon good evening good evening um cilia M uh please feel free to Tomy sesi I'm I'm an employee relations officer uh with human resources so good to see some of you again we've met um some of you have already taken this training online through EP Learners some of you are scheduled to take it in the next couple of weeks um and then some of you are still within the parameters of the three-year but I'm I'm glad to be here and um present this to you it's an overview of the harassment prevention um policy for the city and then we're also going to do an overview of the um prevention of violence in the workplace thank you for having me today okay so under the title uh seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the Civil Rights the Civil Rights Act is the federal law that was passed in 1964 um title seven of this act provides protections from discrimination based on characteristics that include sex race color national origin and religion over the years additional federal laws have been passed to protect individuals on the basis of age disability pregnancy citizen Citizenship veteran status and more um so sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that does violate title seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 what is sexual harassment so um sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances requests for sexual favors and verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature we typically talk about two types of sexual harassment the quid proo which is like you know this for that or some people say I scratch your back back you scratch my back um the quit Procol occurs when the supervisor or manager uh uses their position of power or authority to take a tangible employment action um for or against an employee who either agrees or refuses to go along with that manager's request for sex or Ro romantic activity an example of a tangible employment action is Promises of maybe a promotion right um or uh a a good performance review or perhaps a change in the work schedule um so those type of things where the supervisor and manager has the authority um to make those employment acts and the second type of unlawful workplace harassment is hostile work environment hostile work environment is defined as unwelcome Behavior related to a legally protected characteristic that is ongoing that's pervasive that's severe and it unreasonably interferes with an an individual's ability to do their job so it may create or will create a hostile or offensive work environment we typically talk about three forms of um harassment either verbal so inappropriate remarks um nicknames you know nicknames is a something that employees don't don't think could rise to the level of harassment but nicknames can be very um offensive and sometimes employees who are nicknamed usually don't want to speak up um and so it's very important that employees understand that that's part of one of the forms of verbal um that could become verbal harassment visual we see visual in terms of you know with the social platforms now everybody's showing their um phones oh look what what look at this look at this video and so many people think it's not a big deal however it can be inappropriate to someone else it could be offensive um so that is an example of a visual and of course physical um welcome touching um is is physical or even up to sexual assault third party harassment observers can be subject subject to uh harassment if they witness Behavior they find to be unwelcome even if the behavior is not directed at them um even if others are willingly participating in the offensive Behavior and the instigator genuinely did not intend any harm or isn't aware that their behavior is uh inappropriate uh the harasser can be the victim supervisor manager uh coworker V vendor contractor visitor or a customer um so we can receive complaints also on third party harassment we get this a lot um from employees when we're addressing inappropriate comments or behavior usually uh in the break rooms right so they say if my friends and I like to joke around why should we have to change our Behavior just because one person doesn't like it and so remind we remind employees that unlike oh they say Free Speech it's my free speech to you know say these things Etc so we remind employees that unlike uh the Free Speech rights you enjoy in other aspects of your life it's not your right to make discriminatory or harassing comons in the workplace um even if you're on break that's still considered to be uh in the workplace a bystander so a bystander can be a witness of harassment um you know in the policy we talk about bystander being that person that may prevent um something from happening or step in uh to say Hey you know that's not that's not right or I'm offended as well even though you're not um making your comments directly to me and it really can be anyone um that's just witnessing what what is going on so when we talk about bystanders we also emphasize that um you can help yourself and your co-workers uh when you say something either or rather when uh than waiting until things get worse uh in minor cases we have bystanders who over over here and appropriate joke and bystanders are usually comfortable speaking up sometimes um reporting it which is what we uh expect from our employees so we talked about the intervention that bystanders uh can typically take and what actions they can they can take if anything at the minimum it needs to be reported it's the law these are some other reasons that will give us as to why they don't want to intervene um sometimes they they say I'm too busy it doesn't it doesn't it didn't offend me um I'm not sure that it it's really harassment um usually sometimes they'll also talk about fear of retaliation is another reason why people do not intervene so what is retaliation uh this is basically when an employer takes adverse action against the employee who reported the harassment so we get a report or a complaint of harassment and then all of a sudden the employee starts to experience some kind of retaliation from either the person that they complained on or even subtle retaliation from maybe who from those employees who are on the other person's side um so subtle things like not including them in lunchtime anymore not including them in conversations and so they have those subtle forms of retaliation um and so those can become a problem as well retaliation is illegal and should always be reported so we always advise employees who have uh come to step forward to uh human resources and submitted a complaint to advise us if if there's any form of retaliation um any changes that they may feel is um a form of retaliation they they need to report that to us um retaliation protects protection includes the victim and anyone who reported it or is part of the investigation so any Witnesses any bystanders that came uh forward are all protected from retaliation reporting sexual harassment so recently um well actually not recently in 2021 uh the Texas State Senate Bill 45 they brought in the definition of what um an employer uh included so before the employer really was the organization right um it was always like once the um supervisor knew the the organization knows um now they they brought in this to even uh extend liability or personal liability for someone who may have witnessed and didn't report to supervisors who may be delayed in reporting a complaint of harassment um or even human resources who may have delayed or not acted immediately to the complaint uh that was received of sexual harassment um it it occurs so so basically this bill says that you know or should have known that the conduct constituting sexual harassment was occurring um and then that we failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action so again we remind employees with this new um addition that happened in 20121 that this means you could personally be liable for not reporting so it's important to report um if you witness any form of sexual harassment inappropriate behavior so who do we report it to it gets reported to your supervisor um your HR representative we have departments that have satellite HR offices that employees can go to and Report um sexual harassment claims they can also um email employe relations at HR employee relations elpasotexas.gov we ask that you report immediately immediately means as soon as it happens as soon as it's witnessed it's important for us to um receive these complaints and start an investigation as quickly as possible um and then again we remind employees failure to report can result in personal liability supervisor responsibilities we have the dos and the don'ts that um that we talk to our supervisors and managers POS uh people in leadership positions you know we do want you to report it immediately um we want all complaints of sexual harassment to be treated seriously um please don't take some thing that you know you think it's maybe not Rises to the level of sexual harassment we ask that you report it immediately if possible um collect the employee statement in writing if not that's perfectly fine we Human Resources will uh will go and and and obtain that statement from the witnesses and from the complainant and then we of course emphasize the importance of maintaining confidentiality throughout the investigation the don'ts is like don't try and fix it on your own supervisor um report it and the employee relations team will make sure that uh an uh an investigator is uh assigned to the case and that investigator will will reach out to the witnesses the respondents and the complainants um we also ask supervisors to not retaliate to be aware of maybe other uh employees retaliating against of someone who reported uh a complaint to HR and um not to discuss any of the details with anyone except the investigator we talked about confidentiality so uh confidentiality of the employee and all involved will be strictly respected to the extent Allowed by the law we can never promise absolute confidentiality um we have to investigate and during investigation we will make sure that we talk to all the witnesses that we need to talk to um we do require um we do require all people involved to maintain confidentiality otherwise if confidentiality confidentiality is violated then there may be disciplinary action involved in that so we talking about consequences as well right after once we've completed an investigation if there is um the allegation is substantiated then we turn we provide a recommendation to the department um director and um disciplinary action will be taken to stop harassment and prevent reoccurrence we have different levels of progressive discipline um that can be applied and so we we have those discussions with the Department had to determine uh what action they they would like to um you know move forward with and what's appropriate for the level of of the violation so please remember sexual harassment harassment discrimination and retaliation are against the law um quit foro and hostile work environment are the types of sexual harassment and engaging in unlawful harassment or discrimination could result in disciplinary action of twin including termination we we request we ask and we mandate really in terms of employees be professional and respectful at all times and your interactions with others uh we we are all obligated to do our part to create a safe work environment um for ourselves and for everyone else that we we work with um we're here a lot of hours right more than what we're with our famili so we want to make sure that we're providing our employees with a safe um workplace and if someone complains about your behavior stop um you know there's there's something going on there and so um if someone tells you you know what I'm offended by what you say or I don't really like what you said or I don't like when you use this word um please be uh have the self-awareness to to stop that behavior and again we emphasize to report it immediately any questions questions no questions thank you we'll go to we have one more we got one more violence in the workplace violence in the workplace prevention what were we [Laughter] thinking let's go what might as well that's perfect let's do it let's go take your time yeah really so today our objectives these are our objectives right the overview of the violence in the workplace prevention um policy workplace conduct and professionalism identifying violence in the workplace and then our reporting procedures and consequences so this this piece is right out of the policy um it it applies to every time we ask this question during our training who does it apply to you know we always get the correct answer everyone right everyone all employees all other City person personel to include um Civil Service non- civil service uniform Personnel appointed employees interns volunteers uh including those appointed to boards and commissions all elected officials and third parties within the city's control so collectively refer we refer to all of these groups as City personnel um while they're representing the while they're on the workplace and representing the the the city in some capacity what is workplace violence so verbal or physical conduct that sufficiently is sufficiently uh severe offensive or intimidating that may be reasonably construed to be hostile in nature um so verbal sometimes we have people that you know get upset employees who get upset in the in the workplace and say you know what I'm so tired of this I'm about to you know blah blah blah blah and then they say I was just kidding well I was like no um you may have been kidding but someone reported it and now an investigation is is going to be um generated and we'll look into those comments um so these are some of uh you know items of the work of workplace violence that may include but are not limit limited to so we have obviously physical actions or attacks threats you know let's go outside to the parking lot and after work you know uh so employees figure while we're outside and we're you know we're after work uh no that still applies um under this policy uh threatening abusive or harassing communication you know if if I'm texting you on your personal um phone and I'm sending you threats it doesn't matter that it's on a personal phone you know um you're doing it on work work time or in the workplace that's going to violate this policy um engaging in patterns unwanted or interested behavior and bullying bullying you thought you thought maybe that ended it in high school sometimes we see that unfortunately and so we do take um that very serious and we're going to investigate any any complaints um that we receive regarding any of these actions these are the policy highlights we have a zero tolerance um for all employees when it comes to violence in the workplace um possession of a weapon on a workplace site including open carry and concealed hand handguns is strictly prohibited of course those um individuals that that um part of their job yes um is to carry a weapon then you know they're they're excluded from this uh this policy this is the expectation and really in terms of our work culture what we always talk about is professional professionalism in the workplace and employees are required to treat others with respect dignity and professionalism at all times uh actions words or conduct that create an actual or perceived perceived is a is a um an under we should underline that word right because it's it's the perception of the person that um is receiving uh the action right so perceived hostile uncomfortable or unsafe work environment for others is prohibited and again it's everyone's responsibility and obligation to maintain a workplace that is free from hostility harassment and threats of violence these are some these are some of the unacceptable behaviors not all inclusive but some of the things that um that we see um sometimes you know the alleged drugs or humorous statements um that make explicit or implicit references to violence directed at an individual group of individuals or property verbal harassment hostility um intimidation uh people who engage in actions that their intention is to frighten someone or CSE someone um includ and includes stalking or threatening um Behavior or you know a physical attack so Boolean is prohibited um bullying is an abusive treatment including the the use of force or corrision to affect particularly when one habitual and involving an actual or perceived imbalance of power it may involve verbal harassment or physical assault and it may be directly persistently towards particular victims um the im as we know bullying is an imbalance of power uh it may be Social Power and or physical power but there is an imbalance of power there when it comes to bullying and so we we we Rec we always encourage employees to report any type of behavior that um falls into the bulling it's hard some times it's hard for employees to um you know report it because they say you know I don't want to seem like I'm too sensitive but absolutely not we don't condone that kind of um behavior in the workplace so we talked about retaliation in the um harassment prevention policy it's the same in in this policy so any retaliation is against the law um and we will investigate any complaints on retaliation we talked about weapons that are prohibited so this is a list of of weapons that are prohibited in the workplace um knives be sprays up there explosive devices um anything that an employee can use as a weapon uh whether it's carried openly or in a concealed manner so we talk about respect and dignity and professionalism again in the workplace this is very important um as a reminder to our employees to make sure that this is what our behavior is at all times during the workplace last um bullet on here is we when we talk about confrontations or employees um that are involved and a confrontation their expectation is that they will walk away uh that's a form of deescalate the situation um so walk away and and Report the incident these are the reporting protocols again we require that all um violations of this policy are reported without exception you see hear something say something um reporting immediately to the supervisor Human Resources um director security guards supervisors uh who receive reports of violence or any uh any actions that fall into this uh policy or violate this policy they are required to report immediately to Human Resources um and or the chief uh Human Resources officer Human Resources will conduct a prompt and thorough investigation and response to all identified concerns sometimes there may be legal action that is involved because a crime may have happened um assault or the employee files a a police report um so the city May refer violations of this policy for criminal investigation in those cases we talk about the disciplinary actions um that relate for you know that fall into place when allegations are substantiated uh there is uh a progressive discipline as well again uh human resource or employee relations uh investigator will make recommendations based on the the investigation to the director and uh determination is made on what the level of discipline will be enacted so these are some of the other actions that will result in disciplinary action we talked about not not reporting failing to report um or failing to um you know for a supervisor to fail to report right to Human Resources so reports regarding elected officials uh reports of violations of this policy by elected officials will be communicated to the mayor or the mayor protemp when the allegation is against the mayor if an investigation is necessary we will refer the investigation to an outside investigator uh to handle this case and then once that investigator uh concludes their findings report uh and makes a recommendation a briefing will be um brought forward and then City Council we take appropriate action and response to those findings and this is just additional information um regarding I watch Texas Community reporting system so this is available to the community if there's you know anything they see um or sus or suspicious Behavior they can uh they can um call this number or uh provide an online um rep report this is run by the Department of Public Safety um and they can like again they can report suspicious activities or behaviors this site is not designed for reporting of emergencies if there's an emergency of course you know we all know to call 911 so it's just an additional resource of course if there's an injury um if we have a situation where a violent Act was was done and there's an injury um you know we're going to call 911 we're going to call the medical um Services we off we recognize that our employees sometimes may be going through a crisis or or personal um issues right and so these are some of the recognizing signs that we look for um to determine you know if someone's going through something and then provide resources to that employee such as um the employee assistance program and this is information on the EAP services that the city provides through a Deo uh third party contract this policy and the sex and the harassment prevention prevention policy can be found on um the myop Paso um website or if you want to go to the city's website and you click on documents and then you search for the policy any questions regarding this policy any questions only about 10 minutes move to journ thank you for your time yeah before we before we adjourn I just want to say thank you for the presentation thank you and I want to say thank you to the public that stayed with us uh throughout the day I know it's been a long day and and Miss Mack please pass on to your staff uh our sincere thanks for all the work that they put into getting us through this meeting uh we know the effort that they put in and and it showed so I want to thank you I want to thank our Public Safety officers that had to stand on their Feats for the last nine hours I also want to thank the the individual individuals that are doing the ASL over here to our left that have been there all day doing that and and um I want to thank city council I know we didn't get an opportunity to break for lunch today but uh that'll make your dinner even more special but um thank you guys for for putting in the work today it showed and and it was a great city council meeting and there was a motion and a second to adjourn yes sir there was a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed and the city council meeting for Tuesday February 4th 2025 is adjourned at 6 o'clock p.m. thank you Council