foreign foreign it's there already I think that's the last one though test test one two three four good morning chappie I can hear you this is Rob Rivera how you doing today can you hear me sir yes I can hear you how you doing Church good and yourself I can see you all so good to see you same here we're the early birds today yes sir glad to be here and make sure my thing was I heard that yes so do I but good to see you sir good to see you how's your week been going so far it's been a little busy but we're this this it started off busy with this agenda here so I'm praying for you mine help yes sir I'm glad to do it yeah so good to talk to you sir what's up I'm gonna try the camera for a little bit okay then God bless you okay thank you thank you sir good morning mayor Pro Tim Lisa would you like to get started thank you good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday October 11 2022 alternate mayor Pro tem lisaraka is present in presiding inside council chambers along with representative anello representative molinar representative Salcido representative Rodriguez representative Rivera is joining virtual along with mayor Pro tem schwarzwein is also virtual this morning it is now 902 a.m well everyone please silence or electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by police Chapel Robert Hemphill Junior latest Bible hits at this time thank you Lord for our mayor the local council members and all our city government's officials please grant them the power to bring stability Justice and the truth to our local government Master give them the authority to make moral decisions uphold the law and administer Justice made a city of El Paso continued to be renowned for its fairness and warmth in the name of God we prayed for this amen thank you chappie foreign did request to be excused from today's meeting that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation this morning is October month foreign whereas teenagers represent the future of El Paso and deserve to be included in the decision-making excuse me representative I believe it's representative Rodriguez sorry good morning everybody this is a proclamation for October whereas the American Institute of Architects El Paso chapter adds value to the city county and surrounding areas by creating places that enhance the quality of life through the built environment for all the residents of El Paso and whereas the local AIA chapter is responsible for the design of many iconic buildings in El Paso safeguards the culture of the region through historic preservation and AIDS in the review of local codes and ordinances in order to maintain the health safety and Welfare of citizens in structures and whereas the local AIA chapter is one of the leading organizations in our community focusing on Energy Efficiency sustainable design urban planning and the importance of Building Technology merged with design Innovations helping to improve our city and whereas the local AIA chapter encourages citizen Architects to take pride in and learn about the built environment how it shapes our City's progress and the ability to strengthen our regional cultural identity and quality of life through buildings historic structures and neighborhoods now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as arktober thank you [Applause] I believe our next Proclamation representative vanilla yes that is Down syndrome Awareness Month oh oh we're all off I'm not looking good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas one in 700 babies born in the United States is born with Down syndrome and whereas El Paso County has the largest largest highest birth rate of down syndrome in the state of Texas and whereas people with Down Syndrome are active participants in educational occupational social recreational Circles of the community and whereas the Down Syndrome Coalition for El Paso invites everyone to join us on Saturday October the 15th at the 2022 Buddy Walk to celebrate promote acceptance and inclusion and raise funds for the Down Syndrome Coalition for El Paso EPCC scholarships for students with disabilities and the national Down syndrome society and whereas the Down Syndrome Coalition for El Paso's Buddy Walk will take place on the EPCC Valle Verde campus and whereas participants and donors can take part by registering at epbuddywalk.org the Buddy Walk will bring together individuals families and agencies to aware to raise awareness now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as Down syndrome Awareness Month signed the honorable Oscar leaser mayor city of El Paso [Applause] did you want to say a few words thank you thank you for being here this morning I would raise lift up my daughter so y'all can see her but she's not wanting me to pick her up I appreciate the proclamation on behalf of the Down Syndrome Coalition of El Paso and the Buddy Walk I invite everybody out on Saturday this Saturday October 15th at El Paso Community College via the campus and you can go on to our website at DSE ep.org to register we appreciate your support thank you thank you very much for being here welcome [Applause] Sarah can you say thank you hi Sarah you're so beautiful thank you and I believe now our third Proclamation representative anello okay this is teen where's our oktoberfesty is anyone from the library want to come up so whereas teenagers represent the future of El Paso and deserve to be included in the decision making and planning for the future excuse me and whereas team tobra is a nationwide celebration hosted by libraries every October which aims to celebrate teenagers and promote year-round teen services and literacy and whereas the routine Tober the public library highlights the innovative ways they help teens learn new skills and fuel their passions in and out of the library and whereas teamtoberfest is a festive teen Centric celebration which brings together educational recreational and cultural resources to give teens an opportunity to express their creativeness and talent now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that October 15 2022 shall be known as teen teen toberfest day hey y'all [Applause] good morning Council thank you so much for having us here this morning I want to thank you for all of your support throughout everything that the library does and I want to give a great kudos to all our team here for putting this program together and we invite you to come join us on Saturday October 15th from 12 to 4 at the judge Marquez judge Marquez and um the park next to it for this program thank you thank you Norma for being here and just a shout out I want to let you know that on Tuesdays my almost two-year-old granddaughter goes every Tuesday to the doors van library to do participate in the read aloud there so thanks for all that you do for the citizens of El Paso thank you foreign if I can ask all of this morning's honorees to please remain in Chambers for a few more minutes so you can have um so the council may have the opportunity to take photos with you that brings us to the consent agenda mayor protemli saraga did you want uh to a point or or did you want Council to elect an alternate mayor Pro tem for this meeting that's your recommendation city clerk I think it would be helpful man okay um I'd like to nominate uh representative Hernandez there's a motion and a second to elect representative Hernandez as alternate mayor Pro tem for this meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the motion carries that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting good morning Council and mayor Pro tem the proposed revisions for October 11 2022 are as follows page two item two request to excuse city council members and that's to excuse mayor Oscar Lisa from today's meeting page four item 7 delete per streets and maintenance page 10 item 32 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative vanilla page 10 item 33 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative vanilla page 11 item 38 take this item immediately after the mass transit board meeting per economic and International Development page 11 item 39 take this item after item 38 per the city manager's office page 11 item 40 take this item after item 39 per the city manager's office the page 18 item 55 delete per economic and International Development page 19 item 56 delete per economic and International Development page 19 item 57 delete per economic and International Development members of counselor are there any other revisions that's my motion and there is public comment on three items of the consent agenda if I may call the speaker it's on item number six and this is a resolution to authorize the city manager to sign a Consulting Services agreement between the city of El Paso and jll valuation and advisory Services LLC Ms Lisa Turner signed up to speak on this item Miss Turner I thought I saw her earlier I don't believe she's in chamber she also signed up for items 13 and 29 on the consent agenda however I don't see her in Chambers so there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro tem Hernandez seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote sprain can I have a verbal please yes ma'am mayor Pro tem shorts why representative Hernandez yes representative rivetta mayor Pro temless voting for items this is I thought I would just break the ties thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 32 that was moved to the Forefront item 32 is discussion in action to recognize October 2022 as National long-term care residence rights months thank you Mr Pine do I need a motion before I read the resolution no okay so I would like to read this resolution into record and it states whereas there are 1.3 million individuals living in 15 600 nursing homes and over 800 000 individuals living in 28 900 Assisted Living Residential Care Facilities in the U.S and whereas the federal nursing home Reform Act of 1987 guarantees residents their individual rights in order to promote and maintain their dignity and autonomy and whereas all residents should be aware of their rights so they may be empowered to live with dignity and self-determination and whereas we wish to honor and celebrate these citizens citizens to recognize their Rich individuality and to reaffirm their right to vote and participate politically including the right to have a say in their care and whereas the sanctuary for longevity project the Texas silver-haired legislature and the Rio Grande Area Agency on Aging groups and individuals across the country will be celebrating residence rights month with a theme inspiring Unity within our community emphasizing the importance of fostering meaningful Community within the long-term care facility and encouraging residents connections to their local community with the vote now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso recognizes October 2022 as National long-term care residence rights month in the city of El Paso and encourages all citizens to join in these important observations I don't know if there's anyone here to speak about this today anyone hi good morning everybody thank you so very very much um I'm Alicia De Young Davis founder of the the sanctuary for longevity project and also a Texas silver her legislature Rio Grande Area Agency on Aging I'm proud to always carry that Banner of advocacy for the rights and the needs of older Americans I want to thank you for your recognition of the rise of older adults that live in long-term care facilities special thanks to representative anello and her staff for sponsoring this such an important resolution uh this morning if I uh allow me please this is such an important resolution for me not only as a gerontologist as a nurse but more importantly as a caregiver as someone who had a loved one in a nursing home for many years and my adorable brother along with many other recent residents endure the pain of being in such facility during covet so I do thank you for this yes their human rights were violated over and over again so this resolution is so very important not only to remind us that those individuals need our attention need our love and we need to keep visiting this morning if I may I'm going to be looking into an increase of the personal needs for Medicaid residents in nursing homes you know nursing home residents who qualify for Medicaid are entitled to personal needs allowance of 60 dollars a month such allowance and hence the resident's Quality of Life by paying for extra things that are not providing by the nursing home and we're talking about simple things that we enjoy at home like going to a salon a candy other goodies pampering items some such uh creams and perfumes or just go into the movies let's be clear all of the seniors income go to pay the nursing home except for those sixty dollars monthly allowance but guess what it has not been increased in 17 years from 2005 to 2022 they still get the same sixty dollars a month um it's time for that to change another thing that also need to address that was so relevant during Kobe is our nursing homes needs reform a floor Duty register nerds seven days a week much needed to supervise the daily care of our residents Staffing based on activity levels of residence in service education for staff especially for CNAs increase their salary and yes we need to make sure that the resident and family councils be activated that's the only mechanism they have to actually better the quality of life and quality of care that they receive as I said both of the uh the personal need allowance nursing can reform as are much needed change and it is important for the quality of care of the residents and I urge the community we all know individuals in the nursing home maybe a family member a friend a neighbor I urge you this morning that we celebrate the long-term care rights of older adults to please please go and visit them thank you so very much indeed thank you Alicia thank you for your passion and all for your for your information that you shared with us this morning if I may my colleague is here good morning everybody everyone my name is Jorge Soto I'm the managing local Ombudsman for the area agency and aging and um I'm the one who goes and advocate for residents who are in nursing homes and Assisting Living Facilities and I would like to thank you to recognize this month for those residents who really really needed to navigate uh besides us the community is welcome also to do that um and again thank you for recognizing this this month for those who are in need of advocacy and the residence rights thank you thank you thank you with that I'll make a motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve the resolution on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro tem short swine mayor Pro tem Shortline hi thank you representative Rivera hi thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we now move to item 33 that was also moved to the Forefront and this is discussion in action to recognize the month of October 2022 as domestic violence awareness month thank you Miss Prime I'll read the resolution to the record it states whereas the crime of domestic violence violates an individual's dignity in humanity due to the systematic use of physical emotional sexual psychological and economic control and whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group or groups of people but cut across all economic racial and societal barriers and are supported by societal indifferences and whereas in 2022 the center against sexual and Family Violence celebrated 45 years of being at the Forefront of advocating for safety and gestures through intervention education and Community collaboration in the Tri-County area of El Paso hudspeth and Culberson counties and whereas this year's campaign Be Kind Rewind to A Healthy Start highlights the importance of changing this learned behavior because only then will we break the cycle of abuse and whereas in in recognition of the important work done by domestic violence programs it is important for all citizens to actively participate in scheduled activities and programs to work towards improving victim safety and holding perpetrators of domestic violence accountable for their actions against individual victims and our society as a whole and whereas since 1987 much progress has been made to support domestic violence victims and survivors johold abusers accountable and to create and update legislation to further those goals and whereas the month of October has served to bring awareness Nationwide since 1987 and to unite individuals and organizations working on domestic violence issues now therefore be it resolved by the city council the city of El Paso that the month of October 2022 shall be known as domestic violence Awareness Month approved this 11th day of October 2022. is there anyone from the center against Family Violence here everyone thank you so much for having us today special thanks to representative anello for sponsoring these domestic violence awareness month and more importantly the proclamation um does she brought forward today and the movement toward domestic violence I also want to highlight that today is National Coming Out day so it is a day to celebrate or normalize coming out and raise awareness with our lgbtq community and offer support to those in need our Center does provide services to the lgbtq community because unfortunately domestic violence does not discriminate based on any gender race [Music] um uh sexual Pro or orientation and so we want to make sure that I also highlight National Coming Out day and as we heard domestic violence continues to be an issue in in our community I want to share some some of our the numbers that we have seen so unfortunately we did see a rise so we saw 60 increase in our in our hotlines so individuals seeking Services we also saw a 26 increase in the families that are staying at our Emergency Shelters compared to last year so it is very important to to recognize the the this present issue in our community and unfortunately you know seeing the increase that we've had we also saw a decrease decrease in our bip program which is the program that works with the offenders to hold them accountable with for the domestic violence incidents um so we we saw a nearly three percent decrease so we want to make sure that we continue to raise awareness and as a proclamation stated it to also continue to to work in in holding these offenders accountable this year's theme for our domestic violence awareness month is be kind and Rewind to A Healthy Start and we will be focused on changing those abusive behaviors because we want to make sure that everyone does have access to a healthy relationship and what that may look like for for everyone may be different but hopefully we can we can continue the important work that we're doing I do have a small token of our appreciation for representative anello and also we will be having different events throughout the month to to continue to raise awareness so I brought a flyer because we will be having a movie night with partnering with Alamo Drafthouse and the county attorney's office and so if I may approach to to give these out ma'am may we have your name for the record yes thank you thank you okay thank you so much and with that I'll make a motion to approve there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve the resolution on item 33. on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem schwarzwein all right thank you representative Rodriguez yes thank you representative Rivera aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously is there a motion to recess for photos there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting in order to take photos with this morning's honorees all in favor [Music] aye anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 9 27 A.M cancel we're gonna go ahead and start with the our um The Architects first and we're going to do the photographs behind me here we're going to start with art um The Architects and then the Down Syndrome Awareness Month folks and then teen toberfest followed by the long-term care residence month rights month and then last the domestic violence Awareness Month thank you I'll make sure that your amazing thank you yeah how do I know all right um thank you you're tired um over here guys I'm sorry you got a funny face thank you very much oh I don't I don't believe we have a quorum huh we're just missing uh Representatives Hernandez and Salcido okay there's representative Salcido is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 9 37 a.m we're on page number nine item number 30. and this is discussion in action at the mayor be authorized to sign in counterpart Originals in both English and Spanish a sister city agreement between the city of El Paso state of Texas and the City of Paras state of hualila Mexico and this is representative schwartzbein's item Miss prime before we start and representative schwartzbein sorry if I can just have a moment good morning since I'm the alternate mayor Pro tem sitting in to fill the mayor's shoes today because of his absence our regular mayor Pro tem representative schwartzfein is here joining us via Zoom so it falls on me to call the this meeting to order and because I have seldom assume this role I authorize the city clerk to jump in if appropriate to suggest normal procedure to help move this meeting along and of course I appreciate the collegiality of my colleagues in taking these circumstances into account I also just wanted to take a moment to recognize our Jewish brothers and sisters who are celebrating the Festival of Sukkot as representative swartzbein knows I used to live on the kibbutz many many years ago when we were newly married back in the 70s and so I spent six months on a Jewish kaboots in bait hashita and so I have fond memories of celebrating many Jewish festivals and so I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate and to acknowledge our Jewish Brethren Rabbi Greenberg had a really nice article vehicle in the newspaper this past Sunday asking us to be influencers of goodness so I just wanted to share that thought with all of you all this morning that we through our thoughts and our prayers and our actions could become people that are that become influencers for goodness so thank you very much mayor Pro Tem swartzbein for the well wishes Sukkot is the Harvest Festival and we celebrate this you know um by eating in temporary structures so it's a lot of fun as well and it's a very busy time in the Jewish uh calendar with Rosh Hashanah the Jewish New Year and then Yom Kippur the Jewish Day of atonement right before uh Sukkot followed by some Coast Torah so um never never a dull moment in all of our cultural calendars um so colleagues I just wanted to uh to uh celebrate this this great opportunity we have with our newest sister city agreement signing uh between para Escuela and El Paso Texas uh Paris along for a number of different reasons is also the home of the oldest Winery in the Americas um and this is an opportunity that uh destination El Paso under the leadership of Veronica Castro has been working on uh for the better part of a year uh to have this uh this agreement signed um it should be a really great opportunity I have a couple of amendments uh here to read into the record relating to the agreement um and this agreement will be signed uh tomorrow in Tijuana with the mayor of Paras as well as mayor Lisa as well so it should be a pretty great moment to celebrate the bonds between our cities and our countries um in a very positive way and so uh the city clerk I have a number of amendments to this I don't know if there's a if you need a motion to approve or first make a motion for the following amendments what would you prefer that's right if you can please read the Amendments into the record I think that will be helpful prior to making the motion all right so I'd like to to read into the record the following amendments article one is revised to read as follows the objective of this agreement is to formalize The Sisterhood between the parties to car out cooperation activities in areas of common interests including those set forth in the projects submitted for review by each party also Article 5 is to reviewed as follows the parties shall drop jointly the annual operating program shall be integrated with specific project or activities that parties agree upon a liaison from each party shall supervise all activities a adopt the necessary decisions or complex comply with the objectives of this B identify the areas of common interest to prepare and formulate the annual work program C guide to organize and formulate the pertinent recommendations for the execution of cooperation activities indeed any other functions that the party's agreed article 8 is added and reads as follows the parties agree that the information material protected equipment team classified by naturalist legislation for National Security or foreign relation purposes for each party should not be subject to transfer within the present agreement when undertaking activities pursuant to the agreement any information material equipment which could require or require protection and classifications identified the partial and formula 11 authorities and establishing writing the corresponding measures transference of information material equipment which is not protected or classifiable which exportation is regulated by one of the parties shall be done according to the applicant National legislation it should be identified along with its intended user supplements transfers any at the party some certain necessary measures should be taken to prevent the non-authorized transference or retransfer into such property subsequent articles numbering is adjusted to account for the addition of Articles eight the associated revisions are made to the Spanish version of this agreement to reflect the above revisions and those are all the Amendments that I had to read onto the floor at this time I'll second all those amendments from mayor Putin thank you sir there's a motion made by mayor program Schwartzman seconded by representative Rivera to amend the resolution on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem schwartzmeyer thank you representative rivetta aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously is there a motion to approve second second there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve as amended on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem schwarzwein aye representative hi thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 31 on the agenda this is discussion and action on a resolution that declares the expenditure of District 3 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars to be used towards a covid-19 safe inclusive and sensory friendly Halloween event in District 3 serves a municipal purpose and this was submitted by representative Hernandez I moved to approve there's a motion made by alternate mayor Pro tem Hernandez seconded by representative molinar to approve item 31 on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem schwarzbein I representative Rivera aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you Council that brings us to item 34. and this is discussion in action to approve a resolution that the city council declares that the expenditure of District a discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars to cover costs of stage rental audio visual equipment entertainment hiring of off-duty Law Enforcement Officers or private security officers barrier rental for vehicle pedestrian control permitting fees and or portable restroom rental related to the holding of the Segundo Barrio Community block party by the South Side neighborhood association serves a municipal purpose this item was submitted by motion to approve and we did have a public comment from Ms Turner I don't believe she's in the room there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro tem lisar got seconded by representative Molina to approve item 34. on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tim schwartzfeing representative ribetta aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 35. and this is a presentation on the grants and strategic initiatives program good morning Elizabeth Triggs economic and International Development if it could bring up the presentation please foreign we have these three items on the agenda obviously this one on the grant program would demonstrate the dollars we've been able to obtain outside dollars federal dollars in some cases State dollars in order to be able to effectuate the Strategic plan the council has in place also there was a lot of questions on the payment condition index so we thought we'd have it on this briefing so that the council can ask questions and have all the information I think that the information has been shared with you before but it's a lot of data and a lot of different streets and a lot of requests and that's one of the highest priorities of this community is the streets and and all the catching up that we have to do with all the time that there wasn't an investment in our streets and then Animal Services has has been a a topic of concern in the community in some in some parts of it and we are always focused on that particular operation we've been focused on that since 2015 and have made some considerable progress that have had some challenges due to just the way the world has changed with covet and how that's impacted not only that operation but a lot of our operations across the board they give you enough time yes sir thank you um so we wanted to take this opportunity as the city manager said to to talk a little bit about a program that we've developed over the last year particularly in response to the increased increased amount of federal funding coming through for a different infrastructure projects a lot of this funding comes through is discretionary or competitive grants and so we've been very strategic in thinking about how we can get some of our larger projects that may otherwise not be funded done by applying for and going after these different grants so just to give you an overview of the presentation it's a fairly quick one but I think we've had a lot of good results in in less than a year alone so I'm excited to report those to you we'll talk to you a little bit about the program where it's housed just our approach and then and then about the results to date which is really just calendar year 2022 this year to date and then finally an overview of upcom coming funding opportunities that we intend on going after with your support so this talks a little bit about the program it is it is housed in Economic Development currently but with a great amount of participation and assistance from our city engineer and her team in Capital Improvements Yvette Hernandez she does a great job has a lot of experience managing these so it's a it's a very coordinated effort between the two departments our goal is really again just to successfully secure competitive grant funding for the city and for the larger region recognizing that you know projects that impact the region are also good for the city um we've taken a very purposeful integrated approach again as I mentioned across City departments very closely tied to Capital Improvements but also working with other departments including International Bridges the airport streets and maintenance and several others and as we grow the program we intend on tying different departments closer to this so that we can be even more successful we do use the communities of Excellence framework so it's not just an internal program we work a lot with outside stakeholders in particular we found a really good partner in the Paseo Del Norte community and health foundations Tracy Yellen has been incredibly helpful and then of course the El Paso Mobility Coalition the chamber the mpo and others so it's a very very strategic and organized approach and I'll talk a little bit more about why that's important we're also supported by subject matter experts so again partnering with paso del Norte community Community Foundation we were able to bring on board a grant writer for Trans systems who's helping us with the larger and more complex grants and the writing of those and by partnering with pastel Del Norte Community Foundation we were able to share that cost but also ensure that we're working together which makes our applications much stronger and then finally I think what's really important to point out here is that all of these grants require at least a 20 percent match in some cases a 50 percent match and so that means that you know the city primarily sometimes we have help from other partners as well but the city primarily has to put in that match and without all of the work that you all have done in terms of making us really strong financially we would not be able to do that so I think that's a really important component and it's really the foundation to the success that we've had so far on the right side you'll see we've won nearly 66 million dollars in competitive funding that's been awarded this calendar year alone and we're not even at the end of the year so it's been a really good result we're really excited about it again that 66 million is supported by local match funding dollars the majority of which is is made possible by the city um so to talk a little bit about our process the first thing that we did was we defined our organizational priorities and projects and this is heavily heavily based on the Strategic plan that you all have approved and then also looking at projects that without the federal funding to supplement what we're doing locally may not be possible and so this is these are the 10 General categories within those 10 categories we've then identified 74 projects from there we've taken those projects we've dissected for example the bipartisan infrastructure law and other programs American Rescue plan did have some opportunities as well and we keep an eye on other legislation that's coming through and we've created a matrix so that we can match those projects with potential funding opportunities it's a it's a constantly evolving list as new projects come up we add them to the list as new funding opportunities come up we also add those to the list um and then in terms this is this is the part about working with our regional Partners so it's again it's really important that we coordinate so that we're not competing for the same pot of dollars as a community um but that for example a lot of these projects that are coming through or the competitive grants that are coming through the bipartisan infrastructure law our five-year grant program so they'll come out one year and it may make sense for us to go after the planning grant that one year and for another organization in the community to go after the construction Grant so that way we're not competing and then the following year we switch so we're making sure that we're very coordinated on that front um and and the other thing there is it it makes our applications much stronger because we start at the beginning with support because we have a strategy moving forward so that that's another huge component to this and why it's really important to keep in close contact with all of those organizations that may also be looking at these funds for our region um so then taking those 10 organizational priorities 74 projects we're tracking about 92 programs we've identified 21 as being a good option for the city grant writing as I have learned is very very intense and it takes a lot of work so we we try to pick those that are most important this year we've submitted 11 grants we've won seven of those and that has resulted in nearly 66 million dollars awarded so the next slide just goes through those those seven Awards the downtown deck Plaza design was awarded this year it was applied for last year but that's gotten us into a place gotten us started where in the future if we need to apply for a construction grant for this project we now have the design in place so that's that's very critical component also El Paso International Airport has been hugely successful this year in securing major Grant dollars for airport terminal improvements as well as Runway improvements Sun Metro was very successful in securing a grant for electric Paratransit Fleet and infrastructure and they're in the process of of looking at how they can Implement that program using those Grant dollars you all know the advanced manufacturing campus development at the airport was the result of a partnership heavily with UTEP to secure 25 million dollars to build out that infrastructure more recently we rewarded 20 or I apologize 12 million for a slata Port of Entry pedestrian improvements again something that's not possible on our own but also is not possible without our local match which in this case was a P3 funding and then finally we were awarded 1 million for the paso del Norte Trail segment connecting the zoo to the MCA and this is just one segment of the larger paso del Norte Trail this was awarded through the um the federal budget process through through earmarks and so every year we have an opportunity to to look at that program as well um so the next couple slides talk about our upcoming opportunities bipartisan infrastructure law again a massive massive um push on spending for infrastructure across the United States there's a lot of opportunity um in terms of competitive grants with over 200 billion being allocated to to competitive Grant programs and so we're watching those closely as the nofos come out as I said before they're usually multi-year programs so we're looking ahead you know five years ahead what we can be applying for while this while this law is in uh in place and then finally American Rescue plan act um looking at that Community Project funding I mentioned that that's the new earmark process and then finally most recently something I just wanted to flag was the National Defense authorization act which is for FY 23 which is currently going through the process so it hasn't been fully adopted yet but one of the interesting things in this is that it establishes a pilot program for um for the Army to install microgrids or military installations and field electric vehicles so convert their field vehicles to Electric there will only be three installations chosen for this program and while that decision isn't necessarily made at the local level it's made at the federal level I think that's an important thing to point out because we are doing a lot of work at the airport with respect to piloting microgrids looking at how we convert our fleets so this ties in nicely with that and I think that by us doing that you know we can show a lot of Community Support potentially for Fort Bliss being one of these pilot or test cases and so then this is the final slide looking at our upcoming submissions one one thing that I'll say is that the paso del Norte Health Foundation has been working very closely with us on the last Grant application you see here it's reconnecting communities which is a new program offered through the bipartisan infrastructure law we've been working with them to look at funding a portion of the paso del Norte Trail segment that runs through the city and has you know because of different Transportation infrastructure communities in the area have been disconnected so primarily close to the MCA area close to downtown in between those two areas and you have an item related at the end of your agenda I believe it's item 59 we actually pushed up the date to apply for this to this year so if you all support that item we'll be able to submit for this grant this year which then leaves us four more years to apply for different segments of the trail um the other important ones that I'll mention here are in December 2022 we're looking at submitting an application for the removal of at grade Crossings at zaragosa which is a public safety hazard um so that that's a great opportunity and our grant Rider through trans systems is actually taking the lead on writing this grant for us in the spring April 2023 we're looking at Rays we think that that actually will be the deadline will be moved up earlier unfortunately but um but that's okay and the the project we're looking at there is a design grant for the streetcar route extension specific specifically from downtown to the MCA which aligns nicely with the Alameda corridor plan you all just adopted and then finally the really big push is in May of 2023 we'll be partnering with TxDOT with your all support to submit for I-10 segment 2 and deck Plaza construction and again us having the grant to do the design now sets us up nicely to apply for that Grant in 2023 and this is via a new grant program again made possible by the bipartisan infrastructure law called the mega Grant it's a very very large Grant 500 million and more so there are very few projects that will succeed in in winning that award but again we think it's important to to push forward with our biggest projects because this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity and with that I'm happy to take any questions and I would just add that legislations reporting to Triggs that's the reason why she's reporting this so she has Staffing for this uh and the the grant writing that she was referring to and they also partner with the Capital Improvements Department in order to get additional help from Yvette and and on this and her team as well thank you Elizabeth um alternate mayor Hernandez has a question hi good morning Elizabeth um I was about to say Mr Gonzalez like she's um she's stacked and on a lot of her duties but um it without fail you've always been able to demonstrate excuse me all of our successes I do want to highlight that the fact that you all have been successful in capturing these grants nearly as 65 percent approval rate 65 percent of the time we're able to receive these grants but but in the past we've never like applied for some of these funds so I really appreciate that Mr Gonzalez and your leadership and your team that we are actively looking for not only here but in mass transit opportunities and infrastructure opportunities for our ports of Entry we were actively looking for monies to offset the burden to taxpayers and that's pretty significant these are not your property tax dollars that are being paid for all of these investments into our community and I'm super proud of this and I just wanted to thank you for that I do have a question if you can go to the last slide please right stop right there stop right there it's quick one more back the just go one slide back one okay the National Defense the other one infrastructure sorry there's a delay it's okay there it is authorization act yes so this is separate from the one that we apply with the state correct and we've been successful in getting millions of dollars there yes now could you explain what what we can use this funding for if we were to apply in partnership with Fort Bliss so it wouldn't be awarded to us it would be to Fort Bliss right to set up the pilot program but I think it's a really important step for our community um the the military has come out with their climate strategic plan and they've made it very clear that they want all of their bases to go to Net Zero in a relatively short amount of time and so this sets up the pilot programs to do that and I only put it on this slide because again thinking about Partnerships and how we can build on what we're already doing as a city as far as climate goes and other programs too but in this case climate I think this is a really good opportunity I know that the congresswoman was very heavily invested in writing this portion of the ACT and so I bring it up as as an opportunity for us to start demonstrating local support now again the decision will be made at the federal level which installations participate but I think that the more local support we have the better okay so do you know if it's the um if it's the base that applies or it's Community local leaders or who does that I think it's just the the federal leaders will decide which three bases make the most sense I think it'd be incredibly significant if we as Council wrote a resolution in support of whatever program that they wanted to apply for but also put a coalition together or work in tandem with the chamber to go there and and make sure that they're aware that these opportunities are available and that we would lend our support by way of resolutions or letters of support from members of council just so that you know we just don't miss out in this opportunity which I I doubt it but they grants are there's like a fast turnaround and it could be intimidating at times and so so long as we can apply that pressure but also at the national level I know that some folks locally including the chamber they go to DC to advocate for this These funds I think it's important that the city of El Paso and members of Staff should go so that we can support these investments into our country and into our installations but a lot of times I see that other organizations are talking on behalf of the city but the city should really be their present advocating on behalf of our community so I just want to lend support for that and in hopes that we can bring that forward and then can you go to the next slide please and then hear upcoming funding opportunities I really like the idea that you said that you're working in tandem with all these other departments seeing what what are the uh I guess the motivations and the Visions within each department because I'm starting to see this this whole network of Visions come forward and I and I really appreciate that because before it was really segmented so now I see a holistic approach on how we're going to tackle these funding opportunities so I wanted to share share that feedback with you Mr Gonzalez so what what do you need from this Council in order to push forward with these opportunities I think just as we bring them forward having your having your support So item 59 later on the agenda is actually us moving up that that last one reconnecting communities to submit this year that that's what's immensely helpful and then like you mentioned the resolution on the other I think is is really helpful to do it now um so that so that the federal government sees that we are fully behind programs like that the other thing I would think would be very helpful would be y'all have had conversations on the Deus in previous Council meetings about Capital Improvements and having more dialogue about that we have a list that we just put together a presentation it'd be good for the council to see that it's it's what you already know but it's things like the rail spur in the north side of town that could really help Economic Development could really help Land one of those big companies that manufactures something and that has like 5 000 jobs we've briefed the council and those those type of opportunities in the in the past and that rail spur would be significant so that's on that list as well but we have a lot of other things on that list that again would just be reminders and maybe it'll trigger some thoughts for Council to have other ideas to add more things to the list but that's about 50 things on that list thank you and so I look forward to seeing um some of these segments come forward especially with the trail I have one in my district it's very successful it took a lot of Partnerships with other agreements with interlookal agreements with other governments and so maybe if that's what we can do to kick start that because the it's the bureaucracy that takes the longest in order to get those Vacations or agreements to maintenance agreements what have you but um it's time the the bus at North the trail segment in the South Central parts of the city county to County Line it's it's time that we put more skin in the game and and try to support whether it be through vacation through agreements so that they can get these funds so I'm I'm endorsing that and I lend my support for that but thank you Mr Triggs we've come a long way from when I first came into office to now and and these wonderful announcements and it is because of the team the employees the hard work that you put in so I wanted to say thank you I would also like to add that our team is you know that we've got a cross-functional team on this and they've done an amazing job we also working with the community as well we're working with the foundation that Tracy Yellen heads up as well as working with the mobility Coalition with the chamber that's really been helpful with regard to coordinating our transportation efforts also coordinating a lot of these different grants that that Miss Triggs has been sharing with y'all thank you thank you Mr Gonzalez thank you for your Insight alternate mayor Hernandez we have a question from representative molinar yes sir thank you very much uh mayor Pro tem lizard again anyways thank you Ms Drake's presentation as always a couple of things um so I was here yesterday and I mentioned something to Mr Alex hoppin about the cost of the deck Plaza okay and so I see that something's going to be moving on 2023 I know we already have a raised Grant almost 1 million dollars and I understand we're still early on things like that but Mr Gonzalez I don't know if you have this ability to answer this question or not or Miss Triggs but what will that going to cost us as taxpayers so I think that the value in the mega Grant and the way that we're approaching this is that it's very much based on partnership so TxDOT would be a partner applicant in this application and they would be bringing to the table State dollars for this and a significant amount of State dollars I don't have the exact numbers but I can certainly get them out to you all and then also we're working again very closely with the paso del Norte Community Foundation who has set up a duck Plaza Foundation to fundraise for the deck Plaza so that is not to say that there wouldn't be any local city dollars going into the deck Plaza construction itself I don't think that we fully fleshed out what the funding plan looks like but I think that by combining State dollars federal dollars and then fundraising dollars we really mitigate that the cost and make it possible for the community so we will be back with a with a full budget well ahead of May 2023 so that you all have more information in on what that looks like but I do want to highlight that it would that this Mega Grant is massive and I think we'd be looking at asking for 300 million uh through can you define massively so about 300 million is what we would be looking at requesting from the federal government Mr Gonzalez have anything to add to that sir you said 300 million for the project in its entirety it's not just what we would be asking for from the grant yeah so if y'all remember the TxDOT has indicated that they wanted us to re-look at the way we had our funds allocated for the region in order to help with the I-10 project so we did do that at the mpo the Metropolitan planning organization and whenever those adjustments were made some of those dollars are going towards I-10 the finance plan in its entirety hasn't been mapped out yet but it could include a cocktail of funding that would be Federal funding maybe other grants that we would go after so that's part of what we would put on the table and then there's also been other communities when they've done it they've done it through some fundraising also through utilizing different uh Municipal Financial tools whether they be tax increment Finance districts things of that nature so it would it would probably have some of those in the mix in terms of what we would ultimately be recommending okay and then the the design grant that we received also funds the feasibility study which would also examine what the costs look like and and what the potential could be for funding but more specifically Mr Mullen our our objective would be with because there's so much talk about a lot of different dollars the federal level being available our our goal would be to get all of it funded through the federal government but we want to be realistic about it as well and want to be having you know contingency plans in places as an opportunity to shore up any funding that we wouldn't be able to get from the federal government but our goal is to get 100 from the federal government okay and the reason I bring that up Mr Gonzalez and Mr X is that um we're in 2022 towards the end of the year and of course that's the new fiscal year already but uh there are significant challenges that we're facing as today we see on the migrant crisis agenda or the agenda we see a migrant crisis uh we're going to soon have issues with body cameras and I support the body cameras so don't get me wrong on that one but there's going to be other challenges that come up and so if we don't plan well I I don't know what could happen I just want to make sure you know we did covet who would have not who would have thought covet was going to come we've been dealing with a migrant crisis now for a couple of years and it's cannot necessarily getting better we don't have an answer when that may end or subside or cut back things like that and so yesterday I know the representative schwartzbein mentioned return on investment okay well I will say it just the way it is we're losing money on those street cars bottom line we're losing money on the street cars and so what are we doing about that how are we going to curb that how are we going to stop the flow of losing money every year for that and so those are challenges that we as a city council need to make it's nice and pretty to be standing up here and talking about different things what we need how we're going to do it but if we do not plan effectively for the future we're really going to be in some Financial situations that are going to be Paramount that could lead to very I don't want to say bad but different different things that are good happen or may not happen for a city for our community and things like that and so the ballpark you know we're staying we're still paying on that another 20 years every year that I've only been here two years but we struggled to pay for that and so it's just you know we can talk about a return on investment but you know I haven't seen that so far so thank you very much Mr Milano I think you bring up excellent points and um and I think that we should have those discussions and I'm glad you're raising those questions so with respect to the council strategic plan not everything that you plan out and you spend a lot of time talking about does it all get spent with just property tax dollars or even just a general fund sometimes you're able to utilize other departments like the Enterprise funds you're able to utilize federal funds like the presentation demonstrated today I also wanted to tell you like when the the city in 1415 talked about we went to Convention Center Hotel they put a request for proposal out there and they got zero bidders nobody responded to it and the reason no one responded to it is because when you look at cities and how they do Convention Center hotels they do that through a partnership every city that's done a Convention Center Hotel does that let me tell you why they do that because when the the Convention Center Hotel blocks x amount of rooms they lock those rooms for the city and whatever City that's in and so most cities pay 40 up to even 45 percent of the cost of that hotel through incentives and or through dollars up front the city only paid like 12 percent for ours and when I say ours I mean the bustle Del Norte hotel we also did The Plaza Hotel and then there was a brand new hotel that came out of the ground and I say that because we're able to get the state rebate program in place through legislation that was done in another city I managed another city that actually did that first and then now 38 cities take advantage of that the the reason I mentioned that to you is because whenever it was in the headlines that the city gave 30-something million dollars to the hotel well 23 million of that came from the state and in in our case we did like 12 million so the fact that we were able to get those improvements done and we're able to leverage and use State dollars on a rebate program that wasn't in place before but for that Port program it would not have happened so when we talk about you mentioned the streetcar so that street car was done before I even started working here but whenever I looked at it and looked at how it operates and how the funding was achieved the city was able to get I believe 97 million dollars from the state in order to do that the streetcar nor the the Sun Metro program the the transit system makes any money they really don't they make very very little money what funds that is a half a penny sales tax and the half a penny sales tax was a little bit over 50 million now it's at 67 million a year that half a penny and that half a penny has grown because of the fact that the councils have strong policies in place that have helped like our wages as an example go up by almost 20 percent in the last several years that was a high priority for the council in this strategic plan so through those policies and through the execution of those policies being able to see that wage increase exponentially over the years the streetcar is not going to make any money and neither is the bus system they don't make money they make a very little amount of money if if at all and mo most cities what they do is they wait for all federal funds to come into play and that's all they that's all they participate in through those federal funds the city way back when was very aggressive on all these stations that we put in place uh these on these bus routes and the city even paid for some of that on their own and that continued over the last eight years so we've been extremely aggressive with the transit system that's the reason why we have so many routes in place but we only have half a penny to fund it most cities have a full Penny especially the larger cities the last City I was at had a full penny for their transit system and they're part of the DART program so we're actually underfunded in the transit system in the way we operate so I just wanted to give you and the rest of the council that full context because not everything that we talk about would get done with property tax dollars or with the general fund dollars in in general so I just wanted to give you that as context all right thank you very much for that explanation also on a slide 10 you don't have to go to the slide but where they talk about the National Defense authorization act I'm familiar with that a little bit to hear and it would be nice if word bliss could get that for us uh and really for the whole country I have a little bit um having been in the military in the past but you know we're going to have electric field vehicles I don't know exactly what that means but um that would be a challenge and I would look forward to seeing something like that come out so thank you very much Mr X appreciate it thank you representative molinar of mayor Pro tem Sports buying would like to speak um I the city Mandarin had brought up a number of the concerns that I guess were directly uh attributed to me um I'll add on to that but I do want to say that Ms Triggs I think that these these Grant proposals I think are all very well in sound and again they go with their strategic plan and this points to again a community that is looking for strategic ways to increase mobility and economic development as well and all of these um seem to make a lot of sense including the trail system as well as looking at Federal funding for the deck Plaza as well um you know as our city has has been fortunate to have leadership that is willing to be bold is willing to be Visionary is is not um willing to accept mediocrity um and insist uh about projects not making money when in fact it's not the case um you know they they say that people are entitled to their own opinions but they're not entitled to their own facts and I think that that's something that is is very true um I guess since it was addressed the streetcar um again as as the city manager pointed out um alongside Sun Metro is a public transit uh does not make money um the streetcar project was never there to sustain itself based upon ticket sales alone it was it was an economic reinvestment tool that has so far uh produced a great return on investment already uh since the streetcar is reintroduced we've seen over five new hotels all within a thousand feet of A Streetcar stop we have two affordable housing actually three affordable housing projects that are all within a thousand feet of A Streetcar stop including the Art Space Hotel the blue flame building and west of samura as well off of in the Uptown area as well these are all projects that build off of the success of having a dedicated mass transit Corridor right representative molinar and myself have been in a in a infill CFT project for the last six months and I know that representative molinar is aware of the concept of Transit oriented development because we've talked about it for many many months so I'm kind of at a loss why he would not understand this concept that point of order excuse me and he directly addressed me represent vanilla so please if I can have the floor um so the concept of trans Orient development is when you put in mass transit people develop around it and we've seen both the public and the private sector respond we have a brand new program we have a brand new public Independent School District headquarters that's directly along the streetcar line we have a eight-story parking garage at lab Laboratory um EPCC that's along there in addition to these six hotels that are all along there the 10 hotels that have been built around the streetcar line as well so again mass transit doesn't make money you can even go to New York which has probably one of the largest and more robust mass transit programs in the entire country and it does not break even so it's a great talking point to talk about that and when we're going to talk about these projects that don't make money but if we actually look at why we did it which is to encourage Redevelopment we've actually seen a lot of success we've seen a lot of investment from the private sector as well we will continue to do so um you know nobody goes and says well we shouldn't have clean water because it doesn't make money right I'd ask anybody on Council where is the where is the the return on investment on having public of having access to clean and safe drinking water doesn't make a profit doesn't break even but it's probably something that's for the betterment and the common good of our community and our mass transit system is no different um so you know I uh again I'm I'm sort of at a loss why why I would be brought up personally there um you know I don't think that's fair I don't think it's appropriate um you know we have you know again people are have their own opinions but the facts show that our streetcar and our mass transit system um are not here to go and make a profit as if it was in the private sector and we're selling pizza from Peter Piper Pizza they're here to make a a a a long-term impact on the common good of our community and in that regards we've seen that as well as investment in the public sector as well from the private sector as well around these um representative anello did you have a point of order I saw before my point of order was just in addressing or responding to council members is to be respectful thank you Representatives same thing important point of order to your point of order I was addressed personally on the diocese okay if we can continue in a dignified manner addressing addressing our colleagues in a dignified manner I would really appreciate it thanks to everyone are you thank you are you still speaking representative Schwartzman yes he is yes ma'am okay yes ma'am um and also just again you know I think it's important we we live unfortunately in an era of a lot of uh misinformation um and I think it's also important to wreck the record I don't know if Robert cortinas is there um but there was something that was brought up about the Southwest University Park and um it being millions of dollars in debt and I was wondering in terms of our financial commitment towards that project where we are at currently Robert Christine this is not here uh however I the the plan for that again that was something that was done um I think in 2013 the deal was put Inked and put in place and it was supposed to start um standing you know paying for itself with regard to the hotel motel venue tax during a certain time period and we we beat that time period by a couple of years I think and that's because we refinanced the data a couple of times saved millions of dollars by refinancing the debt and then the we were able to also not utilize the general fund by utilizing just the hotel motel tax as the venue tax was put in place in order to pay for that particular debt so you no longer use I can give more detail and send an email out later but yeah that's the answer so we no longer use General funds for it and actually beat the projections of of what was originally projected in 2013. yes sir so hotel motel tax visitors pay for that but but I would say I think that's reflective of the council's policies that they have approved the financial policies that we've had in place and as you know we've we've been able to really improve our financial portfolio again the policies you've approved and put in place has really positioned us to do that so that's the reason why we were able to accelerate that and get ahead of that schedule by two years that's great and I I think you know again um I think that that's again something that that again is important to point out because once again people are entitled to their own opinions their own facts and we're no longer using general funds for for a transformative project for a really great entertainment venue for our community that has really brought in um and contributed to a holistic approach look ladies and gentlemen there's not one project that is all of a sudden going to turn our downtown and the economic potential into into there it's a holistic approach from the public and the private sector so yes it's the streetcar yes it's Southwest imagery Park it's the hotels it's the the wonderful Mexican-American cultural center that is coming in it's the museums it's the Children's Museum it's all of these things taken together that rises that raises the opportunities and the economic potential of our downtown and again our return on investments um so you know it's good to hear that our hotel motel tax is paying down that you know our hotel motel tax is really there to improve facilities relating towards towards economic Atomic development but really to look at for those opportunities of Tourism and entertainment and it's great to see the city's use of those hotel motel taxes being used on such a great project I mean you look at some of the other facilities that we have in our community that have used hotel motel tax over the last decades for example the County Coliseum and we see how misused those funds are and that really points to a lack of leadership Representatives you have one minute left so I'm really excited to sort of see that again we have a lot of great potential I think we need to be as aggressive as we can to look at bringing in federal dollars for that that deck Park for that debt Plaza again we can look at other communities like Dallas with Clyde Warren Park and learn from them but again we can do something more aggressive with what we're doing here in El Paso by bringing in those public dollars so again I want to thank Miss Triggs and City management for that and it's also exciting to see that you know at least with our our part of the community we're using those hotel motel taxes wisely and not uh not letting uh stranded assets like the County Coliseum go to waste and really be disrespectful to our community thanks thank you representative swartzbach next to speak is representative anello always a hard act to follow um I have a couple questions Elizabeth um in regards to uh the planning grant for the deck Park I'm wondering I know that uh textile has not finalized uh their version of what the expansion or non-expansion will look like and wondering I know we've kind of been just focused on the park as I think that we should be at this time but I think at some point we are going to have to understand what is best for our community so wondering how we're designing without a final plan from TxDOT and how we're integrating the communities input on that final design I don't know if Yvette or Sam are on the line they would be better positioned to answer that I'm on the line uh mrakes uh representative anello thank you so much uh for that question that is one of the topics that we have been discussing at length uh with the recommended um consultant and so one of the things that we're ensuring is that once they are approved and awarded the contract from Council we're estimating to bring that contract to you on the 25th that we're working in close collaboration with TxDOT ensuring that as we're collecting the data to make sure that the feasibility the land use Economic Development return on investment all the objectives that we've set forth in the study that those are in partnership with what TxDOT is doing and that as we're collecting the data TxDOT is going through their preferred alternative selection so once we have the data that will really um reflect the way that we move forward with the design and that will be in collaboration with um and the timing of what TxDOT has selected as their preferred alternative okay but what just to be clear what data are you collecting how why and where I mean sometimes we say these things it's like uh and I guess my follow-up question to your answer would also be are you working with the independent study that the county did we I believe we have requested that study and we can um definitely provide that to them actually I would ask um and you know maybe I'll just put it on the agenda myself if you're going to present you said the next council meeting on the 25th um oh sorry sorry representative not present but to bring the um contract for approval so we have not yet started the consultant on the work okay well maybe we just asked the county to come present at the next council meeting so we can understand that data as well we can do that that'd be great so yeah so just trying to understand when you say data what that means how you're collecting it who you're working with So currently uh once the contract is approved we will we we will be working with a consultant and in terms of data we will be looking at land uses we will be looking at density development we will be looking at um um Mobility how the connections will be on the the city streets connecting into the deck um so those are the types of of components that we will be looking also um o m um to maintain the deck making sure that what is constructed can be financially sustainable and we also have um within our feasibility study looking at Alternatives as well okay and how are you collecting the data that will be collected by the by the consultant we have not yet started so um there's different types of software uh similar we will also be relying on the some of the information that has been collected um during the downtown Uptown study building on that so they've already done some of the market analysis but the footprint's going to be reduced just to the adjacent uh streets of the deck okay and um I know that text out has their own flawed public comment period but since we are now uh in pursuit of dollars and and putting our own match what is our public comment input process for this project in regards to text out specifically no in regards to the entire project and the the public dollars that we are spending So currently the public dollars will be the match oh no I understand that but um have we have we created a process for public input I know there's a the community does have a lot of opinions on this and since we are spending dollars we should um you know present to the community as the city and what our what our partnership because and I will say I think there's a lot of confusion on what portion of the project do I think representative molinar's questions are really reflective of that in a way right what are we spending what is the feasibility what is the the impact positive on the community um and that's something that we as a city haven't presented because this has been you know predominantly a text out project for so long but now that we are stepping in I think that we do do owe it to the community to have that public input um so yeah I would love to hear about that in the future yes that's also a component of the feasibility study is to have a structured Community engagement and also a presentation of our findings so that will be included correct okay um and then my next questions I guess these are more for maybe Elizabeth I'm not sure but Yvette I'm sure you'll have some answers to these as well I think the projects that we're applying for are extremely important and I'm really proud of the work that you all have done on this um you know the bridge work is invaluable to this community and and these grants really created an opportunity we could have never imagined right and I'm proud of the work that you're doing moving forward but I want to talk about other projects right and other dollars that are available through the infrastructure build back you you know the correct terminology um right there's a congestion management and air quality Grant there's a carbon reduction Grant but there are also other EPA grants right there are large Brownfield grants um there are density I'm sorry there's just there's a ton of Grants from the EPA right water grants um clean waste and recycling grants electric and reduced carbon buses I know something that we've talked about right there are all of these grants that go along with things that we're asking the community for help with right we talk about the upcoming Bond and what we're asking the community to vote for their pollution prevention we're talking about electric vehicles but there are dollars here that actually make a huge impact and they are all really specifically for communities of color that have been growing up and living next to pollution their entire lives right I know Yvette is very familiar with a project that used to be in District 8 which is now in District 2 in conversations we've had about cleanups for Modesto Gomez Park but there are areas in this entire city that can benefit from these dollars and I know that you are all two people really that are in charge of this so I'm not expecting you to change the entire city with these dollars available but I mean is there a plan to look at these once we get through this yeah um so like I mentioned we we're creating that Matrix which is a living document and I think we've heavily focused on infrastructure right now when I say infrastructure I mean transportation and looking at Economic Development and how those two tie together but I absolutely agree with you and that that's part of our intent as this program grows we'll tie more closely to other departments that are perhaps more familiar with those EPA grants and those sorts of things so that we can all work together to go after them and uh and and be successful going after them so it's an it's an evolving process is what I'm saying um and we'll we'll keep working through it okay I mean but there there's a there's a time limit right I mean these dollars don't last forever so I'm really eager to see that plan thank you for for your answers thank you event Elizabeth I just have a real quick question yes ma'am on slide 10 about you you reckoned about electric vehicles fleets you said there's only going to be three is that correct so this is for the the um National Defense authorization Act Right the the the federal government's wanting to establish a pilot program to look at building out microgrids on military installations and then also transitioning um field fleets into electric vehicles for now they want to focus on three installations um so that's that that's the limit there that's what we were speaking about is three installations for that pilot program The Hope is that once they have the pilot programs at those three installations they'll be able to expand to all of them all at Fort Bliss um no so that's that's the question is which three installations will be part of the pilot program um and I think that we have a very good opportunity to at least show local support for Fort Bliss being a part of it so long as they also want that okay thank you for your outstanding work yes ma'am thank you mayor pretend just just a quick request um Mrs Hernandez if you're still on the call um in in the future when you're collecting your data for the city of El Paso recognized as a priority project the deck Park the pastor donate Health Foundation they have a steering committee where they've included multiple members of the public including some of my constituents who are part of that public participation process can we get feedback from that group as well when you're working with the Consultants Yes actually they they were Partners um in with um providing a portion of the match so we've been working very closely with Tracy I also attend uh those meetings when they are held and so I can provide um any information irrelevant um information to the council okay okay wonderful thank you I know that also Senator Blanco along with uh representative Lena Ortega have also written editorial letters in support of this project and so I hope that we can have our Consultants reach out to our state delegation who are also incredibly supportive of this program and this this project thanks thank you Council may we have a motion to recess for mass transit so second there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting for the mass transit department meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 10 41 am good morning all there's a meeting of the mass transit Department board for Tuesday October 11 2022. it is 10 41 a.m president council chambers are district 2 Alessandra nello District 3 Cassandra Hernandez District 4 Joe molinar Rodriguez participating virtually our district Juan Peter schwarzbein and district 7 Henry duvetta lastly board chair Lisa has requested be excused from today's meeting we do not have anyone signed up for public comments so we will move to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by mass transit Department 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 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 reconsider any item at any time during the meeting we do have a revision on item two excusing chair Lisa from today's meeting do we have a motion still moved we have a motion by board member Hernandez seconded by board member Salcido to approve the consent agenda as amended on that motion call for the vote standby representative I can answer a question whether pulling that up yes representative vanilla so excited very unprepared for this I apologize um on the consent agenda number four the only changes that are being made is the name is that correct no no ma'am so in addition and um car rimkus is here for more detailed questions but we're adding Provisions for absent members so that if there is a continued absence that will be able to ask you to re appoint another member not you specifically but and then um to make it similar to The Other Board rep resolutions that we already have on file for all the other because this one just didn't align with some of the other okay what are those changes though here I'll let Carl go through the changes and um uh yeah sorry sorry call unprepared I apologize good morning mayor Pro tem and Council Carl remcus with Sun Metro uh as uh as you saw the name would be changed we'd be uh proposing that the regular meetings be changed from monthly to quarterly meetings there would be the term for each member would be increased from two years to four years but we would impose the current term limits that are elsewhere in the city code so they'd be able to serve two consecutive terms sit out one term and then they could be reappointed at a later date we're also proposing to Sunset the alternate members so those that are currently on the the committee would be able to serve out the remainder of their terms but once those become vacant we would recommend that they not be be uh filled so those are the uh those are the major changes oh and the one last change would be for a third of the members three members to have some five years of experience in either public administration or Logistics or operations to come in line with at least eight other City boards and commissions that have some experience requirement for their membership but this is a Citizens advisory coming so basically an advisory committee for users of the service and so I have a little bit of heartburn with that because our really what we're wanting to do or the intent looking at the resolution that that started this committee was to really have the writers and and the clientele be able to really make an impact on their service and so I do worry that uh limiting that or making managerial requirements limits the amount of yeah clients that would be able to sit on this committee I also quarterly is a little long for me so four times a year I think is um not enough especially with a lot of the changes we've seen in like uh I think since 2019 there's been a lot of changes because of covid um and then coming back and then deficit and Staffing there's been a lot of concern about the services there would be you know with any other I'm sure every other city is facing that because of the the changes that have had to be made and so we get a lot of questions and so I do worry that quarterly is not really sufficient I would be wondering if y'all would be open to every other month versus quarterly so so what the resolution would require is quarterly meetings but the allowance is still there for the chair to call additional meetings as needed yeah and we also have the requirement in there that the uh the leadership of the committee meets with staff monthly to prepare those uh uh regular agendas for the regular meetings yeah I'm still not comfortable with that um because having being on a committee I know how difficult that can be in the red tape that becomes involved um and so I guess I'm asking to make an amendment to change that to by by what is the correct terminal bi-monthly uh bi-monthly and I would add that the current committee membership did support strongly the the quarterly meeting schedule I appreciate that but I I hear a lot from the citizens who are very eager for those meetings every month to to come and give input so it's not just the Committee Member it's the members of the public uh who do ride this bus service that that really heavily rely on those meetings so I don't know if I have a second second I just wanted to add that many months we do struggle to come up with an agenda for this meeting it could be as a result of coveted recovery which is why we made the minimum of just quarterly but we can still meet every month if an agenda is established I I understand that but I just um again I lived through this quite often so I would be more comfortable I'm sure there's something that that can come up I do want to ask a little bit though are there issues with Quorum um and what are you're changing the uh rules on absentees is it like two absences in a row I think that's two or three in a row uh three in a row yeah I think that's fair so I just want to clarify that and no we haven't had any issue with Quorum but we've been meeting virtually um we did try and meet twice in person and then we didn't get a quorum yeah we have the same issue on Animal Services yeah it's hard okay well those are my questions thank you so miss Prime are we voting on the on the amendment we will be voting the amendment for item four so I have a motion from representative anello second by representative Mullen correction uh board member molinar mayor Pro tem Lisa Raga I do have a question as well representative Hernandez in terms of the board qualifications I just want to make sure that any persons with disabilities are users of Sun Metro are not excluded or if there is some like Community Advocate role as part of that right so I we're only addressing uh three of the members to have the experience the other five are open understood okay thank you is there a way you could take off this motion from this can we withdraw it So currently we are on section four was that too have meetings bi-weekly or bi-monthly bi-monthly by monthly So currently the motion is for by messanello seconded by Mr molinar is to amend item four to six is to amend section four of the resolution and this is to say that the the board will meet on a bi-monthly basis bi-monthly on that motion yes that's right I know bi-monthly sounds like twice a month either bi-monthly is everything two months mayor Pro tem has a question yeah so just so I'm clear so the the the the proposal that was put forward by the by the members of the of the board was to change from monthly meetings to quarterly meetings or bi-monthly meetings to quarterly meetings is that correct from um currently um representative where we meet monthly and the recommendation was to go to quarterly and this is relating to the mass transit to the citizen mass transit citizen advisory committee yeah I you know I I think that's great that that there was that initiative there I I do think that you know um these these citizen these citizen um these opportunities for citizen input that are outside of city council are reading with their cigarettes is extremely important I know that our mobility and mass transit Community is is one that's very passionate about it um and we should be looking for ways of Engagement and encouragement if there's an issue of uh Quorum I certainly haven't heard about it email to relate to my office and I have regular meetings with City management and with yourself and so um you know that if it's an issue of Quorum then that's one thing but I don't think that we should be limiting or um spreading out opportunities for engagement and input from a citizen uh committee so I I would not be in support of this in support of going to a quarterly um a quarterly uh input and rather I think I feel strongly that we should stay with a monthly input I I do think that again for our community that relies on mass transit which again is is a public good similar to what we provide in public safety similar to what we provide in clean and healthy drinking water um we should you know we know that there are people that rely on on mass transit and they rely on Mobility for a variety of different reasons and we should still you know give the opportunity for them to engage and to provide input for how we deliver Services ultimately our our organization whether it's different city departments or some Metro is there to serve our customers to serve our residents and to serve our taxpayers so um the amendment that representative anello has placed forward would return back to a monthly meeting is that correct this prime or bi-monthly every other month every other month so it's actually a compromises is that how you understand representative yes and if the motion doesn't pass um I would then make a motion to I guess just deny this um yeah so your your suggestion is sort of compromise where it's no longer meeting every month but meeting more recent than quarterly yeah so instead of four meetings a year it would be eight today so I think that's I think that's a I think that's a good compromise I think that's something that again listens maybe some of the concerns we have from staff from some of the members there but also uh provides more opportunities for for public engagement as well so I will be supporting your Amendment and I encourage my colleagues to do so as well representative anello did you want to say something else okay thank you so the measurement the motion on the table is to amend moved by Miss anello seconded by Mr molinar to amend section 4A to require to require bi-monthly meetings instead of Court quarterly and the vote is open sir can you can you say that last part again please to amend section 4A to require bi-monthly meetings instead of quarterly meetings all right I heard something else thank you Mr swords on your vote I that's in terms of the amendment correct yes Mr Rivera aye and the voting session and the motion passes of five votes um voting yes sword spine anelo molinar Salcido Rivera two votes voting nay Hernandez and lizaraga rep um Miss Rodriguez was absent returning to the consent agenda motion to approve by Miss Hernandez seconded by Miss alcido on that motion call for the vote Mr swordsbein hi Mr Rivera aye and in the voting session the motion passes unanimously Ms Rodriguez absent for the vote this brings us to item six presentation discussion on the Paratransit slipped performance indicators for fiscal year 22 period ending August 31st 2022. if I could have a gender item pulled up please six there we go all right so um this Ellen Smythe Chief Transit and field operations officer uh the the PowerPoint in front of you is the data to compare FY 2021 against FY 2022 for the lift performance you can see that in 2022 our ridership was up 176 127 over the 163 168 from last year we had estimated 170 000 so we did surpass our estimate on that um we ended the year on collisions per thousand miles at 1.2 at the very end of our fiscal year one of our units the brand new unit that we had the ribbon cutting on was rear-ended on 50 US 54 so that popped up our year-to-date collisions the passenger incidents per 10 000 trips was at 0.79 and any incident is considered the complaints that come in on how the the passengers are perceived that they're being treated on safety and and being assisted on and off the units on preventive maintenance and again preventive maintenance is on every 5 000 miles so if it goes to 6000 it's not on time so this is on time preventive maintenance I want to assure you that all units are being maintained so when we say 83 percent that was in the allowable on time window um but they're all being maintained versus the 98 last year again that's due to staffing issues um Revenue miles between Road costs uh was down so that was good 72 000.95 compared to 86 462 last year and then our on-time performance did dip we discussed that two weeks ago when I was here about the reasons behind that and our next one of our next agenda items is the approval on the contract modification for MV to be allowed to hire their subcontractors that will assist on this measure tremendously the customer complaints per 10 000 passengers was up again much of that was due to the um you know the not having the vehicles adequate to provide the services so it went to 20.2 versus the 9.6 the customer survey ratings um on to we do have a survey at the end of the ride and generally speaking the survey rating was still in uh 4.73 our Target was between 4 and 4.5 so we were better than last year but still not in the Target that we're looking for and on our cost Center Dispatch response times are very good right at 21 seconds when you call we answer your call within 21 seconds and I'm open for any questions on the lift represent alternate mayor Hernandez has a question thank you good morning Mrs Smythe I I did want to take an opportunity to share some of the concerns with my constituents related to customer service is there anyone here from the lift service I believe Raphael is on the phone okay um you mentioned that some of the customer complaints have gone up due to the lack of vehicles I'm hearing certainly something differently on the ground from users of our Lyft program and so I don't want to misrepresent to the public the grave concerns of constituents who are utilizing the lift program who are not being called or who are being called and then they don't show up I'm also getting complaints of hey I have I get a text message my lift service says they're outside they're nowhere to be found 30 minutes has passed there are ongoing customer service complaints unrelated to having vehicles um or the lack of vehicles or supply chain issues there are unrelated issues happening with Lyft service and I can't continue to support our contractor if our customer service is going to continue to decline explain to me what are the contractual benchmarks that they have to comply with is this what they have to comply with it is contextually but let me go again what I mentioned two weeks ago we just replaced our customer service software and so that's going to help tremendously with the calls in advance to verify your reservation it'll call the day of the reservation and it will call when it's outside of your unit I know that when was I implemented September 9th okay I'm still getting complaints since then okay so how do we explain to constituents who are waiting for their appointments doctor appointments they're waiting for their Leisure appointment is they're waiting to be members of this community in a dignified way when our contractor is actively ignoring or misrepresenting that they're at their house or they don't even get a phone call or they get a phone call past their appointment pick up time the complaints are very um concerning to me I'm not going to support an amendment to a contractor who can't show up to pick up our our providers or pick up our constituents it's problematic to me I don't know how to explain this so I would like to hear directly from the contractor Mrs Mike because you should not be the person to respond here I want to hear from our contractor what are you doing to improve your response times to improve your customer service complaints to members of the public are you on the line for Alex or Alex historically they have been here to give these reports I think they need to be here in the future because the complaints that I have received are concerning it's unacceptable we are almost a 22nd 23rd largest city in the United States and we we don't have a lift service that's going to be reliable unacceptable and and the amendment that is in front of you this this morning will address the contractual needs that they need the for the additional Vehicles we do have a program in lined up for the general customer service complaints about being rude or condescending or cutting people off or hanging up no let me tell you what they say and I don't even want to say this because it's so embarrassing I have constituents who have been called stupid by our contractor right and that is acceptable acceptable yes the contractor needs to be here to talk about their customer service and what they're doing to make sure that the ridership does not feel neglected does not feel um treated you know inappropriately this is concerning you don't hear me talk like this no ma'am I am very frustrated from constituents they are not being treated humanely they're not being treated with compassion they are citizens of our community they need to be treated respectfully please explain contractor what are you doing to improve your customer service to the writers of Sun Metro and the lift program so I had met we had talked to go ahead I I'm really sorry this is Rafael from Envy Transportation can I be heard this morning yes sir yes oh good morning everybody Council and city manager in the city um Ellens might just mentioned we are translating from an old service our old scheduling system to a new one it did in fact happen about three weeks ago and there's a lot of learning curves involved here um it is nothing compared to what we used to use and of course um there are some glitches that came along that are being fixed as we speak there were some um different algorithms that were not um set for this type of program but like I said they are being worked on as soon as we know about any issues we do fix them immediately and do the best we can to get to the customer as fast as possible we do understand that this is not something we are accustomed to if you look at our stats for the last eight years we have been over 90 percent on time for performance our satisfaction rate has been over 4.7 and of course our our complaints have been very low unfortunately these things are happening now and we are doing everything within our power of course to get this resolved as soon as possible we do understand however this is affecting a lot of people and therefore we have had all our drivers work extra days extra hours and we can't thank him enough including our own and our local staff as well we do understand this it's affecting a lot of people and everybody's working around the clock to make this meet their goal and of course their satisfaction as well and Raphael thank you for that can you explain what kind of customer service training you are providing for your drivers for your logistical employees any call reps that you have what exact customer service are you or even sensitivity training are you providing for employees because the complaints that I've received are unacceptable they are not conducive to our community we do not reflect those values and the complaints I have received are very alarming and so please explain to me what you're doing separate from your software separate from this supply chain issues separate from any labor shortages explain to me what kind of customer service training you're providing for employees and staff well Mr Hernandez thanks for asking I I like I said I I I we this year in September excuse me November we have been in El Paso serving the community for 10 years so throughout these 10 years we have provided the same equal uh Ada sensitivity and of course all types of um customer service related training um it has never changed unfortunately recently there have been some hiccups um our drivers are receiving the same Ada sensitivity training and in fact it has been changed since last year a little bit more rigorous and more involved with our um with our drivers to get the training they need to better address our passengers needs of course door-to-door service is one of them um how to assist a person who is visually impaired or blind and of course those who are meals and of course ask questions as needed as they go along um the same thing with our custom call center staff they do receive over 80 hours of customer service training we upgrade we update excuse me our scripts as needed of course for any type of um day-to-day situations that we know of or that we have seen an increase of for instance if we are running late we have updated our scripts that are call center agents can use to mitigate any situation and of course managers are involved as well to help out thank you Rafael so just to summarize the complaints that I'm receiving are that your drivers are outside the folks doors they're not they're missing appointments they're not giving any courtesy calls to let them know that they're going to miss their appointments when they do talk to any supervisor or any staff they're treated with very bad customer service they're treated just like another statistic they're not treated with Compassion or kindness and what I'm hearing is pretty consistent in my district Mr Raphael I know that my frustration is directly attributed from the complaints I have received from my constituents and I am prepared to cut ties and move forward that's my one position on behalf of my constituent constituents if these numbers don't improve if you're a customer service complaints don't improve I will use every action or authority within my power to move on because I certainly don't want persons with disabilities in our community to feed feel like second-class citizens because that is what they described to me they have every opportunity and every ability to prosper in our community but they need reliable transportation please hear my concerns and complaints as a direct frustration and concern for my constituents we need to do better we need to be better your staff need to provide better service or we need to have a serious discussion about cutting part and cutting ways and moving on thank you thank you alternate mayor Hernandez representative anello thank you my questions aren't for Raphael but I want to Echo that I I you know I appreciate you saying that there has been an uptick in complaint since covid but I I can tell you I don't think that's true Ms Smith knows that I've dealt with a lot of complaints with the lift some being some very serious harassment complaints and so I think that we do need to be looking at sexual harassment training as well as training for the lgbtq respect for the lgbtq community so that's my request to you Miss Smith I do want to talk about um Sunday service and also our previous policy in which if there was a bus stop I think a mile or two miles from an individual's location so just trying to understand the contract with the policies are made by Sun Metro not by the contractor correct the policy let me clarify your question you're talking about the three-quarter mile radius that is from the FTA that is but it's not a requirement it's something you can do but we implemented that we would be doing it who implemented that was it Sun Metro was it the contractor we the we don't use that three-quarter mile radius except on this limited Sunday service that was the only time the rest Monday through Saturday open City who requested that to be the policy on The Limited Sunday service well when we brought back limited it was limited because we didn't have enough drivers on the three-quarter mile on Sundays was that a Paris Transit decision was it a Sun Metro decision no it was just some Metro decision okay no I just want to be really clear because most of the complaints I am getting is in regards to this and I've also heard um the drivers of the lift have been very uncomfortable with this policy as well and so I'm just wanting to understand so let's recall two weeks ago I said as soon as the MV is able to get these subcontractors in place we would be able to open Sunday service city-wide but starting in November or December as soon as they are able to establish how many contractors they have available no I just wanted to be clear in regards to buying new vehicles have we purchased any new vehicles I know there's been conversation over the years that we have but I don't think we've seen them can we see the paperwork on that um yes and there was actually an open records request for us by one of our clients and we there were four purchase orders that we gave him okay if you could just share that one so we've ordered 40 um since I've been here yeah I mean if we could just get forwarded over what was released in the open records request that would be helpful thank you those are all my questions thank you there's no action on this item this brings us to item number seven presentation and discussion on the fixed route performance indicators for fiscal year 22 period ending August 31st 2022. so in front of you you'll see our fixed route performance measures but this is the companion item to the previous item on the lift the total passengers for fy21 it was 300 this these are all in thousands of course so three million 664 000 and for FY 22 we had 5 million 158 000 Riders so that equates to passengers for per hour 14.35 which is much much better than we had last year so we're getting more Riders the buses are holding more people the cost per Rider of course is directly related to the number so um the cost per per hour or providers 8.77 versus last year at 11.86 our fare did not change it's a dollar fifty so our Fair box recovery ratio went up from 6.44 to 8.89 percent so of course we're trying to get back up into the 12 to 15 percent Fair box recovery would be would be a really good Target collisions per 100 000 miles was up slightly to 2.49 versus 2.19 worker comp claims were down so that's that's good uh prevented maintenance again this is on the on-time preventive maintenance was down um 84 percent versus 94 and again all maintenance was done it just wasn't done in that window of on time um Road costs were also down um 56 versus 82 and then our on time was a little bit lower and 88.2 versus 89.9 our missed service was the same at 0.1 customer complaints this way down at 23 per 100 000 passengers versus 71 and we have continued to add bus shelters at our bus stops and we increased it two percent last year and we'll continue to try and do two or three percent every year until we've got the bus stops covered any questions on that there's no action on this item this brings us to item number eight an update to provide the council with information on Sun Metro service modifications plan to go in effect November 6 2022. I may have my assistant directed Astrid bunner present this one good morning Astrid Banner for Sun Metro if you could bring up the presentation for item eight it this is for item a to the Sun Metro agenda foreign computer good I'll stay there it's okay good morning like I mentioned we're bringing over uh this presentation is for the launch of our Montana Brio and these service modifications that will be effective on 11 6. these service modifications that we're bringing we're adding Sunday service and we're adding weekday service and we're also launching our Montana Brio which we're very excited about it we're also going to be hosting the grand opening of our terminal in the Upper East Side which is a beautiful facility on November 1st and we invite all of you to come in and showcase our facility it's beautiful it's a two green Globe certified and it's going to help us to improve connectivity from the Upper East Side to the rest of the to the rest of the city the like I mentioned the grand opening is on November 1st and the buses will kick off on Sunday November 6th and as I mentioned we are expanding our Sunday service we're bringing new routes during the weekdays we're bringing addition of buses to our existing routes to reduce the wait times for our customers and increase frequency we're also going to be having a robust Outreach campaign to inform the public and our writers we will be notifying them through signage on the buses notices on the buses and at the transit terminals media interviews website newspaper social media and through our customer service we also have Outreach Representatives at all the terminals and they Ride Along on the buses for which we'll be providing new service on so here's our rendering of our current well our future Sunday service map which will be effective on 11 6. to this service we are bringing four new routes and we are expanding the service as you can see we're creating more connectivity on Sundays we do see a trend of ridership in our Alameda Brio and so we'll be adding um additional buses to that line we're also creating connecting lines and we're also bringing back the downtown to Cielo Vista route that we currently have so the Montana Brio is also going to be opening up and it's also going to be available on Sunday this is the fourth rapid transit system that we bring to our city this project was approximately 49 million and it's funded through a combination of FTA grants the Texas department of transportation funding and the local match from our city and our Council the beginning route of this of of the Montana Brios at the East Side terminal in the Upper East Side and it runs through Montana it has two Park and rides one on Lee Trevino and one on George Dieter it moves to the Sierra Vista terminal and then it will go over to a new terminal that is being built in the airport from there it moves on to Five Points where it connects to the rest of our Braille system and this is the route that I just mentioned and as I explained it provides more connectivity for our writers and it also gives us new service to the Upper East Side Transit Center where we had limited service but this Transit terminal is going to help us create more circulators and more routes around that area to bring them more frequency on these service modifications our new routes are as I mentioned the Montana Brio that will be implemented and connecting to the rest of the Brios we're also bringing a new route called the Montwood Express this route is going to service the George theater and Montwood area and create an Express service to the downtown area and Glory Road terminals this route will run every 40 minutes during peak hours we're also expanding and adding buses to create more frequency for our customers on Route 68 and 69. these routes are added as part of the comprehensive operational analysis that showed we had a need for more service in these areas they also connect to the park and rides that are on Lee Trevino and George Dieter which also connect to the Montana corridor which has the Brio which will run every 15 minutes some of the additional modifications are for Route 33 since we have the Route 50 and we also have the the Montana Brio this Route 33 will also be going to the airport to the new terminal that we have there Route 50 won't serve as the airport any longer since we have these two routes that are more frequent and then to make that route faster and to make it more efficient Route 51 is going to see a slight change in routing as it's now going to service the new Upper East Side Transit Center and that's Route 51 52 54 and 56. and then Route 59 will now be active on Sundays and holidays and this route is the one that connects from Cielo Vista terminal to downtown Route 60 will be activated on Sundays this route is in the Mission Valley and has been has been requested by customers frequently and so we're able we have the workforce to activate this route and like I mentioned Alameda Brio will also um be we will be increasing the buses on that route to create more frequency on Sundays and holidays and then this is our akiti welcome you to the grand opening of our new Upper East Side Transit Center which will happen on Tuesday November 1st at 9 00 a.m all of you are welcome to join us in the public too hello and now if you have any questions there's no action on this item yeah yeah molinar has thank you very much mayor Pro tem show thank you very much for your information here it's a lot of information um we welcome the new Brio line for Montana and the servicing the east side it's going to be great however what are you doing to communicate to the ridership the potential ridership hey this is new it's coming it's a change it's a welcome change what besides social media besides the press release are you doing anything else besides all those kind of things yes sir we're going to be running commercials on television we're going to be doing media interviews we are going to be at the terminals we have been at the terminals promoting the service we will also have our Outreach team at every terminal every day from here until the launching and after the launching so we we have a lot of Outreach prepared for the launching of the Montana Brio and the new lines that are coming up okay and everything will be on the app yes sir all right thank you thank you representative mullinar I believe there are no more questions thank you this brings us to item number nine discussion and action on the request of the directors of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue a purchase order to Mitchell adding machine company Inc DBA Mitchell time and parking move to approve have a motion yes excuse me uh representative Rodriguez has a question hi Ellen so just good morning really quickly um it's saying that this is going to cost us about 186 thousand dollars a year how much revenue do we plan to see from that parking garage um currently our parking contract is managed by SMG at a cost considerably higher than this and so by purchasing the equipment ourselves and taking this in-house we'll be cutting down on the expense side along with this one and the two Park and rides that Miss Benner just mentioned we're going to be actively um advertising and marketing all of our parking garages and park and rides both here this one is down by uptt Glory Road and the two Park and rides and so we currently also have the parking garage at Northgate terminal that is not well marketed either so our next strategy coming up after we've launched the Brio we're kind of all hands on deck right now with the Brio launch is to focus on marketing all of these parking areas because we're mimicking in the fee structure that you approved for FY 22 three similar rates that they charge at the airport and so and then we'll also have contract parking available if they want to buy monthly or yearly passes things like that so we believe we I don't have an exact dollar amount of Revenue yet because with this first time we've ever done it but we do recognize that by Outsourcing it has not been you know hasn't brought us any Revenue at all so this will turn the tide okay and so how much are we saving by doing it in-house oh gosh I don't have that number in front of me either but it um a lot it's a lot I'll send you the number and everyone else if you're interested in that yeah I'm just interested in seeing that that number um as far as what we're saving and the potential Revenue that we can have and maybe in just a minute uh one of my staff will um be able to give me that number okay thank you and on there purchasing this on the line if you want to run through it real quick Crystal good morning Crystal bus with purchasing and strategic sourcing this item is linked to strategic goal number seven enhanced sustain El Paso's infrastructure Network to link it to the Strategic plan is subsection 7.3 enhance Regional comprehensive transportation system we are requesting that direct that the director of purchasing a strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue purchase orders to Mitchell adding machine Company Inc DBA Mitchell time and parking the sole and authorized distributor for Amano McGann products for the sole for the 20220586 uptt and Union Depot parking machines for a term of one year for an estimated amount of 186 488 dollars motion made by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr molinar to approve item number nine on that motion call for the vote Miss alcido I Mr schwartzwein yay Mr Rivera aye in the voting session the motion passes unanimously this brings us to item number 10 discussion and action on the resolution that the purchasing director is authorized to notify Maria Del Rosario Rodriguez DBA de more didas that the mass transit board is terminating contract number 2020-027 five points and Etc concessions move to approve motion made by Mr molinar seconded by Miss Rodriguez so um this is a small business that during covid they weren't able to meet their contextual obligations because the ridership was so low that they weren't able to sell their goods and services so we're going to cancel this contract and then start over with our concessions on that motion call for the vote Salcido Mr swordsway all right Mr Rivera all right in the voting session the motion passes unanimously with eight affirmative votes this brings us to the conclusion of the mass transit Department board agenda do you have a motion to adjourn thank you all in favor hi and the meeting for the mass transit Department board meeting for October 11 2022 has adjourned at 11 31 am mayor lazarga I'm sorry you go ahead is there a motion to recaline the regular meeting I'll move second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 11 31 a.m I believe we're supposed to recess again for the press conference for item 38. in action that the city manager be authorized to sign a chapter 380 economic development program agreement between the city of El Paso and Finn habits Inc I have two proof there's a motion made by representative anello I'm sorry did you want the presentation do you want to give the presentation second there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve item number 38. on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem schwartzwein all right representative Rivera hi thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously council is there a motion to recess for the second motion to recess there's a motion and a second to recess in order to conduct a press conference all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 11 33 am en yeah everyone else this one yeah and then l oh thanks test one two three four test one two three four be good okay we're good inside [Music] YouTube we'll let Laura organize be organized we organize people members of our team hi yo are you okay yes she's on the lineup yes yes good morning or well good afternoon now thank you all for being here my name is Elizabeth Triggs I'm the director of Economic and International Development for the city of El Paso and we are very very honored today to welcome Finn habits to our community a financial tech company headquartered in New York and founded by El Paso native Carlos Garcia thin habits focuses on providing access to Affordable life and health insurance retirement accounts and other investment opportunities to the historically underserved Latino and Hispanic communities with a portfolio valued at 17 million 110 000 active accounts and a presence in five states as well as licenses in eight Finn habits is growing and they've chosen El Paso as their next location today our city council approved a performance-based incentive that will assist the company in onboarding 60 new employees in the El Paso region over the next four years by providing training grants to those employees to achieve the necessary certifications to carry out the company's Mission the total incentive package is 132 000 Over a four-year period but the return on investment is is enormous especially for our community so in addition to the 60 new jobs that are created this this company brings to our community and particularly to our small business Community a new service that oftentimes is hard for small businesses particularly minority-owned small businesses to access and that's the ability to give their employees benefits so we're really excited to have Carlos and his team here in El Paso with us and with that I'm going to turn it over to representative lisarga that the company will be locating downtown El Paso and representative lisataga's district thank you Elizabeth [Music] good morning everyone I have the distinct privilege of celebrating this great news with you this morning because I'm standing in for the mayor in today's meeting and also because fit thin habits the wonderful addition to El Paso's expanding strong business community whose arrival we are celebrating today is locating in the most happening District in all of El Paso District 8 yes in the beautiful historic Cortez building they will be a welcome new face in our beautiful thriving downtown Finn habits was founded by Carlos Garcia an El Paso native who is bringing their talents and expertise in the financial technology industry back to his hometown as announced earlier today Finn habits has committed to hiring 60 employees in El Paso bringing 60 new workers downtown over the next five years at an average annual rate of 56 thousand dollars significantly higher than the median El Paso income the city will offer fin habits a training Grant capped at thirty three thousand dollars per year over four years in order to make sure that the El pasoans they hire are well prepared for the positions that fin habits is offering this is a win-win for our community I want to thank everyone who made this happen our wonderful staff at the city of El Paso economic and International Development Department our local and Regional economic developer development Partners who always work lockstep with the city and the team at Finn habits who can see the huge potential in El Paso and have come here to invest both invest in both their own future and Ours this is a happy day for the Borderland and I thank you for sharing in the joy with me and with all of us today and I think this is a wonderful birthday gift for our city manager who's celebrating his birthday tomorrow so happy birthday Tommy with with that I'd like to invite John Varela with border Plex the City Works very closely with border Plex in bringing new businesses to our community as well as helping existing existing ones grow foreign CEO of the Border Plex Alliance and we are a non-profit Economic Development and policy advocacy advocacy group for uh our region and I have to tell you this is a fantastic day we all know that our Region's economy especially El Paso's economy is on fire right now it's never reached such uh excellent excellent proportions in terms of our job growth wage growth but it is take a team effort and while we go out and get as many leads as we possibly can for the city of El Paso uh it takes support from all of these people behind me public private partnership operating in its Zenith and we are so grateful representatives for your unanimous vote and support this is indeed a high quality project Tommy Elizabeth your staff's have done a great job in working with us to get this project over the Finish Line this project also represents a coming home for Carlos a great product of our region and we're really proud to have him and his team create these incredibly high-paying jobs this is exactly the type of company we need to help diversify our economy and the fact that they're coming downtown continues the momentum of downtown growth and development and finally just want to say uh thanks again to everybody for being here but mostly thank you Carlos for your belief and support in your home region and we look forward forward to the upcoming months as I always try to do not only do we have this announcement we have others coming soon enough we hope and but this one is absolutely fantastic and Carlos thank you so much for thanks again for having the faith belief and for your roots uh being here so so welcome welcome and again thank you all for your continued support for our efforts appreciate it [Applause] and then I'd like to invite Carlos to come up and talk to you all a little bit more about his company his vision and and just the things that he's been working on thank you well thank you very much and appreciate all the support that we received here in El Paso and you know as you know I was born here so I left and now we're coming back to the roots but most importantly is I think our mission of inhabits which is you know we want to really help every Latino household in the country uh build wealth for the future and that has been our mission since day one we started with retirement savings long-term investing now we're offering uh subsidized health insurance and we have a path right our path is to really help anyone in the country regardless of Education language or income uh to to to really have a chance of Building Wealth and we do that through technology and we do that through data we do that through just connecting the dots and being the you know the the provider of these high quality services that everybody deserves so we're super excited um to you know continue that path in building that effort in El Paso because we find that the talent here has a lot of potential and we're excited to partner with all the academic institutions and hopefully you know everyone who is listening to this or watching this uh is interested in joining us in our mission so thank you very much [Applause] finally we'll close with City man happy birthday happy birthday birthdays tomorrow not today but thank you all very much so I want to talk to you about two outcomes today the council spends a lot of time in planning and they have done a strategic plan and that strategic plan was put in place in 15 and they've updated it three times and all the time that they invest in that has really paid dividends in that it's really done what you're seeing today fin habits and other companies that we draw to this community helps increase wages our wages have gone up almost 20 percent so when people ask what our incentives go towards it goes towards increasing wages for people here in our own backyard in order to keep them here so that they don't leave and go to go to other places and they do leave like Carlos they come back because they see the opportunity that's here because I know we have a lot of challenges there's also there's also a lot of great opportunities like the one we shared with the council today 66 million dollars that we got from the federal government and and we're also working to get dollars from the state in additional dollars from the federal government in the future but the other thing that this does it helps keep your taxes low the council's policy and there's strategy has been to invest in our community and then be able to have those dollars go back into these other taxing entities we pay the Lion's Share of the incentives but over the next 20 years 268 million dollars is going to go to other taxing entities so that keeps your taxes low things like the school district the county the UMC El Paso Community College those are the other taxing entities because we only take up 30 percent of your dollar so with our 30 percent of the dollar we invest in our community we bring in higher paying jobs and we bring in more more revenue for those other taxing entities so they can keep their taxes low just like we did this year by reducing our tax rate we're going to continue to work on that in the future because we know values impacted our community so really want to thank Finn habits for investing in our community and helping us grow the wages and helping us keep taxes low thank you foreign and with that we'll we'll all stick around for any questions that you all might have thank you all for being here [Music] let me see I had representative molinar are you in the back foreign motion to reconvene second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor yes anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1201 PM that brings us to call to the public the El Paso city council as a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to displace 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 forum 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 forward be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have four members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Crystal Durant she's joining a via telephone Mr rent star's sixth place to unmute your telephone Crystal Durant star six to unmute your telephone Crystal Durant if you're in the queue star six please to unmute your telephone I don't see Mr Durant's phone number in the queue we'll move on to Mr Ron Como Mr Como's topic is poor decisions by city council good afternoon sir you have three minutes well mayor's not here I was here to ask him some questions we all know he runs a dealership in town we all understand how this works we have in this conversation the fact that our mayor hires qualified people as his service manager parts manager sales manager service manager and he does that to be successful he does not hire people are not qualified or have experience in the field I mean it's kind of like would you hire an assistant fire chief to run your Police Department would you hire an assistant fire chief or an assistant chief of police to run your fire department no we do this because they're not qualified they don't have the background they don't have the proper tools and they would fail anytime you deal with management that is not qualified it fails it fails miserably in the city of El Paso right now we're making poor decisions very poor decisions the community and the Strays in El Paso are paying the price because you all won't get a qualified person to run a certain facility that we have like to point out that in the first seven months of 2019 we adopted out well actually that's on my sign you guys can't see um yeah my brain's blank you know we we have a conversation going on and excuses being made every time we turn around about getting too many things and and I was going to make a reference to these mayor in a conversation of well if your service manager did 701 recalls in 2019 and then turned around and said 2022 that at 358 he was had too many he couldn't do anymore why is it we could do more in 2019 than we can in 2022. I'll tell you why improper management completely improper management these decisions as far as I know are yours my thought is if it's not yours and there's somebody else making this decision then we need to find out if they're qualified to be making the decisions to hire people you all put in your human human okay Human Resources a list of items to qualify a person for a job I strongly suggest we get back to looking at those and hiring thank you Mr Jones you've reached the three-minute limit the next speaker is Barbara dushokit her topic is Sunland Park development at Frontera Broad good afternoon ma'am you'll have three minutes good afternoon what we have learned from this development Sunland Park zoning committee told us that 224 House Development on 60 Acres is already a done deal and we cannot stop there you the use of rentera because of the law with two cars per household driven at least twice daily traffic will swell traffic for by minimum up to 960 additional vehicles on a two-lane residential street that is already used by Texas residents there is another 40 acre parcel that will probably be developed once the first development is finished new homes already under construction at Hacienda Roja San Gabriel and Girl Scout Lane in New Mexico all intercept Frontera questions who approved the removal of the cul-de-sacs on Hacienda Roja Girl Scout at Texas boundary and their roads with impurity why have ordinances in El Paso if Sunland Park is allowed to ignore all of them and assault our life and our investment in the Texas Upper Valley Sunland Park has refused to answer questions about floods Wetlands fire and police capability and polluted water concerns if all Sunland Park land was in Texas planning and zoning and City Planning Commission and city council would reject the proposals because of the following zoning violations if all the center line Park the development does not meet access regress requirements development has only one access egress point a pass that requires two access recess points developer map says Frontera and Girl Scout Lane are two streets for Access and egress problem Girl Scout Lane intersects with Frontera so there is only one streak for Access and egress the 2009 traffic study developed by the El Paso traffic division engineering department and approved by the El Paso city council describes Frontera as an East-West local street that provides one lane of travel in each Direction and Donovan Drive to La delita speed limit is 30 miles per hour New Mexico says Frontera is to be widened four lanes not acceptable Frontera road is designed to carry Vehicles out of the existing Texas neighborhoods to the Main Street which is Donovan three months ago in July 2022nd El Paso city council approved to complete Street ordinance after El Paso was ranked the 20th most dangerous city thank you the 215 pedestrians killed between 2010 and 2019. Susan Martinez on Zoom thank you yes thank you the next speaker is Susan Martinez her topic is also Frontera Road neighborhood association Susan Martinez star six please Miss Martinez yes we can thank you hello can you hear me yes ma'am go ahead you'll have three minutes okay give me a second there's a train going by we're in the Upper Valley and there's a railroad tracks right close by so um yes I I just needed to um Express I'm Susan Martinez with El Paso neighborhood Coalition and also Zach white neighborhood association and as Barbara was just explaining um there's there's a six 60 acre parcel there's another 40 acre parcel and then there's new homes already under construction so we're talking about a Hundred Acre parcel of land or more that's proposed to be developed and cars will be flooding Frontier road so what we learned is that the um City adopted in July 2022 thank you city council you adopted in concept the complete streets ordinance after El Paso was ranked the 20th most dangerous city for pedestrians because there were 215 pedestrians killed between 2010 and 2019. the ordinance that you all passed addresses varied Street designs to promote to promote the health and safety and Welfare of the community and incorporates Trails the city bike plan it discusses improved Motor Safety and improved air quality it says that streets have vast potential to become healthy vibrant and inviting places with pedestrian scale lighting shade trees Landscaping walkable destinations and safely creates an important connection between parks and schools this ordinance when it was presented to the neighborhood Coalition was enthusiastically received we now Envision Frontera Road as the first candidate under this wonderful ordinance we envisioned trees on both sides of the street and past recyclers and Walkers and pet Walkers and horse riders and joggers who go from the irrigation ditch that parallels Emery Road to coach corals Park and then down Frontera Road and Riverbend all the way to Sunset so our recommendations is that you make from data Road one of the first candidates of the complete Street ordinance make it fully compliant with the bike lanes and the trees on both sides keep it on Theta road is a two-lane residential collector as you all approved in the 2009 traffic study um and maybe you can build a cul-de-sac back at the Texas border on Girl Scout and Hacienda Roja and close off San Gabrielle Street at Frontera Road Sunland Park we appreciate that you all are working together with Sunland Park maybe you can work with them to develop a similar ordinance so that this uh these developments that they're proposing become a wonderful development for and a win-win situation for both sunden Park and El Paso Texas where they develop their own means of access and egress and they develop beautiful streets and we have nice traffic patterns and nice traffic flow and wonderful environmentally healthy streets for all of our area we need your help we this is a lifetime investment for all of us neighbors here in the Upper Valley from did our road in the Upper Valley Texas neighborhood it's a huge development system then Park is proposing thank you very much the next speaker is Crystal Durant star sixth police to unmute your telephone Crystal Durant star six please and her topic is City Maintenance of medians good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes um I actually wanted to come express my concerns regarding the median and the large weeds that are causing a safety issue for the citizens and as I drove around town it's not only on the east side it's not on the west side it's a lower Valley it's all over my concern is that then the meetings have been neglected the city has put out volunteers to do the work that the city should be doing and that should have never ever ever looked the way they do today it's quite embarrassing on behalf of the city and and honestly for someone like myself that lives in this city to have friends from out of town come and visit me and see how how the city is maintained um so my my request here is to really understand what the operational plan is for the city I reached out to the City previously I was directed to I was told that there was a shortage of workers um and when I went and I was directed to the website to go look at the vacancies there was one position on the entire website went to all 75 openings that appeared to be um designated to the maintenance issue that we're having so my my question and request would be that the city really comes up with an operational plan to address this and to really help their own employees they have a large burden on just 28 employees that are doing this for the entire city and I'm not and they need help to be quite honest they do a fantastic job but they are not getting the help of the leadership team and so my ask is that they have at the city council city manager um just a city in general just really helps them and helps us and really helps clean up our city to make it a presentable City and to make it somewhere that people actually want to do business thank you thank you and I don't see Miss check in the chambers so I believe that concludes call to the public mayor protemp thank you Miss Prime yes could we recess for lunch please is there a second there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess at 12 16 for a lunch break is that will that be for 30 minutes ma'am yes for 30 minutes thank you to 12 45 at 12 45. thank you all you know no thank you foreign they're good no reason happens you know council is there a motion to reconvene second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor yes anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 12 52 PM the next item on the agenda is on page 11 and it's item number 39. this is a presentation and discussion by the city manager's office and the office of emergency management providing information on Key activities efforts and processes related to the migrant crisis good afternoon Council so the numbers that we've been receiving that's been released into the community has grown from 250 to over 1100 per day and now to study one thousand the main countries migrants are coming from continue to be from Venezuela Ecuador El Salvador Haiti Nicaragua and Cuba the number is currently at 70 percent coming from Venezuela it's important to note the individuals coming from Venezuela and other countries including Nicaragua and Cuba are categorized by the federal government as refugees they cannot be returned to their home countries and should qualify for immediate Federal care similar to care that was provided to the Afghan refugees since there has been questions about local control of the migrant crisis response I want to be very clear that the crisis response has been and continues to be a local operation for migrant and Refugee operations the operations includes our support to the federal government to provide food water temporary Sheltering which we have been doing Sheltering for migrants by utilizing our hotels we believe it is more important to look at the humanity of who we're working with than to just simply put them in a shelter I think that oftentimes families come with little little children for small children they're still nursing doing that in in front of others is very uncomfortable and we really feel like that requires that level of privacy that we're providing we also do first aid Local transportation as well as Final Destination transportation we have also signed over a hundred staff members to work this humanitarian crisis operation these hundred plus employees include 16 different departments throughout our organization city of El Paso staff members are embedded with various non-profits and are assigned at the Welcome Center and provide additional support for ongoing Crisis Support across across the community these actions were necessary to support our NGO nonprofit community on this long-term response as you know one of the larger non-profits that provided this kind of support to the migrant response shut their doors and we're being strategic and also Forward Thinking by supporting our other nonprofits with the migrant response that supports our federal government in order to make sure that they don't close down as well we want to make sure that we have people embedded in their operations to support them so back to the numbers real quick according to the Customs and Border Patrol an average of 2 000 migrants present themselves to the CBP in the El Paso region again once processed approx approximately 1 000 are released to local ngos and also to the city once we receive them just to recap how we support our federal Partners we take migrants through the triage process at the Welcome Center where we welcome them we help shelter them through hotels and we support we support them on their Journey Through the staff and we've provided our Welcome Center we also have the non-profits as I mentioned that we're working with all of you I believe have have visited the Welcome Center and seen firsthand how we're providing support to our federal partners and to the migrant response I want to go back again talk about the numbers from year to year April 2022 to early October 2022 more than 75 000 people have passed through El Paso in September alone that number was 21 000 and in October that number is going to eclipse at 21 000 of the current Trend continues at 8 300 per week benchmarking is something that we work at doing we're a learning organization we're committed to constantly improve the council really pushed US during covet to do our level best and then the numbers came better came back better than the state and the FEDS as you know we we lead the state and the federal government by double digits in shots and arms and so no different than with the covet response y'all have been challenging us with respect to our response to the migrant issue so we we practice benchmarking for our Organization for our processes and operational approaches in May of this year we hosted visitors in El Paso from the Rio Grande Valley to share our migrant response process with them during the last several weeks our federal Partners to include congresswoman Escobar as well as some of the city council we're urging us to visit visit the RGV area so about a week ago we took a team to the RGV area to observe the operations and Benchmark processes and data what we learned was in Brownsville predominantly they're taking single adults it's a 90-10 split a little bit maybe 85 15 80 20 but we we saw about 90 percent um that were single adults Brownsville is working with the sponsored adults again the majority of them are sponsored meaning that they have financial support to take them to a shelter of their own choosing meaning a hotel or get their own travel coordinated the unsponsored that they did have there in Brownsville which was about 30 individuals the officials work with them to find a network to get them housed and or get them on their way they did have people on the streets during this time and in terms of working with people that are non-sponsored ultimately the unsponsored individuals are responsible for finding their own way to their destination there in Brownsville we saw also an NGO right across the street who's helping them with meals and toiletries and conducting also a humanitarian Aid and we also observed that CBP is only sending them single adults as you know here in our backyard we're getting everything mainly we're getting a lot of single adults but we're also getting families we're getting we're getting all of the above and the majority of ours right now are not sponsored that's what that's what the big difference in cost is and McAllen approximately a year ago they were getting an influx of migrants so they asked for money up front and they received 20 million if you recall we asked for 10 million when we received our influx but we believe that because of the budget being you know in terms of timing when they asked for it it was at the beginning of the budget cycle and we're asking towards the end of course no fault of that of of our community rather but that's something that I think that the federal government is being challenged with because we asked for 10 million they approved a 2 million if you recall for future expenses and McAllen they're working with just families they're getting families so the CBP is sending McAllen families the majority of them are families and the majority of Brownsville what they're receiving are single adults again they have a very strong NGO Network that's backed by the Catholic Charities and they're also working with a hundred percent sponsored migrants the majority of them are they have very few that aren't sponsored there in McAllen they they do not shelter long term and will only allow families with bus or airline tickets to stay overnight waiting for travel and a lot of the people that do spend the night they're spending the night in the airport or their their shelter across the street on cots but the bottom line is Brownsville McAllen have received upfront funds for the current Surge and they've all expressed that FEMA reimbursements were delayed just like ours were so that's the reason why they wanted them up front and that's the reason why quite frankly we asked for them up front as well they like us are concerned about sustainable funding in the long term and it's also important to mention that when we were working with primarily sponsored migrants you did not receive a whole lot of updates from us because that was a pretty smooth operation we weren't really it wasn't as expensive as it is now because when there were sponsored they were coming in we were coordinating their travel working with the ngos and again you didn't hear a lot about that that wasn't a big news story we have been doing that since late 2018 and so we've been doing this for quite some time and then the recent surge that we have have all experienced happened in the last couple of months and again that was that happened because the the water is lower and no water now at the Rio Grande and and it was more dangerous to cross in the RGV and then now a lot of people are speculating why the numbers are high but initially that happened because of the water table in terms of the level of where it was and so it was safer to cross here again CBP only has a capacity for a little bit over a thousand it's a thousand forty to be exact they're holding almost five thousand per day over there so it's it's a concerning situation with regard to funding we continue to utilize the general fund to pay for costs up front related to the crisis and we'll continue to file for reimbursement from through FEMA uh and the FEMA program is the emergency food and shelter program we continue to work with the congresswoman's office she's been very helpful in championing these reimbursements we've been also working with the White House the mayor's made a lot of costs to the White House on the regular basis and we also have obviously been working with the CBP to secure funding for the migrant crisis right now the current estimated balance for reimbursement is a little bit over 6 million again the 2 million has been promised we haven't received it yet and then we haven't submitted our latest reimbursement we're finalizing that and that makes up the majority of that six million dollars that I just referenced for the beginning of the fourth quarter to give you an idea of the costs associated with this operation we've spent a million and a half uh in in in a very short period of time again that's because of the the transport that's because of just the process that we have in order to not have people out on the streets and get them to their final destination so in terms of communication we did provide a dashboard and it's on our website and it has information on it in terms of encounters number of community releases the migrant welcome shelter as well as transports and other valuable data in there people can go to our website to get more information on it we've been working on giving you updates giving our state and federal delegation updates as well as given the media multiple updates we've opened up the doors at the Welcome Center we've also had one-on-one interviews with them in order to keep them in the loop with all the different happenings that's going on with the migrant crisis so in terms of current highlights we have chartered a total of 207 buses to the tune of almost 10 000 migrants we have provided Local transportation to More Than 3 400 migrants and refugees and we're also utilizing hotels to support the temporary shelter service and we've provided services to the migrants to the tune of almost 2500 in in that temporary shelter service we've also provided almost 15 000 meals for migrants and refugees including sack lunches and chartered buses again we've been working closely with our federal Partners to provide this service in order to help them with with the crossings so this is very challenging as you know we've we've we've started giving you updates we've now created a dashboard again to keep everything very transparent keep everything out in the open make sure that we answer all your questions and ensure we answer the public questions and we get questions on both sides of the of the situation serves our people view this a lot of people are saying why are we doing this you know when people cross and they get processed by CBP to a large degree they become legal in that they have a right to be here and when when they have that right to be here we can't detain them or tell them where to go so when we have been visiting with them at the Welcome Center we we're very conscientious about where do you want to go what are your needs and things of that nature to help them along their way you have witnessed all of that you've been you've seen that firsthand the media has seen that firsthand so we're very much committed to the humanitarian part of this crisis so we're very strong as an organization I think we've demonstrated that but you've also heard some things throughout the last several months that have been caused by by the fact that not only has this city but every city has gone through covet covet has had a health impact has had a financial impact and also has had an operational impact and that operational impact is stretching us stretching Us in terms of things that people are accustomed to receiving in terms of services and so we're being very patient with the fact that we we know that that people when they bring up concerns it's legitimate and that's the reason we've come up with different ways to tackle things not just say we're working and trying to hire additional people that's why we created new programs regardless of what it is that's that's people have been giving us feedback about and so we have been very uh creative in doing and doing different things in order to address the problems or issues in our community and I want to thank the council for participating in programs we've put together I think they've been very heartwarming and I think a lot of folks have really gotten a lot of benefit out of that and at the same time we're making our community better so even though we're strong we we also have um you know a a stretch point and and our in our this this process is taxing the process and is taxing our team so but we are committed to not only our community but also to providing a Humane and dignified response we would like to remind members of the community that the best way to for them to help is by by making monetary con donations rather if they want to do that is to give money to the local NGO shelters and then go to our website for more information about that again I want to thank the council for your support and Leadership not only during this crisis but also the work that you did during the covid response the August 3rd hate crime I mean there's been a lot of things our community has gone through and again we're gonna we're gonna get through this as well but we wanted to make sure we gave you all the information told you where we were operationally where we were financially on the reimbursements and where we are in terms of the current numbers so with that I'll turn it over to the chief unless you all have any questions of me all right chief thank you sir if we could bring the presentation up Mario diagostino Deputy city manager for the record that was a very thorough president intro sir but I will go through these slides rather quickly the first ones are going to be kind of go back to where we've been what we've been talking about just as a reminder for everyone is what's got us here with this with my crisis that's currently occurring foreign very good so that current situation as Mr Gonzalez talked about apprehensions are at an all-time high yesterday alone was 2100. um looking back at the month of September over 40 000 people were apprehended in this region alone they're expecting 60 000 for the month of October if it continues at this pace that that is record um record numbers of people passing through our community um as we know 70 of them are still the Venezuelan Nationals our daily releases to the ngos are averaging around 900. unsponsored migrants are still making up 50 of those and a important part to highlight is there's been no Street releases since the middle of September September 15th as we talk about what puts us what puts us different than other areas that are experiencing this crisis outside of this the sheer numbers that we're seeing and that's our regional isolation our limited Transportation Hub or limited flights and and uh buses out of town limited shelter capacity and the migration routes themselves as Mr Gonzalez talked about it's a safer path right now coming through our area because there is no water in the river review of the current process we talk about Upstream that's that's their whole departure from their from their Homeland their travels through and up through Mexico to the time where they're apprehended by border patrol from that point they're processed and then they're released by out from there we know that the unaccompanied minors they all go to the Fort Bliss housing under the Department of Health and Human Services ice and ero then coordinates with the city as well as now the counties Center and local ngos for releases on a daily basis our Hospitality Center which we set up in in early September at the city's Welcome Center that it's the where we connect them with their sponsors and so those without sponsors that's where we have to get into the Charter Business those with sponsors as we know and we'll get to later in this presentation it's a lot different process it's a lot quicker a lot less labor intensive again Mr Gonzalez covers these stats but you know the key ones to look at is 21 000 releases in the month of September for the record Laura Cruz acosa communications director so this video is specifically featuring um some of the staff that's out there as a chief derosino and city manager Gonzalez had mentioned we have quite a few staff members out there and they have been there from the beginning so we want to feature this particular staff member who has been out there being able to welcome the migrants in particular so [Music] foreign [Music] you know spices [Music] so Gina boozo is um that employee she's phenomenal if you've been out to the facility you've seen her welcoming the migrants out there and so she's been out there from the very beginning and it's just a great example of the wonderful employees that we have working out there welcoming in a humane way of these migrants thank you it's important to remember she's one of over 125 people we have working on this operation at this time we've talked about in in the past we've talked about the hundred people we hired on to assist us with the migrant operation currently we have a 100 authorized operational assistance we have 62 employed we have operational leads that's the supervisors within there we've we've created 10 positions we have eight of those fields so we have a total of 70 people that were hired just to to manage this crisis with that we still have 40 vacancies but we do have 12 or so starting in the next couple of weeks so it's a continuous recruitment process and that's so we can get that staff up to where it needs to be so we can stop putting all the the task on the other departments as we've talked about several times there's over 16 different departments assisting with this operation and we want to make sure we have as less impact as possible but for right now it's all hands on deck so how is the city of El Paso helping the city of El Paso and OEM provides support for sponsored and unsponsored migrants that's through our food our shelter our first aid and transportation assistance with travel what's the difference between sponsored and unsponsored migrants well-sponsored migrants as we've talked about those are migrants who have relatives friends or contacts that can provide them financial support for their travel arrangements for their housing and any other needs they might have unsponsored migrants these migrants don't have that same relative that same network the friends the point of contacts that are able to provide them with that financial support they need for travel Arrangements housing or basic needs these are the ones who cannot move on on their own because they have no means these are the ones we're really having to do a heavy lift with so the city of El Paso and OEM and how are we helping the sponsored migrants sponsored typically processed like we talked about earlier in a couple of hours that's done at the Welcome Center as well as the ngos throughout the region they provide support to them whether it's charging their cellular device making sure they have connectivity through Wi-Fi and they connect them with their sponsor so they can hopefully get those same day travel Arrangements that's what we're really shooting for is to get them moving as fast as possible and so with that we make sure they get their food their basic needs are met they get any first aid that they might be in need of if they're not able to get that same-day transportation we make sure we arrange Hotel shelter if needed and then we give them transportation to to the airport or bus stations as they need how are we helping with the unsponsored migrants well this process says as I talked about takes a lot longer they have no point of contact they have no financial support so this is where we're working with ngos and shelters and we're finding what is the destination of these unsponsored migrants so where is it that they want to go from there we're making sure we provide those basic necessities we've talked about from food and first aid to Hotel shares if needed but our main thing is to get them on transportation to the cities that they choose with that the the far the two cities selected the most is New York City followed by Chicago we've had some smaller locations identified for those we're helping out with individual travel but we're making sure that everyone gets to go where they're going or we're trying to make sure that everyone gets to go where they're going as city manager talked about on September 30th city manager myself some more City officials one of our Representatives here we all travel down to visit Brownsville and McAllen Texas we met with both the communities and the ngos down there the goal was to be able to share to communicate get that best practice and ideas on how they're handling it there so looking at what they're seeing down there this is this slide tells you a lot and so you look at the numbers and you can look at laredo's the highest one there at 15 nine this is for the month of September uh important highlight that we did learn while we were down there is less than 10 percent of them are unsponsored so when we talk about we're seeing 50 percent less than 10 percent of that 16 000 right there was unsponsored what's the difference with here in El Paso so September alone we saw 26 000. again 50 of them are are unsponsored those are the ones we're actually having to set up with the charters those are the ones we're having to put in hotels for for delays because Chargers can't couldn't keep up with the onset and so these are the ones we're really focusing on so again we've talked about El Paso being an isolated region compared to other cities in the Rio Grande Valley and that's why we're having to rely on those charter buses we don't have those travel hubs within a couple of hours for them if they have to connect with the travel Hub it's it's a couple hour bus ride and their buses are right back to take the next trip we don't have that luxury law we don't have any cities that are very close to us we don't have any ngos willing to take unsponsored either and so that's something we continue to work on is how do we build up our NGO Partnerships around the country because we want to look at those that are willing to accept the unsponsored as we've talked about from the onset we're focusing on five main areas and it's the welcoming them and that's the part where they first get into the processing center whether it's at the ngos or our welcoming Center down in northeast El Paso and so from there we're looking at welcoming what are your needs what do you need for right now and what is your means to get to where you want to go we utilize Sheltering hotels rather than than cots and congregate shelters it's more Humane as city managers we've talked about several times now there's a lot of family and it's passing through our community it's about giving them the privacy and and the the isolation that they need so they can take care of their families as they're entering here we make sure they're you know the feeding operation will make sure they have food water basic needs we're offering first aid if needed and then we're looking at their transportation whether they have a sponsor and they just need that connectivity or whether they don't have a sponsor and they've chosen a city where they want to go to if we have a charter there and when can we get them on one of those charters we also have City Staffing for NGO shelters and so when we look at that we have numerous we have four employees embedded within the food banks alone so that's that's to help prepare the meals that they're serving on a daily basis to the migrants passing through our community we also have out of those employees that I talked about those 60 those 70 employees we have them embedded with local ngos as well and so they're helping with their housing operation the cost behind that is to make sure they don't they don't fall that they don't have difficulties because as we've been struck with having difficulties hiring they're having those same difficulties with recruitment for volunteers and so volunteerism wasn't isn't what it was like in 2018 2019 it wasn't as heavy as a load because there was a lot as it is today because they had a lot more people volunteering again that welcoming Center is that making sure they have that safety and well-being getting making sure they get those basic needs and then tailoring to resources is what they need so that's tailoring whether they just need that connectivity piece they need some help arranging flights or whether it's moving them over to someone who's going to connect them via one of their charters Transportation as we've talked about it it happens on the daily with Sun Metro providing services to airports and bus stations these are both from local shelters and our welcome center and back and forth we're also utilizing the charters um today as of October 6th we had sent 207 charges with over 9 800 that the number come 10 changes the climb yesterday we had nine Charters out and today I think we're unscheduled to have the same that Charter coordination we are providing daily manifests and and notifications to both Chicago and New York City where we work with their local and state Emergency Management teams their ngos in in those respective cities as well as their Emergency Management offices Sheltering NGO Sheltering sorry NGO Sheltering our Hospitality sites so we have 50 City staff embedded to provide the support and search hotels this is what I was talking about a couple of slides ago where we have employees actually embedded with them that's to make sure that they can continue providing the services they do the local Sheltering system the ngos have been doing handling this effort for years a city manager talked about we don't hear a lot of information coming out because it usually just happens smoothly where we're providing you know minor minor items just to help them along what we're seeing right now what started in August is that this this surge that we're in right now these high numbers that we're seeing and as the the sheer number of those who are unsponsored if we go back to 2018 2019 they're 95 plus percent of everyone Crossing through had sponsors there was very few that didn't one thing that does remain constant as it did back in 2018 and 2019 is they're not wanting to stay in El Paso there's just a point of Passage and they're moving on to their final destinations we do our Sheltering through hotels we're making sure we provide a meals security and shuttle transport to get them either to one of the charters that we've hired or to the airport or bus terminals we talked about we also continue with the covet isolation in quarantine hotels and that's for our NGO Hospitality sites and our homeless shelters alike all right this is an important slide when we're hearing you know the the cost and what we're seeing and so we we dug deep and we worked with uh purchasing and finance and and the teams and we did some some cost estimating so what we're doing for hotels if we're looking at this right here it's about 118 dollars per person per day that's to house 500 people I mean look at the next one that 2.5 million per month that's 167 day that's using a large emergency type Sheltering what you're used to where you see large areas with cots that's less Humane and a lot more costly the services the wrap around services that go with that are intensive the security that's needed when you have that many people in One open or one open space it makes it that much more difficult so this is why we're utilizing the hotel model but also the one thing that the chief has told me about and you can speak to this Chief is that our situation here is we have a lot of single adults a lot of them male and you don't want to put them all in one small setting like that you want to make sure you you have more space and again the example I gave you was McAllen dealing with primarily all families and Brownsville they're dealing with single adults again mostly male and they're just processing them on both ends of it just like we were in 18 and 19 because they're all sponsored again this the sponsor non-sponsor sponsors not really complex uh and and yes everything's time consuming and costs money but the the people who have the funds it's essentially we're just almost holding their hand through the process whereas people that don't have the money or the means you're not just holding their hand through the process you have to also then pay for the process because they don't have any funds and as I said before once they get processed by CBP we're not just going to let them out on the street I don't think this community will stand for it we as an organization won't stand for it and that's the reason when that did occur we we we did remove them from the street and we did clean it up and when we removed them we we sent them to different shelters and or to hotels in order again to keep the process moving that that is an important point so we looked at that last slide and we look at the Sheltering of 500 that's a large number of single adult males to keep in one general area and so that that's the concerns we have that's where hotels are a lot safer alternative in in what we're seeing is just because it gives you that built-in separation it gives you the the walls the confines of a room you don't have a large people congregated in one confined area the hotels we are utilizing have direct access to the outdoors so they don't have like a common area where they're entering a hallway or off of a courtyard or something like that they are open to the outside so that does thank you sir so that does assist looking at our food operations we talked about the emergency Sheltering hotels we're also providing meals at the migrant Welcome Center we want to make sure that they have a a warm lunch before they take their Charter Journey um isolation and quarantine that continues to be utilized as we talked about and then we have the staff embedded the four staff members I talked about within the food bank and Salvation Army our dashboard our dashboard's a new addition we are hearing comments that there's some more information that we'd like to see on here and we're working to see how we can refine that and make sure it's as useful as Pop as possible but we're trying to be as transparent as possible and we want to make sure that we're showing you all as well as the community what we're seeing on a daily basis so when you start hopefully you've all had time to look at it but when you do start going through it you'll see how it's increased over the past six seven weeks I mean the numbers are just drastically climbing and right now we're not seeing any relief even last night's apprehensions were again back up to 2100 Mark so we might have saw a lull where it dropped right between 2000 for one day this month but it wasn't that long of a low foreign so cost recovery as we've talked about we're utilizing the FEMA emergency food and shelter program and then I'll let Finance talk to embed expended and reimbursed accounts Cody manage managing representative Rivera's hand is up I don't know if we've addressed that or we're waiting till the end no I'll wait till the end man okay all right thank you so much so as um we are of course preparing the reimbursement packet for the third quarter as you can see it's approximately 4.6 million dollars at this point um as we continue to ensure payroll posts we're looking at final numbers the true actual expenses that number might continue to change slightly and they will be estimates until we have finalized the reimbursement application and next you'll see on the next line as a city manager mentioned sorry and we can go back to slide 25. as the city manager city manager mentioned since July we are seeing that six million dollar cost with including the expenses we've seen just in October through last Thursday of approximately 1.56 million dollars we continue to see on average about 250 000 in expenses per day again it fluctuates depending on the number of charges that are needed and the number of people that we do have in their hotels as of last week and as of today we still have not received the two million dollars that was that we received notification from the emergency food and shelter program next slide this slide we did provide it back when we presented on September 27th but what we've added here is that we continue to be in constant contact with both Congress for women at Escobar's office as well as the emergency food and shelter national board so we did receive an email on October 4th that indicated that we would have to wait until all the grants are complete before working on another Grant so no timeline was provided as to when we should receive The Upfront up front funds for the city next slide so a little bit about the emergency food and shelter national board program as the as the chief d'agostina had mentioned it was really originally set up for homeless assistance since then there has been funding that was made under the U.S Department of Homeland Security's appropriation Act of 2022 for 150 million dollars and this was specific to assisting these families and individuals crossing the Southwest border and encountered by DHS next slide so we as we look at the guidance part of the original guidance for the humanitarian relief funding was that the expenses for long-distance Transportation will be prioritized for up to 30 percent of the migrant population served so just to clarify before this before August 23rd the office of emergency management was not in a position where we had to uh transport people long distance this is the first time we've encountered the situation where there's such a large number of unsponsored as the city manager and the chief sedated and so now with our involvement we have seen unprecedented numbers of long-distance transportation so it caused two issues one is we needed clarification so what does this 30 percent of the migrant population serve mean so is it 30 percent of all migrants that we're seeing in the area since we do collaborate with our ngos we do collaborate with the non-profits in the churches in the area wouldn't we include those individuals as well so we've asked for that clarification in addition to the clarification we know we're submitting a request for reimbursement this month by the end of the month and in order to ensure that we're going to receive uh reimbursement we also want to make sure we're addressing the travel cap so we did ask for an exemption to this travel cap in addition to the clarification to ensure we've covered all bases and truly are addressing this portion of the original guidance since then on August 5th we're still receiving we still are pending a response we were informed that they would have a board meeting at the end of last week we have not heard back from them since in addition to this guidance they did submit an addendum that we received on September 27th that went into effect on September 22nd this addendum provided additional clarification on them the support and assistance that we needed to provide as part of the transportation to these individuals that we are transporting long distances we have been reviewing of course the guidelines and we feel that we are in complete um alignment with these guidelines the only one that still remains in question is of course the one that's on here on this slide thank you so in closing before I open it up for questions I'd just like to remind everyone that the county opened up their sponsoring Center yesterday they're they're servicing the sponsored and so they brought in I believe 77 people there over there yesterday they were able to connect 70 of them with travels so so that's that's an added to the community that's 70 less we didn't have to process it at our facility and so that does help just some key highlighted points is the sheer numbers we're seeing today coupled with the fact that 50 of them are unsponsored the sponsored is a lot easier of a task in in the fact of you're just getting them that connectivity getting them that first aid making sure they have some food and water and then getting them to their to their either the airport or the one of the birth or to the bus terminal so so that's that process we've got to remember that the unsponsored comes with a lot more a lot more lifts you're finding out where they're going where is it that they want to be where is their final destination there's been a lot of reporting that talks about people getting to New York or Chicago and saying that wasn't their destination well we're asking them several points in the process and we're trying to clarify that here before they leave because we don't want to send anybody to where they don't want to go so that's that's a large part of that process is kind of working with them and filtering down a little bit more so we can make sure we can connect them with the destination they're actually want to go to and so with that I will open up another question Chief will you make two more points to the council insofar as the destination is that just through us but aren't they also communicating so that's what they're ngos and then the other thing is how many what's the numbers that we're processing at the Welcome Center I know the number but I'd like you to say it to the council that's absolutely correct so we're seeing we're seeing about 500 a day directly from Customs and Border Patrol but that's not the only done numbers we're seeing at the Welcome Center we're also getting transports in from the local ngos so the local shelters if you can imagine we received 500 yesterday they received 400 yesterday if half of ours were unsponsored half of what they received is unsponsored so we're having to pick up those those extra 200 and we'll bring them back to our processing center so that we can get them on on the charters and move them on so that is a daily test so just to be clear so when CBP releases them to us and it's not going to say the number is 500. what the chief is saying also is the numbers that are released to the ngos they then get released to us as well so we're not just processing the 500 they gave us we're also processing the numbers that are that are dropped off at the NGO so I want to I want to be clear about that so everyone understands it's a high number that's being processed and half of them are unsponsored I've seen days as high as 750 800 have been processed at our facility alone and so that's on that's on a daily they're operational seven days a week city manager Gonzalez talked about earlier that the toll is taking on the employees and it does take that toll as you saw in the video we have some very passionate employees who really care about what they're doing and that's what makes our organization so great but at the end of the day it's still it's a heavy task and it's it's a demanding task that's being put in on them on the daily thank you chief for your presentation and I just on behalf of all of us here want to commend you in all the hard-working staff members that are working through this migrant crisis representative anello did you have a question or not anymore okay so I believe representative rivetta followed by representative Rodriguez thank you thank you mayor Tim appreciate that uh Chief and uh Mr Gonzalez and staff thank you all very much that's a very good uh presentation you just did uh one thing that I'd like to ask of you and maybe I I know the answer but maybe for the Public's interest please could uh either you or Mr Gonzalez please take the difference between the city of El Paso's processing center and that of the uh and that of the uh towney and are we duplicating services so the city of El Paso's welcoming Center is accepting you know up to 500 people a day directly from Customs and Border Patrol we don't we don't have any Clarity of what the makeup is what we're seeing on the constant is 15 50 of them are sponsored 50 are unsponsored the county has just started up their operations they started yesterday slowly I expect them to ramp up over the days but they are receiving sponsored and so the sponsored is is a is a it's a different one it's connecting them with flights what they are doing different than what we're doing here is they've also partnered with the NGO I believe in Houston so a lot of them are making their flight Arrangements on flights out of Houston and so they're being put on a shuttle bus taken to Houston and they catch their flights from there how does that help the system how is that not a duplication of efforts that relieves the burden here on the Local transportation as we've talked about several times and and it's not just migrants but we are regionally isolated we are in urban Island we have limited Transportation hubs and so with that by by having them fly out of another city that does assist with the sponsored again because the sponsored are the ones you're putting on you're wanting to get on those same day flights or same-day buses out of town okay and then uh subsequently that you mentioned you mentioned earlier on the on the buses that you you've been sending out to different uh NGO locations that is per request right that is not because the city is just sending them out yes sir we asked him several times as uh city manager Gonzalez talked about earlier it's not just done by us when they're out at the ngos they're getting asked there what is your means they're determining out there if they're sponsored or unsponsored from there they're actually asking them where is your destination city so by the time the ngos the enunciation house or one of our local shelters is reaching out to us they actually have a a log of how many people want to go to what cities and so that's how we're doing it we're not telling them you're going to New York or Chicago they're asking for those locations we're just connecting them with that Charter okay and so at the end you will maintain I know you said uh 50 that we're getting here as opposed to Laredo is 10 we're non-sponsored we are keeping a record of the presidential non-sponsored migrants from from the others that are that are coming through El Paso correct yes we are tracking those numbers thank you so much and again thank you so much for the presentation yes sir uh thank you mayor Pointe thank you one other thing I'd like to add to that point that the chief made with regard to being an urban island in the RGV area they have several options you know the Houston is an option San Antonio is an option uh Austin is an option and those are four to six hour bus rides might be a little bit longer on the Houston but it's it's about that much to get to a big Hub here you'd have to go on a bus at least 10 to 11 hours if not 12 to the Dallas area so that's a big difference and a lot of people have asked us about our costs I'm sorry Mr Gonzalez I'm sorry Mr Gonzalez your whole conversation was was lost in audio over here I didn't hear I apologize for that but uh I just got the message that they had lost audio or your Trans on yours on your response to me can can you hear me sir yes I can hear you now okay I'll repeat that I was just making a fine point to what the chief was explaining with regard to being an urban Island I was saying that the RGV area the Rio Grande Valley and the McAllen Brownsville Harlingen area the the migrants that they're working with and getting them to their destination and again the majority of them are sponsored uh it's it the access is closer to a big metropolitan area like San Antonio like Austin like like Houston and that's anywhere between a four or five hour bus ride to San Antonio to then a little bit longer to Austin which is an hour away from from San Antonio a little bit longer to Houston so you're looking at a five hour eight to six seven hour even maybe eight hour to Houston whereas here just to get to like the Dallas area would on a bus would probably be about 11 12 hour uh ride so that that's a significant difference in terms of the processing that takes place and why it's considerably more expensive here and and also the the other point the reason why it's considerably more expensive here is because again they don't have the network that the ones that did have in the 1819 late into 19 and even into 20 and 21. as I said before you didn't really get any updates from us uh up publicly you got some updates maybe some email or you you would call because everything was was operating fairly smoothly and those reimbursements even though it was costly it was a lot less expensive than what we're quoting now in terms of the numbers thank you sir and thank you for that because I believe the public there's there's still high percentage out there and the public don't understand really what we're doing or have actually taken the time to go see your processing center which is very very accommodating and very very uh save environment for them that they feel so comfortable and so I really want to thank you all for what you do thank you so much thank you representative rebetta representative Rodriguez followed by representative molinar hi good afternoon um you know as usual your presentation is always very informative um there's no denying that there's no denying that you all are doing exceptional work that the city of El Paso is being represented very well um but my concerns are that we continue to do this at the cost of our local taxpayers we were promised over four weeks ago two million dollars how we received that money for upfront cost no and now I'm looking at at slide number three and I'm seeing um Luna County Dona Ana County Otero County El Paso County and hudspeth County is it correct to assume that all the apprehensions that are happening there are being brought over to El Paso the unsponsored ones so let me let me I'm thinking about that one and it's just because that's the Customs and Border Patrol the El Paso sector goes from the Arizona border so all the the New Mexico Mexico border all through West Texas down through hudspeth right so that's why they're all they're all processed here right but at the end of the day that those are five counties yes ma'am we are responding to five counties the city of El Paso is responding to five counties and not one of those counties is doing anything to step up and help the city of El Paso so some some of the migrants that are released in Southern New Mexico they're going to local ngos over there and so some of those ngos are working through the enunciation house and through the NGO network but they're actually shuttling people who are are sponsored up through Albuquerque so that it can get their connection flights out of Albuquerque right but the unsponsored again the vast majority are coming through and we're seeing we're seeing at the 90 percent is that correct 90 percent of the migrants are unsponsored fifty percent fifty percent unsponsored yes sir so we're at the 90 number come from I talked about previous times 95 of what was passing through so when we saw the surge in late 2018 2019 those surges well over 95 of them were sponsored that's the difference from then to today and you also heard 90 earlier when we said 90 of Brownsville they were single uh males adults uh in the Brownsville area so that's where you heard the 90 okay 90 of what they're seeing is sponsored okay but okay but still 50 percent of all the migrants that we're seeing that are unsponsored are coming to the city of El Paso um did the county receive their their six thousand dollars for upfront operations six million I'm sorry 6 million they did receive them actually actually they got approved and they're getting that on a monthly basis so so they're getting all the way up front what I understand now not speaking for them they might have different numbers but the last time I talked to Betsy she said that they got the 6 million approved and that they're giving that to them on a monthly basis but six million a month no no no no no 600 000 excuse me six million for the year was approved and then they're allocating the 6 million over a 12-month period so you just divide the 12 into the 6 million and it's um half a million but yeah half a million approximately okay and that's for the center that they that they set up that is correct okay I mean again um Chief would you would you do a recommendation of us declaring a disaster declaration this point in time there's a couple assets here so at this point in time we're managing the the situation going on here so yes for that that aspect we're managing that the difficulty we have is we've been promised the 2 million we haven't received it we got word it's supposed to be coming in this week it's it's for those reasons why why we're we're cautious about what we're doing and how do we proceed we've also talked about and I think one of the slides that that Miss Cody covered was the correspondence with FEMA and with the emergency food and shelter grant we're waiting for that documentation because that's very important to outline first of all we're going to need to change the 30 cap when you're seeing 50 of the population through our community being unsponsored and we're providing services to them we're automatically going to hit that so we need to get that answer rather quickly but they have it that coupled with the reimbursement process itself we're asking for more time on this response in that and we want to know how they calculate that 30 percent is it on the annual or is it for the performance period so those are those are the fine details we're waiting for their response when you take all those into account a declaration allow gives us the opportunity to ask the state for resources there's no guarantee but it gives us that opportunity could it be beneficial yes in the fact that maybe they'll send us Personnel to help do the processing which right now we know we know we're using over 125 Personnel so could it benefit us there yes if they sent down charters that would be less Charters that we'd have to sponsor or pay for up front and so that that's what that declaration would get us if we did do a declaration but we're at one of those points right now where we're waiting for that final documentation from from the federal government from FEMA to make sure that what we're doing can continue on and that they're going to provide those waivers but there's a point here where once we get close to that 30 percent we're going to have to make that hard decision because at that point is is how much does the city want to carry on their own without that guarantee or you know I promise of reimbursement I just feel that that we're taking a huge risk and we're taking a huge risk at the cost of the taxpayers our local taxpayers here in El Paso and to me for my constituents that's not a risk that they're willing to take um you know while we're what we're doing is very admirable somebody else needs to be paying for this and it should not be the taxpayers here in El Paso and so I think that I I don't I don't understand why we keep taking this risk first of all second of all if we're gonna you know believe we haven't even gotten the two million dollars and now we're seeking further clarification I don't understand you know that to me is a huge liability that's a huge red flag and we're playing with other people's money at this point so if I may I know that when we were responding to the immigration crisis that started in 18 late 18 and continued and when we did the when we endured the hate crime in August and then the pandemic and the flooding just different issues the process entails us uh evoking a state declaration or asking the state to acknowledge our declaration in order to open up State resources so we followed the same process here so we give you the best advice and we did this several weeks ago if not months ago where we recommended the course to take which is very similar to the others no different and um Council had a long discussion about that and and where we landed was the local emergency ordinance which gave us the latitude the agility to do the things we've been doing up to this point but I also think we're past the local ordinance no you did yeah the council did pass that no no like we're past that no I understand that and I understand that and I'm going to address your concern I know I'm apologize being a little long-winded about it but with respect to coming full circle to the point that you made with respect to you know taking a chance we did submit uh all the different reimbursements the first two reimbursements we did submit one of them did take I think nine months finally did get that reimbursement and the they also reimbursed the first quarter uh the second second quarter rather uh and so now we're going to submit the third quarter and then we've asked for this money up front so I just want to be clear the only point I was making is that we we have followed the same process uh we we have been Vigilant about the financial and fiduciary responsibility that we have in terms of what we recommend to you I'm not disagreeing with your with your thought process I'm simply saying that the council did consider those options um and and as the chief said it wouldn't guarantee us funding and right now we're working with our federal partners and we have already talked about how it's taxing to the system to the to the to the team because of all these different ongoing emergencies that we've done the brunt of in terms of the response that's our job and and with respect to this one it's more like I said it's a federal issue that we're partnering with our federal Partners to deal with it to work work with it to respond to it and yes we we do we'd like these reimbursements we have asked for reimbursements to be done on the monthly basis going forward not waiting months in order to reimburse it and not wait until for a whole quarter to go by and elapse and that's just wait wait wait because we're basically financing those costs I mean it's no different than you upfronting something for a neighbor and saying and then saying we'll pay you you know in three months or nine months or a year and I'm paying this interest for the money that was loaned out because we're financing this operation so I'm not I'm not debating the issue with you I was just simply just providing more context in terms of what actions we've taken what we've recommended what's been approved what hasn't been approved and then where we are today that's all I was simply doing representative Rodriguez you have one minute thank you and I will just end with this you know I know that recently the mayor of New York said that you know the city of New York did not ask for this um the city of El Paso did not ask for this and they did however declare a disaster declaration so they're getting that additional access to that extra funding um I think that it's been long overdue I was promised by the mayor that if this got any worse back when we first started this local ordinance that he would declare a disaster declaration and that has yet to happen and that wasn't just a promise to me that was a promise to my constituents so with that you know I am going to be give serious thought into the next item whether I want to consider it or not thank you I would like to just add one more point on that is I don't know what additional funding that New York makes them entitled to I I don't know of any Grant fund specific I mean right now what they're using through the FEMA emergency food and shelter again as we've talked about that's for homelessness that's for regular homeless it's not for emergency response so I don't know of any other funding stream that actually fits this other than the federal government stepping up and handling it like a true Refugee crisis and providing for them so they can be successful in this country so so other than that as far as going back to the statement on the Grant and what we're risking We are following the grant guidance as it reads we're asking for clarification before we get past that point so everything we're doing right now we're working within the guidance that that Grant tells us we have to work in that tells us will be allowed for reimbursement we're working under that guidance and we'll continue to do that and We'll advise you as our numbers continue to climb thank you thank you representative Rodriguez a representative molinar is next thank you very much mayor Pro tem so uh Chief if you could explain to us when is it that um did you say when it's a migrant enters the United States is that when they're in um I'm going to say custody of CBP or is it when they get to our processing center that we determine whether they are sponsored or unsponsored that's more of a question from our federal Partners but in conversations with them specifically right here at the West Bridge they explain that they take it as the time they're taking in custody so once they see him cross over and they tell them you cannot go back at that point they're in custody and so that's when the timer starts from that point there that's why at the West Bridge they set up that they called the top system and it's it's as it's a few trailer units and some some tents and canopies and they're actually doing the processing there so while while it's an illegal Port of Entry because it's not a Port of Entry it's an illegal entry point they're actually doing the processing from that location so the CBP is the ones that are going to make that determination for us or for the migrants okay um also I know a local media had shared some information about bus transportation where you know let's just say the buses here in El Paso were clean there were service there were good operating conditions and things like that and then let's just say they get to Dallas area or even before they get to the Dallas area or even once they get transported to beyond the Dallas they're going to have another bus and some of these buses are breaking down there's no air conditioning there's no HVAC are in the whatever my situation might be are we doing anything to address that so like like all of our contracts we monitor closely we've heard as far as I know operations has only heard of a couple of incidents where they've had some bus issues I do know that they do transfer they transfer buses midpoint wherever that midpoint may be but that's that's in order to meet our demands and so to make sure that we're getting those buses returned in a timely manner because as we said we're sitting anywhere from 9 to 14 a day that that's a substantial amount so rather than having them continue all the way to the east coast and then back they're going to the halfway point and changing it out it is still a contract that we monitor they have to provide the service the working Vehicles the the restroom facilities the scheduled breaks the the double drivers The Chaperone if you persuade it it's also on that bus those still have to be required regardless of what they do so we have those contracts in place directly with those Charter companies and then they're handling their operations from there okay great thank you and so um do we have any I'm not asking for numbers but the numbers that we send on let's just say I'm going to use for example New York City and the numbers that New York City receives are they matching are we losing people and I understand a migrant once he's here or she's here they're free to get off the bus they're free to travel they're free to do something else besides maybe their final destination of New York City are those numbers matching at all or they're like I know I've heard some instances where people have gotten off and like I said the the drivers will try and explain to them you're scheduled to go all the way to New York City that's where you requested but at that point they're free to go on their own I don't have a true number of how many those are we provide a manifest with the number of people and ages and some basic identifiers on that to the receiving City I'm sure they're getting a checking off who's getting off at that point so we could gain access to that and um I want to go to slide 2626 where it says wait until the current grants are complete is that our grants or other people's other grantees grants being having to be completed so it's I don't I don't know if Miss Cody's still on the line but from what I understand it's the end of the granting cycle for that specific Grant so they're doing all the Closeouts at this point and so that's when I mean we've seen it in all types of Grants where they're trying to balance out people didn't spend all their funding some over and so that's where they're coming up with that Edition this is on the federal side yes sir okay do we have a date for that that they have to uh cycle not that I've seen no all right thank you sir that's all I have yes sir thank you representative Molina next is representative anello followed by representative Salcido thank you um yeah Chuchu what you were saying about New York I was on a phone call with a lot of them last week ngos in the mayor's office but what they're calling is a like a shelter emergency right um because they have certain protocols in place on how they can maintain numbers in their shelters um and the big concern was to be able to uh like overfill that capacity so they are in a way yeah so just to piggyback off what you were saying um but I I want to ask you because there has been some comments about not following through with the next item and so um you as prior Chief uh who is overseeing OEM and this process if Council does not pass that item what do you do when you leave this building okay uh but what okay so we don't do it what are you going to do when you lose we cannot operate in the manner that we're operating we're working under that emergency department so the services we're providing and the expenses we're going through and the procurement methods we're following we're given that through the guidance of the local emergency ordinance I'm sorry man in other words uh we don't have the authority to do what we're doing right now without that approval because it's not in our state of work uh it's the federal government's work and so the reason we were able to step in and do what we're doing is because of the local emergency ordinance that gave us the authority within that statement of work for me to be able to direct our staff to do all these things that they've been doing so that again we don't have all these things everybody was that the media was reporting on about people on the streets and things like that we have to be able to respond quickly to it because it's not our work right so y'all made it our work by that local emergency ordinance my apologies no no I appreciate that clarification it's really helpful um but but my overall question is what happens what do you do without an emergency ordinance or an emergency declaration we stopped providing the services we're providing and then what will happen in this community I mean I know you'd be speculating at this point but I think that you have a pretty good uh pulse to what's going on in the ground that you could imagine pretty accurately what would happen if we're accepting 500 from CBP directly on a daily basis you can imagine those 500 would be released to the community just to the streets if we're also assisting the ngos with with upwards of 150 200 a day then you can imagine that they would have nowhere to move on to and so that the the whole NGO the whole Sheltering operations they have going on is based on the rapid movement of people and connecting them to the locations where they want to go so with that it'll backlog rather quickly so our local ngos and our local Sheltering capacities will be at Max within a day or two that that's speculation but that's what you could imagine the reason why he said we'd be asking you to declare is because you would have a state of emergency yeah people on the streets you would have a a public health issue you would have a public safety issue um and and you know I know that there's been all these questions about are we doing this doing that all these different articles that have come out but we that's why we did the dashboard and that's why we were extensive in our in our discussion with you today again Mr nello my apologies are interrupting no it's okay I mean I I wish it would have come after my next question but I will say in response that I will not be strong-armed into declaring a state of emergency that is created by this Council right you are all doing everything that you can under the emergency that you're asking us to approve and if that doesn't pass I will not be approving the next because of a situation created by this Council but I'm going to jump backwards and ask you Chief as the and I hope I got this correct I've been getting everyone's new titles wrong so I apologie as the deputy city manager over Public Safety is that correct yes ma'am okay um imagine that we do not pass this uh 500 people a day are being left on the streets uh presumably downtown they could be in the Northeast they could be over by Hawkins they could be everywhere and anywhere and we haven't declared a state of emergency what do you suspect happens what do you do as the the individual that oversees Public Safety that that that truly is would be creating a public health and safety crisis okay and so that's where we'd be at we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing today we could do temporary items it doesn't stretch Beyond but even those would be outrun rather quickly and so with that you would see large numbers of people Gathering unless CBP did something different unless the federal government did something different they shipped them they shipped they transported these people for release to other areas other regions not just the Border but maybe looking internal these are all conversations we had with them but if they don't without doing that and they go back to Street releases that's what we would see would be and we can't imagine that if you leave this room today without this item passed that they're going to be doing that in the next 48 hours and so I'm going to ask you what is a preferable situation oh the preferable situation yes sir because you'd be dealing with this either way right so it's it's it's it's the work work by passing or not passing the next item we are creating um a whole amount of work for you right either way so we're just preferable to you preferable to me would be the federal government to do something different sure but I mean in regards to what we can do outside of that to keep up with transportations is very critical if we'd stop transportations for even a day you can imagine the backlog we would be in if we're sending out 10 buses a day roughly 500 people like and we stop for just one day the following day I couldn't get 20 Charters I don't think we could muster up that many buses to leave town and so with that you're looking into Sheltering already and that Sheltering that's that's utilizing more hotel rooms the cost is going to be there somewhere and so you're now you're going to shelter but the whole point then if it continues with these releases that we're seeing on The Daily 10 a thousand to twelve hundred a day that's that that just keeps climbing where it's a number where you can't get out of it so the best course of action from from an operational standpoint is to continue with the transportation process to make sure that we're connecting them with the destinations they're choosing okay thank you Chief so I guess what I'm hearing is that um the the following item that this Council will have to approve unanimously really determines your response to the situation and the help that you get in the organization of how the city will have to respond because they will have to and it's either in an organized Safe Way a humane way or it's in an absolutely chaotic way that has created a public health and safety disaster and thank you and so I'm going to reiterate uh based on Mr Gonzalez's response I as an individual I'm not going to be strong-armed into I keep getting these these incorrect but disaster declaration correct um if this Council does not pass this item and then tries to pass a disaster declaration I will not be supporting that am I am I using the right terminology I understand what you're saying we would have to ask the mayor or the County Judge to declare an emergency by state process by State Statute yes Neiman can clarify this for me if I'm making any mistakes but it has to go through them okay they could still deny again but it leaves us in the same boat and as I said without this morning ordinance and without the ability to continue the transports it'll put us at a deficit that I don't know how long it'll take us to get out of it okay and that'll be a disaster created by this Council by not following through with the next item you don't have to answer that that's my statement thank you Chief I appreciate you thank you representative and I'll uh representative Salcido followed by representative Rodriguez and I did also want to say something thank you alternative mayor protemp um so I know that I supported this ordinance I back in I think in May and it was very important for us to address this in our community it was for us to set procedures processes in place in order for us to be where we're at today you know hearing the numbers they're quite concerning I think the fact that we're not getting that FEMA money is real concern to me I think we're we have we said it before this is not sustainable um it's kind of like reiterating the same thing it's just our communities really you know we're trying to balance everything out and making sure that everything is being addressed so I I thank you for that dashboard that you all created I I did have some questions though that I do see that aren't on there so um more on the cost um just if you can give me some estimates or some amounts like weekly like what are we spending on are we spending anything on air so Transportation all together you know if we look at for the first six days of October alone so we we put Local transportation probably around the 17 000 or right around the 17 000 range Transportation by bus which is our Charter at 1.3 million that's the largest one of them then we have some maintenance Personnel seems to be a very high cost as well right now followed by um meals and isolation so that's a hotel system and so we we are tracking them we're probably not probably we are in approximately the 250 000 a day range they're still within this operation so we're so I know we've got an influx or additional um has it really deviated from the 250 000 a day right now it's holding steady right there it did have a couple of Spike days where it did climb up but for the last for this month it's been averaging right around 250. okay so kind of like in the in the route that we're currently going and we're not seeing any of that female money so it's kind of like the the checks in the mail um do you foresee you know us having to cut some services and if so what services will be cut if um you know the funding continues the way it's projecting to what services to this operation yes the city of El Paso services in the city of El Paso if this continues as added cost Mr Gonzalez I'm sorry man oh I'm just asking um you know you know in the rate that we're going to 250 dollars a day um 250 000. 250 000 a day uh what do you foresee us cutting um Services um for the city of El Paso if I mean this is not sustainable so do you foresee some Services being cut and and if so when and what services do you feel will be cut if we can't we continue at this rate and no FEMA money's coming in well it's definitely unsustainable we can't continue this rate of spend and a lot of people will say well then do a shelter the chief showed you the slide where it's more expensive to do a shelter I don't think people look at all of the different cost components to a shelter and we have seen that and this is in our first work that we've done with federal government or the state government with regard to emergencies so the fact that if this continues it would then impact the amount of of dollars that we have for other priorities in this community right now we're not impacting that because we have a strong financial portfolio one in which we didn't have eight eight years ago or nine years ago where we only had nine days of operating Capital but just because we've gotten stronger financially doesn't mean that we should take on this entire burden so we are being very um straightforward with you and all of the members of the Council on the Deus about our responses because I know this is a very emotional very highly charged discussion that's being had nationally in in the public so we want to make sure we're giving you the best advice and as I told you already the best advice is what we already recommended several months ago and it's not trying to force Council to do one thing or the other it's being inconsistent and we've been consistent with the council with this community for eight years since the council put a strategic plan in place and we execute it and so the recommendations we had before was to follow the same template that we have followed with all these other emergencies that we've had and yet we went the local emergency route the local emergency route at this particular time has to be approved it has to if if you don't approve it you'll have Chaos on the streets and that's a fact uh and and so I think the words were used earlier about trying to convince you to go one way or the other I'm not telling you that for for drama or anything like that that's a fact that that's what you would have if this is not passed uh the the other side of the coin is the state declaration to the concerns that you and Miss Rodriguez have expressed would get you to a better place uh we can't guarantee anything but we do know that if you declare that you do have resources that you that you had before in other emergencies right now I want to stress the federal government our congresswoman has championed these reimbursements she's worked very closely with us so she's been very very helpful so I do not want to give the impression that's a false impression that she nor the federal Partners have not been helpful but as I said before we're financing it and we have been pushing urging the federal Partners as I said before about the mayor calling the White House consistently I want to thank him for that I want to thank all of you also for all these different things that you've been exposed to and you've been making the right decisions for the community regardless of how you feel philosophically or just what you're hearing from your constituents you have to be be leaders right and you have been you've been forced to do that by the circumstances that we all all have to endure uh and as I said this isn't the first one so that's a long-winded answer but it's not an easy answer to your question because you know it's not a it's not just an All or Nothing uh we're forced into this compromise because we cannot let our community go into chaos we can't speak in regards to the county I just you know the process that they did and I guess I don't know if you 've all spoke to them um and that you mentioned that they're getting six million and they're getting it I guess monthly they're they're not only their promise they're getting something monthly what process did they do that we can do in order to be obtaining money monthly or or whatnot what is the process that they did that we we um we can implement well I agree with the process that they undertook but they had the ability to do that we we did not uh we we could not we couldn't uh just sit I sit by and not do anything um whenever we had the influx that occurred a couple of months ago so we had to act that's the reason why early on we put the state emergency the Declaration in front of you and that's why y'all passed the local emergency ordinance to what the chief has already described had we not done that we would be outside our state of work our statement of work as I've said before this is the federal issue it's become a local issue obviously but it's not in our statement of work when cities are put in place and and you have a local Charter and you pass that as a community and you and you incorporate the cities incorporate for the purpose of mainly streets water sewer Public Safety that's it all everything else is extra and I've had that discussion with Council and with other cities I've managed with regard to what's a core service and what's a want and what to need and people get offended when you talk about needs and wants and oh everything's a a core when they don't want to cut anything but cities are set up for police which is Public Safety police and fire us water and streets and and so we're not uh equipped or shouldn't be equipped to do this kind of work with its federal work however when you pass the local emergency ordinance which would give you an option to do whenever we were recommending the state declaration that gave us the ability to do this and we're doing it well and I want to commend our team I want to commend the chief the entire organization the legal department everyone in terms of how we've come together how the council has led us through this process it's not easy there's a lot of work that has to take place but all the work that's been taking place up to this point is because we had the local emergency ordinance enacted absent that we can't continue doing the work if y'all don't approve that and again you don't want to have that type of Chaos in your community report the record mayor liser has joined virtually the mayor's joined because we want to make sure and legal is advised you know the he has to be present in terms of this this vote uh and virtually is acceptable is that correct Miss demon yes that's correct Mr Gonzalez he has to consent to the ordinance if it's approved unanimously as you all know [Music] okay so um well I continue to still have great concern I we've keep saying it's not sustainable I think the writing is in the well what needs to happen I do also understand the operational standpoint of where where everything stands um but I definitely think that action needs to be taken and um you know we the numbers are adding up and we need to be um be cautious basically is be cautious with the taxpayer dollar as reviewing this and the approach we're taking and the actions that are taken by our leaders thank you and Miss Sophie though that was a very long response to get back to the Crux of your question uh the way it was done the county level is that they did not issue a local emergency ordinance I don't even know what I mean County and cities are different so I don't know what they can issue and what they can't issue so they didn't declare or anything like that so they had to go through a statutory bidding process and that that took several months and the reason why we set up the welcome triage Center so we were forced to do that because of that influx so they've done it in a more orderly process to answer your question and when they did that early process they also asked FEMA for that money and they said we won't set this up unless we get that money again we didn't have that ability to do that we had to react so that's more direct to your question I apologize for the very long response to your question earlier no I just wanted to also say just I know that the staff has been working hard and they've been doing a great job I do understand that so um I know that the county does actually have that contract currently and I I can they um how many do you know how many um processes can they handle daily they're start they're starting off with like like we talked about yesterday we're set to receive a hundred I believe they got 77 so they're looking to ramp up from there so they're not at that point yet and we are about how many we're telling custom supported Patrol they can bring 500 a day and plus we're working with those ngos which brings another two to three hundred in from from area shelters so we're processing around seven to eight hundred today and I know that you mentioned that they're only doing um sponsored is there does the contract preclude them helping out with non-sponsored their contract is forced it's just for sponsored okay okay thank you thank you representative uh welcome mayor Lisa I just wanted to make a I had a few questions then rep sorts behind then uh mayor Lisa and then we were going to go back to District Six representative Rodriguez and representative molinar thank you Chief thank you very much you were saying uh you know that we've been promised the two million dollars correct and that's it's supposed to be coming in this week right and so we're waiting for that documentation and the changing of the 30 cap and reimbursement spot yes ma'am um and then also you would say that a declaration gives us the opportunity to ask for personnel and to send down Charters um yes and that would give us that would provide us with the waivers so can you elaborate on that are those the waivers for the 30 cap or I don't recall saying waivers well I wrote it down and I had pretty good note taking okay I was just curious about what those waivers were but if you don't recall that that's fine so when do we reach the 30 percent cap yeah we're seeking a waiver and through State resources it's completely separate oh the waiver is separate than any part of a declaration excuse me yes that percentage just so I don't want to confuse things but if if you get 10 000 then you can then you can transport 3 000 when he says 30 so when it's 20 000 it's six thousand when it's thirty thousand nine thousand and so on and so forth so that number continues to move it doesn't stay static it just continues to grow but you could you could topple over yourself and get past the 30 or get near it and that's what he's saying and we want to make sure we we discuss that with Council because we knew that all along I know I think there was a story on it or things of that nature like it's brand new we knew that already you wanted to make sure we told Council that they were aware of it we had asked for that waiver already again it's just in the sense of full uh transparency and just being straightforward with y'all and the community of that number and that number just just continues to grow based on the crossings okay that that was my question just trying to get clarification on that um representative schwartzbein you're next thank you again uh alternative um I think that again I I think that we we need to sort of separate um the sort of longer term concerns with with reimbursement with the very real and immediate needs of this community and the public health and safety of this community having a situation where this council is is acting in any sort of jerky or drastic manner um that could endanger the health uh welfare and safety of el pasoans is something that we just need to be very aware and very cautious of um you know we heard it from the chief to be a very real concern that we would be having hundreds of people of Asylum Seekers sponsored and non-sponsored that would be that would be dropped off in the streets if we were not to continue the current operations that we have ongoing now and again to sort of play catch-up or startup again after sort of putting a pause on this really for for no reason based upon operational needs or otherwise uh could could be could be very dangerous for our community um as and again for the Public Health and Welfare of our community of those folks that are coming through those folks that are claiming Asylum we have a system that works we have a high performing government that has consistently LED through efficient practices uh through compassion and dignity and a willingness to augment augment and improve services and processes as well and we've seen that not just in the last three months or in the last three years but we have seen it when it relates towards his migrant issues since 2017 and we have seen those systems evolve and adapt the issue that we have is more of a medium term one in terms of questions about reimbursement that are still being resolved uh might or I might so that is I think separate from the immediate reality of the situation and that is that we have operations we have processes in place to be able to help to help alleviate the concerns of this community by helping to shelter transport and provide essential services to these Asylum Seekers so that they are get onto their place of Journey and we keep our community safe and we keep our community's values front and center and I think that that is something really important to understand is that as the chief currently said I'll ask the chief chief are we able to continue to do what we're doing at this point are we yes we're able to continue the operations that's going today but we'd like that clarity okay um I don't know if Robert cortinas is on here but what is the current budget overall for the city of El Paso at this point Nicole Cody is on the for all funds um it's 1.2 billion Cody you want to jump in do you have a more specific number so that's all funds that's the general fund that's all Enterprise funds and that does not include the capital project program which is almost a billion as well as well so together it's over two billion dollars and our rate stabilization Fund emergency rainy day funds is currently up at how at what level right now on what now or what grade stabilization Fund emergency rainy day fund I'm not exactly sure so all of that all of that gets um aggregated in one fund and we're at 88 days right now we were at nine days yes in 2013 2014 and so that was concerning now it's nearing 90 days and we will be having an item on the agenda on the 25th of October to speak to getting that over 90 days which that would be huge to go from to increase that by tenfold yeah and how much money is in that fund it's over 100 million over 100 million and that's funds that could be used for a variety of different reasons if you don't want to use those funds for something outside City operations uh however if you know we were struck by lightning or if you know we had a huge disaster that's why you you build up those funds in order to be able to use that and not have to tax people more you're able to use those funds but you have to plan those you can't just haphazardly spend those dollars no and and I understand that I just think it's it's important to point out that while we're still working with FEMA for this reimbursement um the fiscal burden is is not one where we're in a sort of cataclysmic um inflection point where we're going to have to be forced to shut down libraries and rec centers because we're dealing with uh Asylum Seekers and a Humane compassionate efficient way to make sure that our community is safe and we provide dignity to people and keep our community safe again pointing to one of those core needs of what our we do as a government which is Public Safety and to me um take away the politics from this take away your own sort of personal feelings about these Asylum Seekers this is a a question of Public Safety both for those people that are coming through but also for our community as well and I think that we have been rising to the occasion for the last five years in a way that's Guided by love in a way that's Guided by compassion um and as well as fiscal responsibility as well and so I just would caution my my colleagues that let's understand that some of the frustrations of dealing with a giant bureaucracy like the federal government should not Cloud the fact of the very near-term and immediate response of what we're doing and what we're doing is we have an incredibly well-trained flexible City staff who is time and time again risen up to the occasion to deliver exemplary Services um and and continues to to lead with El Paso values and I think that this is no different than that and we're not at a point yet where anything drastic or herky-jerky needs to occur we know that we have systems on the ground processes on the ground that are working that are efficient and that we are going to be reimbursed for it the reimbursement again is separate from what we're doing now but to going and throw that all into Jeopardy and to slow slow the process down I think would not be very responsible for any of our residents in this community and so again I just wanted to put that out there and want to thank again the chief and the city manager and All City staff who again um are are showing uh what our values are of a community to very vulnerable people and also keeping our community safe by not just talking about those values but by living by them thank you thank you mayor Pro Tem at this time will Council please make a motion to suspend the virtual attendance resolution in order to allow mayor laser to participate there's a motion in a second to suspend the virtual attendance resolution all in favor aye anyone opposed and the motion carries thank you thank you Miss Prine mayor Alicia I believe you had your hand up yes ma'am thank you very much and I and I appreciate you doing a great job also of leading the meeting and I thank you for it I think mayor Pro tem short spine I thank you for your statements I think that uh you know that our city is and we're Border City and and we have a responsibility to um to work with the federal government and to help Asylum Seekers and uh you know I've been working with the White House I had a meeting on on Saturday and we plan on having a meeting hopefully this week with the chief and michigansologist talk about because I told them that our goal is of course not to have any more muscles leaving our community and how we can work together and I told them from the beginning that uh you know we're here to assist the federal government and the federal government's not assisting us so it's really been really important in the job that we've been doing is to make sure that we have no one in the streets and if we did slow this down at any point from the past that would jeopardize that safety and and people would have to you know be released into the streets and that's a you know it's very important and I've been very adamant with the border patrol the White House the congresswoman that we do not want to have anyone put out onto the street because we want to make sure that we don't make people homeless that you know they have a place to sleep they have the warm food and make sure that we can help them and assist and uh I know it's been over two weeks now that we've had any Street releases and we'll continue to do that um one of the things that I did talk to the congresswoman and we've been talking with FEMA then we will have the two million dollars upfront money into our account tomorrow and um so that and then we have we've been reimbursed for quarter one which on on 9 21 Quarter Two was on 9 22. so we have not submitted to this point to my knowledge we've not submitted for reimbursement for quarter three as soon as we do that we will continue to work with whether it's the white house or congresswoman Mr Lee who whoever we need to work with to make sure that we get reimbursed in a timely manner I know there's other avenues of funding on the Mr Gonzalez and I talked about that the other day that will not impact the everyday um safety in the everyday budget and make sure that just like America said that the schools and libraries and say uh fire police everything will continue to operate in a normal manner again I I am very thankful for you know the way we're working together whether it's the county whether it's the city whether it's a CBP uh border patrol we're all working together as one to make sure that we continue to treat people with respect and we don't use people as a pawn so it's been we've done an incredible job together and we'll continue to do that um I was hoping to have that meeting that we're going to have uh yesterday or today and we've not been able to um to coordinate everybody at this point but hoping to do that that will help us understand that something has to happen that we can't continue and they understand that like I talked to them probably on a daily basis sometimes two three times and I will continue to do that to represent our city represent the Asylum Seekers to make sure that people are treated properly and and that our community is never endangered at any time and I can tell you that uh we're not and that we will need to make sure and continue to work to make sure that we do not have any Street releases and that people have a roof over their head a warm food and we're not going to send anybody where they don't want to go and and that will continue to act in that manner so all the money that so far we've asked for we've been reimbursed the two million dollars up front will be given to us tomorrow and that was verified on Saturday for me and we'll continue to do that I know that uh just and and I'll repeat mayor Pro tem a little bit that if we slow the process down we will jeopardize the safety of uh our silent Seekers and also the community because we will not be able to continue to work in the manner that we've been working with and again I think Mr Gonzalez we've talked about that there's other funds that we can use that we continue to use that will not be part of the city daily operating funds correct there is a potential to to do that yes mayor and so we're exploring all options yeah and that's what I'm saying so this is uh you know I I thank you all I know that um we talk daily basis sometimes two three four five times a day and uh we'll continue to do that and we'll continue to represent the city to make sure our city is well you know represented that we take care of people and that's the important part we're really doing a really good job of uh representing the American way and making sure that people are not used in a pond people are not disrespected and people will continue to have a roof food and continue to be treated properly so I um I thank you and this is an important you know step moving forward that uh that we'll continue to do that and make sure that it all continue to work really hard that our city continues to get reimbursed and I think that 30 percent was misrepresented as it was said not today but originally where we were talking about that only 30 percent of the money would be reimbursed it's 30 the total number and I used this in an interview with immediate if I shoot 10 free throws and I make five I make 50 if I shoot 20 and I make 10 I didn't make a hundred percent I'm still at 50 and that's how the 30 continues to be made I know that uh I said roughly almost 39 000 crossings that we had we were only at 16.1 percent so we're nowhere near the 30 and I can't see us getting anywhere near that ass we'll continue to work with the White House to get additional funding and also additional means so because I don't I think that we need to try to slow down you know assisting with transportation and allow them to do that thank you very much for doing an outstanding job and I thank you for that thank you mayor Lisa uh representative Rodriguez followed by representative mullinar thank you so my question was for chief but maybe you can answer me Mr Gonzalez um right now or earlier he made a comment um he said we're being forced or we were forced into a situation who forced us you're talking about the chief yes um I don't remember exactly what context he was saying that but in terms of just this situation in general uh it's the fact that we do have a lot of Crossings and that's forcing Us in this into the situation and really the the shift from the sponsor to the non-sponsored is is the main culprit in terms of the cost in terms of the complexity of it in terms of all the other uh different updates that we've been giving today that's what really caused this to go in a different direction okay and I guess my that's where my frustration is on behalf of my constituents is that we're now saying we're being forced we see that there's five counties that could potentially be helping us and they're not um we keep hearing about the two million now we're here we're getting it tomorrow um but that's why it's so frustrating and our other concern is how do we what's a plan to transition out of this so I think in any situation emergency situation you ramp up to the numbers and we ramp down as as well just depending on what the numbers are so as the numbers subside just like we did with covid we would reduce the numbers and and go down several layers just depending on again the numbers you know we've been very fortunate in that in that our team is is very experienced in just dealing with ramping up and ramping down to all these different emergencies I know that a lot of us have experienced not only in emergency management but also in military Affairs that deal with refugees and then displaced civilians and so that experience really is helpful because it's it's inefficient in answering your question in terms of ramping up ramping down but when you dealing we're dealing with Public Safety I remember one time working on an issue with one of the federal institutions and I remember giving a presentation to them and they were asking for some advice and what they do is very inefficient because deals with Public Safety and so when you deal with Public Safety they're ramping up and ramping down is costly but yes our plan is to ramp down if the numbers subside and just like we did with covet and if you recall with covet when the numbers started going down we started shifting some of those Personnel way way back when into some of these operations because we saw the surge coming and we saw what was happening here so I think the council has been very forward thinking with the different issues that we've that we've had to deal with it's just that some of these things it just at the very end of the day has to do with your vote as a body also has to do with where the state's going where the federal government's going and how we deal with different issues thank you and I guess the reason why I'm asking that is because I feel like we don't have we have an opportunity to transition in other words to to pass on this responsibility to somebody else and we're refusing to do so um and now we're hearing that you know this is our only option and I don't believe that's true that's why I asked you Chief can we declare so so I would I would agree with you in terms of shift the responsibility and and and you know getting to a point where we delayer that off of what we're doing but we need to do it in a way that doesn't impact our community with the chaos that I talked about earlier and I think I don't disagree with what you're saying I don't think the council disagrees with what you're saying and what the mayor said a second ago um also kind of Echoes that and that yes we do want to start start load shedding some of this and having the federal government and even maybe the state use their resources to deal with this issue as well so again on on principle we don't disagree with you at all thank you and but I think what the point that we're missing here is that um if if we have an opportunity of being having this local emergency ordinance why are we not taking advantage and saying while we're still at this like let's start transitioning this responsibility shedding some of this from responsibility and looking at our other options our other option being declaring to the state and we're not doing that we're not considering that actually we're refusing to do that and so I understand that if there's not a local emergency ordinance that we extend today that there will be chaos out on the streets and that is obviously not what I want from my community that's not what anybody wants but we do want to see in the future is that transition to shed some of that help over to the state because they need to come in and take responsibility for it thank you thank you thank you very much if I could add to that and I've talked about we've talked about this here before the emergency is in El Paso it's El Paso's emergency while it might be a national crisis that's happening in our front yard still El Paso's emergency if we call for additional resources and we were to receive those additional resources it's still our emergency we're still going to operate it we're still going to be running it there is no and I I just want to be clear that it's just because of a declaration there's no transition of responsibility no transition of liability financially no ma'am there's not so we wouldn't get additional resources we wouldn't ask for additional resources as I talked about earlier there's no identified funding for migration crisis outside of this FEMA Grant and so and that that's more for the homeless they're just tailoring it to be utilized for this this need in time it doesn't reach meet the Stafford act requirements so that's they're not getting that Federal funding it's not and that's where you draw if you have a major national declaration you know hurricane storms stuff like that that's where that funding opens up but I just want to be clear that just because we declare and it has to be that declaration has to come from the mayor or the County judge just because of a declaration it doesn't change the end of the day we're still going to respond as we're going to respond so if you want us to continue with this with this route of response that we're doing and what we're doing is the most Humane and appropriate manner so it doesn't crash the system and what I mean by that is connecting them with their transportation because there's no way you're going to shelter out of a situation where you're seeing these high numbers and so that criticate that transportation is critical we can ask the state for Staffing or for Charter assistance without a declaration at the end of the day they could tell us no with a declaration they could tell us no so it's just at that situation they're going to assess them we we talked about it early on about possibly needing the assistance that's when we saw them organized they sent four or five charter buses to town they sent to Texas Reserve if we remember that they were actually in El Paso on the ground assisting not assisting but learning our processing techniques techniques for in for if and when we said we need to utilize your services since then we've opened up more Charters we've got more companies we're able to keep those flows going okay well a ffairing Chief is that we have an opportunity to get those additional resources they've even offered and we need to declare and we're refusing to do so I don't know why but I guess you know my constituents can make their own conclusions to that so that's it for me thank you yes item 40. would you like to go to item 40 now yes ma'am thank you item 40 is discussion in action on an emergency ordinance reenactment authorizing the city manager to assign personnel and resources to assist in addressing the humanitarian and Public Safety crisis resulting from Mass migration through El Paso and this would need to be a unanimous vote in order for it to pass representative molinar did you have a question so we're on item 40 and we've learned a lot of things on item 39. I am going to bank on my uh years of experience is Public Safety and I understand what the chief is saying Chief thank you very much the city manager the legal department all the different departments that are helping out day in and day out weekends holidays whatever it doesn't matter this process Ends by not passing this item 40. watch out you will be we I'm going to say 9-1-1 the call center will be inundated inundated with calls for service there will not be enough police officers to respond for suspicious persons burglaries robberies just the day-to-day calls motor vehicle accident things like that you will stretch Public Safety like you will not believe your your constituents will be upset beyond measure and it's a public safety concern I understand this is a federal issue I understand that I get it that's one of the reasons I wanted to go to the processing center I learned a lot there but we need to make sure that we do what we can at today imagine today we stopped this process and it's not just going to end today it's at five o'clock it's probably in three days four maybe this weekend I don't know those people are going to be have to be taken someplace and what's that someplace downtown someone already mentioned the Northeast you know I'm at the East Side the west side you are going to see calls for service become huge just huge and we'll never be able to keep up and whether it's like I said just the day-to-day calls but you add this on top of that we are creating more of a situation that we will not be able to handle I urge my fellow constituents please consider passing item four zero for the benefit for the safety of our community thank you thank you representative mullinar mayor Lisa did you have your hand up yeah I think it's important to be realized and I think the chief kind of talked about a little bit that this will always continue to be the city of El Paso's responsibility as a border City and Nick declaring the state of emergency does not shift the responsibility on the state but it continues to leave the responsibility in our community and it's really important that we continue again and I'm gonna repeat myself one time that we make sure that we don't have any people released into the streets that we don't have people that don't have a place to sleep we don't have people that don't have a warm meal and that they don't have a way of getting into their destination and uniting with their family members or members of their community and again we do have hopefully we'll have a meeting with the federal government on the White House we're supposed to have a teams meeting here in the next day hopefully that we'll hopefully change some of the Dynamics that we've been talking about and continue to work together but at the end of the day it does not shift the responsibility in our community and has elected leaders we need to make sure that we continue to work together not only without each other over the county and all law enforcement around it so thank you again thank you for the opportunity a move to approve may your pro tem we do have public comment on this item thank you Miss Prine we have Mario mayese good afternoon Mr mayase you'll have three minutes sir good afternoon my name is Mario mayase I'm the owner of the casa foster care we are a company that works for the state we work with HCS with also with child protective services and APS we provide homes for those people now it's not the same of course of what we're dealing right now I can understand that completely but I'm here to talk about the Border crisis as well I'm the owner of the company I've been studying it for maybe eight months I saw this coming and so with that in mind we I just heard right now these are brand new statistics that I heard just right now that from the from you guys that were poised to get 60 000 migrants in October that's like 2 000 a day for this month El Paso has its limits of vital Services fire department law enforcement Health Department vacancies and shelters hotels hospitals we're forcing the city to spend more money on shelters and Personnel to handle this search so that's highly unsustainable what I'm proposing is to be a subcontractor to help locally in the local area the solution is to provide a cost-effective service usually offered for the state we already do this already why not do it at the local level mostly of course with compassion being effective as quickly as possible with a sense of urgency providing vital services like nursing housing Transportation education case management 24-hour supervision intake Specialists for faster processing and day-to-day activities right now we currently have a location where we have 12 000 square feet we're on by count we're actually close to everything and in front of us there's the multi-purpose Center as well that also can be used for processing So currently we provide services for 79 El pasoans and I uh my co-workers are 69 my employees I have 69. so if you guys have any questions I've seen a lot of Money's been throwing around it the math doesn't add up even for a person barely just sitting down this is gonna be this is going to be a situation where we won't have any control in the future so I'd rather be proactive and offer the services in that regard and since I already take care of people with disabilities this is basically the next logical step for my company any questions if I could interject this as one Gonzales with the city attorney's office um all the this type of procurement will typically have to go through our normal channels I would just say so I would appreciate um the speaker sentiment we would still have to follow our difficult policies and procedures I could certainly understand that but just in case I did reach out with DHS as well and I left them a booklet just in case you never know so is it okay if I leave this book for anybody to see thank you that's all I needed to say thank you guys um I also want to clarify the record the multi-purpose Center in front of vicount that you mentioned is currently closed for renovation and cannot be utilized I understand any efforts I just didn't want to be public enough I just didn't want the public to believe that that facility is open and it's not I understand no worries sorry about that but our facility is big enough though thank you so much yes sir any any other questions or thank you sir we're good thank you very much thank you so much a little bit nervous but thank you guys there is a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve item 40 to the emergency ordinance on that motion call for the vote mayor president aye representative Rivera hi thank you mayor Lisa do you consent yes ma'am thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you Chiefs thank you Mr Gonzalez thank you sir and thank you Council mayor Pro tem staff is asking if we can take item 58 next yes ma'am thank you item 58 is discussion in action on a resolution that the city manager be authorized to execute a chapter 380 economic development program agreement between the city of El Paso and Schneider Electric USA move to approve there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve oops on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro tem Schwartzman representative ribeta hi thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro Temp can we take items 5253 and 54. yes thank you items 52 is an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to limit individual contributions to political campaigns for mayor and city council to one thousand dollars per election and require donors to disclose their place of employment item 53 is an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to provide public financing for candidates for mayor and city council who voluntarily agree to limit their campaign contributions and expenditures and demonstrate community support for the candidacy item 54 is an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to use ranked Choice voting for the election of Mayor and city council where voters rank candidates in order of preference and If no candidate receives a majority the candidates with the POs votes are eliminated and the votes they received are transferred to voters second choice and so on until there is a majority vote for one candidate so long as permitted by state law I'd like to make a motion to move into executive second there's a motion and a second to return to Executive session all in favor aye anyone opposed and the city council of the city of El Paso are returning to Executive sessions 3.5 a of the El Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss any of the following item number 52 an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to limit individual contributions to political campaigns for mayor and city council to one thousand dollars per election and require donors to disclose their place of employment item 53 an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to provide public financing for candidates for mayor and city council who voluntarily agree to limit their campaign contributions and expenditures and demonstrate community support for their candidacy item 54 is an ordinance proposed by initiative petition under City Charter section 3.11 to use rank Choice voting for the election of Marion city council where voters rank candidates in order of preference and If no candidate receives a majority the candidates with a few as votes are eliminated and the votes they received are transferred to voters second choice and so on until there is a majority vote for one candidate so long as permitted by state law and executive session item one in the initiative petitioned by El pasoons for fair elections matter number 22-1065156 under 551.071 all of these matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney it is 2 57 PM Ms Pine since you've lost Quorum I did want the record to show that I did vote no but we can't do a roll call now so I just would like the record to state that thank you representative anello I did hear a majority of eyes Miss Prime Miss Prime yes sir uh do you want me to log off this one yes or if you'll log off this call will call you and mayor Pro tem Schwartzman into a separate uh teams link thank you okay thank you okay Mrs Prime are you ready yes is there a motion to come out of executive session some second there's a motion and a second to come out of executive session all in favor yes anyone opposed the motion passes the medigans back in session at 5 36 pm we're on items 52 53 and 54. um I'm sorry did you want to move forward first with public comment yes please yes ma'am we do have 23 members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Miss n guelio and she submitted a statement to be read into the record that says my name is angelio and I want to let the city council know that our community supports Fair democratized elections three propositions from Justice ballot initiative are set to go to the city council agenda at this October 11th meeting the propositions would ensure Fair elections for our community by number one limiting campaign contributions to one thousand dollars per individual per candidate number two providing public financing for Community candidates at number three establishing ranked Choice voting which eliminates runoff elections saving the city tons of money if the city council adopts the propositions they go into law and Justice mission for more just elections is accomplished Council and mayor please show the residents of El Paso that you care about our election speech truly fair and that they cannot be brought by the city's Rich special interests groups the next person is Kim Schulte she submitted a comment that reads as a citizen El Paso I am concerned that local politicians are influenced by wealthy donors who contribute to their election campaigns these donations affect their ability to make unbiased decisions that could benefit the community as a whole by limiting individual donations to one thousand dollars per individual donor and requiring disclosure of place of employment that candidates will not be beholden to a few and instead can focus on representing the people that have elected them the current lack of any limit on personal donations to campaign contributes to the perception of El Paso Politics as unscrupulous the people have spoken directly to you through their signatures on this ballot initiative signally that they want a change in business as usual further I support all three of the propositions presenting as separate agenda items here today together they help to make the election process fair and to keep elected officials focus on the needs of the voters I am in favor of public financing for candidates that demonstrate community support and ranked Choice voting will eliminate the need for runoff elections as well as mitigate vote splitting finally El pasoans want Fair elections they want to be able to trust the people they elect and they need to know that their vote on their signature can make a difference thank you the next person that signed up is Veronica Carvajal followed by Vanessa Medrano good afternoon Miss carbaja you'll have three minutes good afternoon Council um it's been quite a long day for some of us um my name is Jose from Teresa we're a political action committee and um we're asking today that you vote to adopt all three propositions as they stand or to make reasonable amendments I want to thank the Community First Coalition for inspiring this set of propositions the lost dog s pack Sunrise El Paso in ground game Texas all our volunteers and thousands of el pasoans who signed the petition and who told us um how grateful they were that they were that we were doing this we ran a very small budget campaign that is part of a movement across the state and across this country to make our local elections more fair and accessible by removing the influence of big money and yes some of the propositions may require an investment of funds but as District 1 rep sportswein said earlier today the city spends money on projects that may not actually have a return on investment that's monetary but they are worthwhile because they better the community and we believe that you believe that these three ordinances do just that because we know that across the country such propositions have increased voters faith in our electoral system they have increased voter turnout and they have Diversified the pool of candidates that run for office and we're not asking you to adopt anything that hasn't been done before Austin has adopted all three of them with differing terms we have done our due diligence we have done our homework and we are hopeful that you will recognize that these three propositions will improve your community the propositions have already been addressed by prior speakers I do want to clarify that the first proposition affects three types of donors the first are individuals not households not married couples um political action committees would also be limited and then candidates themselves I want to talk a bit about public financing it is voluntary it is first come first serve Austin has been using it since 1992 and just recently in November of 2020 two candidates that use the funding that amounted to about 26 thousand dollars each were able to advance to their runoff against big money candidates and one of them actually won her Race So this can work and um we're asking for more than Austin is asking for we're asking for folks to actually do the work of a candidate before they they do this ranked Choice voting has already been addressed we know that the state legislature has tried to pass RCV a number of times primarily to help military families so we trust that you have your community's heart at hand and that you will do the right thing today thank you the next speaker is Vanessa Medrano she will be followed by Kenneth Bell angel uyoa good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes good evening I came here today as a voter and as someone who volunteered their time so that these ordinances would make it before you today so obviously I am in favor of items 52 53 and 54. El Paso always has been and will always be a city I love deeply as I entered adulthood and I became more aware of the city's issues I noticed City issue city city leaders seem to continually make choices that negatively impacted a majority of those living here I had a hard time understanding this until I learned who truly benefited from these large vanity projects that used up large amounts of city funding it was your donors I decided that I had multiple complaints regarding our local government so I began looking into community-based solutions from my fellow El pasoans there have been many qualified candidates that do not have the same kind of connections and funders that Front Runners here tend to receive but by leveling the playing field we're ensuring quality candidates aren't overshadowed by candidates with friends with Deep Pockets I want the city clerk to be able to have the opportunity to decrease their very busy workload uh for required for city-wide runoff elections I want the taxes we pay to actually go to projects and efforts our community actually wants and benefits from I understand there may be an Impulse to defend yourselves and your donors as we discuss the issues of the structuring of our local election process but this is not just a call out I am calling you to listen and consider the impact of your decisions today and what what the impact has on the rest of us not just the wealthy people who have your ears this is your chance to make sure I'll pass those voices are heard in the future and you can do that by actually listening to us now by voting in favor of these items thank you the next speaker is Kenneth Bell Mr Bell if you're in the Q star six to unmute your telephone Kenneth bell Miss Prime he submitted a letter I don't know if it went to your office and asked me to read it do you want me to do foreign good morning my name is Kenneth Bell I'm writing to speak in favor of agenda items 52 53 and 54. El Paso Institute of deserve Fair local elections they have a right to ensure that their candidates represent their interests and are not bought out by special interest candidates for city council and mayor have a right to Fair elections without their campaigns held hostage to the highest bidder that's why I'm in support of Justice Saffron City says propositions to democratize El Paso City elections we need campaign contribution limits Austin already has them there's no reason why El Paso shouldn't for too long candidates for city council the mayor have relied on a handful of wealthy donors to fund their campaigns in turn those wealthy donors have used their influence to drown out the voices and concerns of our residents by placing caps of a thousand on campaign contributions this will mean that the candidates for office will have to work harder and reach out to more voters that means more people's voices are heard it means that City representatives in the mayor will have to prioritize the needs of their communities we need public financing of our city campaigns public finances is legal in Texas Austin has had public financing of campaigns since 1992. public finances allow for a greater more diverse collections of candidates especially women and people of color it also I'm sorry it allows folks to campaign without relying on a handful of wealthy donors most importantly it is 100 voluntary candidates can choose whether to publicly Finance their campaigns we need ranked first ranked Choice voting ranked Choice voting eliminates the need of for a runoff election which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars with a low photo turnout the 2020 runoff election cost the city 700 000 and only 13 percent of Voters showed up ranked Choice voting allows votes to allows voters to rank their candidates in order of preference it's essentially an instant runoff the difference is that the voters don't have to wait another month either pick another candidate or reaffirm their support for a candidate the city can have ranked Choice voting on the books like Austin doesn't implemented after it passes the state legislature it's time for city council to do the right thing support all three propositions for democratizing our elections thank you thank you the next speaker is Angel uyo angel uyoa we'll move on to a statement by Alyssa Garza she requested that representativity that I read it however he is left the meeting and it says good morning I'm hoping you can read my public my public comment during the 11th Council agenda since I'm not able to attend by phone or in person my name is Alyssa Garza and I'm a member of District 7. I support all three propositions agenda items 52 53 54 to make our elections Fair it is time we limit contributions to political campaigns for mayor and city council to 1 000 per individual donor per election wealthy people who live in El Paso control and influence local politics it is time for our mayor and city council to work for our community and put all pestilence first I want my mayor city council and District representative to deliver on promises made for the people and not the people who gave them their greatest donation public financing for candidates allows for diversity because it allows people from different backgrounds to run for office typically those who run for office right now either self-fund or solicit funds to uphold their campaign this proposition will help Community candidates run without the pressure of caving into big money interest to fund their campaigns taxpayers will save my money by eliminating runoff elections rank voting will help decrease the workload of the city clerk and run enough elections already have an extremely low turnout Studies have shown that ranked voting creates a more diverse and Representative election let's eliminate runoff elections to make voters feel like their vote is not being wasted and safe taxpayer monies thank you cooperatively Alyssa Garza the next comment was submitted by Yvonne Diaz and she's requesting that representative Salcido read her statement thank you Laura um this is my written statement I asked okay I asked is representative Isabelle's here to read it my name is Yvonne Diaz Community organizer in El Paso Texas I am writing in support of item 5253 and 54. I've worked in political campaigns for 2018 to 2021. I've worked on city council Congressional state district attorney races and presidential campaigns during this period I have or I have experienced wins and losses and unfortunately have seen hand good politicians lose to corruption Yvonne Diaz said the dangers of excessive donor money goes beyond winning or losing an election it affects our community Beyond terms limits donors money dictates where our city funds go ivandia said which are often part of a vanity projects at moments it seems like priorities are sports arenas working individuals like me and my colleagues cannot complete with this big donor money whose interests differ from Community interest as we know Yvonne Diaz said it is imperative to have a limit on financial donations give the power back to the people Yvonne Diaz said we want to see good qualified candidates run for office and not only for privileged I understand that voting yes on this item will have to direct impact on the campaign strategies nonetheless in order to assure transparency In fairness we need to these three items to be passed Yvonne Diaz said taking a deeper look your decision and votes will not be tied to the big donor's interest and will truly be freely embraced democracy on behalf of the people evandia said this is your chance to show on which site you are on voting no will speak louder than your campaign smear advertisement slogan promises you make on your next campaign vote Yes on items 52 53 and 54. thank you the next speaker is Jean Carlo tirado while he's coming up I'll read a records uh statement submitted by Robbie Rodriguez and it says my name is Robbie Rodriguez and I'm a volunteer for El pasoans for fair elections and hosticia from Teresa pack hires the city council and mayor to adopt the proposed ordinances described in items 5253 and 54 on today's agenda I was one of the dozens of volunteers who helped collect signatures for these ordinances and was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support voters in El Paso believe our system of democracy is broken and needs fixing they agree we need to rein in the influence of the rich in our elections they agree that people who don't have rich friends should have a chance to run for office and they they agree that we can save taxpayer money and better reflect the will of the people through ranked Choice voting I care about democracy and I worry about its future I believe these ordinances will strengthen democracy in El Paso and help restore our faith in the process thank you thank you Mr tirado you have three minutes sir hi my name is Jean Carlo tirado and I'm a board member of hustisa from Teresa I also live in District 6. I would like to voice my support for the three items 52 53 and 54. I spent a lot of time out in each of y'all's District collecting signatures and speaking to thousands of people and they all said yes to this it wasn't hard for people to decide to sign these policies are very popular particularly the campaign contribution limits we currently have no limits here in El Paso while other cities do have limits the only people that I spoke to that would say no were some who were running for office doesn't that show a disconnect between the the the people who choose to represent us and the General Public polling has been done on these issues and not only are they popular across the U.S specifically here in El Paso as well I hope you do the right thing and listen to the over 14 000 that we got to sign this petition and the rest of the city that agrees on this issue I know when collecting signatures some candidates may have the self-interested response that it's too low for them to raise money well if you can't raise a majority of support and can only get big money from a small handful of people compared to the general public that's an issue we are not limiting the total amount of money someone can raise but the amount an individual can give to avoid the richest people to have the loudest voice in our politics there's a lot of non-rich people here in El Paso that need attention to be paid to rather than just listening to the most wealthiest people here General people feel that big money in politics is in it is an issue so I implore you all to do the right thing and allow people to have trust in our system the other policy RCV uh ranked Choice voting like it was said previously this would save the city a lot of money we spend over 700 000 on runoffs with only a tiny percentage of participation a lot of this money can be used in other areas and also it would make our voting process a lot fairer not everyone is Rich or Associates themselves with only wealthiest of people which gives them an easier path to run for office we have tons of community leaders that have done the work done the work and have worked in our communities and make this a better place and have the support of many people public financing would help motivate these type of people to run and not feel that they're going to be drowned out by all the money that's involved in politics in general this is why it's important to have these changes to make things fair and make people feel that they could Trump thank you the next speaker is Rachel Ortega Rachel Ortega if you're in the Q star sixth place to unmute your telephone she will be followed by anaressa Rachel Ortega star six please to unmute your telephone I don't see Miss Ortega's phone number in the queue Miss Reza star sixth place Ana Resa star six good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes yes hi good afternoon you can hear me right um my name is Anna Resa from district 7 and I'm speaking in support of item 52 item 53 and item 54. we got the media admissions to bring this to the table we went to events knockout doors going to restaurants and we really appreciate a small foreign very hard especially after the experience of the pandemic for me personally I struggle and then I reflect with projects Like the Wolf Lodge or the location of the venue um get Foster hunt city manager or other supporters to collect these signatures so this is supported by the community of El Paso you have the signatures to prove it we have invested financially and heavily on certain staff members in our city and I think we should also invest in our community members this week um Community First Coalition hack had a different for district and six at epcs actually invite more than the college students the community college students and our two incumbents didn't stop this proposition it will bring leaders that are for the community interests not special interests propositions um item 54 will actually save us money like everybody mentioned and I know it seems like this Administration waste lots of money for example again Wolf Lodge the veins formerly known as the stadium in dangito so let's start five ways to save the Neto I support all three items 52 53 and 54. thank you I don't see Miss Turner in Chambers so we'll move to Carmen Rodriguez Miss Rodriguez star six if you're in the queue Carmen Rodriguez or Paul Enriquez if you're in the queue star six Carmen Rodriguez or Paul Enriquez I don't see their phone numbers in the queue Raquel Rojo star 6 place to unmute your telephone good evening you have three minutes please hi good afternoon my name is Rojo I reside in District Six I'm here to speak in favor of agenda item 52 53-54 presented by El Paso for fair elections and hostessia from Teresa these three propositions are an effort to democratize our local city elections a total of 14 000 plus registered voters myself included desire and deserved Fair elections El pasoans want candidates to represent the community as a whole not the few affluent donors with special interests we need campaign for uh contribution limits just as Austin has capping donations will reduce candidates reliant on a handful of wealthy donors to fund their campaigns and hopefully limit the influence their many has on policy yes candidates will have to do more Outreach do more fundraising from a lot more voters but this alone will Garner broader support from the people and give an equal vote an equal voice to the community after all isn't that what public service should be about another way to make elections more fair and acceptable is through public financing For Better or Worse money is needed to fund campaigns we get it it's not cheap to run for office public financing has the potential to allow persons for marginalized groups to consider public office widening the representation and diversity of our city government not only are campaigns expensive but elections cost the city a lot of money as well notably runoff elections it is my understanding the 2020 runoff election caused the city 700 thousand dollars with only a mere 13 of voter turnouts it seems like an unnecessary waste which could be eliminated with rag Choice voting as the name implies voters rank candidates and in doing so an essential incident runoff takes place eliminating the need for additional elections much like Austin El Paso can approve ranked Choice voting and officially implement it once it passes State Legislature my hope is El Paso and faith is restored in our local government I believe these three proposed changes can facilitate this I trust members of city council will join the 14 000 plus of their constituents in support of all three propositions for democratizing our local elections thank you for your time and your consideration thank you the next speaker is Abe perea followed by Andrew Segura and Josh Simmons a b Pereira good evening you have three um thank you for giving me a chance to speak to y'all uh I I know that this is a thing that impacts you all directly um and uh and I know we've been talking about that I know that there's a part of y'all that really does deeply care about your job and what you do for the community and wanting to make an impact I know that it's there and I know that there's also a part of it that because we see it we see who donates into your campaigns it's super transparent and we're able to see how that affects the decisions you make um so that coexisting with your deep desire to help the community in practice so far it's becoming very unstable it does marginalize people I don't like to say it like that but it feels very much like have your cake and eat it too and we can't have that like we can and we can't have like one or two three voices putting in like dollars and dollars and dollars and then that representing how that impacts like thousands of people like so I mean it I know it seems like over and over again and I don't know what y'all discussing your executive meetings what phone calls y'all make what people are sitting in this room who are probably trying to have an influence on what Pockets got filled up or whatnot but like just please understand like that this is something that needs to shift it is also something that would like help y'all like directly it would make things easier it would be more cost efficient um there would be more chances with the ring Choice voting for you to like have a second chance there's just so many things here that that's just win-win for like everybody and plus like you would be making decisions that is purely based on helping like the people what the people want y'all said I was speaking here at the climate Charter stuff and like I remember some of y'all saying like like you know we commend y'all for the stuff that you did and we won't stand in the way of democracy and and like a lot of that language um and even some of y'all were like I don't support it but I will not stand in the way so I hope that you keep to that word because saying yes to these things would definitely not be standing in the way of democracy you would be helpful be helping promote it um so just all this all this talk like just just please like walk your talk and like we know we see it like day to day like we're not like we we have access to all this information like we know who you're talking to so please like listen to us like listen listen to us more because that's if not even more important than just like a billion dollars so thank you the next speaker is Andrew Segura Andrew Segura he will be followed by Josh Simmons Miguel escoto and Anna Fuentes good evening sir you have three minutes all right uh my name is Andrew and I'm an organizer with Sunrise El Paso I'm in here to speak in favor of items 52 53 and 54. um all around the country elections are being bought by oligarchs instead of being decided by the people and El Paso is sadly no different we are seeing the same names Foster hunt and job donate thousands of dollars to campaigns with no oversight at all in this city our local politicians are funded by the oligarch class whether it's Secrets meetings with El Paso Electric or the lack of limitations on the amount somebody can donate to a campaign the city is being exploited to help select to help a select few while we see not only the people being ignored but our history actively being erased for a sports arena limiting the amount of money somebody can donate to people to political candidates not only limits the power a group of people who have over politicians but to make sure that candidates actually campaign and address the needs of their constituents which city council has failed to do many times once again we're just asking you to do the jobs you were elected to do and listen to the will of the people the people of the city have spoken and have shown overwhelming support for all three propositions that is why making sure that propositions 52 53 and 54 are put onto the ballot and voted on by the people this should be the top priority for City Council uh I would say thank you for your time but you wasted all of ours uh solidarity with my comrades the next speaker is Josh Simmons Josh Simmons star six piece to unmute your telephone good evening you have three minutes good evening city council and distinguished City staffs my name is Josh Simmons I am a resident of District Five and I want to vocalize my support for Houston and uh El pasoans for fair elections campaign and bringing upon the prop known as proposition a proposition B and Proposition C as items 52 53 and 54. our support in these items as many of the other supporters have mentioned today that the acceptance of the language as is with reasonable Amendment would allow confidence to be rebuilt in the electorate we're all very much Familiar of the low turnout when it comes to Municipal elections uh as seeing as how some of the Municipal elections have been aligned with more of the larger general elections like we'll see in this midterm season um the again the voice of the people and support of this as we approach them and Signature Collection was overwhelming and very logical for them to draw these conclusions that at the moment there is a overwhelming amount of money that is unattainable as far as contribution limit to the average citizen and by limiting that we allow the opportunity for more fair elections we want our elected City officials to be able to focus on reaching their deliverables and holding them accountable and the excess of large donors dilutes that Integrity of the elected officials and by adopting such items as proposition a and item 52 allowed to happen I also want to voice the support for items 53 which is the also known as proposition B for the public financing many other speakers have gone over it in detail as to how that would benefit us where is this would all give opportunity to many very empowered and very powerful voices that our community organizers these are the true leaders of the community that are getting things done on every level from their non-profits to Neighborhood associations and allowing them to be able to step up and become leaders of the city instead of being ushered in by larger dark money that seems unstatable for many and I also want to vocalize my support for item 54 which is also prop C uh for the implementation of ranked Choice voting the reduction of unnecessary uh extensions in elections such as you know runoffs will save the city a significant amount of money and as an election worked in myself I've heard this for many voters that they are unaware of certain runoffs or other smaller election uh divisions such as other runoffs and and whatnot to enable these people to be able to voice their opinion in that ranked Choice voting style that way all uh candidates can have a fair shot at every elected position within the city this will allow for Quality candidates to give their opportunity and for voters to allow their preference thank you very much for your time and I urge a vote in favor of all three items 52 53 and 54 thank you the next speaker is Miguel escoto Miguel escoto star sixth place to unmute your telephone Miguel escoto good evening you have three minutes can you hear me okay yes okay um hello Council my name is Miguel escoto I am a resident of district one I um and one of the over 14 000 El pasoans who have signed on in favor of these measures for more fair and more free elections I am speaking in favor of items 52 53 and 54. um so previous speakers and and community members have already discussed the merits of these ordinances they're a no-brainer as someone who helped try to get people to sign on to this this was one of the easiest things to have people sign on to they agree with this it is a people's mandate once again similar to The Climate Charter so I want to bring up two numbers which help emphasize how much this is a mandate onto you as City councilors to approve this these measures as is the first number I want to emphasize is the number of over 14 000 signatures it is rare for you and your position to have so many of your constituents speak up in favor of a policy proposal this is something that you should appreciate and that something and it is something that you should defend you should defend the voice of the people when they organize and volunteer and spend hours of Labor to communicate to you your constituents are serving on a silver platter a solid researched beneficial and effective policy the the second number that I want to emphasize is the the March primary election voter turnout number it was a mere and possessed 11.14 of el pasoans that turned out to vote El pasoans have given up on your system they have given up on your government whose job is it to increase these voter voter turnout numbers it is your job by limiting campaign contributions by supporting public financing and by instituting right ranked Choice voting you are sending a signal to the general public which is we care about your democracy we're taking actions to improve it for you so we've done all this the question is will you listen and we will note by your vote it is your responsibility to listen to the people and to accept the language as is again we're serving this up to you on a silver platter and it is your responsibility to listen thank you thank you the next speaker is Ana Fuentes she will be followed by Sylvia seraphos good evening you'll have three minutes please good afternoon my name is Anna Fuentes and I'm a community organizer and I'm here today in support of all three propositions for fair elections listed under items 52 53 and 54. I support these propositions because I believe and I hope that you do too that people who make large political donations should not have more political influence than those who do not and preparing for today's public comment I read several studies that found that loser limits on donations to political campaigns were often related to more City contracts being afforded to those large donors that can contributed to officials campaigns to begin with this often decrease the quality of the set City contracts as they would often run over stipulated costs I can confidently say that I have seen those same Dynamics play out within our city as projects intended to generate profit for a few are prioritized over the well-being of the community building up multi-purpose arena in one of our historical neighborhoods is one such example that comes to mind in El Paso all constituents are equal but some are more equal than others the fair elections proposition propositions being discussed today will seek to rectify the power imbalance within our city government we all know that the city of El Paso has a low voter turnout I know several of my peers have disengaged from electoral politics and opted not to vote as the Fielder vote is wasted after having to choose between what they see as a lesser of two evils ranked Choice voting such as that proposed on their item 54 can help fighter communities overall the solution on the ballot by having our second and third options count even if our first choices don't continue to the runoff us as voters can have our true preferences be known we will feel like the complexity of our voices and opinions over issues that affect our everyday lives can be more accurately expressed through the ballot their propositions presented today are probably not well received by some donors but they are supported by the community and ultimately the community's will is what you should the community's will is what should guide your decision today I urge you to support items 52 53 and 54. thank you the next speaker is Sylvia seraphos Sylvia seraphos star six please to unmute your telephone good evening you'll have three minutes hello can you hear me yes okay my name is Sylvia searfoss I live in District eight and I'm here to voice my support for the propositions uh 52 53 and 54. you know first of all I've listened to all these speakers and they've been wonderful I and I I want to um to enforce you know or to uh to to know that I I'm supporting that all that they have said um I want to kind of take a different approach and uh and talk about you know a kind of a more General way uh you know take like the name of these propositions it's fair elections Fair elections um and that can only happen in a democracy and when I look up the word democracy these are the words that come out you know participate contribute involve or engage oneself take an active part in have a voice in help decide be in on the decisions to vote to be enfranchised and also words like Cooperative communal community that's what we mean by democracy and we happen to have a representative democracy um so we need to depend on the people that we vote for to represent us here at city council and that's why it's so important to have Fair elections and from what I can see and from what I have um researched you know these proposals are very modest proposals that a way that we can do locally to make our elections fairer because what we have seen in the past since I've lived here in El Paso it's um it's I see people being left out um I see the same people being represented and the rest of us being left out and that is not fair we do need people to represent us in city council that are going to represent us the people and not their donors just because they gave so much money they feel indebted to them and that's not right um is happening nationally you know Statewide and locally but locally we can make a difference and we can't do something about it and so that's why I am in uh support of these uh proposals and I ask you you know the citizens of El Paso have signed the petition have spoken have shown up and have participated in the in the Democratic process don't mistake our participation thank you the final speaker submitted a statement to be read into the record by representative molinar and this is from Janet Flores my name is Janet Flores and I would like to request that my city representative Joe Molina to read the following into the public record of the October 11th city council meeting for public comments on items 52 53 and 54. item 52 being born and raised in El Paso I've witnessed city council members make decisions based on the interest of their largest donors even when those large donors don't live in the incumbents district I witnessed my community to get more and more discouraged from getting involved in local elections as our voices are continuously ignored by several elected officials sitting here today by limiting the amount of money an individual can donate to a campaign we are also limiting the amount of power they will hold over a candidate's platform we want our elected City officials to be able to focus on reaching their deliverables to the people who voted for them not for the person who signed the biggest check officials must prioritize the needs of the community they were elected to serve not the needs of those who put the most money in their pocket I ask you to listen to your community today by voting in favor of item 52 thank you item 53 I support item 53 publicly financing our candidates allows more diversity and true representation of our community it allows for a more equal electoral race especially for citizens who want to run but cannot sell fund or solicit funds from wealthy o passwords requiring one percent of registered voters to provide support for a candidate in their District maintains the relationship a candidate has with their constituents we want our council members to spend their time listening to us understanding our needs and making progress towards Community Driven Solutions please vote in favor of item number 2053 thank you item number 54. I support item 54. the city reported it spent over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the December 2020 runoff election by eliminating runoffs the proposition would save taxpayers money and helped decrease the workload ass of the city clerk's office Christians would also allow for a more representative voter turnout only 13 percent of Voters turned out for the city's runoff election in December 2020 and that included the mayor's race rank Choice voting is more fair just an inclusive as it gives voters more choices voters can express their preferences knowing their second choice will count at their their first choice does not continue into the runoff this minimizes the feeling of having your vote wasted and in turn incentivizes the community to vote Studies have shown that ranked Choice voting promotes more inclusive diverse and representative elections ranked Choice voting would allow us to have a city council that is more representative of El Paso's Community I ask that you please vote in favor of item number 54. thank you thank you and chanet Flores thank you mayor protein that concludes public comment on these items thank you Miss Prine alternate mayor Hernandez I believe you have the floor yes thank you I have I do have a motion to read and to the record um and first and foremost I do want to thank all of your time that you spent here today I know it could be incredibly tiring so I appreciate your sacrifice and and I'm not sure if other members of council have any questions on the motion that I'll present here today but I do want to emphasize that this body is committed to upholding and ensuring that we are committed to democracy and fulfilling all the roles of democracy within our parameters and I know that um myself and and maybe others may be concerned with any any legal challenges as written and in the form that's been submitted and so uh and I do know that the city Charter allows for a secondary approach that's afforded to you to the organizers of the petition and so for those reasons I moved to direct excuse me I'm losing my voice I moved to direct the city manager and the city attorney's office to create a cross-functional team to explore and develop a fair campaign elections ordinance that are within the the local the legal parameters established by the federal state local laws and that are prescribed by the city of El Paso strategic plan and present an update at a future work session meeting for the first meeting in December of this year 2022. second can you repeat the motion Miss Pride yes the motion is to direct the city manager and city attorney's office to create a cross-functional team to explore and develop a fair campaign elections ordinance that are that is are within the legal parameters established by the federal state local laws and that are prescribed by the city of El Paso strategic plan and present an update at a future work session meeting for the first meeting in December 2022. yeah I second it okay there is a motion run into the record by representative Hernandez seconded by mayor Pro temli zaraga and this is for items 5253 and 54. on that motion call for the vote representative Rodriguez you have a question yes thank you um City attorney Miss Niemann um just to verify this motion is not approving the the ordinances it's just simply asking you to come back with um legal clarifications is to create a cross-functional team and come back with um the old clarifications correct that's correct it would allow us to come back with a proposal that would fall in line within federal state and local law okay but we are not um you are not approving we're not approved it's correct okay thank you mayor Pro tem shorts mine I don't see mayor Pro tem Shortline in the in the meeting representative Rivera has also left the meeting in the voting session and the motion passes five two one with Representatives anello Hernandez molinar Rodriguez representative Salcido voting nay representative schwartzfein and Rivera not present the motion carries we're ready to proceed I do just have one quick clarifying question because it'll be a question that's out there Mrs Neiman do you um do we do you need any official action from this body today as relates to the adoption of the ordinance no ma'am the the motion as read into the record and approved by council is sufficient for us to keep working okay and then um and I'm sorry uh mayor Pro tem for the follow-up questions I just want to be able to answer potential questions that are from the public um do uh if this action if you will would allow uh the secondary process of the um City Charter petition process for them to collect their signatures yes ma'am if they so choose to do something to collect the second set of signatures on the charter they can thank you I'm sorry my understanding was that we would also need to take a vote on these items and so with that if that's not the case I would like to reconsider the item I don't know if there's a second but I was told that we would have to take a final vote on the items second can you repeat your comment representative yeah I thought we were going to have to approve or deny the three items considering yeah so I didn't realize that we would not be taking a subsequent vote and so if we're not going to take a subsequent vote I would like to reconsider the items I'm sorry I stand corrected representative and anilo and Hernandez Kristin Hamilton just explained to me that the council does need to take an affirmative action one way or another on the on the actual ordinances okay so I moved to deny as written in its current form there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rodriguez and this is to deny the adoption of ordinances on items 52 53 and 54. on that motion call for the vote excuse me representative Rodriguez has a question thank you so I think we kind of owe it to the members of the public that are here we were gone for I believe two hours I'm not sure if we were there for such a long time to let them know how we pretty much came to this conclusion you know last time somebody just said that we were in favor of democracy we're still in favor of democracy this is step one if is there any way that either you um missing in or our outside Council can explain to the public the process of how this is going to work so in other words in the chart the the the amendment that they're trying to make um the ordinance that they're trying to pass how the first step was to bring it to us and we could either accept or deny and then the second process would be for them to go back and get signatures and at that point it's being sent out to the voters correct at the second point if if the if if Council denies if you all take the vote and and don't approve the three ordinances they still have the option of coming back with a second set of signatures and submitting it to the clerk's office for verification at that point the item comes back to council and then Council votes to decide whether it goes to the voters and at that point you know we're still exercising democracy correct and at that point I also think that it extends the the value of this ordinance to the greater public right because now it gives an opportunity for all of El Paso to vote versus I believe you all said you got 14 000 signatures okay okay and and I understand it's it's a lot of work but my the point I'm trying to make is um 14 000 signatures is what percentage of the total registered voters do you know Miss per the the way the initiative is written in the city Charter it's five percent of those who voted in the last general election okay so I think that there's an opportunity here um you know if this is something that we all truly believe in to extend it out to the rest of El Paso and give a choice to them as well um I think it's really important that we don't forget the the legal um issues that that this ordinance may have and it would be really Reckless or irresponsible of us to just adopt it as written so I do believe that we are going to go through the process with you all and hopefully this will make it out to the ballot and people will be able to hear you all and make this decision inside with you all so thank you [Music] Miss Carver Hall you don't have permission to speak right now Miss Newman could you so Council if if you would prefer that we have a discussion through outside Council to give them a very basic understanding without disclosing any of the attorney-client communication we're prepared to do that yes we would like that thank you very much can you is he here um representative Anella wants to say something first I just I want to say to the public I I completely understand your frustration um you know this has been in the hands of our staff for uh 20-something days I know that you have asked for reasonable amendments no one has obviously reached out to you or or made you understand and so I'm glad that outside council is going to address you all now but I do agree I think that these could be passed and conversations could be had and amendments could be made and so I apologize that this is the way that this is happening at seven o'clock at night good evening Council Charlie Zach Dan Navarro Bernal and Zach um I'm gonna give I'm I'm basically going to give a very high level statement as your City attorney mentioned um I don't want to release any attorney-client privilege Communications but I will give a very high level view of what the law says with respect to Camp limitations on campaign contributions which is Proposition a proposition B being the campaign public campaign financing program and then Proposition C being ranked Choice voting campaign contribution limits are legal if done appropriately to be done appropriately they have to be done within the constraints of federal law in the United States Constitution campaign contribution limits implements First Amendment rights for the citizens and for the candidates and for the individuals donating to campaigns those rights are politicalist rights of political Association and rights of of political expression the United States Supreme Court has stated that you can legally under the Constitution without violating someone's First Amendment rights Implement campaign contribution limitations so long as you determined that the appropriate reasons have been determined that that necessitates those campaign contribution limitations and that that those campaign contribution limitations are structured in a way that does not prevent the candidates from having an effective campaign that's a high level view of what the courts require to be shown in order to adopt campaign contribution limitations it's my understanding that your vote your earlier vote today was to give direction to City staff to to begin the analysis under the structures of the law to bring back proposals that would that would comply with those with those requirements under the Supreme Court under the Supreme Court guidance with respect to proposition B and to say that that that analysis has not been completed by this body I think would be an obvious statement because the the proposed ordinance has been presented by petition rather than analysis uh by this body with respect to the Public Funding program the issue with proposition B is the fact that this but unlike the City of Austin ordinance which creates a Public Funding program this ordinance actually requires that tax dollars be utilized in the campaign funding program and Texas law both in statute and in the constitution in the Constitution creates potential hurdles and using tax dollars for campaign funding the Texas Constitution prohibits the use of public dollars for a private purpose there is no case law or any guidance in currently in in Texas law that says that the use of public funds for campaign contributions is an appropriate public purpose that's not to say that it isn't but there isn't any guidance in Texas law with respect to the use of tax dollars for purposes of campaign financing the second is is Texas law by Statute prohibits employees of a city or officers of a municipality to utilize public funds for political advertising and so as a result without further analysis and determination of uh and structuring of this ordinance it is potential that an incumbent who is running for office would be affected by that law it is a it is a law that queries with it a crime so if an incumbent who is an officer of the city utilizes tax dollars through this program for political advertising they could be committing a crime on the other hand and a candidate who is not an incumbent who is not an officer and who is not an employee could potentially use those tax dollars without threat of a crime and there you have an imbalance with respect to the use of those dollars so it needs to be structured in a way to ensure that there is no violation of statute and to ensure that we're not not violating the Texas Constitution finally ranked Choice voting the Texas Constitution and Texas statutes prohibit ranked Choice voting the city of Boston has indeed adopted ranked Choice voting however they're not utilizing ranked Choice voting because currently state law in the Texas Constitution um I don't know if the Texas Constitution prohibits the city of Boston but it certainly would prohibit the city of El Paso um from utilizing ranked Choice voting with your current structure is that sufficient I'm trying to give a high level view without getting into too many details Charlie could you explain about the population of El Paso certainly the the Texas was mentioned by a couple of the speakers the Texas legislature adopted a statute that says all cities over 200 000 must utilize um must be elected by a majority vote and back in 2001 Henry Cuellar who was then Secretary of State opined and I agree with this opinion for whatever it's worth that majority vote means the traditional sense of majority vote that is you have an election if you don't get a majority vote you go to a runoff and then that between the top two vocators and whoever gets the majority vote is the person who is like who is elected and that's for cities that have populations of over 200 000. and so right now Texas law preempt would preempt any ranked Choice voting thank you there Council there is a motion and a second to deny the ordinances on items 52 53 and 54. the voting session is open in the voting session the motion passes four to two with Representatives Hernandez molinar Rodriguez I representative anelo and Salcido voting nay and representatives Rivera and short spine not present mayor Pro tem may we go back to where we left off on the agenda yes ma'am can we postpone items 36 and 37 two weeks yes I believe that's is that all right Mr um with staff yes that's fine that's not a problem we'll postpone items 36 and 37 for two weeks can we put those on our work session or do we need to have those On A Tuesday meeting we'll have a look at the agenda and see where they fit in um but we'll we'll postpone them for two weeks whether I I'm not I would have to check with Miss Prime whether it can go in work session or if it has to go on the regular agenda but we'll we'll postpone them two weeks they have to be brought back on the regular agenda you can so I will just delete yeah delete okay a second thank you and this was to delete correct there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Hernandez and this is to delete items 36 and 37. on that motion call for the vote Miss Planet says deny is that okay yes in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative schultzwein Rivera not present that brings us to the next items and this is the introduction of ordinances these are items 41 to 45. Mr proof a move to introduce what there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve the first reading of ordinances items 41-45 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 46. and this is discussion in action that the purchasing and strategic sourcing director is authorized to notify Paragon Enterprises LLC that the city is terminating contract 2021-1146 for the construction of the Hondo Pass collection station effective October 18 2022. move to approve here's the motion made by representative anello seconded by representative molinar to approve item 46 the motion was made by representative Hernandez I'm not supporting this item so I would like that corrected thank you I'm sorry the motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Molina to approve item 46. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously next item is 47 and this is discussion in action on the request that the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue a purchase order to end a life insurance company referencing contract 2017-1357r self-funded Comprehensive Health Plan Administration stop-loss employee assistant program and fully insured supplemental Benefit Plan move to approve there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 47 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes 521 representative anello voting nay Representatives Hernandez Molina Salcido Rodriguez is Representatives schwartzfein and Rivera not present the motion does pass next item is number 48 and this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign a two-year on-call Professional Services agreement to perform architectural services on a test by test basis between the city of El Paso and the following six Consultants I'll be this architecture Inc Brown Reynolds Watford Architects Inc Carl Daniel Architects Inc Countryman and Company pllc and situ architecture pllc and mnk Architects Inc after proof second there's a motion made by representative anello secondary by representative Hernandez to approve item number 48 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously Representatives Rivera and schwartzfeeding not present the next item is number 49 this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2022-0678 job order Contracting and Facilities construction to Vegas company LLC DBA Belize construction Keystone GC LLC and Jordan Foster Construction LLC move to approve there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve item 49 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative schwarzwein Rivera not present that brings us to item number 50 and this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2022-0747 Rojas Drive whitening to International Eagle Enterprise Inc second motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by representative Hernandez to approve item number 50. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously Representatives shorts by Rivera not present that brings us to item 51 and this is a public hearing on an ordinance renewing and extending the special privilege license granted to the United States of America acting by and through the department of Navy Naval facilities engineering command Southeast as owner of the naval operations support center in El Paso move to approve second there's a motion made by representative Molina are seconded by representative Hernandez to adopt the ordinance on item 51 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we've taken 52 5354 items 55 56 57 were deleted item 58 has been taken that brings us to item 59. move to approved second and this is discussion and action requesting city council support for the staff recommended project selected to submit for the reconnecting communities pilot RCP discretionary grant program there is a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative anello to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative schwarzweight Rivera not present the next item is number 60 and this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign the First Amendment to 2019-607r management of fixed transit services and contracted service for live Paratransit solicitation between the city of El Paso and MV contract Transportation proof second there's a motion made by representative Manilow second and by representative Hernandez to approve item number 60 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously before it's fine and we better not present and ex1 no action thank you there's no action on ex1 move toward John second there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor yes aye anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday October 11 2022 is adjourned at 6 48 pm thank you mayor potemley zaraga thank you thank you so much have a good evening