foreign good morning mayor good morning everyone good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday August 1st 2023 mayor Lisa is present and presiding in South council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro temanello representative Hernandez alternate mayor Pro 10 molinar representative Fierro and representative Rivera represent representative Salcido has requested to be excused from today's meeting and representative Canales is running a few minutes late it is 901 am well everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting has rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain Robert Hemphill Junior foreign good morning my friend Mr Mayor council members and city leaders and members of the community let's buy our heads at this time for the invocation according to the good book there's a time and place for everything a season for every activity under the heavens there's a time to be silent and a time to just speak Most Holy Father I come to you asking that you grant the mayor and council members the wisdom and courage to know what to do what is right and what is good and true as they deliberate on the agenda items for today's council meeting may they speak out when it's time to speak out and listen when it's time to listen patiently and receptively when it's time that listen father I ask that you guide the mayor and the council members in the spirit of community the spirit of Justice in the spirit of love this I pray in the name of the father son and the holy spirit amen thank you thank you sir those were great words and to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this morning we have members of World Mission Society Church of God we have Hernando Guerra Daniel Bravo Nicole Esparza and Sandy Reyes no the United States oh okay [Applause] Mr Prime yes and mayor I would just like to answer these this great group of people uh traditionally we have school children others we reside in the Pledge of Allegiance but this Chase something special these members of this congregation go above and beyond everything they do for our community in all districts District Six District Two District Four and so they just continue giving and giving another time and it makes a big difference so go ahead good morning good morning first and foremost we like to thank our heavenly father Christ Anson Hong and our heavenly mother for allowing us to be here today also for the city council and the mayor to for allowing us to partake in the council meeting we as a World Mission Society Church of God believe in the spirit and the bride Christ Anson Hong and heavenly mother knew Jerusalem the saviors of this age according to the Bible and keep the Passover of the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ as a World Mission Society Church of God which has 2.5 million members in 175 countries we have actively responded to various relief efforts throughout the world through these activities by the grace of God the World Mission Society Church of God has been honored with awards from the United States and other countries all the World Mission Society Church of God humanitarian activities originated from the heart of mother the world is now experiencing the devastating effects of Wars famines earthquakes and climate change although much has been done we now need to do even more for El Paso these disasters are not isolated to just El Paso but to other countries therefore the world my Society Church of God regards all seven billion people in the global Community as our family and cares for them not leaving one precious Soul behind with the heart of heavenly mother the Church of God will continue to strongly support our El Paso Community through cleanups graffiti cleanups blood drives and more thank you God bless you that's fine yes that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation today is El Paso strong day I'm sure would be better thank you good morning good morning everyone no you were right the first time good mayor great mayor Proclamation for the city of El Paso Texas whereas El Paso was forever changed on August 3rd 2019 with a gunman a good man traveled over 650 miles to our beautiful city and went on a racially motivated shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 23 men and women and children were asked courageously risking their own lives a number of individuals attempted to Usher Shoppers and employees to safety and protect others in the line of fire and whereas in the aftermath of that tragedy tragic day El pasos demonstrate that the spirit of the community was far too resilient to be broken by one disgraceful Act of hate alongside stories of heroism during the massacre were reports of Everyday People lightened up at hospitals to donate blood offering profound compassion support and comfort to the surviving families and rallying behind the Mantra El Paso strong and whereas the incident was the devastating shock to a city that is so renowned for its welcoming hospitality and close-knit sense of community three years have passed since that terrible event met made headlines across the world but the passage of time has not diminished the tremendous sense of grief felt over the loss of 23 innocent lives and nor has it lessened the resolve of the people of El Paso to stand together against Insidious forces of hatred Prejudice and violence and whereas the city of El Paso pays tribute to the victims of the mass shooting that took place on August 3rd 2019 and offers heartfelt condolences to the families and friends who carry on their memories now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that August 3rd 2023 shall be known as El Paso strong day signed by the young bull mayor Oscar liser thank you very much representative and you know as August 3rd approaches I think everybody will look back and remember where they were at 10 38 on that Saturday morning and we'll continue to keep the families and the victim motion our thoughts but also in our prayers and one of the things that by doing this this is that we'll never forget and we'll never forget them so it's um something that will always be in our minds and in our hearts but again everyone can close their eyes and I'm going to have a moment of silence for all the victims family and people that unfortunately lost their lives to act of violence in on August 3rd in have again put them in your prayers put them in your thoughts and again I know that we all will think of where we were on August 3rd at 10 38 2019. thank you and may tragedies like this never happen again in El Paso around the world in this great country of America and the United States thank you may God bless everyone thank you again represent Rivera thank you for the record representative Canales is also present in the council meeting the next Proclamation this morning is Ella May Day thank you can we have um Emiliano come if he's here hey sir how are you so proclamation of the city of El Paso Texas whereas is a native El Paso and Chef Emiliano morantes found inspiration the tortarillas of El Paso and the ancestral culinary traditions of ciudad Juarez and brought to life the unique Fusion of culture found at the Border in the kitchen and whereas in 2019 Chef Emiliano morantes and his wife set out to honor the culture art and food of our community in the carefully crafted Cuisine of their restaurant alemi and whereas alemi pays homage to El Chico culture rooting itself in the centuries-old practice of externalization I hope I said that right while offering a modern take on Mexican culinary Traditions capturing the essence of our home and their Cuisine and extending its influence to all who step into their establishment and whereas for his impact in The Culinary World in 2022 Chef Emiliano marantis was recognized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation as a semifinal list for the James Beard award an outstanding Chef category and again in 2023 as a finalist in the Texas best chef category and whereas Chef Emiliano morantes and alemi continue to show the beauty of our community as they embrace the Artistry of our culture and the food they serve demonstrating the shine of the city of El Paso and its people now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that August 1st 2023 shall be known as alemi day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar Lisa congratulations I want to say really quick I know alemi is not in my district but I will say that your mother is a constituent of mine she goes to one of my senior centers and she's so proud of you and she's always talking about you when I see her and so I'm really happy to be recognizing you and the love she has for you here today and that she did tell me that she met your mother and she said he's such a good boy I'm just saying congratulations uh thank you uh and good morning mayor and City Council Members I'm really thankful for this uh Proclamation and I've said it many times um I'm hoping that all these accolades and these recognitions aren't just for us I think now they're above us and I'm hoping that the youth sees this and so that they could see what we'd done in so little time and with so little resources but now my hope is that the youth can also come back to our city and invest her passion rather than continue to to live abroad so that's always our end goal is to continue to to to make our community proud and to progress and that's always what we're trying to reach and we hope that we do the city proud and we'll continue to do the same things thank you very much thank you and you're a great ambassador to our community and you're right you know the future of our city and our country is the youth and as they see great things that are happening in El Paso and you put El Paso's name out there it makes a big difference so thank you again thank you mayor yes and Council will have an opportunity to take photos with his morning's honorees after all the proclamations have been completed the next Proclamation is Purple Heart City uh representative thank you mayor good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the city of El Paso Texas has great admiration and the utmost gratitude for all the men and women who have selflessly served their country and this community in the U.S armed forces and whereas the purple heart is the oldest military decoration in prison use and was initially created as the badge of military by George Washington in 1782 and whereas the Purple Heart was the first American Service award or decoration made available to the common Soldier and the specifically awarded to members of the United States armed forces who have been wounded or paid the ultimate sacrifice in combat with a declared enemy of the United States of America and whereas the contributions and sacrifices of the men and women from the city of El Paso Texas who served in the U.S armed forces have been vital in maintaining the freedoms and the way of life enjoyed by our citizens and whereas many men and women in uniform have given their lives while serving in the U.S armed forces and whereas August 7th has officially been designated as a day in the city of El Paso to remember recognized veterans who are recipients of their Purple Heart Medal now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that August 7 2023 shall be known as Purple Heart City signed the honorable Oscar leaser mayor city of El Paso I don't think there's anyone here from the purple heart but we will be having a ceremony on this coming Sunday and I'll be their guest speaker and that's at the Old Glory Memorial 9550 Gateway north thank you sudden loss in our community of one of the El Paso's finest police officer Fernando that suddenly passed away last week and I um him and his family is in our prayers and in our thoughts and um I'm always very thankful for the men in blue and the women in blue that protect us and gives us the opportunity to go to bed every night and be able to sleep knowing that they're out there it's very tragic anytime we lose anyone that has committed their lives to protecting us and as um cheap to see us and I talk about even police and fire they protect for the unknown they prepare for the unknown and it's very unfortunate that we lost for any de la Torres suddenly and I do want to have a moment of silence to keep him and his family in our prayers and thoughts thank you may God bless you today and forever thank you thank you mayor would Council like to recess for photos at this time there's a motion and a second to recess the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 9 18 a.m in order to take photos with this morning's honorees you will be going out into the lobby areas mayor and Council foreign yes mayor we need a quorum please on the day so we can continue the meeting is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 9 25 A.M that brings us to the consent agenda mayor Pro tem 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 thank you Miss Prine prior to making the motion I want to confirm that there were no revisions today that is correct okay Council any revisions no okay uh with that I make a motion to prove approve the consent agenda the motion made by mayor Pro tem manilo seconded by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina to approve the consent agenda on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to page seven item number 15. and this is discussion in action that the city council authorizes the expenditure of district 6 discretionary funds towards the cost of equipment rental movie license fees permits staff time and other related items necessary to support of the movies in the park event a series of movie nights and parks located within district 6 serves a municipal purpose of providing recreational and cultural activities to the residents of and visitors to the city of El Paso and benefits the community and instills Community Pride this is representative Field's item thank you the promotion in a second there's a motion made by representative Fierro seconded by mayor Pro temanello to approve item number 15. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 16 is discussion in action that the city council approves a submission to the foreign trade zones board an application to expand foreign trade zone 68 existing sites and to add new sites and that the city manager or designee be authorized to sign the application of related documents and are just a foreign trade zone board approval of the application on an expedited basis good morning allow me to bring this item forward this item goes straight to the goal one create an environment conducive to strong sustainable Economic Development and I have a short presentation that talks about the foreign trade zone and what we're after thank you so are El Paso foreign trade zone next slide please El Paso companies continue oh there we go continue to request ftz benefits the advanced manufacturing districts seek to be included in the foreign trade zones we have other companies also seeking to be included in the foreign trade zone boundaries to receive those foreign trade zone benefits the boundary expansion is how we can include these companies in the best way and so the resolution is to allow the expansion of the boundaries our foreign trade zone it's a Department of Commerce business support tool where foreign Goods can be brought into and out of the United States excuse me without needing to pay customs duties cities are asked by the Department of Commerce to manage the program and therefore we've become the grantee for El Paso for Zone 68. foreign trade zones do not impact city property taxes and ftcs do not impact residential or retail property retail and residence Channel property cannot be inside these boundaries Only commercial property so how does the foreign trade zone benefit El Paso we have 707 direct jobs because of the foreign trade zone these are numbers reported by the actual companies themselves these are for jobs that are 100 percent four point trade zone activity other activity inside of their buildings that's not foreign trade zone related or not in this number we currently have 3 400 Acres of virtual boundaries identified throughout the city around industrial parks and specific facilities and right now there is six billion dollars in merchandise moving through the foreign trade zone annually this is about seven percent of all activity on the border in El Paso the foreign trade zone allows company to retention and expansion in El Paso we currently have 30 companies using the foreign trade zone program and some of our clients they actually represent four or five or six other companies on top of that a good number is 3.2 billion dollars annually is added to the value of this material through lease costs wages utilities insurance and so that's that's a big economic benefit to the city and the business incentive IT facilitates company growth by reducing their costs putting money to their bottom lines and as they grow it increases our tax base and the benefit to the business is customs duties on Goods is either eliminated or reduced or deferred merchandise processing fees that are paid to U.S customs can be reduced or eliminated Customs Brokers fees that are paid to brokers can be reduced and insurance and bond costs also can go down by utilizing the foreign trade zone program if we take an average company out there about 20 cents on the dollar of their product can be saved in those four things duties Brokers fees insurance and merchandise processing fees our foreign trade zone the El Paso foreign trade zone with our 30 companies we generate Revenue about 450 000 a year half of those pay a flat fee of twenty thousand dollars a year to be in the program and the other half paid on the average ten thousand dollars a year in transactional fees equally and up to about four hundred fifty thousand dollars and our foreign trade zone team at the El Paso International Airport costs about four hundred thousand dollars a year so we operate in the black we watch our budget closely we tried never to go red with our department or division so if you look at the map that we have you can see our entire service area is the entire El Paso County from tornillo to Anthony the current boundaries that we have are represented in the blue areas and we're asking to expand an additional 3000 acres of virtual boundaries around industrial parks and growth areas for the city where Commerce and Industry is growing and you can see in the red where that is if you look down by the Zaragoza Bridge site 2 you see an expansion down there if you look at the corner of 375 and I-10 you see a lot of expansion in that area there's a lot of industrial properties going up many of our current clients are planning on moving into some of these brand new buildings but they're currently not in the foreign trade zone those facilities and so we want to bring them in through this boundary expansion and then the biggest part of the expansion 2000 of those three thousand acres is over at the airport where we have the 601 Corridor the advanced manufacturing District we want to be able to bring that land with foreign trade zone boundaries we have land developers like Greenpoint that are asking very insistently to make sure that the boundaries include their properties that they're developing so our request is to be allowed to take this expansion application and submit it to the foreign trade zones board at the Department of Commerce thank you is there a motion moved to approved representative um there's a motion in a second but we do have representatively better right thank you thank you Mr Franco thank you for your presentation and uh on flight 9 of your presentation you know even after you did a personal briefing with me yes I noticed that the site uh 22 was at North Loop and Americus um is that overlapping the city of Socorro no it does not overlap any inch of city of Socorro it is right next to it and the land developer has come to us and asked that that property be included in the foreign trade zone boundaries but it does not overlap anything of Sakura well even being that close it can search me because the city of Socorro is uh creating their own ftz and are just a couple months away from getting it I've been in contact with them and uh I know they they've spoken to you and I asked you that day and you they they've denied a a letter of support for you on doing that because of their own foreign trade zone application that they're days away from obtaining I get that but this kind of this kind of got this console kind of kind of Prides himself on being good neighbors and uh this can place us as Bad actors uh if we were to open the 22 site before they uh you know even before they have theirs and uh when it comes down to working with smaller municipalities I kind of liked for El Paso to remain as a good neighbor and so I know we have over 3 400 uh designated Acres of a plan for the foreign trade zone and there's only two percent in our existing sites that are activated so I'm going to make a motion today because of that and I would like to make a motion mirror in the spirit of good neighbors I make a motion to amend the proposed foreign trade zone the succeed boundaries and remove the new side of 22. which is bordering Socorro program no okay I mean they can just add it to the motion if you'd like I'd like to have that on there I don't care about that onto the record the amendment okay so let's just take it separately thank you okay but anyway go ahead she does Colonel Western can you kind of help us a little bit with that on adding somebody within or oh you're it's if you wanted us to exclude that one property just make the that you're you're supporting the expansion of the foreign trade zone with the exclusion of of one of the that's exactly a very specific problems and then you're you're you're accepting the remainder of the plan yes sir that's my Amendment just to remove site 22. all right so we'll just take it separately um Mr Rodriguez you have anything to add to that sir San Andreas director of the airport no just to clarify site 22 is within the city of limits it does Border City of Socorro but is within City Limits and the developer did ask us to include the site into our application but obviously uh sales of course got plans to include this portion within their FTC I'm assuming do you have any issues with that sir no issues necessarily but I know the developer did ask for us to include that site so well yeah I do have the issues with that we add to it if yes so you're okay with that it doesn't hamper what we're trying to do or anything okay okay good thank you for that so this go ahead man well there's a lot of people in here yeah Mr Rodriguez um so Sam I guess my concern with this these continuous expansions is right the original ftz started with I think 60 Acres to really enhance uh the Butterfield Trail Industrial Park um and so you know the idea was that it would give the airport Financial stability it would make it desirable to individuals to come there we're seeing a lot of vacancies at Butterfield Trail and so I guess my concern is by expanding these ftzs are we taking away from you know where someone would be more likely to go to butterfair Trail create revenue for the airport because it was a foreign trade zone now by expanding where maybe drawing people away from that area I mean I understand going closer to the port of entries makes sense for a lot of that industry but really the original intent of those original 60 Acres was to incentivize and make butterferal Trail attractive I'm just repeating myself now but my concern is that by moving away from that area you know we're de-incentivizing our own land and and the people who quite frankly made a commitment to purchasing that property at Butterfield Trail based on that foreign trade zone um you know I just to me it's a little unsettling I don't know if that was even room for an answer if I'm just making it yeah I think you have to look at holistically a miracle-time from a strategy standpoint in Economic Development standpoint you know there's a lot of areas in the industrial parks throughout the city I mean there's a separate foreign trade zone already set up on the west side of the city as well and so it's important I think from a the FTC Itself by itself as as you saw from the numbers it's not a big Revenue generator for the airport I mean I think we're in the black but it's not a huge Revenue generator and that's not intended to be it's really more in Economic Development tool that's uh that allows the cities to be able to have the sites available for companies that want to use the program through U.S customs we could keep it strictly at the airport but there is so much industry throughout and throughout the city that it certainly makes sense again not looking at the airport from a selfish standpoint but from a city standpoint it certainly is a big economic development tool that we should be providing throughout the city I understand all of that but I guess I'm more speaking to the people who bought property in that foreign trade zone as a way to create business expansion at the airport you know what are we saying to them when we're expanding these foreign trade zones when you know decades ago they made a commitment to the airport and they're having trouble leasing these land out because now there's foreign train sets around the city that are closer to these ports of Entry I think there's a balance I mean when you look across other cities with foreign trade zones you'll see a very similar pattern you're going to see the market changing you're going to see other business parks develop as time passes and so I think it doesn't what it does is it just gives everybody a competitive advantage that wants to do Global business and I know I I completely understand your point I think that we have to be open to provide these kind of tools so when we see other developments that are happening and we're seeing businesses that want to be a part of it and for whatever reason it may be better for their business to be located in another location rather than just tying it to a specific Zone that's why you'll see in a lot of communities several magnet sites you'll see the foreign trade zone being put over very specific sites and buildings throughout different communities but you know it doesn't dismiss your point I mean I think that it is there is a a balance in trying to make different locations competitive this just allows us to be able to do that throughout the entire city sure and I my understanding is that I'm going to use the word contract which I don't think is the correct words I apologize but I guess the so again just the contracts for each foreign trade zone are the same again contract is not the correct word but I think is there a way to design these ftcs based on the location differently so there's more you know depending on which zone you're in there's more of a benefit or there's more of a draw not just the location and that if it's something if it's something related to what the city controls in terms of a fees that we charge that's an opportunity but within the U.S customs uh regulations you would not be able to differentiate depending on the site um you know when you look at there's close to 500 companies that operate on property at airport whether various leases or subleases sub-agreements and so not many companies take advantage of this program because that's not what their business calls for as well and so the the opportunity that we're presenting here today to council for consideration is to expand the FTC zones to allow more companies to take advantage of this this program and the savings that they could get as David presented to y'all can you talk to me a little bit about the processory interest that we charge to individuals at Butterfield Trail accessory interest uh property tax is basically when a tenant comes on property they release the ground to those to those tenants they build improvements and so they they the property tax is assessed on those buildings as well as the possessory tax assess your interests of the land is also taxed as a property from a property tax standpoint that's that's the uh the information okay and my my understanding is that there are cities in Texas I know Dallas is one of them that by state legislation we're able to become exempt from that have we looked into it at all uh we have not been starting to look into it yeah I mean I would I would like to just look at how we can uh really honor the people that invested in our first foreign trade zone um I think those are important properties are not just for I know you're saying you know make a revenue off of them at the airport but just for the core of the city um and the original intention of those foreign trade zones if there's a way to make them a little bit more competitive I know what you're saying there maybe isn't but if there's State legislation that we can be looking at I think it is really important thank you Mr Rodriguez I appreciate it thank you and I think by bringing this forward as it gets very competitive around the country and if we want to continuously competitive and continue to develop our Economic Development we have to look outside the box and I think this is what the team did that if we stay within an area and we're not attracting companies that don't want to be there and it's costing the community a lot of money and it's not impacting the our taxes is not impacting anything except given us the ability to attract companies that normally would not come here and that's important as we continue to build a brighter future for our community representative Canales and Council I remind you to please refrain from side conversations while on the days during the meeting thank you thank you mayor uh this may be a question for Mr panko or it might be my colleague Mr Rivera um can you lay out a little bit of the situation that's happening with with sokoro and why specifically site 22 conflicts with their application for an ftz um we were looking at that piece of property to bring it in as a magnet site then for years and we were working with the land developers and then Socorro wanted to make that their own foreign trade zone inside their city limits so we went and asked them if we could help them bring clients in they they said they want to do it on their own which we say okay that's great but the land we're talking about on site 22 now is only next door to it so they might be looking at it as a competitive thing where they want to have the ability to be the only foreign trade zone in that spot in that area not have one right next door but when you look at the vacancy rate of commercial property of being under one percent land is being buildings are being leased out as soon as they scrape dirt even though it takes a year to get the building up and running so it's a very very good market for industrial property and so by putting these boundaries up it makes good sense but if the council would like to take one one of these sites out then that's their prerogative and we'll go accordingly the land developer who's developing site-22 do they already have a tenant for that property they are just now starting to lay out the plots they're getting ready to put together SPEC Building plans and everything like that so what we see going down the road is both of those sites the Socorro site and the site we're proposing will both be full within a matter of a couple years based on the growth and the vacancy rate being very very low industrial space hundred thousand square feet and up there's hardly anything in this town and as soon as you build it it's it's leased okay and so you think an adjacent site in Socorro would be least quickly I I believe both of them would be least but it's up to the council to decide which sites that we turn in for the application okay understood thank you thank you mayor thank you representing on this uh representative Kennedy um I think that the original plan is great I am not going to support removing that site by Socorro I agree with being a good neighbor but to sacrifice a competitive advantage to a neighbor I mean I may like my neighbor but you know I'm not in charge of building their house um I think that there is enough business if we're looking at one percent commercial I think they'll both be filled and if we were to forego this at this point and lose a competitive advantage in the area when I don't think it's going to cause much harm I just I think they should they should all be we should take the original proposal thank you Mr Prime we have a yes mayor there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro and this is to amend the application of course you can man thanks I apologize I know we're about to take the vote I was wondering mayor if we could have representative Rivera kind of elaborate on some of the issues um I think I may have missed some of the concerns that are being provided by The Neighbors sure when I met with them they they their concern was uh uh before this they they had no economic plan but since they have they've decided to to move on that and I believe that's why they they denied the letter of support and so they do want to be competitive but uh I'm looking at the fact that one site will not make a difference with uh in within now or within the future because uh socores are so of course in the in the process to to grow and so they're they're uh they're they're seeking see if they can have that foreign trade zone that without you know without having to to so-called uh be right next door to each other I mean they're they're going to be in in the process of doing that on their own so as as well it's it's it's just a a matter of being too close to it I've uh you know kind of overlapping the same area but uh um so the city of Socorro is having an issue issue that's who you're referring to yesterday okay but they don't have an issue at site number two I believe that's the one that's that's already been there before they even had one I'm just trying to understand do you have some information on that um site two is the one down by the Zaragoza Bridge so that's just expanding more land that's already there we've always worked with land developers to try and bring boundaries around their properties to make them competitively Advanced advantageous to give them an edge and bring in more companies into their area when we look at the vacancy rates in El Paso we see that everyone can win on this I don't think there's a loser in this one sure and so again just clarifying questions setting up site 22 is not going to take or any any Financial benefit to the city of Socorro on their property I don't believe so no and has anyone met with the city of Socorro prior to the expansion or the plan for expansion not that I'm aware of no and so I'm assuming that they reached out to representative Rivera and that's where the conversation's coming from yeah they let me let me have a question yeah two to your show if I know there it's a fine line between left and right obviously they can go right there they can go wherever so if they go into the city of Socorro which could be five feet away from us which obviously it's just would it be any tax benefit to the community or would we lose the tax benefit by that happening if the built-in score and serve El Paso and it's five feet away from each other would we have a tax benefit or would we lose that tax benefit we we would not get a tax benefit because there would be no property tax coming to the city of El Paso so it'd be a big loss Force I did meet potentially I did meet with the city manager of Socorro before I took this item to the city council of Socorro and then I took it to the city council of Socorro this expansion I don't know if that answers your question I had been talking with their economic development manager on different items but we never talked about the foreign trade zone part of Socorro well in the briefing and and in in talking to them I believe they did you have asked for a letter of support and they denied it yeah same reason yeah I did meet with the city manager went over that we she took it to the city council I went to that and they did not want us to create a site in Socorro because we had two sites identified right there one inside of Sapporo City Limits which is this Coral Logistics Center and then we have this other site that's not in Socorro so we would not ask them for a letter of support for that one only for theirs and I believe that was one of the main reasons that they were looking at free being pretty close there pardon me can I reclaim my time I know I was asking some questions on the information absolutely um if we do approve the amendment to remove site-22 in the future would you be able to expand again or would this totally stop that we could bring another expansion application forward in the future we already have different land developers knocking on our door that want to bring more foreign trade zone boundaries okay but they're not ready at this time that's fine I you know I I see both sides of this but really I'm going to support the amendment because I do think if there was some concerns from Socorro and they didn't give a letter of support out of respect we should be working for them working with them I mean we definitely don't want to do anything with especially if they made the decision to not send a letter of support that's a a big red flag to me that you know maybe we should hold off on it and continue those conversations and do this with better collaboration so it's a coral not giving us the letter shows how valuable they see the foreign trade zone program I understand but it's also their property right so what and you know if they've obviously reached out and so I'm not saying that I don't think we should be pursuing this in the future just a little bit more conversation collaboration and transparency about what that's going to look like or what that process would look like so I'm going to support the amendment today thank you ma'am mayor if I can clarify it so again the site 22 is within the city limits city of El Paso City Limits proper the city of Socorro when they set up their ftz could set up this particular site 20 to in their foreign trade zone but they would also need a letter request a letter support from this city council if they if they wanted to include that this particular piece they would have to have they would have to have a yes a letter of support I think we can collaborate and I'm sorry that on the map it's like right over where it says Socorro it's like really small to season I apologize for the city of El Paso limits okay mayor thank you so much I wanted to put my two cents in before the mayor Pro tem reclaims her her time for the 45th minute no I was just going to bring up it was um the my understanding is socorro's just 30ish days away from potentially being approved so it's not going to delay anything in for the long term correct correct and we don't have any sites within the city of Sakura to be clear so it's this application does not include anything within the city of Socorro it's only within the city of El Paso and there's a site within city of horizon which they did approve the illiterate support thank you representative Kennedy so the city of Socorro chose to not support our district but is building one next door or is attempting to get approved for one next door correct did they not approve the sites within their city limits uh Representatives because that has nothing to do with us it has nothing to do with us correct I just we're not a county entity we're a city entity and if I was a county entity I might see the the wish to help somebody inside the county but while my goal is to help the city and I think to forego this competitive advantage for a neighbor to be neighborly is incorrect yeah I mean there's a company that wants to move into that free trade zone within that same development because it's right adjacent to each other I mean that development straddles the city city limits on both sides you know if if there's a foreign trade zone on their side and they want to use those Services they will go to the city of socor because they would not be within unless they come and request an amendment for our foreign trade zone and I I have nothing against their whatever they do in their District that's up to them but I I would be uncomfortable being in the business of sending an economic advantage to somebody else besides the city of El Paso thank you representative Kennedy Miss Prime as mayor there was a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative to amend the application in order to exclude exclude site 22. on that motion call for the vote this is to amend to exclude site 22. in the voting session and the motion fails four to two Representatives Kennedy anello molinar Canales voting Representatives I the motion does fail so we have another motion yes the motion to approve was made by alternate mayor Pro temolinar seconded by representative Hernandez and this is to approve the application on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes five two one Representatives Kennedy anello molinar Fierro Canales voting I representative Rivera voting a representative Hernandez not present thank you thank you thank you very much thank you very much for your time today thank you sir for the presentation that brings us to the first reading of ordinances these are items 17 to 19. move to proof there's a motion made by mayor poteminello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the first reading of ordinances items 17-19 on that motion call for the vote voting session is open and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item number 20. and this is discussion that the city council hereby approves the transfer of funds from Capital program savings to the project for the purpose of funding the completion of Campbell Street from Cesar E Chavez Border Highway to 6th Avenue under a new construction contract and that the city manager is authorized to sign all documents necessary to accomplish the said transfer of funds representative represent Canales I don't know if staff was prepared to present first okay yes there is a presentation it's a question while they're pulling up the presentation so just based on the conversation that we had yesterday at the budget meeting um where was the savings from so they're from the city match for the federal projects this is funds from 2011 2017. the specific projects were Alameda RTS Delta drive and the Zaragoza wind Road Extension so not from District 8. no okay I just wanted because we talked about this yesterday and we asked how many projects and so I just wanted to clarify that in context or a conversation we had yesterday thank you yeah the presentation first go ahead man was there a second I know there was a motion Miss Prine was there a second I didn't hear the motion the motion was made by representative Canales but I didn't hear it okay now you got three seconds thank you thank you um good morning mayor and Council events with the capital Improvement Department this is a presentation on the Capitol Street Improvement project the scope of work for this project includes reconstruction of Campbell Street and the reason why I bring this up is reconstruction we're actually going to be Excavating so there is still water water sanitary sewer and storm water improvements from 6th to 7th Street from Loop 375 up to 6th Street this is more work along the Parkland area so this is the bicycle tracks you'll see it along both sides of the street landscape Parkways illumination signage and striping and also some Ada treatments so the development of this Campbell Street Improvement this is a small portion of the larger project which is the CBD district 4. project that began back in 2022 however as we brought before Council we did terminate this contract in the best interests of the city so this scope will complete all the incomplete work that was left by that terminated contract cbd4 will Reserve resume under a different contract and this is proposed to let next year so this is the proposed cross-section throughout Campbell Street and so you see the work on the parkway with illumination the Landscaping also the cycle track and sidewalk so um to give you visually so that you can see the distance between Loop 375 and 6th Street what that means is two blocks have Parkway improvements those are the ones that are shaded in the green and that will be the trees the Landscaping illumination cycle track and then the street reconstruction for that one block will be the continuation of water sanitary storm and then also building back up the street so if you'll see some of the conditions that were left in this community is the undone work by the terminated contractor and so this is the portion that we want to finish now so we can get this area closed up once this is finished we are scheduled to start cbd4 um so looking at just Campbell Street um we have different base bids so it's the street reconstruction base bid one that will be covered by the city we're working in partnership with El Paso water because we're redoing their infrastructure so base bids two three and four they are providing a letter of commitment to pay for those line items and so the total estimated amount for this section is 1.9 million we're estimating a construction schedule of five months and as required by our general conditions that access will be made to the property at all times so what we're asking from city council is to prove the transfer of funds of one million one hundred and five thousand six ninety seven twenty to the project that we are calling the Campbell Street project thank you man for the presentation represent Canales thank you Yvette less of a question and more just a comment uh you know this project has been sitting uh not this particular project because this is a new project but this site has been sitting a incomplete since it's started in in 22 um and and of course this uh area where the contractor started their work and then didn't complete it has really impacted the immediate surrounding residents and then the the walkability and connectivity of the neighborhood including children trying to get to school at AOA Elementary and so it's I'm very excited to see that this is finally moving forward and that will hopefully have a new reliable contractor who's able to to complete the work um one quick question what are those three projects you said the savings were coming from and then also near the Port of Entry the Zaragoza wind Road Project okay yeah very happy to support today and uh again I think the community will be very happy that this will have a relatively short construction time of approximately five months and they can have a new Street and then we can move on hopefully with the with the rest of the cbd4 that's left pending yes sir thank you thank you Mr Prime yes mayor the motion was made by representative Canales seconded by representative Fierro to approve item number 20. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 21 is discussion yes sir thank you ma'am is there a motion to recess there's a motion in a second Teresa the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the regular city council meeting is in recess at 1006 A.M good morning this is the this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board on Tuesday August 1st 2023 it is 1007 A.M present and presiding the mayor was here well president council chambers our board members Kennedy anello Hernandez molinar Rivera and Canales board member Salcido has requested to be excused we did have a gentleman Mr Schumer who signed up to speak for public comment but he I think his issues were addressed so and he did send a statement if you want me to read it into the record do we want to have a motion first for the consent agenda and move to approve all matters listed under the consent agenda including those well there's no addition will be considered by mass transit Department board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion and as 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 this would include the approval of the minutes and the request to excuse by board member Salcido we do have a motion made by representative Hernandez oh for the record board chair Lisa is also present in the meeting so we do have a motion made by board member Hernandez seconded by board member it's not taken I don't know the first one doesn't have Erna okay now it does by board member Molina and the the voting session is open and the the item has been the consent agenda has been approved unanimously next item and it's the first item on the regular agenda it's item number three presentation and discussion on Sun Metro service modification proposal some motion in a second [Music] board member Hernandez seconded by board member because um it was uh my apologies the voting session is open that's number three yeah presentation discussions item number three uh board members is a presentation and discussion on Sun Metro service modification proposal good morning Mr Dickey good morning mayor city council Anthony deciser director of mass transit today I'm uh bringing you a proposal for service modification it supports uh goal seven enhancing sustain El Paso's infrastructure and Network what I want to do the presentation come up there what I want to present to you today for discussion is House of Metro intends to improve experience of ridership and maximize resources what we're going to do uh to do this is extend one route add two Brio time adjustments eliminate six six transfers remove one unit and two two routes and remove one route due to alternating or redundant routes to improve Rider experience we're going to do in a service extension to William Beaumont by extending route 58. for the minor schedule adjustments we're going to add five minutes to the Brio Alameda to the Brio Alameda and the Montana on the weekends and three minutes to the Montana Brio on the afternoons and this is just to get to each of the stops on time due to traffic for the route and schedule adjustments we're going to combine routes eliminated the need for a transfer that is Route 7 and Route 87 Route 35 and Route 37 and Route 61 and route 64. to maximize current resources we're going to return Route 68 Lee Trevino and Route 69 George Dieter to pre-montana Brio level of service currently we have four units and eight drivers we just want to return it to two units and four drivers and then we want to remove route 76. if you remember about a year and a half ago when William Beaumont was completed there were some public concerns about running a route out to the William Beaumont but what Sun Metro did is we did a pilot program where you could call 24 hours in advance and catch a shuttle out to William Beaumont and then cut the shuttle back to Cielo Vista Transfer Center so we analyzed this program for the efficiencies and the goal was to meet public concerns and connect um regular fixed routes to William Beaumont this route that we propose now what it does is optimize the resources based upon the pilot program and it saves in cost personnel and vehicles required and it also allows for more opacity passenger capacity in the future with riders for appointments as we'll be changing from the smaller Vehicles the the cutaways or the uh the r bucks smaller vehicles to to a complete uh bus right keeping in mind that the new VA hospital will be built out there in 2025 near the same locations um so this will connect connect with a larger bus to that location as we build relationships with Fort Bliss and and veterans in the future this year proposal 7 and 86 is one of three that combines routes and it uses the same requirements as we did with when we had seven in 86 separate it provides direct service between EPCC Trans Mountain and Valverde campuses right and it makes it so that you don't have to do a transfer at Cielo Vista Transfer Center and it reduces travel time by 10 minutes this is the second route combination and again it uses the same resources three units six drivers it changes the Headway from 60 Minutes to 55 minutes with this proposal and it gives direct service from Five Points Transfer Center to Northgate Transfer Center and it negates the uh the transfer at dire and Broadus and it reduces time travel by five minutes on this route this is the last and final route combination and again it will use the same resources but this time it's two units and four drivers and for this route it'll eliminate um the Headway from night and it'll go from 90 minutes to 75 minutes and it provides direct service from downtown Transfer Center to Mission Valley Transfer Center and it eliminates the need for the transfer here at the Carolina and Alameda and reduces the travel time by 15 minutes for Route 68 and 69 adding one unit and two drivers was a pilot to support the Montana Brio we added this in anticipation of increased ridership from 68 to the park and rides on the Montana Brio but after eight-month study we showed that the ridership did not really increase and so it did fluctuate a little bit but it didn't increase so what we're proposing here is to return the 68 Lee Trevino and 69 George dieta to pre-montana Brio service this is the the best optimization of service and resources and what it allows us to do is reduce one unit and and two drivers for each route which allows us to reallocate two units and four drivers to other resources it does change the the Headway from 45 minutes to to 90 minutes um but again the ridership doesn't change and so it's not going to really affect the the the the quality of service for the Riders and then the last route modification that we propose is a deactivation of Route 76. this is being proposed because there are alternate routes for our constituents to get to and from their destination so to optimize this we propose a deactivation of Route 76 and you can see on the slide that the alternate route from Montana to downtown is the 53 and 59 and then the alternate route from downtown to Glory Road is the Mesa Brio now it does add 15 minutes to the time but it does save the resources of two units and four drivers currently on this route that we're proposing to deactivate there's one couple that uses this route daily and one other person that uses a route one way sometimes so it impacts daily five Riders duplicated so really three Riders and so that's why we we propose to deactivate this route and it only adds 15 minutes to the time travel so these are the routes that we propose for modification for discussion for you today thank you sir for for that presentation and I can see you've all done a lot of analysis and looks at the make sure we maximize the system and I appreciate that representative written on this hi good morning Mr thank you for the presentation um just a couple of comments uh one question any all of the changes uh will the how will you be notifying the public and when and what is the effective date so um the actual effective date is is August 13th and then we'll notify the public because we put it out in flyers and then we'll put it on on the website also okay and so and we'll also put Outreach out into all the terminals and notify the the people that are actually getting onto the route and onto those buses that where the the times will be changing and if um if a regular Rider on one of the routes that will be deactivated or impacted who can they contact about alternative routes so they can call the the Sun Metro um customer service line and they'll be notified but again we'll put on our Outreach team will go out to those routes prior before the change and notify the people that are actually taking that route there will be someone standing right face to face talking to them before that happens okay and and for the record is that number the 915-212-3333 customer service for Sun Metro okay um we we've had this discussion in the past related to service routes to uh the the new William Beaumont Hospital back in 2022 and I was very thrilled that under Mrs Smythe's efforts to have some form of on-call service or something being provided to to the billion dollars asset out there in that at that site so I'm very pleased that this Administration has looked into the concerns of the public certainly being good Community neighbors to get critical transportation for critical health care and so I just wanted to give my profound thanks for making that happen for our veteran Community we care about our veterans we're here to support them in any way especially after combat and after service to get that health care that they need and so this is a true example of a government working for a community and so I'm very proud and of all the hard work to get to the point that we're at today and I'm hopeful that we'll have future expansion as the need grows so thank you and congratulations thank you I'd just like to say that um you know the Sun Metro team works hard at looking at all the ways to optimize the service that we provide to the community and we work very hard on making sure that we could connect to Fort Bliss and support the veterans of this community it's why we are a great American defense community and so this is a true example of why thank you thank you Colonel and you know when federal government made over one billion dollar investment in our community and become one of the most premier hospitals in the country they the dialogue started then that we needed to make sure that that we provided a service and we committed to doing that I know Miss Mike provided uh committed to doing it and again we thank you all because you know we talked earlier about being Partners in you know Fort Bliss is a great partner in Fort Bliss is El Paso so we need to make sure we continue to provide a service that made a difference and we did so thank you all and without Miss Prine we do have a motion and we do have a second and it's not miss Prime Friday Mr chair there's no action on that item it's just for presentation so going on to item number four that is discussion and action on the request that the chairman be authorized to sign in in our local agreement with the Texas General land office to provide the city with natural gas at an index gas price the agreement shall be effective on August 1st 2023 and shall remain in effect for an initial term of two years with one year and one year option to extend by the way Diana we all did vote on it [Laughter] that's right and we do have a motion made by board member anello seconded by board member molinar and the voting session is open board member anello and Miss Hernandez thank you and the item has been approved unanimously moving on to number five item number five is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-0528 printed bus passes rebid to EDM Technology Incorporated for an initial term of three years for an estimated amount of 437 550 hundred dollars with zero cents second and we do have a motion made by board member Rivera seconded by board member Molina representative question or um uh yeah I do have both a question no statement uh I'll do the statement first this so this is a a total term of five years um you know I spoke a little bit about it in the budget budget sessions but I really hope that this is I think it makes perfect sense to uh approve this today but I really hope it's the last time that we're approving this kind of contract for like single use paper bus passes um I think moving into the future um you know there's there's all kinds of options for direct payment and and uh digital payment as well for Transit and then for for those who uh you know either cannot or choose not to to use those um there are more uh regular use hard bus passes that we can turn to um I also I had some questions uh looking at the bid the bid tabulation form this is a very strange one um the unit price that the the highest rank bidder uh offered was 55 cents and the second highest ranked bidder was 625.27 from what I'm seeing unless I'm reading this incorrectly but that's price B in the column for one bitter and price B and the column for the other bidder and if you look at the total aggregate for the group group uh one and group two totals over the three year initial term it's 437 000 uh 550 for the top uh recommended bidder and then 925 million for the other bidder and so I'm just concerned that we received a bid from someone who maybe didn't understand you know they were confused about what they were bidding on uh we only had the two bidders uh is there any explanation that we received from magnetic ticket and label Corp uh the the bidder number two about their their pricing sure internet Nevada is purchasing and strategic sourcing so um no the second bitter uh submitted their bid there were no issues with the pricing they submitted it did come up high we didn't observe that um but the quantities and the amounts were entered efficiently and and that's what we based our evaluation on and do we have any mechanism for when we encounter like a bid that's way off of what's expected that we could would reach back out to the to the bidder to get clarification so Derek Russell with purchasing intrinsic sourcing sorry so we do reach out if there's a huge discrepancy in this case um for clarification from the the bidder if they're having issues maybe not understanding um in this case uh the bidder did not provide any response as far as whether they misunderstood the bid or had any issues assembly nape it uh with this with their proposal okay yeah I mean again I I guess I understand if if they submitted the bid and they were unresponsive their bid is just more than 2 000 times higher than the the other competing bid and so it's a strange situation where we receive that as a serious bid for this kind of uh proposal um but I guess that answers all my questions thank you thank you for that Diana we do have a motion voting session is open and the item has been approved unanimously item six is discussion in action discussion and action on the request that the managing director purchasing and strategic sourcing be authorized to issue a purchase order to Ace Government Services LLC referencing contract 2017-1280 janitorial services mass transit Sun Metro this will be a change order to increase the award by 54 202 000 and 51 cents for a total amount not to exceed 2 million 194 100 and 1400 and 50 cents move to approve second we do have a motion made by represent by board member anello seconded by more Hernandez board member Hernandez seconded by board member Molina and the voting session is open mayor I had a question about this one too there you go yes sir um this change order is it says it's both to add capacity and an additional five weeks for janitorial services for bus shelters is this just bridging a gap until we're able to award something else as well the current rebit is in process and that bid opens on August 16th okay and what is the current end date of the existing the existing contract is October 21st is the expiration okay 23. so this will be an additional five weeks into December popular in the beginning of December or that's the date with the five-week extension okay yes the previous state to that was um September 15 2023 September 5th the five weeks brings it to October 21st 2023. and what is the additional capacity in addition to the five weeks it says We'll add capacity ad capacity and an additional five weeks right so we added the capacity capacity okay so we went with the five weeks and that is the capacity I'm just referring to okay thanks thank you Diana the voting session is open board member Rivera thank you and the item has been approved unanimously that's all the items motion to adjourn and there is a motion to adjourn the mass transit Department board meeting for October October August the 1st 2023 at 10 30 A.M is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 30 a.m we're on page number nine item number 21. item 21 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-0551 Campbell Street reconstruction to carlsbroar Inc DBA CSA Constructors for improvements on Campbell street from Cesar Chavez Border Highway to 6th Avenue there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 21 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously next item is 22 item 22 is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign a two-year on-call agreement for Professional Services to perform Civil Engineering Services on a task by task basis between the city of El Paso and AECOM Technical Services Inc denenbaum engineering company El Paso LLC Frank expenser and Associates Inc cea Group Inc consort Engineers Engineers LLC and Bartlett and West Inc move to approve a second there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 22. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 23 is discussion in action on a request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing be authorized to issue a purchase order to Wagner Equipment Company DBA Wagner Rents Inc Wagner Power Systems Second steel used parts SI Tech Rocky Mountain referencing contract 2021-0131 caterpillar parts and service go ahead we understand because there's nothing in the backup it's a sole source representative this is Nicole Cody managing director sorry I missed that in the actual language I apologize so the answer is yes thank you there's a motion in a second oh yeah motion second this emotion was made by representative Fierro seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 23. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session Council please refrain from Camp side conversations in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 24. move to approve and this is a public hearing on an ordinance amending Title 18 building construction adopting the 2021 International building code and adopting appropriate local amendments the penalty being is provided in section 18.02.115 of the El Paso city code move to approve Motion in a second I know we have public comment it looks like yes sir go ahead uh we are representative Imperial first do what with you oh wow okay thank you mayor I just wanted to bring up the point that when we last met here before we delayed it for two weeks we had a group that wanted input um in the process was planning an inspections one second please remember Tim one second please we're gonna both uh make the same comment I just wanted to thank you all um that that group did reach out and so that they did speak with y'all um there has been a commitment to work with them in the future so I just wanted to say thank you for that sorry representative Fiero oh okay go I I apologize Ms Prime we have uh public comment yes mayor we do we have Mr Richard dayu followed by Raymond adalto and Ron Lord thank you good morning sir you have three minutes good morning Laura good morning mayor members of council city manager how are you this morning uh it's 20 on the two and a half now I'm sorry for the record Richard dayu Thunderbird management consulting and as is required I am a registered lobbyist but I'm not here to speak to you in that capacity this morning I am speaking to you in the capacity as a member of the city planned commission's planning and inspections has a developer focus group that has been operating now for several years and I serve on their executive committee along with a few other strategic individuals within the community we have worked on this Initiative for more than the last two years we've had in a significant number of Outreach opportunities throughout the community we've gotten a lot of input we've gotten a lot of input from the developing Community everyone is in support of the of the provisions that are being provided to you today asking you to support this it is important to be done to representative Fiero and representative anello's comments about the outside entity who's interested in participating and spoke at the last time this was addressed that is in fact an effort to being put forth to work together for future opportunities but this is such an important part of our operations as a community right now we want to strongly encourage you to approve this as it's been amended and we support all the recommendations by the city planning staff I thank you for your time thank you for your support the next speaker is Raymond adalko I don't see him in the queue we'll move on to Ron Lord good morning sir star six to unmute your telephone go ahead Mr Lord you'll have three minutes good morning this is Ron Lord with the International Association of Plumbing mechanical officials and I do appreciate the staff meeting with myself and other representatives from the plumbing and mechanical industry and we did have a commitment to have inclusion in the next code cycle and we all agree that this package is moving along and there's no reason to hold it up I would ask though we do have a language that is called the water demand calculator that could be used as an alternative pipe sizing method and an amendment to the the plumbing code that's being adopted and we would ask the mayor and city council and staff to if we could work with everyone to try to offer a way of saving water and construction costs for new construction we'd like to be a resource and work with everyone to see what we could do to offer these savings to folks in the city of El Paso so I really do appreciate all the the hard work that's gone into this and there was no intention of trying to hold this up we were simply asking as I mentioned we asked back last year to try to participate I know folks have said there was Outreach but we contacted staff and tried to participate in this process and look forward to doing just that in the in the next cycle so uh and but as I mentioned we do still have some thing that could be amended into the plumbing code that could be very beneficial for not only new construction but for the life of the of a structure by reduced pipe sizing which would save water and construction costs so thank you very much for your time and appreciate it and look forward to working with staff in the future thank you very much thank you sir that concludes public comment on this item thank you we do have a motion in a second yes the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Rivera to approve the ordinance item 24 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 25 is discussion in action on an appeal by the property owner of 3535 Aurora Avenue El Paso Texas 79930 in the Manhattan Heights historic district regarding a decision rendered by the Historic Landmark Commission in hlc case PHA p 23-00033 on June 12 2023 to approve what modifications a certificate of appropriateness for the reference property motion to deny there's some motion and a second to deny any public comment yes mayor we do have Mr Mario Gonzalez that signed up to speak thank you yes uh Mr Mario Gonzalez is my attorney and he is at a hearing right now that he is conducting with the city may you state your name please my name is Maria Dolores Lucas and I am here because of the the I have a house located at 3535 Aurora Avenue it is a non-contributing property and um I've been treated they want to treat me as a contributing property which is um and I have the the non-contributing property means a building object site or structure in a historic district which does not contribute to the district or cluster historical significance through location design setting material workmanship feeling and Association but due to its proximity of the Historic Landmark and contributing properties it has a potential to affect the character of the historic district or cluster that is located within I had um Window World changed my windows I paid them to get a permit from the from the historical land commission and um they neglected to get the permit I didn't find out about this until you know um until I went in to get a permit for my roof then they told me that um Window World never got the permit for the re-roofing the problem has been that they are using the fact that Window World didn't get a permit and Window World has tried to get the permit but they have told them that they have I have to remove my windows in order for them to go ahead and give me a permit for my roof I have had to put tarps on my roof because of the fact that my roof is leaking and I've been wanting since April I've been wanting to get the roof done but they are telling me no because of the fact that Window World never got the permit for the roof and because I am a non-contributing house I don't see why I should have to change my front window to two side windows to half windows on each side or the other two windows which have nothing I mean they are they have nothing to do with it doesn't change the aesthetic of the the whole property the properties there are two properties on this side of copia which is um it's not as beautiful as the other side of copia the site on this side they're poor people the houses aren't that beautiful but because the historic district wants me wants my property to be a contributing property and wants to put the same rules and regulations that they do on contributing properties which is not fair because I do not get the same benefits as a contributing property owner does I don't get tax benefits in my house where to be thrown down or whatever they wouldn't give me any money to read Miss Lucas I still reached the three minutes Miss Lucas thank you for being here I want to say that no one in the historic district gets tax benefits or rebates or anything for their property but you are in the historic district as a representative of this District I always like to give accommodations especially based on socioeconomics to individuals who cannot afford some of these things but my understanding is that Window World did apply for an application and offered to change your will Windows and bring them to compliance on their own dime and you told them not to do that because I put it's been six years since I put the windows on six years since then I've put shutters in all the windows all my windows have shutters if they go in and start taking out windows because you know first of all I said I'm not a contributing I'm a non-contributing property owner I shouldn't be put to the same standards as a contributing property owner I want to I don't want to stop the question I know there's a lot of council members who have questions but I want to actually ask if if provi can come up here and talk about this contributing owner because my understanding and and I please correct me if I'm wrong is that anybody within this historic district is subject to these rules and I also and I understand really quick before I ask probably to clarify that I do want to touch on something you said that you had those windows changed six years ago we have residents all over the city that will not get a permit for something 10 20 years ago even before they purchased the home and they will still have to get up to compliance to fix those things prior to doing any work and so I don't want you to feel like because you did this six years ago that bends the rules for some reasons and and again if Window World in my opinion had not offered to make these changes and correct these on their own I would not be up here motioning to deny but I'm trying to understand why and I do want I'm sorry I probably sat down because I keep talking um but I do want to understand some clarification to this non-contributing I don't know if an attorney wants to do that or if you would like to do that everywhere else in Texas nobody treats uh non-contributing property with the same rules and regulations as a contributing property and they want to put the same rules and regulations that they do on contributing properties to a non-contributing property my windows do not change the aesthetic of the whole neighborhood there there's windows on on two blocks up Aurora that have the same kind of Windows that I do so why do I have to abide by their rules when I am a non-contributing property owner good morning good morning Providencia Velasquez historic preservation officer so these are the definitions from the city code from chapter 20.20 that state contributing property means a building object side restructure in a historic district or cluster that contributes to the districts or clusters historic significant significance through location design setting materials workmanship and or Association and a non-contributing property means a building object cider structure in a historic district which does not contribute to the districts or cluster's historical significance through location design setting material workmanship feeling Association but due to its proximity to historic landmarks including properties has the potential to affect the character of the historic district or cluster that is located within so the definitions don't say that because you're non-contributing the rules don't apply to you the definition basically says that contributing is really the reason for the district non-contributing is not the reason for the district but the same rules apply to everyone everybody thank you um I know that we have another public speaker who is not here but did sign up this is Mr Gonzalez good morning sir you have three minutes thank you may please Council mayor oh not prison my name is Mario Gonzalez I'm speaking on this matter because I have been dealing with the city and trying to get this matter done and one of the things I will tell you is that one of the things I first learned in law school was when you do something uh my professors always used to ask them what Authority what's your jurisdiction that was always the first question that was asked and so when I looked at the city ordinance with regards to the re-roofing permit that Miss Lucas uh was seeking it's a very simple ordinance and it tells you what Authority and what jurisdiction you have now under the city ordinance as it exists there is no linkage it doesn't say anywhere that Ms Velasquez or the Historic Landmark commission can choose to deny simple maintenance that's a really re-roofing permit they cannot deny that or that they can deny that because there was a window out of compliance now the history of this is very simple more than five years ago my client had hired Window World to replace the drafty Windows period they got their permits they did whatever they thought they were supposed to do when my client applies for a re-roof permit that's when she finds out that there wasn't a a permit issue and so Ms Velasquez says oh you need a permit but one does not have anything to do with the other the ordinance 2020 uh of uh in its subsequent sections of of the city of El Paso do not authorize to the withholding of a permit for simple maintenance while they deal with the windows there just isn't any linkage there's zero Authority even in the enforcement mechanism for that linkage Ms Velasquez has decided this has gone back since April by the way to say unless you fix these three windows at one time she was asking for all the windows the historical commission set three Windows unless you fix them you get no permit I have pictures here photographs of the roof she's had to use tarps she's had to use wood she's had to four times do that in the meantime it's been raining the inside of her house is getting destroyed there's leakage throughout and it appears to me one of the silliest things is that you'll want to preserve a historical property it's in your District uh representative vanilla that you want to preserve this property by destroying it by denying a re-roof permit the administrative Solution that's authorizing the ordinance is to either admit or deny you can't you can't just say we're going to withhold your re-roof till you do something else that's not in the jurisdiction that's not in the authority and we're coming to you because you're the ultimate Authority if you say you know what Miss Lucas go ahead and re-roof your house and we will deal with the permitting issue on the windows by the way I've appealed that too I think the commission said you know you get three uh Windows you need to change and again it's a non-contributing property uh the changes would have been minuscule and I'm asking you to do the right thing and recognize that there's no authority to have half to have what happened happen well and again I think you weren't here to perform with my previous comments Window World did not get a permit historical or not they did not get a permit and they have offered to rectify the situation and the owner has has denied that and so with that I'm going to go to representative Hernandez one of my questions was going to be Mr Gonzalez thank you for being here um was you weren't here and I didn't feel comfortable allowing um your client um you know make a case without having her counsel here and so that was going to be one of my initial uh questions so I'm pleased that you're here today um I I don't necessarily have questions with you but you you you have brought up some important information that I think I'll just refer my questions to legal but uh you can stick around in case others have questions but was there anything you'd like to ask I would like to add that I have asked the city attorney's office I asked the hpo officer I asked a Historic Landmark Commission on what Authority can a mere maintenance issue be with that permit be withheld because of something else okay I never said that you couldn't enforce something else I'm just saying but on what Authority can you do that to this day I have not been provided any legal Authority and as such this kind of creates a taking of a property this house is getting destroyed we need some relief and you're the only ones who can do it and and I would hope that we step back and look at the big picture of what a historical preservation Historical Area is you want to preserve it that's not happening here today yeah I don't disagree that some good intent of an ordinance could cause some unintended consequences as it relates to personal private property my concern here is the unfortunate deterioration of a home and the impending monsoon season that is coming up and I do agree and Mrs Neiman I'll refer my question to you and to anyone else who's who is um uh working on this matter in your office is there anything in our ordinance that says that we could withhold one application if there's a violation of another application because um to me it seems unfair that when you apply for one thing you have the historic preservation officer who's going to go and audit your whole home to see if it's in compliance it's almost you know in my opinion a little unfair whether or not it is practice or policy you know I I do feel you know that is unfortunate especially because this is maintenance this is a roof hones deterior quickly with water you know you can get mold from it you can you can have hazardous implications to your health when there's mold in your home and if you have any severe allergies that could be a huge implication as well to your health so I take that very seriously so I'm trying to understand what does our ordinance require and is it is this an overreach uh representative on this I I have uh Don Davey who is the lawyer that is assigned to Chelsea and he's worked on this issue so he'll answer your questions uh thank you representative Hernandez the code's clear in the policy and procedure of the hlc this is a mechanism that we use to enforce the hlc provisions to withhold permits 2020.40 gives broad discretion to the city to use all means necessary to make sure the hlc provisions are enforced this is the enforcement mechanism for the hlc um the Historic Landmark commission has discretion to to to go with the recommendations of Staff they chose not to do that they actually gave a more lenient compromise to the applicant in this case it was subsequently appeal that it's here in front of you and you can consider all of the items that Mr Gonzalez brought to you but it's been the policy and practice and we believe it's in our code that there is Broad discretion to enforce this mechanism through the withholding of permits representative Hernandez to to what Don just did it in town Sir Mr Gonzalez's statements The Authority is vested with the city council this is the zoning Authority which is the broadest and strongest police power that is given to a municipality it is under this provision under 20 21 40 that hlc has acted and asked that the Roofing permit and then the windows be brought up to Historic Landmark standards and and just a follow-up question on that in the event that the denial today fails and city council decides to approve um the the appeal does the violation of the windows that's still a matter that needs to be addressed by the property owner correct that is correct depending on what the motion would be from Council that could be it could be it's in your discretion to approve allow them to get the permits but require them to remedy the remedy the the non-compliance with the windows it's not the recommendation from staff of course but that's in your discretion like it could be after the fact like we give you the permit and then you have subsequent time x amount of time to to become into compliance that is correct yeah you know in in my opinion someone who's gone through window replacements um recently it's it's a huge inconvenience to have your home gutted open and taken out it just doesn't make practical sense it's not necessarily pragmatic but I I certainly understand the concern from the public as relates to the character as it relates to the the Historic Landmark commission but I think this is a very reasonable request given the fact that a roof is leaking and I certainly wouldn't want my mother in that position I wouldn't want my grandmother in that position and so for those reasons I will not support the denial today and I will have a subsequent motion to to afford the property owner the opportunity to become into compliance but to still have the opportunity to re-roof get that Apple get that permit and give adequate time and we can you can work with the property owner adequate time so that they can become in compliance because I do believe they should become in compliance I just don't believe that it should be contingent on what I consider to be a health can concern Health implications and and I see you're nodding your head Mrs uh would you like to comment on anything that I'm saying I want to clarify a few things sure um yes so this started in April where the roofing contractor gun touch with us and we saw that there are violations um by mid-may I want to say about May 16th or so we had reached an agreement with Window World and we said if you submit the application we're not even talking about installing the windows just submit the application this is May 16th we will approve the roofing application of course you'll finish up the windows it was the property owner's decision to go to the hlc to not take advantage of that um so the hlc on June 12th basically said you can keep all the windows except for the first three on the main facade and after you do that you can have a roof so she's gotten approval for a roof she had a virtual approval on May 16th but she chose not to exercise that so the only reason she's without a roof is because she just wants to keep the windows and we're saying you can come to compliance there's a compromise she's refusing that right and so thank you for the additional information I just would like to to reiterate my statements that when it comes to uh your home you know it's your it's your home and your roof you know I I think that that we have a duty to allow for a property owner to do that and I and I'm appreciative that there's been compromises um but again it is the prerogative and decision of council I'm only one of eight that's my position and and I hope that this denial does not move forward so that we can give the property owner adequate time to to come to compliance and we also have more public comment but I would like to also say that compromise has to go both ways and it's been very clear to me that the property owner has not been willing to compromise with City staff on multiple occasions um and with that I believe I just want to make sure that you got my motion so my motion was to if the denial does not go forward my motion will be to approve the appeal with the condition of allowing adequate time I don't know what that time is and so I would refer back to the attorney to determine what would that adequate I'll second okay with that we have Miss Turner that's correct what one second for Council Don Davey for the record City attorney just for clarification representative Hernandez just to get your if I'm understanding your motion correct just to get it correct on the record um it would be to um to approve the appeal overturn the hlc decision and to allow the applicant to pull the permits for the roofing and uh and to ensure that they are still in non-compliant and non-compliant with their hlc guideline Provisions with regard to their window and give them x amount of time to fix that yes okay but I I just don't know what that x amount of time is and so I was going to ask the the attorney um and uh his client with that adequate time would be and what I will say about the windows I know I'm sorry uh there are no sorry yeah we are we have procedurals we have called another right and I still have the floor and I have a motion on the table and I've asked um the attorney I'm addressing the time issue yes it was brought up um having talked with window world and what happened at the Landmark commission they want you to put I think they want them to put what I understood a little board I trust the windows that probably wouldn't take very long uh but having dealt with Window World in the past uh I think honestly probably would take them at least a month to manufacture that because it's not something as part of the standard Windows just putting this little board across and if that's the case I think they could probably get it done in about a month uh to do that so I know I have a question why did you if your client is willing to fix these windows why did she go to the ahlc saying she did not want to fix them and get up here today and say she did not want to fix them when staff made a very clear effort to say we'll give you a roofing permit if you make the commitment and Window World went to your client and said we will fix these for free and she said no so we're hearing a very different comments from you and from what your client said this morning well there's two things there are two things two answers to that point the first thing is that despite the city council's assertion that the ordinance is very clear that they can do this the ordinance is not clear at all it doesn't say that they can withhold a a permit for maintenance because of a historical H overlay issue it is not clear at all in fact I would say that it does not authorize that explicitly number two when they wanted the windows removed and put little ice or what they call little glass blocks and stuff that by the way I had asked the historical commission and the preservation office to give me pictures of any windows that they had they didn't have any all they had was uh from when the windows got replaced so these are very recent additions this is a non-contributing property but we don't even know what it looked like when it was built in the 50s and so because there was no real jurisdiction to deny that that permit to re-roof the house my client appropriately chose to contact contact Council and to ask that there'd be no linkage that was it and and you know we shouldn't have to be extorted necessarily by the twisting of an ordinance to force us to have our home destroyed in order to be able to meet whatever particular requirements Ms Velasquez didn't want three Windows she wanted all windows by the way there was also plantation shutters installed in that would have to be destroyed so it wasn't just a simple decision of saying okay yeah take them out you couldn't do that without destroying other parts of the home by the way the Window World was not going to replace so it's not as easy as it has been presented to you there was real Economic Consequences and by the location of this home you will know that this is not a rich area this is not somebody who's wealthy who can you know just tear out plantation shutters and put other ones in that's not the case and so we thought this is there's a procedure there is a mechanism and I will appeal to those people that we elect those Representatives who have the final Authority and say please help and as I said prior I always make exceptions for people for socioeconomic reasons but again you're not here protesting the historicness of the area or the replacement of the windows which Window World has offered to do for free you are here to object to the city's policies when it comes to permitting and I want that to be very clear that this has overreaching consequences to Historic districts with that I believe that the time is up and we're going to go to public comment from Miss Turner thank you mayor Pro Tim good morning Miss Turner you have three minutes good morning this reminds me of a case some years ago historic district Soldier to come in roof was leaking you couldn't get the tiles anywhere in the nation couldn't be manufactured at all did have an outbuilding Historic Landmark commission our commission said you take those towns off that building and put them on this building well all you did was move the problem from the home to the outbuilding okay what I have seen from the hlc is they don't care okay now I didn't hear any definition of boundaries of what is considered a non-contributing property to the historic district is do I live in a historic district out on Bartlett on the west side what about the Northeast Far East El Paso if there are no defined boundaries then any City any house in this city won't go through the same thing now you have two issues here leaking roof Windows fix the roof keep arguing about the windows however you want to do it but fixed the roof okay you have that power I have seen it done in the past it's not the first time this has happened we had a soldier come up just like I said they wanted them to destroy one building to put towels so it would look nice but it would have destroyed the other building and as far as I'm concerned if I'm that homeowner and it's leaking and I can't get my roof all that damage is I'm going to look at you to file a lawsuit against okay you're accepting legal liability over a stupid decision and I'll tell you what if I'm sitting on a jury I'd rule against you it's just that simple fix the roof you can continue to argue about the windows all you want I don't care about them fix the roof because you're destroying property you made the decision to destroy property not them you did thank you with that representative Canales thank you I have a just a clarifying question first that probably for uh Pro V the application that was received for the roof uh was there any significant aesthetic change or is it a simple re-roofing permit that will be aesthetically uh similar to what's existing it was a simple Roofing permit I believe it was life for like which we can approve administratively meaning the office and literally that approval takes about 20 minutes if we have everything in hand so okay and so it was in that 20 minute approximately 20 minute review that the issue with the windows was found yes we asked for current photographs and then we noticed there were changes the windows didn't look like the ones that we had on file for the district so when we asked we were told that yes they had been removed and we got in touch with contractor Window World who does a lot of work in the city and a lot of work in historic districts and they came clean and they said yes we can acknowledge that we did this illegally for some reason we didn't pull permits but we want to rectify the situation and we want to make sure this lady gets her roof so what do we need to do we spoke about it and mid-may we just said submit the application and we'll approve the roof okay um and then uh I think just to be clear about what the appeal actually is the Historic Landmark Commission uh voted unanimously to approve uh the roofing permit correct with the condition that the window situation is addressed um actually the landmarks commission did was a very nice compromise they didn't ask that all the windows be removed and replaced they just asked for the three on the main facade but they ask that that be done before the window sorry before the roof be redone and was that that the the replacement was completed or just that the commitment was there from Window World to do they want the replacement completed did we receive any time frame uh from Window World as to when they would be able to complete that work from Window World No Wonder World however I was speaking to them back in about April or May and they acknowledged it would take them some time to get the right windows but they were willing to willing to do it and I think had the property owner taking them up on their offer in the city's offer in mid-may she'll probably have those windows by now and then you've okay but I mean we yeah we can't go backwards and so from today forward we don't have we don't know how long it would take for Window World to complete that no but they're aware of the situation they were willing to order new windows so I think they'd be more prepared than they usually are okay and would they be I mean they've offered this as a compromise would they be legally bound to follow through on what they offer um well you know I have not seen the contract that they have with the property owner I had asked for it and it was never produced because I wanted to know who was responsible for getting that permit so I think that legally if they have a contract with her and they didn't honor it by getting a permit then I would think that they're responsible but I can't make that call yeah sure but this city wouldn't necessarily be able to take action this would be the property owner would have to take action yeah correct Don Davey for the record the the decision of of city council has no effect on window Window World legally it was between the property owner and winter world okay um if you'll give me one moment I'm trying to find the right document here um I am looking at the certificate of appropriateness and just take the conditions and it says certificate of appropriateness for re-roofing with the modifications that prior to the roof being installed the South window and two adjacent Windows the main entry we brought into compliance with historically appropriate Windows to match the original and that no new permits or approvals be issued until the window permit is received so they didn't give her a timeline they're just saying please take care of those windows first um I wasn't able to watch that hlc meeting I Endeavor to watch a lot of the committee and commission and board meetings but I I haven't watched that one where this was heard was there significant uh opposition from Neighbors or from the neighborhood or any other comment no I remember one comment it was from Fred Evans who is I guess the chair of the Historical Society El Paso historical society was handled and Fred basically asked the landmark commission to enforce the rules to deny this and to ask the property owner to put in appropriate windows that was the only commentary that we received if I remember correctly and again by appropriate windows that would be windows that looks that are aesthetically substantially similar to what was there previously yes landmarks commission I should say our um guidelines say that you can replace these windows you don't have to match the material though but you have to match the operation the configuration to finish so she had windows with Windows or metal windows before you can install vinyl windows as long as they operate and look the same okay I'm looking at the photos from 2013 and 2015 it looks like there were iron bars outside the windows would they be required to reinstall those iron bars outside the windows no no not at all no those are not required to be reinstalled no okay so that any new windows would be at least from the exterior substantially different in appearance just because they wouldn't have the iron bars on them but they would be the the finish of the windows themselves would look substantially similar well the iron bars were separate um they're not a part of the window they usually came later as a matter of security so the property owner has the option of having them on or having them off but yeah you can tell that the window does look a little different with the iron bars on front so we included a picture of the Interior from Zillow and you can see what kind of Windows they actually had it looks kind of like a Chicago window configuration and then you have the center fixed Pane and the flanking windows or operable sash windows and I'm trying to unders I'm trying to to see more clearly from the current photo what what kind of windows were installed here I see like a clearly a one Center larger window or those two additional windows on the side or yes exactly um I think they're circled in the presentation the windows at the landmarks commission asked them to replace okay and so it's just the in that photo the the leftmost set of Windows on the front facing on the facade that are uh that the hlc is requesting be replaced well the ones that are circled so it's just exactly all three locations that are circled and I guess then there were additional windows replaced at the rear on the side they were all replaced but Landmark said it's a compromise you don't have to replace those you can keep those just replace the ones on the main facade and we're good okay um yeah again I I see a clear compromise maybe here where uh the the roofing permit can be granted on the condition that Window World replaces those windows I just don't know that um the first of all that the property owner is interested in that compromise and then second of all that we have any recourse if Window World doesn't follow through with the commitment that they've made to the property owner so that's what concerns me at this point is that even the hlc's recommendation is contingent on the cooperation of a third party that we have no authority to to compel to to actually follow through here and that would be difficult if you were to Grant the property owner a roofing permit today contingent on replacing the windows in the future that would be very hard to uphold and to do because violations are very much like a virus I would say they spread and they sort of you know get people sick and stuff um but once they're done they're really really hard to undo unless we put people's feet to the fire okay and so that is why the hlc would have made the the roofing permit contingent on the actual completion of the replacement of the window that's correct because that will guarantee that the windows will be replaced okay in there now versus what was there before they're labeled one two and three you need to speak into the microphone when you talk but you've also not been called upon thank you thank you that's all my questions if you would like to talk if you would like to speak you would have to give them to the clerk to share with the council and with that we have I think representative Kennedy Council when you're done speaking will you remove your request to speak and then we have representative Kennedy and then representative molinar couple of things I don't is this working yes I don't think that this is a matter of extorting your client or twisting of the ordinance I think that the ordinance may not specifically allow some things but it also doesn't specifically preclude them and I think there is a wide range of authority given under the ordinance the other thing is what is the driving force for me was there was an option at no cost that was offered and refused and to me that's not saying there's no option there was one at no cost and it was refused and gone forward with the concept of we will bring this forward and to me to bring it forward with what it could be and saying there's a potential Health concern yeah it's not extortion but it might be coercion you know my concern is I think that the ordinance itself is Broad enough to cover this and when there has been that offer made in and refused to then say okay now I have to be able to do one to do the other I disagree I just disagree with well representative Kennedy the uh you're right maybe it's not extortion but it's certainly coercion and and the ordinance does not authorize it uh this prop this linkage doesn't included it's a granting document which means city council has to pass an ordinance to authorize that particular action it hasn't done so because it hasn't wanted to do so since the 80s now if if city council fixed the ordinance maybe they could do it but they haven't you all haven't chosen to do that and therefore they cannot go outside what is authorized to them if my client's house gets destroyed this is actionable the city council does have the power to make that decision yes but if my client if my client is unable to fix a roof and the house continues to get destroyed that would be a taking that would be actionable under title 42 usca 1983. that would be the case and and I'm not and I'm not telling you when there's a refusal to take an option that was no cost to have the solution and then it continues to be damaged it would not be a taking on whatever because it's a jurisdiction and and it wasn't the free option by the way it's it's a misstatement of fact to suggest that window world was going to go in and replace all the windows and all the plantation shutters because to replace those windows you got to take down those plantation shutters there was no option there was no promise to give us a new plantation shutters that's a problem I think there may have been misstatements and there may be coercion but I don't believe it's on council's side well again I'm asking this Council to do the right thing by a person whose house is getting destroyed the whole idea of a historic preservation area is to preserve the structure you know we can and I've sent the pictures it's only one window really that doesn't have the little slide bars that go from side to side these windows I'm sorry from top to bottom only the front window number one they open side to side and the reason those were chosen was in case of a fire you want to be able to jump out the window the other window openings going top to bottom those would not allow them to exit the house that's what that's how that was put in again unbeknownst to my client she didn't know they didn't have a permit but so really we're talking about fixing one window if but that should not be the reason to withhold the granting of a permit for a roof the city council still has injunctive relief they could do they still have criminal penalties they could enforce it's all in the ordinance I appreciate that I also know that we would go through our City attorney for that this is a matter of whether we think we're going to support or not um the historic landmarks commission's ruling and I'll confine it to that and that's what I think the question is we can go on some broad reaching statute arguments I'm fine to do that at another time or the legality of the options for the city but the question is very simply what are we going to do about the historic landmarks commissions ruling that is what we're here for today and we can have further debates and I'm fine with that but that's the question in the question of what you're going to do for one of your citizens because they're here the ordinance was created this Avenue of appeal to City Council in particular for this purpose that's why we're here and that will be the question we will give an answer to representative molinar thank you mayor Pro tem if the homeowner could please come up with your attorney I believe your name Mr the attorney your last name is Gonzalez and you started your presentation what was the first thing you said about Law School the first thing I was taught in law school is whenever anything is being enforced is on what Authority what should restriction and and that's where everything stems from if if you know where The Authority is coming from then you can go from there and and when I looked at these ordinances there was nothing that made it explicit that you could withhold a mere uh permit for for for remediation of a roof because of something that had a nature overlay that there was a problem okay and ma'am how long have you been living in your home six or seven years six or seven years so you purchase that property it's yours your perhaps paying a mortgage maybe not I don't know it's mine shares okay and uh your proud homeowner I am okay and so when you um initially got the windows and you contracted with Window World and they told you they were going to get a permit I paid for the permit yes you have a permit and you paid them to get the permit they were supposed to get the permit but they never did I didn't know about it until I went for the roof that they hadn't done that but at within that time I put in the shutters and okay well hold on so you paid the contractor Window World to get a permit they failed to get the permit from the city okay that's correct subsequently you try to attempt to beautify your home you put the plantation shutters and who did you hire to do that um I um I can't remember his name anymore okay well anyways you have one done okay and so now you had a problems with the roof yes okay and when did you discover those issues with the roof um when they went in and um fixed tried to fix my air conditioner do whatever they do to the air conditioners they told me that my roof was falling apart and then we went and we contracted Legacy to do the roof we've already paid them and this has been since April we paid them a down payment and they were supposed to go in and do it in April but when they went in they told them that because I didn't I they said I didn't get the permit for the roof that they weren't going to give me the permission who's they the miss provencia okay and so uh I've been hearing that window world's going to Europe but now you mentioned the legacy is going to do Window World uh did my windows I went and I thought they were going to get the permit I I I didn't know that that they hadn't done that okay we've established that I'm just trying to say who's the contractor doing the roof Legacy okay and they're willing still to do it and you've made a down payment and they sought to get the permit yeah they're waiting on it but you know because of the fact that it's taking long to go ahead and do it I'm going to have to pay more uh for the the uh material that they're going to put in there and they've already told me that okay and so uh Mr Davies Council this is for him so what is the linkage that you attempted to get a permit for Windows the contractor failed to do that portion and now they're trying to remedy their roof because it's got an issue or problems leaking the lady has been using tarps what's the linkage between not getting a permit and now they're trying to get a permit what's a linkage the linkage is it's a zoning violation their their houses and non-compliance with the hlc provisions they applied for administration administrative review it was denied because during that process they found that there was violations they were given the option and they pursued it to go seek a certificate of appropriateness with the hlc they made their case there we had the same discussions there that we're having right now ultimately the hlc made a decision to deny or approve the the application with the conditions that we're discussing today and they did that under the authority of 2020 140 which gives broad discretion in the in the remedies that the hlc may go forward with and that broad discretion is to remove or perhaps damage the shutters remove the Windows get the permit and get new windows I mean the the decision was to approve with the condition uh approved them getting the permit the condition that they fixed the windows and get become compliant with the windows okay the hlc once again you would have to remove the shutters someone's going to have to remove the shutters possibly damaging them replace those windows that are affected yeah uh maybe your program might be better to answer that yeah point of clarification the shutters are not part of this conversation I've removed plantation shutters from my home and reinstalled them no one here at the hlc is having any conversation about the plantation shutters I think that was maybe part of the coercion that was mentioned this is something that happened to the ladies already paid for the shutter she she had a contractor do that so I just um I can understand what's happening Mr Davies and I appreciate your explanation but to me you have a roof uh like representative Redondo said you have a family there how the water leakage you're going to get subsequent damage more damage if we don't act on this today so I do support I seconded representative I've done this is motion for the amendment thank you representative Rivera did you want to ask some questions of gentleman here and uh don't don't even uh did they offer you to to just go sign and uh for the windows and they'd give you the permit is that is that uh true there no I I signed a contract you can lower it man you can lower it I signed a contract with them uh that um they were supposed to do all the windows in this house um because they were all falling apart and um well the whole house was falling apart and I had to redo the whole inside and everything but the the contract said that I was to pay for the permit so I thought all this time six years all this time I thought that we had gotten a permit for the for the windows so that's when I went and and I you know right after the windows I went I got the shutters in there and um we had to redo the inside of the house put a sheetrock and and because it was exposed um would a cinder block and and every time that they move you know I had like a before the we put the shutters in they had to remove like a um that stuff that you put like at the edges uh what are what's that called yeah like a a molding and when they removed that there was it damaged the the the shade Rock so when they put the shutters I still have like spaces where you know when they removed so I know that there's going to be damage if they remove the shutters again Okay so uh is I I just want to know where you asked just to go fill out an application and then they you you you failed to do so or you didn't want to do so for what for the uh for the windows that's the way I understood it yeah and part of the contract they did that they allegedly or we or so she thought had gone through the permitting process uh they charged her she paid the window were installed and then you find out after the fact that there was a defect and that's that's a real problem for somebody has now gone a further step to enhance the beauty of the house and then now when the world says well you know we can work with you and on these windows but that doesn't take care of the sheep rock with it and this is six years this is six years afterwards yes and if I if I'm not mistaken uh I heard uh the lead from the historical land commission say that where in the world has done a lot of jobs in historical land area so if they've done that job so many times ma'am once you figure that they I was now I'm referring to the lady from the historic line I'm sorry if they've done that many jobs in historical land commission and you've you've said it yourself I'm going by what you said uh wouldn't they automatically have done the windows as required you would think so um but that just wasn't the case and this is not the first time we've had an issue with Window World doing work legally in a historic district this has happened more than once so then okay so at this point I see that the lady didn't have any knowledge of that of that which she was supposed to have and and the person actually sir excuse me but she did get an approval in 2016 and admin approval so she knew that she was in a historic district she knew she needed approval for this kind of work and it just wasn't done so then what's the connection between the window and and the roof well the issue here is that the windows were done illegally um the contractor Window World knew very well they were historic district they didn't do it the property knew she was in historic district we have a previous approval and when she wanted a new roof we took a look at the conditions we said appears that there was work done illegally so we're going to exercise this portion of the city code and say until you're in compliance we're not going to issue new permits so back in may we did speak with Window World we had many conversations with them and we asked them to submit an application for the accurate Windows the correct windows and we've got ahead and prove a new Roofing permit so back in May the property owner could have had a new roof but she's choosing not to compromise and not to bring this property to compliance so you'd rather have her wait until until she meets the compliance with the windows that at this point in my eyes has nothing to do with the roof and it's already been said over and over again that that house is all of a sudden deteriorating so you use that discretion to to kind of like punish her for that no it's not a compromise no sir we're not punishing what we're trying to do is get people into compliance and historic district and again back in May she had the option of getting a roofing permit as little as used to put an application for the windows and that was not done so here we are over two months later she still has no roof but she could have had a roof back in May and she could have had a roof back in June but then again that that thank you representative fair I want to clarify because probably I think you've got a little hold on I still have it hold on hold on well I still want to ask one more question as far as it's concerned I mean not a question but a statement rather because you know you you've done that and you you feel you feel as you're using that as a discretion and I get it but just to just damage some of these homes that that much actually if that's home is getting damaged as bad as it is then you are putting this in a position where where I feel that this council is being held responsible for to make the a decision that should have been made very easily and you can you can find other ways of of uh seeking some kind of compensational or restitution from the from the lady because she know you know you're in a historical line commission no doubt about it you don't have the Window World and the roofing I went and I got a permit well I thought I had gotten a permit I paid for that permit and I thought they had done it and I went and I got a permit for the roof and every time I go I get permits I went to get a permit to get the inside of my house done so it's not that I don't that I don't want to uh you know obey the rules of the historical I want to keep that house looking nice but for for them to just go ahead and tell me that one window in the front because it doesn't open up and down and it just opens sideways but it's got the same the same design and everything that you know she's going to deny my me putting on a roof is is I I I don't see that I just don't see that because all the other windows open the same way that the other ones used to there's no nothing wrong with the windows and honestly I'm having a hard time seeing that as well as well as our public speaker mentioned it she you know she brought up a good point uh if this goes to court where does the city stand how much liability does the city have address a few issues So based on what's Happening here today it's clear to me that she has a cause of action against Window World so not doing the work that they were supposed to do again the the issue before the council today is to decide whether or not you're going to uphold the decision of the hlc which was to approve the permit on the condition that the windows be redone she hasn't been denied the opportunity to move forward with her project so again I would remind the council our hlc ordinance exists in our zoning ordinance which is the broadest and most the broadest power that the police power has been given to this Council I would if you all want to have a discussion behind closed doors we can however I wouldn't go down the path of you all admitting or believing that there is some sort of liability against the city because there isn't the issue here is hlc reviewed the apartment this Providencia gave them the permit on condition of fixing she refuses the hlc did the same thing so now it's before this Council the recommendation of the of the actually the motion to do what representative Hernandez accomplishes the exact same thing that the hlc is that what motion was which was to to improve it on the conditions which is the same motion that representative Hernandez has made here today okay it's the exact same motion which is that she has to fix the roof and the windows that the permits will be issued on those two conditions so it's the same action that the commission did thank you Mrs Neiman that's what I was trying to clarify we are denying her appeal the the recommendation from the hlc was to fix this I have some questions for our Pro V Pro V use I've heard from both you and um the appellant that in 2016 she applied for permits for the windows or she applied for the application in 2016. so what happened in 2016. in 2016 she applied to upgrade the electrical upgrade the electrical right okay all right that's the only application we have from 2016. and you you're very aware that you're in a historic district so when they put in non-historic Windows at no point did you question that the reason I didn't question it because I'm a non-contributing property yeah that's not a thing and it is a thing because all over Texas they do treat non-contributing properties differently but we do not under our ordinance um and I'm sorry sir I was asking a question about the historic windows I also want to remind Council not that long ago we denied an appeal for someone who had to tear out a an entire deck that had to redo their entire home and here we're talking about undermining an entire historic district because of shutters which if Window World is taking them out they're going to need to put them back in correctly again I make and have very open conversations with my constituents about historic districts all the time looking at socioeconomics and the real ability to comply with the historic district is very real and most of the time we see people who have the means and I'm not and I'm absolutely not saying this about anyone up here today that have the means to comply fight this and I know that's not what's happening today but there were conversations with the Appellate with my office oh about six you know four or five months ago the recommendation from the hlc was to comply with the windows and allow for the roofing permit it is the same motion that has been made by representative Hernandez so I'm going to adjust my motion um Miss Prime oh I'm gonna wait till you get back though I think I can send it to you though it is motion motion made second and carry that the city council deny the applicant's appeal and uphold the Historic Landmark commission's decision on June 12 2023 of the approval with recommendations for property located at 3535 Aurora Avenue El Paso Texas 79930 and authorize the City attorney and City manager's office to take all steps including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this Authority and I would like Miss Neiman again or Mr Davies I apologize to repeat what the recommendation from the hlc was so point of clarification first did the motion that you just said was to uphold the decision of the hlc correct yes sister okay um Pro V can you repeat the exact recommendation from that that's correct I just want to clarify though that's that's a different motion than the one representative Hernandez made yes the difference would be that she would have to fix the windows and I think that we and I you know I'd love to hear a little bit more from planning as well this is the only Authority we have to make sure that these things happen if we do not uphold the hlc we have no guarantee that these windows will be fixed and again I would have felt very differently about this back in April when my office was contacted if Window World had not said we will fix this and I just again this Council has made people tear down porches uh tear down entire structures these are three Windows the hlc was very accommodating we deal with this a lot and I'm going to repeat it I I very often work with residents to make sure that this is something that is within their means for their health and safety when I had heard that this company was going to rectify this on their own dime it it just didn't make sense to me why we're holding other people two standards but not this property um and so probably I didn't know if you had any comments no I just want to know if you want me to read these certificate of Appropriations again okay so um the certificate appropriateness for re-roofing with the modifications that prior to the roof being installed the South window and two adjacent windows to the main entry be brought into compliance with historically appropriate Windows to match the original and that no new permits or approvals be issued until the window permit is received thank you and can you remind me probably how was this historic district set up um I want to say Manhattan Heights was the first historic district El Paso that was placed on the national register of historic places and it was initiated by the residents so upholding these uh recommendations from our advisory committee is upholding the will of the constituents that live in that area who collected signatures that came to city council and asked Council to up hold the historic Integrity of their community so thank you with that representative Kennedy and representative Canales will you just click your thing or did you have more comments oh you did have more comments okay go ahead I'm sorry yeah I just have one quick question actually and this would be verb uh our legal department um I know you I I want to avoid putting you in a situation where you're giving legal advice to an applicant but if in a situation like this the shutters were were damaged during the de-installation or reinstallation by Window World would the applicant potentially have a cause of action uh in small claims quarter I already stated that and she has a lawyer that I'm sure can give her legal advice on on those issues but it's clear to us I think based on today's conversation that that has happened well yeah I was yeah again I was specifically speaking about and I won't ask you to give advice but I'm specifically speaking about the the situation with the shutters um that that have been installed at the owner's expense I think if if the it's it's my opinion that if the owner the property owner uh installed these shutters with the Reliance on on the the permit being obtained by Window World and and the proper installation of the the correct windows that they would have the property owner would have some cause of action potentially in small claims court to recover costs associated with the with any damage that window world would do to the shutters during the replacement right at the High Cost of litigation but I want to say one thing the there's two two certificates of appropriateness that were brought up here one is for the roofing you can you can deny the the the hlc's recommendation that the windows be done before the roofing permit gets approved and say we're approving the roofing permit and you can uphold the certificate of appropriateness to deal with those three Windows there's nothing that requires one or the other but denying the the roofing permit will cause damages and I know there they may there may be a difference of opinion on whether or not the city would be liable I contend it would be for the damages because there the city is interfering with the right to maintain our property 20 20.140 the the ordinance they keep referring to only says this it is unlawful to construct reconstruct structure altering model renovate restore demolish or raise any Historic Landmark in violation of this chapter by the way this house is not a Historic Landmark the city in addition to other remedies May Institute any appropriate action or proceedings to prevent such unlawful violation and that's the city May Institute in other words they can take some lawful action to restrain correct or Abate such violation to prevent any illegal act business or maintenance in and about such premises that doesn't say you can withhold one permit for the other because the whole ordinance was set up to go through the administrative procedure to allow normal maintenance which re-roofing comes under that definition the other enforcement mechanism I keep telling sir I'm sorry with respect I I didn't ask a question I just made a statement about my own opinion sorry I just thought it was a question yeah it was not um lost my train of thought here as well um that's all then thank you I just a couple of things um I appreciate the information I will point out our legal advice comes from Ms Neiman so I appreciate it I would also say ask one question before I'm done is are you taking legal action against Window World for their lack of a plugging a permit which started this whole thing well it'll depend on what happens here today as to who gets sued well I I appreciate threats of legal action I mean I just wanted to clarify your statement earlier tell me what the similarities are with my Motion versus hlc or are there any differences so what Mr Davey was explaining is my your motion doesn't make in contingent on them fixing the windows first the condition that the hlc placed on the property was that they had to get the windows fixed okay so so it's not the because that's my understanding your motion was to not make it contingent in that they could replace the roof irrespective of when the windows got fixed hlc asked that the three Windows be fixed prior to the roofing permit being issued that's correct so so essentially what comes first the permit for the roof or the replacement of the window and what I am saying they're not contingent uh based on my emotion so so the Motions are not the same I just want the record to reflect that is that correct okay so what's before the council is the decision of the hlc so what council needs to decide is whether or not they want to approve with the motion that the hlc issued or if there's an alternative motion like what you're proposing yes okay and then um so I just have a point of clarification the first motion that's on the table is to deny correct so if I vote no to deny uh because I always get confused when there's a motion of denial so what is yes and what does no mean if the motion to deny fails then you can take the additional okay so secondary motion so if you vote yes that means you're upholding the hlc correct correct if you don't vote Yes you're gonna vote Yes to deny the appeal yeah so okay so just to clarify there's two potential motions potentially three motions um If you deny the appeal and that it's denying and upholding the hld decision if you approve the appeal you're overturning the hlc decision representative benello's motion is to deny the appeal and uphold the hlc decision your motion as I understand it is to approve the appeal overturned hlc decision on the condition that they still must be and get into compliance with the with the window issue but they are allowed to pull the permit for the roof and move forward with that process of getting the re-roofing and I guess we would ask if you're going to require them to be I should ask staff actually if we're going to require them to still make be in compliance with the windows I guess a time frame of when that must be completed right and and I have purchased windows from this company I also don't appreciate the the added information about the company and so I would ask staff to refrain with their personal opinions and comments but what I wanted to say about that that business is that when I ordered it took over eight weeks to get the windows so I'm not sure if they're being replaced or just removed or you had mentioned modifications so it could take time based on personal experience but that was you know this is post-pandemic time frame and so I just I don't I don't know if you have an adequate answer today but you said a month if we're going to modify them by putting that little strip so they look like they open up and down probably within a month if we actually have to pull out that window and put a different one that functions different then as you say we have to order it I know the Historic Landmark commission they were talking about just modifying it to look like you could open it up and down okay so it's a it's a modification it's not reordering so that could just be if we can do that people approve that then probably that's a short time frame okay okay so then so just wanted to clarify my motion um which is the second part and with uh representative mullinar's agreement um 30 days yes thank you I have a question so is that okay representative Molina do you accept that motion I just want to point over Mr Davies representative Hernandez wants to issue the permit for the roof provided that the homeowner removes or replaces or modifies the window to make it look like in compliance with the hlc decision all right it's my understanding of the motion thank you and also miss Prime there is three motions right now then no sir mayor Pro tem Manilow restated her motion to deny okay and representative Kennedy do you still second then motion thank you sir so there's that motion and then the alternate motion that representative Hernandez made that you seconded thank you I have a question for the property owner so I had asked before and you didn't actually answer you know you're in a historic district you had Windows put in you thought they pulled a permit but they did not put historic windows in at no time you thought you need to question them you just thought that they got a permit for non-historic Windows in a historic neighborhood no because I had asked the the person that would installed the the windows I asked him um did they they approved the windows right and he said yes it's as long as they open the same way as the old ones it was fine that's understandable not correct but understandable I mean not your mistake um but so I want to be April and I think that's when you contacted my office you were told that the hlc would give you this permit if you corrected the windows you're here today to say almost five months later it's too late it's about to rain I need the permit for the roof now but I'm going to fix the windows correct it actually took months to get the historic preservation office to move in fact I had contacted them and I said hey you're supposed to approve or deny a lot of that was because I was holding them up asking questions based on the phone call from the resident trying to figure out what a compromise would be but I understand that the compromise was Window World has offered to fix the windows and we'll give you the permit for the roof four months five months ago now you're telling other Representatives who are making motions that say if we give you the roofing permit are you are you guaranteeing you'll fix the window and you're saying yes so my question is if that was an option five months ago why did you say no then and how are we to know today that you're actually going to stand by that because right that is the only ability we have to guarantee that you will fix them as the hlc's decision but you're asking us to waive that even though five months ago you didn't take that agreement because that wasn't the agreement five months ago they wanted every window taken out and replaced it wasn't until we went to the administrative process through the Historic Landmark commission that said hey all these windows look good I understand because I was a part of those background conversations but I my office I did not speak directly to your client my office spoke to your client and reaffirmed what the hlc was saying about just fixing three of them and the option was no and so I don't understand why why you're saying and this is not a question it's a statement before I call the question you told us five two three months ago no now you're saying if you give the permit we'll do it and I'm just saying that with previous conversations which even the option to appeal here today you made it very clear that you don't want to fix those windows got up today the first thing you said was I don't want to fix those windows and so I'm very concerned about the second motion with your understanding and agreement to fix the Windows though that has been made very clear over the last four months you have no intention to do that and so with that I'm going to call the question was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy and this is that the city council deny the applicant's appeal and uphold the Historic Landmark commission's decision made on June 12 2023 of approval with recommendations for property located at 3535 Aurora Avenue El Paso Texas 79930 and authorizes a City attorney and City manager's office to take all steps necessary including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this Authority on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 4-3 Representatives Kennedy anello Fierro Canales voting I Representatives Hernandez the motion does pass thank you both very much for being here thank you thank you Steph that brings us to item 26 and this is discussion in action that city council approves the recommendations from The Parks and Recreation Department and community and human development department for project rollout for the community progress Bond proposition B good morning council members Pablo Caballero assistant director Parks and Recreation the following will be a shared presentation by us and the capital Improvement department and neighborhood Improvement program Community progress Bond proposition B updates some of the content we'll go over today are the last decade of parks Investments updates and recommendations on Prop B implementation neighborhood Improvement program and requested Council action for key context we all know system experience Decades of disinvestment prior to the quality of life Bond an aggressive addition of new facilities in Parkland often means more experience expensive operations and maintenance also older facilities have major maintenance issues and often areas which are no longer activities due to code changes in use and costs last decade of parks investments just to name a few 223 million in additional Parks trails and Facilities this reflects a 25 percent increase to overall system inventory all of this is a result of 2012 quality of live bond which includes nip Parkland dedication program Texas Parks and Wildlife and cdvg funding 52 playgrounds and canopies improve or added nine new spray parks the award-winning San Jacinto Plaza redesign for new community centers with design and amenities that set new standards plus Library services for added Community value five trails and Trail heads added or improved 56 Parkland dedication projects four Regional water parks two competitive aquatic facilities three new Olive's playground and two additional in development the city of El Paso Parks and Recreation Department got a national accreditation through Capra this reflects high standards for best practice in community offering engagement oversight and fiscal management to mention only one percent peer agencies in the U.S achieve these this recognizes El Paso as a great place to live ensures that parks and streets and maintenance staff are providing quality customer service and also creates an environment for regular review of operations policies and procedures and promotes continual learning and Improvement on November 8 2022 borders approved parks and borders approved preposition B which included 20 million dollars for parks and community and human development items such as shade structure for five million dollars Mega elevated his playground for 10 million dollars and neighborhood Improvement program for five million dollars on preposition B rollout shade structure as you can see on your screen we will be covering eight playgrounds one on each district plus three baseball fields with bleachers in three of our parks with lots of traffic and Sports Programming on the next slide you can also see the anticipated installation schedule as if the recommendation is proof at this point I'll pass the presentation to one of our colleagues from the CID Department uh good morning mayor and Council Daniela quesada for the record for Capital Improvement I'm going to cover the regional all abilities playground that's part of prop b as Pablo mentioned this is going to join um two other uh all abilities playgrounds one that was recently completed the Joey Barraza one and the East Side sports face to park that's currently under construction we have a very generous budget of 10 million dollars which is an amazing opportunity to complete a really fantastic experience for the community and we will be engaging the community in a robust public engagement plan to have their critical input on determining theming and the different programmatic amenities that we'll be going into this all abilities playground what this engagement plant looks like it's very similar to what we did for actually the bond proposition engagement plan so there's multiple components three main ones though one being an educational component so we will be hosting a dedicated web page on our elevateep.com website this is where we will present to the public with information on what constitutes an all abilities playground will present successful case studies throughout the nation we will have online serving 24 7 available to the public again the survey will be so we could get input on the kind of themes that the public wants to see the kind of amenities and components that they want to see be included in this playground we will also be hosting hybrid Regional Community meetings throughout the city this will provide the community the opportunity to come out be face to face with staff go through all the information take the surveys in person and then of course we will have printed out surveys available at all City facilities at all times that we will be monitoring and Gathering those as well all of this will be through complete transparency processes we will be displaying the results of the surveys on our website which will be available to the community at all times so the next few slides are just to illustrate exactly the kind of examples of educational material we will be providing as well as the different kind of surveys what it might look like in theming so starting with the educational material we really want to make sure that the community understands what is an inclusive playground how it goes Way Beyond just the minimum Ada requirement or minimum accessibility requirements and is really out to provide an inclusive environment where children of all abilities can come together Play and Learn from one another it's an environment that's sensory rich and provides just the right level challenges and opportunities for children to learn and grow this is just a quick snapshot so that people could begin to understand that abilities really do come in so many different definitions and levels and you could see by this slide that really only one percent are of disabilities really conform to what may be considered Orthopedic impairments or what traditionally meet regular Ada requirement and so again we want to be able to provide all these inclusive amenities within the playground again for physical sensory and social play and interaction multiple levels of play and challenging activities as well as different levels of space engagement so in other words maybe children feel more comfortable in larger areas other people might feel more comfortable and more intimate pod-like environment and so exploring all of this with the community will be incredibly important to make sure that we deliver exactly the kind of all abilities playground they need the three hybrid Community meetings we're proposing we want to be able to group the different districts together but we also want to make sure that we choose locations that are easily accessible to the majority of the community so we're proposing one at the vallevajo community center and library another at Grandview Park and another one at Don Haskins Recreation Center we welcome your feedback on that though we want to make sure that if we need additional hybrid meetings then we will accommodate that request this is just a snapshot of the previous surveys that we did for the bond rollout the types of survey questions that will be available to the community and the type of results that will be posted publicly on our website and on theming this is just again some case studies that you could see we could do anything from Sports theming space theming fantasy theming outdoor play and so we're really looking forward to engaging the community and seeing exactly what they think will be their Perfect all abilities playground and the last slide on this is just a list so you have an idea of just how many different components can go into this playground we have everything from various physical play components to sensory play and different kind of um designs that stimulate social play and social interactions and so with that I'm going to hand it over to Nicole Rodriguez can I ask really quick Daniella I'm sorry Nicole do you all have a look location yet for the playground so we're using some of the data models that we have been studying in some of our facility assessments that we have been doing we have the equity map locator to really determine you know the areas that are most accessible the areas that also meet the most need we're also looking for sites that are most conducive to the requirements for a more successful elabilities playground so in other words you know we want to make sure that it's an area that's not super loud that it's an area that provides sufficient space so we're going to go through a data driven process to identify what the best location will be for that and and we'll be coming to you all with those options sure and I just want to make sure that includes proximity right because we have one for sure Northeast I know the county has one in Central and so just making sure that we're like equitably dispersing them exactly exactly yes it's officially afternoon so good afternoon Council Nicole Rodriguez with Community human development I'm here to talk about the rollout for nip and some of the changes that we've made to this process so um as mentioned we have five million dollars for neighborhood Improvement program uh neighborhood Improvement projects and these are specifically for registered neighborhood associations we're anticipating in opening up one round for competition and make the funding available in in one round and lastly we've revamped this process since the last time we saw each other last or last summer we with the help of the transformation office we revamped the process using uh heavy nip applicant previous applicants came in in a feedback session tell us what they liked about it what they didn't like about it and so from there we were really able to work with the transformation office to bring this into a a big process Improvement for the Department we're looking to open up applications um here in looking at December January allowing us some time to really go out to the neighborhood associations urals Community meetings to to go ahead and and announce the changes um and what to look forward to when we open up the application projects and looking for project completions between 2025 and 2026. and so how did we transform the process so we really took a look at the voice of the customer we heard feedback on they didn't know what was feasible how did they navigate the process what is the status of the application and where there any modifications for their project after they submit it and then there was some uh process improvements that needed to happen on on the technology piece they needed access and we needed to improve the means for them to apply and then the most important one communication receiving updates on their project and how they could receive feedback on their scoring and so what we've really developed is an online application we've eliminated the pre-application and this online website uh to provide periodic status updates informing the applicant along the way where their project is at um and I think one of the major changes is an nip catalog we're going to pull all the the frequently requested projects attach a almost like a think of a menu of items that are commonly requested in the the ones that we've identified as a need at certain Parks so that we can really uh simplify the process you attached some preliminary cost estimates so that their understanding of what um you know how much an item is so that they know what they're in budget and really eliminate a lot of the guesswork that has happened along the years um and then one of the ideas uh or of or one of the the items that we've revamped is the project site walkthrough we took a page out of our love your blog program and uh we we called the the expectation setting meetings so we actually go to the site with the applicant and with the user department and really evaluate the landscape of the settings and see you know um kind of set expectations we we can identify the the current maybe barriers that that we might see uh using the expertise of the parks departments or the user departments and really understand uh what it is that the applicant wants and what the what is feasible um and so that's a page out of our love your block that we're happy to implement here and then really that Outreach and delivery is something that the community human development department I think does well going out there and really speaking to the neighborhood association to the neighborhood Coalition leveraging our networks and and URLs Community meetings to make sure that everyone knows um the the changes that are coming forward we've also updated the policy which is a companion item to this item so the next item that you'll be hearing is the updates to the policy and really what it is is a reflection of the changes that we've made today Nicole do you want to just take those together do you want to go right into that presentation it's actually listed at the at the very end of the presentation you'll you'll see both and if I may read that into the record item 27 is discussion in action on a resolution that approves the changes made to the neighborhood Improvement program policies and scorecard okay thank you um representative colors I think you have a question okay but before we get there um two questions yes ma'am great about online application is there still a paper option there's still paper option and then there's the ability to apply with us okay um Playing devil's advocate here a little bit some people might say the pre-application was really helpful to determine if their project qualified and if they found that it didn't they would apply for something else yeah it really saved a lot of time for them and the committee what's your response to that the pre-application was really for us to gauge what kind of projects were coming in the pipeline but now that we have a catalog we they already know that those projects are essentially pre-approved that they're feasible so that those projects have already been identified as as applicable as feasible because they've made it into the catalog but could you again just Playing devil's out again could you say that if it's not in the catalog it might make people feel like it doesn't qualify even though it might if it's a unique project correct if it's a unique so there's still flexibility to to pull items that are not in the the catalog however the new policy states that it it might be considered not not feasible and that would be because either cost or um because it doesn't fit within the the scope of work of nip so there is a little bit of flexibility um we're also leaving the application time open for three months so if there is any questions during that time they can still uh reach out to us um but the catalog of items is really what the process Improvement to the pre-application I hope that answered your question okay thank you yeah I just have one quick question uh going back to slide 10 that's the anticipated installation schedule for the shade structure rollout okay that would be with uh uh what is the the main limiting factor for how quickly we can get these deployed out into the community would that be is it construction capacity or uh materials like supplies that we need to receive from A supplier um basically what you know this these are spread out over a three-year roll out for 11 projects what is the what is the reason for the spacing between them Dion Mack Deputy city manager we should have included the um Debt Management schedule here so you may recall when we presented um the bond program we had it over several years and so it really allows for the smoothing of that cost and issuing of debt and so we've actually tied the larger locations to the amount of money that we have within those years and so it's really tied to that schedule so okay and so they'll be funded by different issuances so we have um for the way we had the plan rolled out is that we had a certain amount of money in year one two and three for the majority of projects that you see listed here and so we've aligned the project and rollout schedule to the amount of funding that we had allocated in that plan okay I'm still not quite understanding them they'll be they'll be funded by separate issuances in 24 25 or not 24 but in 25 and 26. and the 24 portion is with funded with cash on hand so yes yes so as we talked about yesterday we have a schedule for how debt is issued for our city we're looking at how we're allocating across this particular Bond you remember that this is actually Part B of A and B and so the entire uh Bond was actually scheduled out in terms of how much dollars we would have per year and these were the pieces that we had for hours and we haven't laid out according to that schedule I see uh Mr Cortina swooping in like Batman on the good on teams yes take that question Canalis yes we've already done one insurance for the community progress Bond and so we collects he closed on that received the cash back in May and for proposition B we issued 6.8 million already out of the 20.8 million that was approved and so we've already done an initial allocation and so we continue to work with capital Improvement Department the usual departments to ensure that we're adequately funding these Kepler projects as they need the cash I understood thank you Robert that's all for me thank you thank you representative College can I also ask how you all determine the shade structures I'm inviting Miss um Carla Chavez who is our Park planning yes Carla Chavez Parks and Recreation Department will the staff provide a recommendation of potential locations those recommendations were based on citizen requests that he that we have received in the department in those recommendations were provided to each uh representative and some discussions were made and that's what we what we got the the Final locations okay can you share those like with certain charts of requests for us so we can see them is we have a list of all the citizens requests that we that we have received yeah thank you so much representative Rivera and may I just add the second part to that on the determination for the bleachers were um just driven by a permit issuance we have 36 um game only appeals throughout the city and so we issue permits for each one of those and we chose the top three in terms of permit issues 11. it says uh visual abilities or playground will join two others currently under construction is which are the two that are under construction and and you're you're talking about joy barasa and Eastside Sports join those that are under construction I'm sorry it's for the locations yes so which are the ones that are under construction under construction is the one that is going to be located and the east side is first complex phase one and the other one is at Chopper Park Okay so so is already completed okay so they're gonna join the one to shower part yes okay thank you you're welcome thank you thank you representative um you for Daniela you had asked about the hybrid meetings um the only thing I would ask um and really appreciative to the park staff who have been very supportive in in hearing from um advocacy groups um I think that's probably the missing component here and I'm appreciative that it's open to the public however you have you you could have very intimate conversations with advocacy groups on how to better serve children with disabilities and um you know I've been to several public meetings and I think they're effective for some groups who want to get general information and give General feedback and then you have advocacy groups that have very detailed information that really requires one-on-one and so I would just ask if we can set aside um you know a couple meetings you all have contacts whereas yeah focused so that would be my my uh absolutely we'll include that um it doesn't necessarily have to be public meeting it could you can coordinate directly with them or just ask even if there was a survey or something that they can that they can circulate and receive so thank you that's all I wanted to share thank you we'll include that okay that's a great inclusion thank you um I did want to address um Mrs uh Nico heater Rodriguez like a long name for the nip um and you've probably said it and I'm having a hard time finding it uh what we already have several constituents who want to to apply and one question that I had received on the nip and I'm not sure if is 27 already included on this or I'm not sure if if it would address with the next item 27 but there's neighborhood associations that want to join forces like two separate and for one cause and so I'm just curious if if that's something that's applicable for for this I need to get back to you okay um so as long I do know that the policy states that it in one apple or a neighborhood association can submit multiple but then they'll need to declare if both of them are feasible they'll need to declare which one they'd like to proceed with because we only award one neighborhood association at a time but I would need to get back with you on and I think the problem is is that due to a death one of the neighborhood associations need a little bit more support and so there's been a neighboring neighborhood association that wanted to to lend support for a project within their Association and so if we could just maybe provide an option that and if you'd like to give us the contact information that way we can work with the neighborhood association that needs support to be able to offer that from our office when you have other entities that want to make improvements to a park so let's say it's a non-profit saying we use this park for this type of sports related activities we want to partner with the neighborhood association in order to put a joint application that's a recent request I had received that I don't know how to address that one is we do not allow outside dollars to support um for a park they would be for a park and that would need to be a this that would need to be a stubbornness side item outside of of what's happening for nip and it's like so for example could could a neighborhood association apply and then bring supporting letters of support you know to you know to make the application overall more competitive yes send me that would all be taken into consideration you also have the scorecard for approval and that that's what the scoring team will utilize as their scoring metrics okay and I didn't you have that in the next one right the next item it'll be in the next item but it's taken they'll be taken together okay okay um all right well I I need to go back and look at the scorecard to see uh what weight that you're giving to each issue um and and you say winter yes winter uh like of this year or winter of next year okay this year or I mean winter is is a season um I just want to give um of course it's am full time for us to identify time uh for the catalog okay because that's the driving force for the application period opening and then it gives us time to go out to your all's Community meetings to conduct our own um and have information sessions so that the neighborhood associations are aware that the application is coming okay no it's because I had misinformed my constituents thinking it was going to open this month so I thank you for that clarification once we were pulling this together we we identified a solid timeline so that's what we're going with okay no that's fine um and then final question for um Pablo um the I just wanted to clarify on the shade structure for the officer David Ortiz Park um on the back side behind the skate park or is it on the skate park the shade structure for the playground it's going to be for the playground the one in the back side of the park yes okay all right that that was my only other question which is really welcoming news he's been it's a it's a new park that I adopted in my district and I live right around the corner so much needed uh I I do concur that a lot of these these parks are are really um are in a lot of need so thank you for bringing that forward no other questions representative Molino thank you mayor Pro tem um on your presentation slide 15 and I don't recall exactly who brought this forward but anyways we had three Community hybrid meetings and I'm going to talk about the Grandview park districts two and four and so if I could make a suggestion or if I need an amendment here it's great that you're going to have it there however I really feel now that let's just say for example Nolan Richardson Recreation Center is now open it's a lot closer to District Four as you know Hondo Pass is the dividing line between District 2 and District Four and so I think if we could move that to Nolan Richardson or even you have Wellington chew right on Maxwell that it would bring a lot more people from District 4 to include casner Heights Summerlin Urban Sky North Hills neighborhood Pride that can become more engaged and learn more about everything that's trying to happen and I'm not trying to exclude anyone from the Grandview Park area I'm just trying to be more trying to get more participation more attendance so I don't know if that requires a motion as far as you know minimum three Community hybrid breedings in locations that we know have had successful turnout for a previous Community engagement events we're more than happy to include additional locations so I don't believe there's anything in the language as far as you know this being set in stone so just like the additional focus groups are going to be added to the engagement plan we'll be more than happy to include an additional hybrid meeting to be more inclusive of District 4 residents thank you very much okay is there a motion and this is for to take both items together 26 and 27. thank you motion was made by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina seconded by representative Rivera to approve items 26 and 27 before we do that may approach him we do have public comment from Miss Sylvia Carrillo good afternoon Miss Carion you have three minutes good afternoon I applied for 26 and 27 so I get to speak two times uh good afternoon Sylvia carrion president of the Mission Valley civic association and the Loma Linda Association I'm very very happy to hear this plan went forward uh I went through a lot of problems last year as you remember with my bleacher request and due to a lot of negative commotion with city council and my presentations of I would say evidence of malformation for a lot of things I credit media on Mac who got involved I she was assigned I guess to this program and she was able to get all of us together neighborhood association Civic associations to be able to speak or peace and to be able to speak on ideas of what we wanted and it came to fruition because I see Capistrano Park getting their shades I thank you for that as far as um the new policy I read it the last statement staff has made changes to approve the neighborhood Improvement program that is very good um there's other things funds supplementing other projects are also being included this is something that's going on um proposed projects within their District's components that are consistence with the golden original applications as submitted by an association and are feasible within the funds available new project proposals will not be accepted you know there's a lot of neighborhood and I'm not gonna Nicole Rodriguez also is very instrumental in helping us with this the other young Christian Opus Carla she's been with us for a long time and so I've been with these programs since the very onset of 2012 when those things got approved so I look very very much forward to everything that's going on and uh you will expect applications for me thank you God bless you all with that there was a motion made by alternate mayor Pro temolinar seconded by representative Rivera to approve both items 26 and 27. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present mayor Proctor may we go to call to the public at this time we now move to call to the public the El Paso city council is 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 our public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendants 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 foreign for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forward be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have 10 members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Miss Wally Scheck I don't see her here the next person is Elizabeth Crawford Ms Crawford star six please to unmute your telephone Miss Crawford's topic is child trafficking and Sounder Freedom movie good afternoon Miss Crawford you have three minutes good afternoon thank you so much I want to speak briefly about the movie that probably most of you are have heard of and are familiar with by this point sound of Freedom um as we know it's referencing the child trafficking situation um God's word the Lord Jesus said permit the little children to come to me and forbid them not for as such as the kingdom of God truly I say to you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child tell the no wise enter therein children have a special place in the heart of God we all especially living in El Paso as we do need to be on the lookout for this situation in our communities and where we go and be ready to to call and report when we do see suspicious activity I live for two years in Benin Brazil um and my I was teaching at a Christian School there my roommate was involved full-time with Street children and children who were trafficked um and um I I did not expect I think none of us really expected to see this level of what's going on in our nation we can't say it's conspiracy theory there are a number of people from different political views who have reported on this um for those who are involved in child trafficking um the actor had had said his words were look out look out my mother Our Lady of Guadalupe is coming for you um actually no it's far worse than that it's not that an apparition will come to anyone who's involved in that it's the god of heaven will one day judge those who are involved Jesus Christ that unless you repent you will all likewise perish and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God we all need to be on the lookout in our community and be ready to make calls to report if we see things going on again The Words of Christ permit the little children to come to me and forbid them not for obsessed as the kingdom of God truly I say to you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enters therein thank you so much hope you have a good afternoon thank you the next speaker is Stephen strommer followed by Yoli Cortes Albert Rivera Barbara Valencia Mark Fierro Gabriel Delgado Mr strummer's topic is letter from President Joe Biden referring to gun violence good afternoon Mr Strummer you'll have three minutes this is a letter in response to a what I wanted was a virtual uh um meeting Nationwide symposia on gun violence I wrote it in June he wrote me July 5th this year Dear Mr Strummer gun violence this is for all of El Paso by the way is not just mine gun violence in America is an epidemic that has plagued our nation for far too long thank you for writing to me about this challenge which has devastated countless families and communities Mass murderers use guns to Rampage places where we live learn work and pray suicides have risen across the nation which account for more than half of all gun deaths in America each time Jill and I visit grief-stricken loved ones they have one message for us do something finally our nation did just that when I signed into law the most meaningful gun safety legislation in 30 years the bipartisan safety communities act funds Crisis Intervention including red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of people who are endangered to themselves and others it finally closes the boyfriend loophole ensuring that those who assault their dating partners cannot buy or own a gun it also requires enhanced background checks for young people under age 21 and makes gun trafficking and straw purchasing federal crimes in addition this law provides historic funding for addressing the youth Mental Health crisis in our nation and supporting anti-violence programs this new law Builds on the actions my Administration has already taken to rein in the proliferation of homemade and modified guns collect data about Firearms trafficking and Implement a zero tolerance policy for rogue gun dealers who willfully violate federal laws I know there is so much more work to do and I will never give up I will continue to urge Congress to reinstate the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines expand and strengthen background checks and repeal the liability Shield that often protects gun manufacturers from being sued for the death and destruction caused by their weapons for those we've lost for those we can save and for the nation we love I hope you will join me in the majority of Americans including gun owners in this fight sincerely Joe Biden thank you for hearing me and I pray a copy of this will be made for our Spanish Community as well thank you Mr stronger the next speaker is Yoli Cortes Yoli Cortez Albert Rivera Mr Rivera's topic is a need for a school of veterinary medicine lower cost pet owner costs and need for pet population control good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon how you all doing I'd like to bring up an idea or a proposal that our pastor needs really bad for all our animals I would like to see you I need to ride out somewhere where are you taking that was that there's a hot mic go ahead miss Mr Rebecca I apologize thank you I would like to see somehow we bring a school here to El Paso called the El Paso veterinarian school of medicine we need a school here to help with the population of animals and other necessary treatments that they need we don't have a school here we have Pima who has a two-year veterinarian school but it's only a two-year and you become a vet tech that the reason we need this so badly right now is because the veterinarian costs are outrageous and the waiting time is just as bad it's two to three months to get a dog in to get spayed or neutered we have an overpopulation of animals I have already rescued over 56 animals myself I have 23 in my possession that I take care and a lot of them aren't fixed or neutered and I take them to the vet and it takes three months to get in if any of those pets get pregnant it's going to be too late and the cause for a dog that used to be six seven years ago 85 dollars it's now two and three hundred these veterinarians are out of control with their caustic topic pets there's a lot of people in town that don't have this kind of money they're on Social Security as well as myself and they have not that much income coming in we need a school here real bad we have dentistry we have the Children's Hospital we have Pima we have Western Tech and Not only would this school be good for El Paso but we could bring students who graduate from Texas A M to come here to do a one-year internship to help with their training and education I want you to ought to really think about this problem we need an El Paso veterinary school of medicine in West Texas El Paso it would do a lot for the community and we could do a lot for people who are getting their degree from Texas A M who have veterinarian education but don't have the experience we need that bad and our pastor and I want you all to think about it I don't know how it could happen but I think it's a possibility here and I think we can do it I appreciate your attention thank you thank you the next speaker is Barbara Valencia Miss Valencia's topic is Animal Services the eyes are window to the soul she will be followed by Mark Fierro and Gabriel Delgado good afternoon Miss Valencia it were unable to see the Elmo on the screen foreign go ahead Miss Valencia you have three minutes I'm ready ready thank you I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue the eyes are the window to the soul what is happening to the Australian lost animals in El Paso is beyond barbaric all the animals in our community are innocent victims they didn't ask for any of this we have a cruel and heartless man in charge of running the shelter who doesn't care I'm sorry that's an attack point of order the pain and suffering subjecting the animals too and we have a city leadership who bury their heads in their sand while supporting and defending the repugnant actions committed at animal services or by animal services in essence you don't care about the animals either the direction Animal Welfare has taken in El Paso is a direction I thought I would never see it is an animal it is animal genocide in its simplest form every day my rescue my rescue is bombarded with pleas from people seeking help because Animal Services has abandoned the community and the animals the public sends me pictures of the dogs and puppies on the streets and in the desert dogs and puppies with open wounds emaciated sunburned bodies and paw pads blistered in bleeding puppies they dine in parking lots because their brains have fried in this brutal Heat then you look into the dogs and puppies eyes and you can see the pain they are going through the fear they have and the despair that is the life they are reinforced to live I ask you to really look into the eyes of these animals as the animals are the window to their souls my remaining time is a tribute to all the animals past present and future I am sorry this city has let you down thank you [Music] [Music] thank you Miss Valencia the next speaker is Mark Fierro Mr Pharaoh's topic is animal services and demographics and it will lead the Elmo for his presentation as well thank you very much for allowing us to be here so best friends shelter program will not work in El Paso can we get the uh display back up I.T were unable to see the Elmo I've stopped your time searches thank you so they can bring up the screen yeah a little higher up very good okay okay thank you yes sir thank you best friends shelter program will not work in El Paso slide one this is the breakdown of housing in the city of El Paso homeowners make up around 60 percent and the renters make up about 40 percent slide two this is the breakdown of the renters in the city this is the this group is not a feasible option for the best friends shelter program only ninety five thousand so step slide three this is the breakdown of homeowners in the city after taking out the homes in this group that taking in Strays is not feasible you are left with an approximate total of about 37 300 homes that can take in the strays out of this group this is also your target group for your adoptions by forcing these thousands of households to take in and care for the Strays and the straight population you have now lost your targeted adoption base and homes homes are I'm sorry excuse me with only 37 300 homes and leaving ten thousand Strays a year on the streets you will burn through the only available homes for the Strays in just a matter of three years and only four thousand homes approximately available thereafter to care for the animals through new builds and new home sales Best Friends Animal Society embedded shelter program is not sustainable in El Paso Texas it's simple math one has to ask why it's a group of local rescues that collected the data and is presenting a sustainability report to you and not the shelter director or best friends thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is Gabriel Delgado he will be followed by Lisa Turner and Eddie Chavez Mr delgado's topic is access to city of El Paso swimming facilities for USA swimming teams yes good afternoon you have three minutes through city council my name is Gabriel shooter Delgado I'm here to talk to you about um pool time for the swim teams um we just don't sorry I had gotten off my speech on as you can see I'm disabled I have osteogens and Perfecto which means um my bones are brittle um and swimming is like one of the only Sports I can do with you know other kids it's a very important thing to me a couple days ago I went and represented border at a meet in North Carolina as you can see I mean I did pretty well I think um but our team we we didn't do as well with the other teams and one of the reasons we didn't do as well is because the other teams they have access to these incredible facilities and at reasonable times as well like they're not waking up at four in the morning to go swim it's you know so like we don't have the the access to the pools that we need in order to do well so I'm here to today to ask you if you would please allow us to have bet more pool time at reasonable hours so we're not waking up really early so we can train and be the best we can possibly be because my main goal here like my main objective is to represent not just El Paso but the United States of America in the Paralympics um next year and I can't do that unless I have access to the facilities you know and my cat my team can't reach their full potential or any of the teams can't reach their full potential unless they have access to the incredible facilities so I'm here today to ask you if you would please give us access to those facilities so we can train better and be the best teams thank you thank you so much thank you the next speaker is Lisa Turner Ms Turner's topic is paid maternity leave good afternoon Miss Turner you have three minutes good afternoon Council I'm here to ask put in your budget that effective immediately all women working for the city of El Paso will be allowed 12 weeks paid leave no longer using vacation time leave Bank sick days the place is a burden on the individual an unfair burden I'm also going to ask that you include increased checkups for both the mother and child basically our community is made up of those with the highest risk of maternal death infant death black women at the highest Hispanics Native American slash Alaskan citizens I think it's the best thing we can do as a city we need to step up and take care of this both prenatal care and postpartum care no more using vacation days for your time off to take that newborn for their checkup that would be a paid day off from the city that's what I'd like to see you all Institute in this budget and within the next 90 days come up with a plan to provide child care for us your employees a lot of asking of you but I know you all will do this because it's the right thing to do it's the right thing to do for your female employees and you want always to set the standards you always want to lead the way and let's do it I know you all can find the money because after Decades of watching my city council find money that they said wasn't in the budget but it all of a sudden it appears I know you can find it so I'd like to put an end to this using vacation time using sick days or Elite Bank if you're pregnant you can get your 12 weeks paid time leave after you have the child you're also gonna get paid time off to for your prenatal checkups and your posts Parliament checkups thank you thank you the final speaker is Eddie Chavez we did have Alejandro Ramirez sign up but he he'll be back on August 15th Mr Chavez's topic is code enforcement and misuse of rented dumpster good afternoon sir you'll have three minutes good afternoon I came to ask a favor in getting some help on uh I'm helping uh Othello Knights of Columbus who passed away a couple of months ago I'm cleaning out his house on on rushing I mean on Fairbanks I'm sorry and his daughter lives in Austin so I've been kind of in charge of cleaning up the house room so if I had this past month I've had eye surgery so I couldn't be couldn't be working there but meantime we had somebody go uh dump some burnt trash in our dumpster and it just so happened the next door neighbor saw him when they were dumping the trash and they took off in the middle of the night because we didn't have no cameras the funny thing when he called me well because we're a puzzle clue we could uh find some help so I wouldn't ask the police and they uh they said that I had to file a complaint with a court reinforcement so they gave me a case number which took them almost three three weeks to get get back to me and they said they didn't see no illegal dumping so they couldn't do anything but this trash is not mine so what we did uh some of the neighbors around there were concerned on what had happened and we drove around the neighborhood looking to see we had found any burnt buildings and we found a burn building on Regis which uh the neighbor that had seen the uh the culprit that had dumped the trash and his truck in his trailer we showed him where he was parked at that house and the house was burned had burned materials was already cleaned up and the the trailer and the car oh sorry the truck matched the description of my friend and he said yeah that's the one that I saw well needless to say the next day the guy tried to go back again and dump some more trash but my neighbor turned on the lights again and he took off but he got to see that he was the same guy that tried to go in there and since then I've been waiting for the quote enforcement to go and and uh see what they could help me out with and they said that they didn't see no illegal dumping and unless I got pictures of him dumping it of course it's kind of hard at 12 o'clock at night but I have an eyewitness that would testify and and um and say that that's the one that he saw plus I went back to see the uh the house where this house would burn and it's the same material mean the shingle the roofing shingle matches the same shingle that is in the dumpster so I was hoping we could get the the case open again or get somebody from code enforcement to reinvestigate because they never went really to ask me any questions or really follow up on this I would like for them to go a little bit deeper into uh because I don't think why I would have to uh he filled up the whole deal thank you so you've reached the three minutes thank you Mr Chavez whatever it can help is good thank you Mr Travis mayor Pro tem that concludes call to the public Council would you like to go into executive Miss Prime uh um sorry Mrs Neiman how long do you think that that would take uh I don't anticipate it taking more than 30 minutes to finish executive so Council we can either do an hour break or we can go into executive well if if even I don't think it'll be that long okay thank you I moved to return to Executive session there's a motion and a second to return to Executive session all in favor anyone opposed okay I'll take roll call Representative Kennedy anello Hernandez yes molinar Fierro Rivera I Canales aye and the emotion passes six two one and the city council of city of El Paso May return to Executive session pursuant to section 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 executive session item one kangly Losi Joanna at all versus the city of El Paso matter number 18-1026-9235 under 551.071 executive session item two Mark Avalos versus city of El Paso and El Paso Fire Department cost number 2023 dcv 1882 under 551.071 executive session item three application of El Paso Electric Company for approval of a generation cost recovery writer related to Newman unit 6 HQ number utility-16 under 551.071 executive session item four Petition of El Paso Electric Company to revise military-based discount recovery Factor under Pura 36.354 HQ number utility-17 under 551.071 an executive session item five City vote Houston versus the state of Texas under 551.071 these matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney it is 12 56 pm each other I think it's something you're interested I guess you drew today and on your support that's what happens right foreign I when I do not come in I've turned this into things changes don't eat during that Saturday I was impressive it was very impressive thank you good services received foreign is excuse me thank you interesting foreign I'm famous foreign motion to reconvene there's the motion in a second to come out of executive session all in favor aye anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at two o'clock P.M ex1 motion made second and Kerry that the city attorney's office and consultation with the city manager be authorized to accept the mediator's proposal and Joanna kengliosi at all versus the city of El Paso Texas at all cause number 2018 dcv0797 in matter number 18-1026-9235 and to take all steps necessary including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this Authority second there's a motion made and read into the record by mayor Pro temanello seconded by alternate mayor Pro temolinar on ex1 on that motion call for the vote representative Fierro thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Kennedy not present ex2 no action thank you EX3 no action thank you EX4 no action thank you ex5 no action thank you second there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday August 1st 2023 is adjourned at 201 pm thank you thank you Council