foreign good morning mayor good morning good morning everyone good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday September 27 2022. present and presiding in council chambers is Mayor Lisa along with mayor Pro tem shortfein representative anello representative Hernandez representative Molina representative Salcido representative Rodriguez and representative Rivera representative lizaraga is joining virtually this morning it is 904 am and now will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by police chaplain David Mayfield foreign I now invite anyone who cares to to join me as I open this meeting with prayer god of wisdom we seek your help today come and let your wisdom fall upon us O Lord We Gather for this meeting give us Clarity so that we can effectively tackle each part of today's agenda reveal problem areas and show us the best solutions that we can apply father God help us apply your wisdom as we decide on the matters of the day and make plans and keep us ever mindful that we are not only leaders of the community but Servants of the common good all of this we pray in the name of all that we find holy right and true amen amen and today we're going to have the honor being led by The Pledge by Miss shek can you lead us in the pledgement check yes ma'am Friday go ahead Miss check foreign [Music] God bless you thank you Miss Chuck that's the way I want them to come next thank you and I want to thank I know there's a lot of people here in in this room and uh to celebrate a lot of different things and it's in the important that we continue to celebrate the great things that are happening in our community and how our communities continue to work hard through all adversities and and that's that's a thing that that we talk about and I always get um you know it puts a smile on my face when I see our First Responders in the room with us as they continue to um to protect our city and as elected officials that's always become our number one priority so I want to thank you all for for being in here but also the youth that's in here and everyone that's in here it's um it's important that we continue to recognize each other but it's also important that we continue to respect each other day in and day out so today I'd like to have a moment of silence for respect for one another thank you may God bless the United States of America and may God bless our city Mr Prime thank you that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation this morning is Tom Lee month good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas Tom Lee a native El pasoan chose to live and work in El Paso and whereas this year marks the 16th anniversary of Tom Lee Institute an El Paso nonprofit offering the community timely celebration with the theme of small man in a vast of wondrous World Tom Lee celebration activities highlighted the Tom Lee World War II painting from China and his Landscapes based on the Sun School of Art he sang while in China this year's Tom Lee celebration will also explore the rich culture and contributions of the Chinese people who migrated to El Paso in the Tom Lee Institute partners with non-profit organizations and cultural entities in the community to provide fun and educational activities that highlight the quality of life in the region with a total of 16th events and whereas former Texas Supreme Court Judge David Chu and his sister judge Linda Chu will present their family Journey from the China to Juarez to El Paso introduced by children performing a fan dance from the UTEP Mandarin school and there will be a print making Workshop where Fort Bliss service members and their families make their own Christmas cards using Chinese print making techniques and whereas classroom lessons and exhibitions at the international Museum of Art and cash prices for area high school students will take place in 2022 marks the beginning of an exciting New Era of an opportunity for El Paso residents to experience Tom Lee multi-fold Foundation contributions to the Border life and learning and whereas Tom Lee celebration offers a series of unique events centered in El Paso designed to attract tourism and Inspire El Paso citizens the Tom Lee Trail officially designated by the Texas legislature in 2017 has brought visitors worldwide to El Paso events in addition El Paso is the Hub of the bi-national trail in Texas New Mexico and the state of Chihuahua Mexico now therefore be yet proclaimed by the mayor and City Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as Tom Lee month signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser [Applause] yes the next Proclamation is National Night Out good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the National Association of town watch is sponsoring a unique Nationwide crime drug and violence prevention event on October the 4th entitled National Night Out and whereas National Night Out is an annual community building campaign that promotes police Community Partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie and whereas in our City's mission to deliver high quality of life for our residents businesses and visitors in and to El Paso we are supporting National Night Out 2022 citizen awareness and participation is imperative and we stand together to address Community issues in El Paso and whereas enhanced neighbor law enforcement relationships neighborhood safety awareness and cooperation are important themes of National Night Out program and whereas we call upon all citizens of El Paso to join the National Association Town watch in supporting the 38th annual National Night Out on October 4th 2022 now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that October 4th 2022 shall be known as National Night Out signed Oscar leaser the mayor honorable thank you but um what you guys like anybody like to um come comment on that please and mark from the police department or morning good morning so here I got it in this field so obviously I'm introducing her but his Lieutenant Shields um Mr Oscar so for the longest time before I even became a police officer I was doing National Night Out with the sheriff's department I'm part of Operation HOPE Angel Gomez's Operation Hope and most of you I've met before but you probably don't know me as well just because I am in the background most of the time and it's something that we I really love doing and now that I'm a police officer and continue doing it it's it's just one of those it's a privilege but it's awesome as well and it's something that I hope it goes on for a long time and citizens see what we do out here for the community it's hard to follow the follow that um so National Night Out is going to be October 4th and it's a wonderful opportunity for the citizens to come out meet your Police Department see what the city has to offer and start to build those relationships so we can help to to solve problems throughout the our community each region is represented here has a different event going on um so so please uh check out our our website Facebook we'll be putting out all of the events thank you thank you very much thank you all for doing that [Applause] in the next Proclamation is disease intervention specialist day thank you whereas the city of El Paso's Department of Public Health HIV STD unit investigates diagnosis and treats sexually transmitted infections known as STIs and whereas the city of El Paso's Department of Public Health collaborates with local Physicians clinics Community Health Centers Fort Bliss Dona Ana County New Mexico ciudad Juarez Mexico and other organizations to promote a healthier safer community Through Community Education on STIs and whereas case investigation of STIs is essential to preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and whereas the Department of Public Health joins the Centers for Disease Control and prevention in recognizing the importance of disease investigators in controlling the spread of STIs now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that October 4th 2022 shall be known as disease intervention specialist day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar Lisa thank you foreign good morning city council and mayor and City leadership good morning we thank you for allowing us to continue doing our job in reducing the spread of HIV STDs within our community thank you so much thank you very much and again I do want to you know thank the police department National Night Out is October 4th and it's important that you know how you all continue not only the work to protect our community but also give back and we thank you for that thank you and with that mayor excuse me yes ma'am there you are good morning mayor good morning everyone um um I was just wondering if Holly Cobb from the Tom Lee Institute could have a moment to speak sure absolutely thank you so much yes ma'am I'm sorry Holly I didn't see you sitting there how are you Holly I'm very well Mr Mayor thank you so much for to all of you for your support of The tomly Institute we're really not so much about Tom Lee but building the love and the passion and the commitment to this community by looking at this community through his eyes through his art and his writing because he loved this community could have lived anywhere in the world but chose El Paso so some of you got these brochures here I hope you'll take a look at them and select just one event it could be a date night uh a friends night out or whatever and uh help yourself to fall in love with El Paso in a way that Tom Lee did and so thank you so much for the opportunity and for the proclamation thank you and you did tell me you'd see me on Tuesday so nice to see you I did didn't I thank you [Applause] Miss Pride that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor Pro tent yes thank you uh Miss Prine um so proposed revisions for the September 27 2002 meeting agenda as of 8 30 A.M this morning page four item seven moved to the regular agenda per representative Hernandez page four item eight moved to the regular agenda per representative Hernandez page five item 14 move to the regular agenda per representative Hernandez page 8 item 18 moved to the Forefront of the agenda for representative schwartzbein page item 19 moved to the Forefront of the agenda before item 18 for representative Rivera and Page 8 item 20 moved to the Forefront of the agenda per representative schwartzbein uh Council are there any other revisions at this time okay second thank you before uh before voting I would like um to wish everybody a Happy New Year I have a sweet uh homemade challah full of apples and honey to celebrate the Jewish New Year but we say as millions of Jewish people across the world are celebrating the new year we say not to VA which means to a sweet New Year and we often eat sweet food including challah bread with mixed in with apples and honey so I'm going to send this back and Council mayor you all can have a sweet bite to symbolize a sweet New Year up ahead full of success and joy and health Happy New Year thank you and again couch I'll do if you don't mind make sure that we get all the revisions if we can't possible prior to Mr Gonzalez and his team doing the agenda so people that are going to be here can be here at the time of the items on the agenda so thank you for that and with that we have a motion to be a second yes sir is the second their motion was made send agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote hmm I'm not sure thank you representative lizarga hi thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to page eight item number 19 was moved to the Forefront of the agenda and if I can ask all the this morning's honorees to please stay in Chambers for for a few minutes so you can the city council can have an opportunity to take photos with you following a couple of these items thank you item 19 is discussion in action on a resolution recognizing the month of October as chalk the block 15th anniversary month in honor and commemorization of the 15th and year anniversary of The Talk The Blog Festival to take place in the heart of downtown Arts District from October 7th to 9th 2022. yes sorry this item was placed by representative Rivera move to approve second before I read it out can I mention Ed along with the Miss from Rice the team from there uh their team as well come up to the podium please as you all know chalk the block is an annual event here and so it's finally we if I decided to do a resolution to honor these two individuals who have who along with their teams have done a great job the resolution reads as is whereas Chocolat was founded in 2008 as a one-day sidewalk chalk art competition with 12 participating artists that took place at the Arts Festival Plaza since that time the event has grown to be the largest public Arts Festival to the region and whereas with overwhelming support from private and public Partners local and touring artists and audiences from both sides of the Border the event has expanded into a three-day celebration of art color and community and whereas over 45 000 people visit the event each year which is located in the heart of El Paso downtown Arts District and over 200 local and touring artists from all disciplines participate in at chalk the block creating a fun immersed and diverse environment for people of all ages to enjoy and whereas the event features temporary interactive art installations live dance and theatrical performances a sidewalk chalk art competition live bands art and food vendors and access to Hands-On activities and exhibits at our sister institutions the El Paso Museum of Art and the El Paso Museum of History and we're asked the museum and cultural Affairs division also known as MCAT is excited to announce the 15th anniversary of chalk the block which will take place in the heart of downtown Arts District on October 7th through the 9th 2022 and whereas this year's theme will be 15 years in the 915. to celebrate and commemorate chalk the block Inception as part of this momentous celebration MCAT will be showcasing the local artists talents that makes El Paso unique and whereas the city of El Paso museums and Cultural Arts Affairs department is also excited to announce that drais Federal Credit Union is a title sponsor of this year's chalk the block and Festival and whereas the par this partnership with Rice highlights mcad's commitment to the city of El Paso and shared mission to amplify the vacancy the vibrancy I'm sorry of our city by supporting opportunities for economic growth in the creative sector and whereas formerly known as El Paso Area Federal Credit Union drais has strong roots in the city of El Paso they guide members from all walks of life to focus on their goals and help them get there is proud of their El Paso roots azean Vision a bold path forward Leading The Way with passion now therefore it be resolved that the city council of the city of El Paso congratulates the city of El Paso's Museum and cultural Affairs department on the 15th year anniversary of chalk the block Festival to take place in the heart of the downtown Arts District from October 7th through the 9th 2022 and also thanks Federal Credit Union for their service to our community and sponsorship of the festival and finally recognizes the month of October as chalk the block 15th anniversary month congratulations [Applause] thanks mayor um chalk the block is such a wonderful part of El Paso's Renaissance and part of what it means to be from El Paso when I first came back to El Paso after I've left for close to 15 years in 2011 I was actually invited by then I think assistant director Ben Fife lower than that to participate as part of an art installation in the 2011 chocolate block as well as a pop-up gallery that invitation brought felt me felt like El Paso was still home for me after leaving for so many years and the Arts is a place where we can celebrate who we are it's an opportunity for economic development with over two billion dollars of growth in the state of Texas related directly rated to the Arts industry and it's part of our culture and I just want to again encourage everybody to come out it's a great quinceanera for El Paso to have this chocolate block going on and I want to thank Ben Fife and all the mcad staff for still letting me know I had a home in El Paso so thank you thank you Mr Fife your police approaches uh and your team congratulations and uh you know we all know that um with a great team we can accomplish a lot and you're here with your great team and been accomplishing a lot and we thank you for that thank you mayor for the record Ben Fife managing director of cultural Affairs and Recreation thank you representative Rivera for um putting this Proclamation on the agenda today uh in support of 15 years of chalk the block it has been uh 15 years of phenomenal growth a lot of lessons learned our first event was one day with 12 local artists uh for some reason we thought it was a good idea to put El Paso artists on sidewalks in July in El Paso um so we very quickly learned we needed to move the event to the fall now the event draws over 45 000 people over the course of two and a half days with an estimated one million dollar impact to the local economy that growth does not happen in without the support of phenomenal Partners like dais as well as a staff of very dedicated hard-working individuals like Rebecca Munoz Lucero Duran Andrea Reed and Anna McRaney back there as well whose high standards and hard work make sure that this happens every year before we even knew what to call something a cross-functional team this event was functioning as a cross-functional team with a lot of support from throughout the organization from my colleagues in other departments who are always willing to pick up the phone and help us troubleshoot any issues that we have and of course some phenomenal support from leadership from the highest level from city manager Gonzalez Deputy city manager Tracy Jerome and of course Deputy City Manager for quality of life Dion Mack we hope you'll join us it's an incredible way that El Paso celebrates arts and creativity every year and every year we look to top ourselves from the past this is the first year we're going back to a full pre-pandemic schedule and so we look forward to seeing all of you there and seeing El Paso's Downtown Alive with color thank you so much thank you and I do this is a this is a resolution resolution thank you yes I would I would like to thank everybody on behalf behalf of rice Federal Credit Union the marketing and PR manager and we are super excited to be a part of this vibrant festival and that helps bring our community together we've been around as El Paso Area Teachers Federal Credit Union for over 86 years we are rooted in this community and we are so proud to be part of it so thank you all very much for the support thank you mayor mayor before they leave the podium please uh both will be presented two plaques with identical oh verbiage on it except your names on it and it reads the city council of city of El Paso recognizes both the Museum of cultural arts department and the rice field Federal Credit Union for their hard work and dedication in the organization and planning of the 15th anniversary of the chocolate block Festival to take place in the heart of downtown Arts District from October 7th through the 9th 2022 issued this date September 20th and we um can we take action on the item though yes before we move forward that's right there is a question made by mayor Pro Tim schwarzbe seconded by representative Rivera to approve the resolution on that motion call for the vote representatively zaraga aye thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously [Applause] next item is prime Mr can we uh see item 20 please yes sir item 20 was also moved to the Forefront this is discussion in action on a resolution recognizing The kainodio Independent School District for earning a ratings for overall academic performance from the Texas Education Agency for the 2021-2022 school year and this item was placed by mayor Pro tem schwarzwing can we get a drum roll please move to approve second we'll Motion in a second I already got a motion in a second so um can we get all Eagles to the front please all Eagles to the front [Applause] foreign all right thank you sir um so I'm really really excited to to be able to read this resolution here uh today we've had a number of exceptional school districts throughout the city of El Paso in our region however we have one region that has really and one school district that has stood very very tall and has received an a rating from the Texas Education Agency not only for the year of 2021 and 2022 but for the past three years as well the only School District in El Paso to have a a rating for three straight years and so very excited to represent this part of District One for for those that are not necessarily aware about what happens on the other side of the mountain can you two Independent School District both resides both within Canada as well as the city limits of El Paso in the mighty mighty district one as well and so it is my esteemed honor to be able to present this resolution to Council on behalf of the mighty Canutillo Eagles go Eagles whereas on Monday August 12 2022 the Canutillo Independent School District earned an a rating for overall academic performance from the Texas Education Agency for the 2021-2022 school year and whereas the Canutillo Independent School District open overall 90 out of 100 achieving a high score with a total soon enrollment of 6076 students and whereas Canutillo ISD is the only District in the region to earn an a rating for three straight years and whereas the school district earn an 86 for student achievement 91 for School progress and 88 for closing gaps whereas Bill Childress Elementary School Canutillo Elementary School Congressman silver Sylvester and Carolina Reyes school and Northwest Early College High School scored in a and whereas Deanna Davenport Elementary School Gonzalo and Sophia Garcia Elementary School Jose H Damian Elementary School Canutillo Middle School Jose middle school and Canutillo High School scored B and whereas Canutillo ISD was recently named the best small District in Texas by the HEB excellence in education Awards now therefore be it resolved that the city council the city of El Paso one recognizes Canutillo Independent School District for earning a score in excellent performance and two recognizes candy to ISD superintendent Pedro galavis the U.S the Isleta ISD Board of Trustees faculty CISD Board of Trustees faculty staff students and parents who are successful 2021-2022 school year and great achievement passed the 27th day of September 2022. [Applause] thank you and uh he's got one for everyone in here so he'll get those later no I want to congratulate you all that uh you know you talk about the Great accomplishments of the mayor Pro tem read which is incredible accomplishments but they don't happen by accident I think it's really important that we look at that and know that you we have to have great leadership whether superintendent uh the staff the teachers but then when you get to you can have great leadership with superintendents staff and teachers but if you don't have students that want to learn if you don't want if you don't students that want to go to the next level really their their work really didn't go anywhere so you know congratulations to this Mr superintendent but also the staff at more the students that want to make sure that your future is a bright future in the future of our community continues to be a bright future so your willingness to want to learn your willingness to want to go to the next level is the reason why we're here today so congratulations for this great accomplishment and I know that our cities in great Hansen we have a great great bright future just by looking at Trail thank you and congratulations [Applause] you mentioned a few things so good morning my name is Atiana Mondragon and I'm a senior at Northwest Early College High School I'm Leslie Reyes I'm from canotio high school and we are the two student advisors on the ganatio ISD Board of Trustees and on behalf of the students and staff here at the county Independent School District we want to thank the El Paso city council for recognizing the work we've done to become the only AAA rated School District in the region canotio is the best small District school in Texas in honor given to us by the prestigious HEB excellence and Education Foundation and we are proud to be here representing this amazing Community thank you thank you and congratulations there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative anello to approve the resolution on that motion call for the vote representatively zaraga I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item moved was item 18 did Council want to Reese's at this time to take photos yeah can we reset to take photos with kenutio and the other can are you taking 18 Peter I mean I think we still got one more to do and then yeah 18 was also moved to the Forefront yeah let's do that first and then we'll reach us yeah let's take 18. 18 is not going to be a quicker no we have two others okay two others yeah okay let's do that real quick and then we'll just move forward pictures yeah Missy can you tell Kenny Teo not to leave please mayor did you want 18 next we have a we do have public comment on it yes could I can I like that I know that we have public commenting on an 18 there's a number two other recognitions from mayor potem if you don't is it going to be a linking one we have we have we have a lot on the king so let's go ahead and research and do that thank you thanks there's can we do I need to read I need to read there's a motion in a second to recess the city council meeting hold on for photos mayor mayor I need to we need to take those two also's photos okay okay because we don't have any public comment on 17. right ready you want a 17 mayor yeah go ahead and do 17 and then we'll recess thank you 17 is discussion and action on the recognition of El Paso Fire Department firefighter Armando Lopez for being the only first responder from El Paso to receive the 2022 star of Texas award from Governor Abbott the recognition also as you all know uh every year there's a conference where the governor issues out a Texas Star to all First Responders EMTs everybody that involved with the First Responders uh an award and it is my honor and privilege to tell Council and the rest of the city of El Paso and Mr Armando Lopez is the only recipient for the city of El Paso that has received a start at this year 2022. let me tell you Mr Armando Lopez is currently a firefighter with the El Paso Fire Department born in El Paso Texas in 1973. Mr Lopez is a lifelong resident who graduated from El Paso High School in 1991. After High School Mr Lopez worked several odd jobs before joining the city of El Paso as an EMS Cadet and in September 1995 he graduated and he graduated as an EMT he became an intermediate in 1997 and then progressed to paramedic level through El Paso Community College while still working with the city as an EMS Mr Lopez has worked part-time in the town of Van Horn as EMT he became an El Paso firefighter in 2004 with the EMS merger and returned to school to pursue a Nursing degree from the El Paso Community College after receiving his college degree he worked part-time with the hospitals of Providence in February 2020 while assisting at an accident on Transmountain Road at paso del Norte during the early morning hours firefighter Lopez was seriously injured when he was struck by a driver of a vehicle passing the accident at a high rate of speed on September 9 2022nd Texas governor Greg Abbott presented Mr Lopez the star of Texas award at the ceremony in Austin Texas this award honors all Texas peace officers firefighters emergency medical First Responders and federal law enforcement officers who are seriously injured or killed in the line of duty although he was seriously injured Mr Lopez says he is honored to be a firefighter and says he's the most it's one of the most rewarding professions where he gets to serve the community with pride thank you Mr Lopez for your service [Applause] Mr Lopez good morning y'all um I wasn't expecting this but I uh first of all I'd like to thank God for bringing me this far and all the people that have helped me along the way uh are my co-workers uh people who donated to to me either monetarily or what do you call it a emotionally thank you thank you very much one thing that's important that I know you all do every day as you get up you get dressed you say goodbye to your wife your kids and you go do your job you don't know what you're going to encounter today I'm not sure what you're going to encounter tomorrow or tonight but while we all know are citizens that you know you're going to be out there and do the best job possible and protect our community and I thank you may God bless you sir thank you Mr Mayor of well said not not only not pertains to our our firefighters but also our local police department and everyone in this community as well Mr Lopez like I said is an honor and we have a little something for you the city council the city of El Paso recognizes the El pacifier fighter departing firefighter uh Armando Lopez sorry getting a little choked up there for being the only fire for being the only first responder from El Paso to receive the 2022 star of Texas award from the governor Abbott congratulations and thank you for your service to our community let's take a boat there's a motion made by Representatives representative Rodriguez to approve item number 17. of that motion call for the vote representatively zaraga I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously and also the uh with the presentation here we're also going to light at the star on the 30th or the 1st of October for Mr Lopez mayor did you want to also take the item 60 . 60. you guys to make sure we have it in order we've gotten all over the place today and then and I apologize for who's over here that's kind of been a little confusing um 16 do we have any public comment on that okay so we'll do 16. miss item 16 is discussion in action on a resolution recognizing Dr Sylvia Acosta for her years of service as a CEO of the YWCA paso del Norte region and congratulating her on her new position as senior vice president and chief growth officer for the national minority supplier Development Council this item was submitted by representative Rivera can you come from please and before [Applause] as you know Mr ghost is no stranger to us she's always here she's always everywhere in El Paso so here's a real resolution that I will be making a motion to approve on is reads as follows whereas Dr Sylvia Acosta is an El Paso native Abella high school graduate and a doctorate in educational leadership from New Mexico State University she she was named a woman of impact by El Paso Inc in 2021 and an outstanding Texas child advocate for by Children at Risk a national advocacy organization we're asked Mr Dr Augusta became CEO of the YWCA in 2017 she was previously a higher education administrator serving an assistant as assistant Vice Chancellor at the University of California Irvine for four years before returning to her hometown of El Paso and whereas Dr Gosa guided the ywc's response to the pandemic and secured more than 40 million dollars in donations and launched the renovation of the three YWCA centers and whereas Dr Augusta let the non-profit's response to several crises in the region to include the Refuge surge in 2019. the mass shooting on August 3rd 2019 and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic she spoke out against a separation of Migrant children from their families and the non-profit helped to raise support for for refugees Dr Cosa has also testified before Congress after the mass shooting whereas the YWCA which is El Paso's largest child care provider faced a significant challenge after covid-19 began affecting El Paso on March 2020. many child care facilities had to close in efforts to slow the pandemic's spread but under Dr Augusta's leadership the YWCA uh offered child care services to First Responders and medical providers so they could provide Health Services doctor during doctor says tenure the YWCA has also expanded its after school programs and provided no-cost child care to families impacted financially by the pandemic and whereas Dr Sylvia Costa who led the YWCA Del Norte region through the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic and brought in the biggest gift in the history of the organization resigned as chief executive officer on Monday June 27 2022. and whereas on July 20th 2022 Dr acosa embarked on a New Journey and started a new job as senior vice president and chief growth officer for the national minority supplier Democrat Development Council and whereas the national minority supplier Development Council is a National Organization founded in 1972 that works nationally to help minorities Advance into the corporate supply chain scale their own businesses and build wealth and we're asked the national minority supplier Development Council works with 23 Regional Affiliates across the country there are three National minority supplier uh Development Council Affiliates in Texas El Paso is part of the Southwest msdc affiliate in Austin which also serves the New Mexico Oklahoma and Southwest Texas and whereas one of Dr Augusta's conditions of the new job was being able to stay in El Paso and her new position allows her to stay in the Sun City Sun City almost done but long history and whereas in her new position Dr Acosta is in charge of Hispanic Outreach and fundraising and expressed her goal to raise 50 million over the next several years and whereas Dr acosta's position is new and she will be building her Department from the ground up part of her responsibility is to strengthen the organization through philanthropy doctor Acosta is also tasked with bringing in more Hispanic owned businesses to the organization to connect them with opportunities for corporate supply chain contracts and whereas El Paso has many minority-owned businesses and entrepreneurs that could benefit from the offerings of the organization and whereas her new position gives her a momentous opportunity to work with an organization that is perfectly aligned with her personal values and social racial and economic economic equity and at the same time gives her the opportunity to continue to do what she did at the YWCA now on a more National level and support minority-owned businesses in their ability to scale now therefore it'd be resolved at the city council of the city of El Paso first recognizes Dr Sylvia golsa for her years of service as CEO of the YWCA Pastor Del Norte region and secondly congratulates her on her new position as senior vice president and chief growth officer for the national minority supplier Development Council thank you Dr Acosta congratulations on all your Great accomplishments but also great luck on your new venture first of all I want to say that um I could not have done any of this without the city council the city council has been so incredibly supportive of all the work that YWCA did during the pandemic and during the shooting it was this city council and your wonderful leadership that you have that supported us having a community healing opportunity right after August the 3rd that would not have happened if it was not the commitment of this city council and of your leadership to make that happen we also would not have been successful or I would not have been successful without my amazing staff at the YWCA an incredible board and so right now I'd like to just take that moment to thank them and actually to thank my friends and my family that are here with me today for for taking time out of your day to be with me here today so um thank you all for this honor I am humbled and know that I will continue to fight for economic equity economic Justice and racial Justice for our community and for the entire country thank you so much can we take vote yeah there is a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve on that motion call for the vote representative lizarova aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously congratulations we also have a little we also also have a little something for you miss uh Mr gossa or Dr Gosa uh basically from the city council in the city of El Paso recognizes Dr Sylvia y Acosta for her years of service that's the CEO of YWCA Paso region and congratulates her and her new position as senior vice president and chief growth officer for the national minority supplier Development Council issued this day thank you so much do we have a motion to research motion to recess there's a motion and a second to recess a city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed and the city council meeting is in recess at 9 53 a.m for photos Council if I can get you all actually in the lobby the canadio school is already ready and for the photographs if we can go into the lobby and then we're going to go then to Tom Lee second here in this room National Night Out followed by disease intervention specialist day and then we're going to switch over to item number 18 with the chocolate block festival and then going to Dr Cosa and the fire department I know okay thank you mayor is there a motion to reconvene is there a second there's a motion in a second to reconvene the council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 16 a.m we're on item number 18. this is discussion in action to direct City staff to develop Solutions internally and in coordination with the city of Sunland Park New Mexico to mitigate the strain on City roadways as a result of increasing development within the state of New Mexico that connects directly to the city of El Paso streets this item was was placed by mayor Pro tem Schwartzman thank you I know we have quite a bit of public comments I'd like to start with public comment yes mayor the first person that signed up to speak is Barbara dushokit followed by Robert Jacobs Albert Lanza Fernando Gomez Patricia Sanders Susan Martinez Barbara doucherkit good morning you'll have three minutes good morning the Elmo please pardon good morning um thank you city council for allowing us to express our concerns about the development of Sun River Estates on Girl Scout Lane and Frontera Salem Park New Mexico we are concerned about the utilities that will be used by this development the city of Sunland Park built and developed behind the Willows several years ago residents were put on well water residents were then required to have large filtering systems because of arsenic no due diligence was fully researched the concern This concerns us with the upcoming development it is our understanding that the development will connect water sewer to Sunland Park New Mexico no mention of electric grid and gas the 224 homes that will be built on Girl Scout Lane we have not received their covenants to the properties are small electrical substation at Riverbend and Frontera cannot support the 224 homes being built the sewer pipe by the substation last September burst and flooded several homes on little lane and Riverbend some of the homes were flooded inside the smell was horrific and that was for weeks this area is an example how our loaded how our infrastructure is overloaded last September we had a water main in front of our house after a repair I've seen coal developed and the water main broke I had pictures on how how bad it was um water started to go show property and Surround our home the water continued for two hours until water company could come and shut it down with help of neighbors that had water pumps helped us control the water one hour later the water company came to pump the water from our property on Boy Scout I talked with one of the water company supervisors that was on the job on Boy Scout that was replacing the entire street with new water lines I asked about replacing Frontera he said it would be impossible because they would be hindered because it would be difficult to detour the existing 600 homes for the long period of time this would not include the 224 homes on girls thank you you've reached the three minutes man pardon you've reached the three-minute limits it's already over yes that's from everybody will get uh Robert Jacobs followed by Albert Lanza Fernando Gomez good morning sir you'll have three minutes uh good morning good morning sir ladies and gentlemen thank you for listening to our concerns um I moved to El Paso in 1978 and moved to Gary Lane in the Upper Valley in 1981. I practiced general surgery here in town for 38 years and I wanted to address our concerns about emergency services and safety as it relates to this development uh we got the minutes of the planning board for the city of Sunland Park meeting on August 24th where they recommended rezoning to allow for this development and uh two comments that were in their recommendations were uh that the developer needed to provide this quote provide opening points at the southwest corner for future connectivity points to increase response time of First Responders I assume they mean to decrease not to increase the response time and they also recommended requiring a traffic study neither of those apparently has been addressed uh specific concerns that I have would have to do with uh concerns about ambulance and EMS Services it would come from Sunland Park to this development uh it has to cross the river and then come through uh the San Gabriel neighborhood which is a narrow Street that has lots of cars parked so that the response time is going to be limited as a surgeon I would tell you that the response time is critical when issues of trauma heart attacks Strokes are concerned and just would remind people that back in 1982 a young lady named Kendall Kidd died on the streets a quarter of a mile outside the city limits of El Paso because of poor response time I'd also be concerned about police response time I think that when it is recognized that this development is very isolated that it's going to become a Target which is also going to spill over and make our Upper Valley neighborhoods targets for uh criminal activity fire act fire response time in Sunland Park is very limited they have a five person a full-time staff with two people on call at a time uh ktsm news on February 22nd through the story where they quoted the fire chief Dan Medrano from Sunland Park as saying that his department has been understaffed for years that the current workload is taxing for the current firefighters and that the National Standard reports that a two-story dwelling should have 14 firefighters responding this is from an apartment that has five and two on call uh one of the property owners in Colonia Escondido at the outside margin of El Paso actually suffered some damage from the fire to his property coming from someone thank you sir thank you very much for listening thank you Doctor the next speaker is Albert Lanza Albert Lanza I think Gomez good morning you'll have three minutes good morning and thank you for giving us this opportunity to come before you and and bring about this awareness of this new development uh that uh has been uh passed by Sunland Park planning uh we're hoping that in uh you know bringing this issue to you that uh we can count on your help in holding Sunland Park City accountable to be responsible uh and a good neighbor during uh the planning meeting where the development was approved a traffic study was referenced which I have to cover here it we need the Elmo please I'm sorry go ahead sir oh and so this study was actually done in 2008. so they're basing uh the traffic from this study for this development and uh it just it's just not accurate uh the study did not take into account an additional Montessori school that has been placed on Frontera and boy scout there is an existing Montessori School on Frontera so there's two Montessori schools on from Theta now in addition to that there have been additional developments on the south side of Frontera which have added easily uh close to 100 homes in the development on San Gabriel alone got a lot of pictures here I'm sorry all right if you go through there there are easily three cars and sometimes up to five cars per house uh at these residents and this is in New Mexico so imagine multiplying a minimum of three cars per home uh by what's been proposed um 216 to 225 homes in this new development there is no way that Frontera and and keep in mind Gary Lane ends at Girl Scout and I live on Gary Lane uh but um Gary Lane is a small Private Road that's only 16 feet wide so as residents we have to move aside to give other cars you know that we're passing uh room to get through so this would also be connected to Girl Scout and and be an easement for this development so uh what we're asking is that city council help us in holding again Sunland Park accountable to making sure that they're providing achievements for this additional traffic thank you thank you sir is part Patricia Sanders good morning you'll have three minutes good morning good morning thank you for allowing us to speak to you today about the proposed subdivision at the end of fronteran Girl Scout it is my understanding this subdivision is in Sunland Park New Mexico and we'll have about 216 houses on 62 acres this land has been used as a horse farm and has been sold to developer where we want you to know it is in the area that backs up to a levy and the main way out is driving on fontera it is our understanding that Frontera a two-lane street is designated as a collector arterial which means it is only supposed to carry neighborhood traffic to a major roadway and it's not designed to be widened people who bought here who bought in the neighborhood thought they were buying in a rural area it is an area where people ride horses on the streets people walk their pets or walk their children not to mention the bikers and kids on scooters that are seen on Frontera Street without sidewalks and curbs another thing we'd like you to know that there is about six to six subdivisions that use Fronteras and exit and there are two schools located on Frontera with about 300 students where parents are seeing parking on the street for meetings or to leave or pick up children there is also an elementary school with 400 students that is a couple of blocks from from Tara is also used by the parents hundreds of residents are concerned about the traffic and safety this proposed subdivision will add to the additional with the additional cars the number anywhere between 400 to 500 I have lived in the neighborhood for many years and have seen lots of changes for those of you who are not familiar with the area I can tell you that I have sat in numerous I've sat numerous times in a long line at Jonathan infrantera for several traffic lights waiting to go I've witnessed cars driving on the wrong side of the street after a rainfall to avoid the puddles I've waited several minutes for a train to pass that blocks the street two to three times a day I have experienced cards blocking the road because they are picking up school children is El Paso going to service and update Frontera in order to accommodate the new development in Sunland Park New Mexico with El Paso consider doing a traffic study to confirm that Frontera can accommodate the additional traffic thank you very much thank you the next speaker is Susan Martinez followed by Delirious Montanez Berrios good morning ma'am you have three minutes thank you very much um my name is Susan Martinez and I think I've met a lot of you and I'm glad to see you all again we're here again today good morning that's the bottom line as you've already heard my my previous neighbors tell you that there's a proposal for 200 plus units at the end of Frontera in New Mexico in Sunland Park New Mexico this development will bring a massive amount of traffic onto Frontera Road and there is a study that you city council approved back in 2009 uh if anybody wants the link you can call Kevin Smith at planning he will be happy to provide you the link I read it last night it was a hundred and some odd pages that study is the only one that El Paso city council has approved and authorized and IT addresses all those roads it's a traffic study that covers uh up to 2025 and it talks about ferrantera Road as being a two-lane collector Road that's it it is not in there's nothing in there that talks about widening Frontera Road there's nothing in there that talks about it that people are encroaching on Frontera road which is what Sunland Park has been telling us so that same study carefully goes into how it intends to preserve the Integrity of our neighborhoods how it intends to make streets safe how it intends to keep things in order now as you've already heard my neighbors Sunland Park is not adequately staffed to respond to this new development I I don't mean to be anything but honest in saying that Southern Park unfortunately is not adequately to staff to serve Sunland Park right now so I've talked to the police department from El Paso and they are supporting us in this endeavor because they have told me that and also the fire department responsibility would fall on El Paso if Sunland Park could not respond to something going on in that area so the other question that's been raised is this is a flood zone or at least it hasn't been certified as not being a flood zone there you've already seen my neighbors show you sinkholes and problems that have occurred because of plumbing and because of rain and because of those types of things so we don't know what sort of elevations this new construction will have we don't know how it's going to affect the Texas residents so we need your help uh we have researched different possibilities different alternatives and we have decided that it's too much of a risk for us thank you Miss Martinez so please close off Frontera Road make it a residential Road only for Texas thank you very much for listening thank you the final speaker is Delirious good morning you'll have three minutes good morning good morning Major Lazer and City Representatives um so I live right on Frontera on Girl Scout Lane I bought the property from the former owner and I did not know that they were going to construct at the at the beginning 400 and something houses I have the personal number for the developer at the time he pulled the application to rezone the area I am a retired border patrol agent law enforcement officer after 26 years and whenever the government say that they were going to take our tsp money and invested I decided to take all my savings and invested in that property I provide equine assisted therapy for our community not just First Responders veterans and service members but I have like around 10 children that take weekly services with our horses that is a rural area as a police officer in the past a former police officer I can tell you Solomon Park does not have the Public Services needed to provide services to our Borderland Community period I have attended both Public Service public hearings and provided comments and what I don't understand as a constituent is if we are not going to be listened as constituents why do we have public comments what do we assemble like this and what southern part told me was that there is a code that allows them to pass emotion even though if it's not second I haven't seen that code the government elected officials work for the community the community do not work for them and this is our land and this is our people there's two houses there's two schools on that Frontier Road and that Frontera Road I have been there a year I have two houses one in El Paso and one in New Mexico because I I brought my parents from Puerto Rico and they're relocated with me and it's and my mom is handicapped so if an emergency happened how is Sunland Park going to respond to my mom needs so it just doesn't affect me just personally but even it affects me also as a speaker for our community not just in El Paso but in Sunland Park because I own two properties so I beg you I implore you we need to have more conversations with Sunland Park I know that you know I am sorry period Peter but I always say your name wrong but I mean I appreciate him for being active on um I'm being Boko on the on the public hearing so we need more work thank you thank you so much thank you mayor that concludes public comment on this item thank you mayor Pro tem thank you mayor um and thank you Council again and thank you to all the public who came out here uh to speak about what is a growing concern for my district um for full disclosure I've represented this part of uh of the Upper Valley now for about six months it's been something that's been a concern and from what I understand there's been varying degrees of of accommodation for El Paso resident's concern which has mostly been ignored which is why I brought this item up so that this city can go and and look out on behalf and Advocate on behalf of the residents of El Paso for public safety concerns traffic concerns School concerns and otherwise but I would first like to start up with a small presentation that I have if we could bring up the subdivision um image it's uh it's a JPEG that was that it has if they could bring that up really quick Sunriver subdivision.jpg I think it's all the way to the right yep thank you so I just wanted I wanted counsel and the public to see exactly what we're talking about here um currently these are 224 homes again on a former on a former uh stable for horses as you can see both of the exits right here directly go on to Frontera which only leads to El Paso there are no other ways for the residents of these areas the cars the multiple cars and residents of this area to get anywhere else but to Frontera and through El Paso which also means that any ambulances any fire trucks any Sunland Park police cruisers need to go through a passive streets and go all the way around here when there's already other ways and avenues and opportunities for for those First Responders to enter through New Mexico to offer quicker response times to their residents so I just wanted to show this as well as well as to see the density here which again is not really in alignment with the rest of this area here as well many of which are neighborhoods both in New Mexico and in El Paso as well so just to give again a background on this item on August 24th the Planning and Zoning commissioners of the city of Sunland Park New Mexico held a meeting here to approve this preliminary project um this again was after it was already taken down by city of Sunland Park and then brought back up with little to no awareness from residents both in Sunland Park New Mexico as well as El Paso it during this meeting there was not a second for this item and actually the chair of the commission at the time thought that the item was denied I think it's also important for Council to note that at this Planning and Zoning commission which is similar to our CPC commission there was no legal representation from the city of Sunland Park at this meeting so this item had no legal representation from the city of Sunland Park at this item there was a person from The Economic Development Department that spoke days after the meeting saying that this item in fact did pass and we know that there are similar conditions relating to approval and denials as well when it comes to planning commissions however everybody left that meeting because of a lack of legal representation from the city of Sunland Park thinking that this item had died because there was not a second on this item um and then in addition to that and why I'm bringing this item here was during follow-up conversations with the mayor of Sunland Park and others there were clear um understandings of this item could move forward to the city of Sunland Park however um the mayor of Sunland Park again mayor Perry honorable mayor perry Area um added that there was needs or concerns it could be potential discussions of adding another road to relieve traffic congestion and I would like to play a clip of that video I.T if you could bring up the the video that's there really quick foreign [Music] Park did tell me tonight thank you I just wanted counsel to sort of hear the entirety of this clip now the mayor of Sunland Park did tell me tonight that if there is a need and concerns are brought up there could be potential talks about building another road out of there to relieve that congestion from all of those cars coming into the community reporting live in The Newsroom tonight to simoncini cbs4 at 10. now the mayor of Sunland Park oh we could hear that again it seems it's very clear that the mayor had raised some concerns with this interview um by the media as well so again part of what this item is is that we have had our planning and inspections department reach out to the economic development department in Sunland Park have not heard anything that has really been conducive towards really listening to the concerns of not just El Paso residents but Sunland Park residents as well I can tell you that this community right here is meeting regularly with their neighborhood with their neighbors in Sunland Park and there's a lot of concerns from both sides and again there is an option here if we could go to the jpeg that says exits so um this right here again is is a Google map aerial of where the proposed division is I spoke on September 20th um on behalf of the office of district one reading into the record at the city council meeting in Sunland Park again registering those concerns many of which were never communicated to the mayor or to the city council of Sunland Park even though their Central Planning Commission their planning zoning commission was made aware of these concerns as well so again I think this part of this item is to be very clear to communicate to the council and the mayor of Sunland Park and relevant parties about these concerns coming from from City of Sunland Park and city of El Paso residents so just to give you a sense those red X's signify the proposed egress and egress from this Division and the yellow marks that you see are a street called Appaloosa Road Appaloosa Road currently would lead directly to Sunland Park Drive which is considered um I don't know if we have somebody from streets either a minor a major arterial Frontera is not considered a minor arterial it's considered I believe a residential collector um one thing to note is directly east of this Depart of this uh this uh current piece of land if you can see where it says Sunset that is a newer division that is a newer subdivision there considered um compared to some of the older homes on Gary Lane and Boy Scout Lane there is about 125 to 150 plots houses within that area that's called sunset you're looking at almost double that density on this piece of land right here on these horse stables as well again something on a street that has two schools on it on an area that has that is Sunland Park is choosing not to have any egress or egress from New Mexico and you can see with those yellow X's that there's opportunities for two additional entrants and exit points from this area that would lead into New Mexico or would lead into other areas as well and so I think that that's an important thing as well to say again we heard from the mayor himself that if there was in that there was concerns or needs related to Public Safety and otherwise that they would look at addressing this with the developer and it's our responsibility as a council to to hold them to tasks to work together as a community for better projects that will benefit both Sunland Park and El Paso and so again I think that these concerns are valid relating to Public Safety residential and soul traffic as well as First Response signs from the city of Sunland Park which as currently designed can only pass through El Paso streets we must do better for both of our communities in both of our cities we have yet to hear from the attorney of Salem park instead our community and staff is spoken to Again by a member of their economic development team who is giving apparently legal device legal advice relating to planning and Commissioners meetings as well as in offices to our planning department actually just received an email yesterday if we can bring up that screenshot as well that would be ideal I.T thank you very much and so I think it's just important here again this was an email um that that again basically says that um the developer has a right to build if and when they want to see so um also that the city of Sunland Park zoning has received a 25 increase from residents in El Paso but is not really addressing those as well however it's important that we represent those voices as well into that into that as well there are conversations um with them but again the language from this appears you know not very friendly and um cordial quote however this development is moving forward if and when the developer decides to move within his rights there are concerns that we've raised from our planning inspections department before I think it's important that we we again offer the opportunity for our City Attorney's department our city management and relevant departments to speak directly to the city council and mayor of Sunland Park as well as other relevant parties again this is again an item to give clear direction to our city staff to speak directly to the mayor and Council as well as appropriate departments their legal planning department as opposed to any sort of single member from their Economic Development Department again which seems very insistent on pushing a project that there's still significant concerns both from El Paso residents and Sunland Park residents as well in addition to this I think it's important that City staff report back to council with what steps can be taken to restrict traffic onto Frontera from this proposed development in Sunland Park a project which is a clear which has clear public safety hazard implications to the community in El Paso as well as Sunland Park could be estimated that almost over 10 1 000 cars could be coming through these streets when this is completed again with no with no thought given to the other horse stable which is directly across from Frontera as well thank you mayor Pro tem we appreciate the great presentation uh and uh bringing bringing this up to um Council I think it's important and by by the out by the turnout here I understand the importance and we do need you know we have a different state so it's very important that we worked with them and uh and and hope that they can understand some of the safety items that has been brought up today so that's very important that when we talk about the community safety that's one of the most important things that we talk about it and I think that we'll need to reach out and and get uh some some response from them that hopefully will be favorable as we're dealing with a totally a different uh state that uh but uh the impacts the safety of our community and that's the important part and I I think that mayor Pereira would be open to listening and and I can reach out to him and and be able to sit down across the table from him because it's important that we don't endanger lives of our community or anyone's community so I look forward to doing that and and bringing that forward to you and I and I have a motion for this item yes sir please um so again um and I appreciate that mayor I've had some conversations with with the mayor as well um and again you know and and this is this is again what I think is there is um I just think that there needs to be a clear understanding the residents in both cities what we can do what the city of El Paso can do to look at closing or restricting public streets during to public due to Public Safety and hazardous conditions and with this motion that I'm about to read I would ask that staff return back with possible options with what can or can't be done and the legal sort of reasoning behind it from either state or local jurisdiction by the next council meeting and at the Crux of this there is a solution and I think mayor that's what you really point to right is that there's an opportunity for our communities to work together for our communities to talk to each other and come up with a simple solution a very simple easy solution and again based upon the mayor of Solomon Park's own words The Honorable mayor perea a secondary an additional exit in entrance could be established in this development that would allow for traffic to float through to New Mexico and not only to El Paso streets now I don't know what this you know don't exactly know how things are done in Sunland Park and what discussions were had with this developer but all I know is that it would just take some creativity strength and courage to stand up for what's right for both El Paso and Sunland Park to make this work our community and residents deserve better than what is being presented here as a done deal here today and I just would like to bring up one last slide mayor before reading my motion into the record and again and I'll reach out to my parents I have a good working relationship with them and I think that uh he he'll be very open to sitting down and talking and that's the important part let's talk this to communication and find out how we can come to a common goal absolutely can we bring up the slide real quick I.T the Gated I'm unavailable to answer your call at the moment please leave a message or text me for a faster response thank you so and this just I just wanted to show this this was uh sometimes I like to take pictures in Google streets or Google Maps or whatever it's a wonderful photo application as well you can travel the whole world and uh take screenshots so this was actually a street that goes directly to Gary Lane in New Mexico that's gated off from the city of Sunland Park um called Santa Mara drive and you can see here that this is a gate that was added on by the city of Sunland Park that restricts access from Gary Lane into met to New Mexico into Texas and so I just think it's important to go and see this as well I believe that this is access into Texas or access into New Mexico however this this street right here which currently has has homes on it could act as a again an additional point to get traffic through to Appaloosa Road and then to to Sunland Park Drive as well and so again um mayor like to make a motion for El Paso City staff to include our city manager a legal City Department as other relevant parties to Advocate my half the residents of El Paso directly to the city council mayor of the city of Solomon Park in all relevant City Salem park city of Sunland Park staff including their City management and City attorneys to to relate the concerns of Public Safety and traffic concerns about the proposed Sun River Estates project also would like to direct staff to return by the next city council meeting of the city of El Paso with options explanations for restricting traffic on Frontera Road from Sunland Park New Mexico including an option for closing Frontera Road at the New Mexico State Line second second thank you for that we have a four seconds so far so with that which shows the importance of this item that uh that we do need to to work together I do want I do have representative uh molinard followed by representative zivetta thank you very much mayor Alicia um Miss Prime I know we have finished public comment but by any chance is there anybody here from the city of Sunland Park New Mexico and the audience for we do have someone on the phone that will be the niche to that uh or even virtual we'll be speaking in a minute oh okay all right uh representative well I haven't finished mayor well you know that oh yeah all right um and Miss Neiman I was going to ask you uh what do you know are you familiar with any case laws on jurisdictional issues matters concerning this is going to be state to state and city to city and perhaps even County to County but that affects us as public entities that for example Public Safety I know when I was on the police department we would a lot of times respond to Otero County because it was a life-saving measure and we passed jurisdictional issues there but do we have things like that that are in place here today so uh yes Mr Molina there is state code requirements that regulate the city's jurisdiction Beyond its boundaries it's called the etj Sunland is within the etj because it's within five miles of the boundaries of the city it would require similar agreements like what we have with our budding cities within the county of El Paso like Horizon Clint Socorro Etc in terms of discussing the provision of emergency services and the like um there is plenty of case law regarding that as well and um in another instance in this situation there's also the Avenue of discussing those types of resource sharing through the mpo so it's a matter of of having the discussions at a higher level in in that setting but also City to City through saf and and additional Personnel but but it is regulated by different mechanisms okay thank you very much thank you mayor thank you represent molinar representative Rivera followed by mayor Pro Temp thank you mayor um something was touched on here by one of the speakers that really bothered me in that and machine this question is also directed to you as a reliability that it'll Place El Paso First Responders on if uh Sunland Park doesn't have one of their own to respond to an incident that occurs in that section what do we what are you talking about just they can we can we can also be sued and and taken to court as far as that's concerned he's immune from emergency response situations um there is from my recollection history discussing um potential risks that are emergency Personnel phase in terms of workers comp so we'd have to talk about that as well so there's a variety of issues that this development poses in terms of emergency response but provision of services and unit flow of traffic that need to be considered and this is the and I believe our city plan did a hiccup job they're the ones that are are you know opposing this as far as that's concerned I find that's totally irresponsible the developer to even think about building something without building what method they could use to to help you know to have first their own First Responders respond to that area I sure as heck wouldn't want El Paso to be liable even though if it's a lot matter of life and death situation of course you're going to have to respond as representative Molina said we also respond to the county occasionally but still for a developer to go and do this do this to the community it's totally irresponsible totally didn't consider all the options that he could wait on now if Frontera road was closed would that be viewed could we be taking the litigation regarding that too as well I want to clarify a statement that I made previously to Mr Molina so the etj regulations apply within this the state right because we have an abutting State the same regulations regarding state law provisions of cities within our etj don't apply to the city of Sunland so that is why we would need to look at whatever Avenues we have available through the mpo to discuss what kind of agreements we would be able to enter into with the abutting um State your question in regards to closing the city street is something that we would have to look into our subdivision code prohibits us from landlocking land that is within the city limits and this property isn't within the city limits but it abuts a city-owned right-of-way so there are some legal impediments to Simply closing a city street for nobody um an adjoining property thank you on that and I just the next one would be to one of the resident owners is it wide enough for a fire truck to go through I don't know sir resident owners that live there have you ever seen a fire truck go to our own fire our El Paso fire truck go through this development that they're they're proposing would be to Frontier right the one picture with the uh vegetation on this if someone's going to answer I'd like for him to come up to the podium please can introduce yourself plus you do Mr Mr Rivera there might be I don't know the backup to the agenda may show the CPC comments yeah on on the property that we traditionally talk about access by emergency Personnel okay and that slide that mayor Pro tem presented Dirt Road in its vegetation on one homes on the other is that have you ever had a fire truck one of our fire trucks go through uh my name is Fernando Gomez and I live on Gary Lane uh the the picture that you showed with the gate uh Peter is actually at the end of Girl Scout on the south side of fondeta and that gives access to San Gabriel which then connects to security so that would be uh the least invasive at this point for them to have a another easement But to answer your question sir uh Frontera is wide enough for fire truck um the development itself and if you look at the the layout of how the homes are placed the streets are not wide enough for a fire truck to turn around on those streets so that would be an issue what would you say about an ambulance also going through there did they have to also an ambulance would would uh would be able to cut it around the uh wheelbase between the front and the back is shorter so yes they would have easier access than a fire truck okay thank you um yes ma'am uh yes city council at the and I know because they live right behind that property uh there's only two instances at the present time one is by the training facility where the horses are and the fire truck doesn't fit through that area the second entrance is actually the back side of my bedroom so that road is full of trees so a high emergency vehicle will not be able to go through there and then there is a gate so that gate half of the street is theirs and half of the street is mine so to answer your question at the present time they do not have a road they will actually have to construct a road to go to Girl Scout Lane and that road is not paved it's a rock and sand so to answer the question now okay okay and I didn't hear that you uh will you uh identify yourself please uh mayor Billiards Montanez various thank you and mayor bias from airport one final question on that one that he did on this presentation yeah I'm sorry I didn't hear what you say when I do have um are you done sir yeah no Joe I'd like to address no we did have somebody that was holding on the road where where is it at mayor Pro tem is it in New Mexico also oh no I was asking I know you asked me the answer would be yes go ahead sir three times go ahead go ahead um yes Appaloosa would would be there and again you know the intent is to have staff yes Appaloosa is only in New Mexico again the intent here is to those questions relating to etj related to jurisdiction about closing off Frontera would like count the ideas really have staff to come back you know with a sort of prepared presentation that they can address that I will tell you that if you you look at Frontera um you know if you were to to look at restricting access at the new at the New Mexico Texas state line Girl Scout Lane would would connect to Santa Maria Lane which would connect to Appaloosa and Futurity which all goes through New Mexico to Sunland Park Drive so there is an opportunity even if you were to close at the state line that this development or any future others would still have access through Gary Lane to fraternity and Appaloosa as well so again I think it's just a question of doing what's right for the community and looking at at options where again you look at the safety of both New Mexico and Texas as residents and give them additional options for Access thank you very much Tim thank you mayor no and uh first thing for point of reference Appaloosa Street would run parallel or in conjunction somewhere on rosenante would that be correct but Lucid goes on the other side as well okay that's what I'm saying yeah just for references on both sides of this development there's an anti-side of Appaloosa and then there's the the salon Park New Mexico to Sunland Park Drive Appaloosa as well near Futurity perfect thank you for that yes ma'am and I think now we go back to Mayor Pro Temp thank you I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add I know that that staff has been doing some work on this previously but I think it's really important that we work we work on behalf of the community um to really understand what we can do at this point because again there are a lot of concerns from El Paso and Sunland Park residents it's really um this is on yet um San Rodriguez chief operations officer mayor Pro Tema if I can make a request for a modification on the motion we'd be happy to provide an update at the next council meeting on our progress given us just a deadline of the next council meeting really gives us one week to okay polish up Solutions and have conversations with Sunderland park I think an opportunity to have those develop those a little bit further and have conversations to bring back meaningful information will be to to Council meetings from today okay will be ideal but we'll be happy to give you an update of the next council meeting and also make a request to expand the scope of our discussions to think about long term there's some major roads in in working with the NPO New Mexico DOT and TxDOT I think is an opportunity to really use this as a trigger point to discuss more Transportation network is that I don't believe this will be the last subdivision that we're going to see as part of the Southern Southern Park development yeah and and and I I'll be I'll be amenable to amending this to 30 days or to to City Council meetings from now in terms of to report back with meetings with that as well as reporting on what sort of options there are to close or restrict Frontera I'm memorable to that so I would like to make that Amendment uh Miss Prime to go from the next council meeting to four weeks yes um so I can do that as well and and just to be clear right this isn't people should know that this is not the first time that this part of the city of El Paso has heard about concerns relating to traffic from New Mexico the sanitary supportive entry at San Geronimo and Artcraft has been an ongoing concern of my community I know that there's folks in the Mission Valley and on the east side that deal with traffic coming over from the ports of Entry we over here on in District One have had those concerns in fact um in fact TxDOT is looking at adding Direct on and off-road ramps from aircraft onto I-10 because of the traffic from each Highway and Artcraft Road from the Port of Entry just last week it was announced that there's a 45 million dollar direct access road from the from the Port of Entry at Santa Teresa directly onto onto Sunland Park Drive that means that outside of our craft you'll now have 18 wheelers and cargo that will not be entering directly onto I-10 but going directly onto Paso streets for that last mile or two miles of complete congestion along Donovan along Sunland Park Drive and so these conversations that are being spurred on by this subdivision are part of a larger conversation that we as a region need to be happening and you can and just to be clear anybody that has known me is that I fully believe in a cultural and economic vision of our community that is regional in scope Sullen Park southern New Mexico Northern Chihuahua Juarez El Paso Las Cruces we are all part of one economic and cultural region and we should celebrate that but with that comes responsibilities it comes about talking and communicating and working together for the betterment of all our communities and so I'm happy to make that Amendment uh Mr Rodriguez and again I asked for staff support I want to thank again the mayor for for being able to reach out to Mayor perea and for staff to do so as well so thank you again thank you thank you and thank you all for for being here and we'll continue to work with you thank you with that we have motion second yes mayor the motion was made by mayor Pro Tim schwarzbein and it was seconded by representative Salcido representative Salcido do you approve the update to the motion to four weeks yes okay and this is to approve the motion is right into the record by representative schwarzwein secondary by representative Salcido and asking staff to return with an update in four weeks [Music] on that motion call for the vote and just to be clear it's asked for an update but also for staff to reach out to the city of Sunland Park and the mayor and Council as well right and then part of that okay thank you as read into the record by mayor Pro tem short yes representative lizarga aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor may we return to the two the three items that were moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda foreign okay thank you this is on page four item number seven this is a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a support resolution for the McRae shared use path album to Montana project as applied for in the transportation alternative set aside call for projects FY 2024 to 2025 mayor if I can have the floor thank you um so is it okay if we take both items seven and eight yes ma'am item number eight is resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a support resolution for the McRae shared youth path Montwood to album project as applied for in the transportation alternative set aside call for projects FY 2024-2025 fund application I just wanted an opportunity to allow for the residents who had um signed up to speak today I'm very excited about this opportunity um most of you all know McRae it's it's often used as a trail as a pedestrian walkway and also as um you know just for bicycling however it does but State roadway there's so much opportunity here it currently is not accessible and I've heard a loud mandate from the community that they wish to see a more walkable environment along the state roadway and I'm sure representative has heard the same in and around the Eastwood area so I'm in support of this application but I also want to recognize the the families who have reached out including the pueblas who have urged for for more walkable communities and in and around their neighborhood as well and so for that that's why I've pulled it off I I don't have any concerns other than to allow those residents to speak today thank you we do have uh two people signed up to come to the public yes mayor we have Bertha Puebla she's in the queue followed by Ben Puebla good morning you'll have three minutes hi good morning um it's Dan Butler my wife stepped away thank you for allowing us to speak um our neighborhood was built in the 1950s and McRae is a State Road apartment to Market 236 and it runs towards uh Album Park and Montana 62 180. um it's been neglected for uh for a while um it's missing sidewalks and it's uh there's a lot of weeds a lot of the parts that do have a sidewalker cracked and there's even some places where they've built some bus stops but it's just a bus stop where somebody just gets off and there's some uh piece of cement and then nothing it's not connected to any kind of sidewalk at all it's just a little cement piece a rectangle um the area that between um from uh it's actually from Eastwood High School to Album Park and we have a lot of seniors we have a lot of elderly that get up in the morning uh go check their walks we have people that are walking around with um Walkers strollers a bunch of Mobility devices and they often have to walk um through means because there's no landscaping and we even have students from the high school that go on their cross-country training and running through that area and there's there's no infrastructure there's no landscape there's no sidewalks there's no trails so uh just wanted to see if hopefully we can have this area considered for some improvement um there's also a little drainage Stitch that runs long approaching Easter high school going northbound towards album it's it's about 23 feet from the rock wall to the street and this is a narrow ditch but it's there's nothing there to where somebody can walk along the McCray so I just want to miss the uh hopefully we can maybe consider it and uh we won't have uh some of our senior citizens our elderly our people that want to uh ride the bike to the area they just can't do it because there's no it's it's just roads it's weeds it's it's no Landscaping whatsoever so just uh thank you for uh taking the time to listen to our so please for help I know it's a state road and it's oftentimes hard to get uh funding from the city because it's it's a state road and it's different Avenues so just wanted to thank you for taking your time to listen thank you thank you I'm not sure if Miss berthup web live speaking um she's here uh did you want to speak uh good morning late so my home thank you again for your time so yes basically um those are the main concerns that we have with uh which um they come you know they certainly boil down to um safety um because of the high traffic that we also um encounter and because we have several um schools within the community that they use McRae as a connection so we were just concerned and wanted to share with you all this morning thank you thank you Mr Price and thank you for for your comments and I I'd like to make an a motion to approve so seven and eight thank you there's a motion by representative Hernandez by representative Rivera this is to approve the resolutions on item seven and eight on that motion call for the vote representatively zaraga I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem not present that brings us to page eight to item number 21 on the agenda and this is a presentation on the FY 2022 Capital project year in review report good morning good morning mayor and City good morning sir um Jerry demuro with the capital Improvement Department it can you bring up the presentation please so this is this is a summary of our accomplishments and challenges that we faced in the in fiscal year 22. next slide please next slide please yeah okay gotcha so we'll talk a little bit about the CIP history FY 22 recap FY 22 results accomplishments and highlights and then next steps so in recap we implemented the public safety Bond projects we started construction on fire station 19 and 20 for renovations and fire station 36 as well as the East Side Regional Command Center we are in design for fire station 38 and the special unit station here downtown we evaluated the Public Safety Training Academy identified the requirements of both user user departments and placed a solicitation on the street to procure a design Builder we implemented the neighborhood Improvement program the nip5 completed the 2012 Street resurfacing we were recently awarded raise grants 900 000 for the planning grant for the deck Plaza and 12 million construction grant for for the Isleta point of entry we adopted a complete streets policy and Street design manual and we completed the Alameda quartus quarter study and Mary Frances and Memorial Park master plan Community engagement so CIP implementation we strive for uh a culture of accountability and ownership we are funding the community priorities we update scope and active long-range plans we have controls in place for scope and schedules including Green Belt projects we're updating processes and procedures and providing training and management staff are continuously working to improve production and results some of the CID internal controls project managers processes vendors support staff external dependencies user departments stakeholders Administration service departments and all go together to have continuous communication and continuous Improvement here are results in FY 22 completed projects were 221 this is the increase in results from 2015 to 2018 to 2022 from 2015 to 2017 we did 120 projects from 2018 to 2022 we did 341. again an increase in of 184 percent when we think about the work we do we think about how it translates into jobs for our community about one million of construction project costs involves roughly 500 000 in labor the impact it's for spending that we've done is 115.4 million approximately 57 million was spent on labor cost we supported over 4 300 jobs and and program to date 44 329 jobs there's also indirect impacts and induced jobs so more than 6 500 jobs supported by Construction in FY 22. we worked with over 206 contractors and subcontractors and here's some of our highlights we could this these are completed projects the ones with the star on it are FY 22 projects you can see they're well distributed across the city for a total of 461 projects completed to date 50 projects completed in FY 22 and these are the completed projects for FY 22 and I'll just leave that up for a second you can take a look we can reconstructed 57 streets throughout the program and you can see the progress we've made there um we have eight that are currently in progress and the end of the presentation there is detail that I'm not going to discuss the specific detail but you can see all the streets that were being done resurfacing there was 483 streets that had been resurfaced since 2013. these are our active project summaries those that are in design pre-design construction and bidding 271 projects were managed and our next steps we are in the development of the community progress Bond we're taking data-driven approaches to long-range plans we're looking at Union Plaza Rehabilitation with the MPC the Uptown downtown activation the downtown tree plan and the deck Plaza and the PCI study and related action plans will be used to to guide our future work there is a video I.T if you could pull that up please and this is our year-end results the seating makes very good parks that kids right now they have the best thank you [Music] I'm really liking you know it gives the baseball players a chance to play at night [Music] foreign [Music] now that we're here in this office we can get the drivers out on time [Music] thank you [Music] the improvements that were made of increased safety and it's helped with the morale [Music] the city has done a lot and they keep on doing the best they can and I appreciate it like a lot of people and that concludes the presentation do you have any questions I have a question too go ahead um representative Rodriguez thank you so I'm just curious if you have any specifics as far as if I ask you for a street where it landed on the PCI test I don't have that handy with me today but we can look it up okay so would it be okay if I email you uh I guess a list of streets in my district wondering where they landed on that you also have access to the database through our website okay but yes you can email me the streets okay thank you so what we'll do also is send all the council the PCI report and show the listing of the streets and then whatever questions you have specifically because that's a large report be happy to give you that response so when I know that that the information as far as what's going to be um worked on for next year is based off of the the PCI results correct that's correct when will we know if specific streets are going to be resurfaced or and some of the U.S chief operations officer I actually have a presentation in the next a couple couple of items that will Target specifically Street resurfacing and the street upgrade program so we're targeting spring of 23 is our next opportunity for to bring to council the next two year programs for fiscal years 24 and 25 a residential collector and if the bond passes in November the rollout for the top 50 arterial that are included as part of that project as well so if you're going to roll out in March when will we know the I guess in March so that's the one we intend to bring the recommendations to city council all right thank you it's important to note that if the bond does not pass those items can't be funded for another three years unless we do another bond in the interim or we do it in within the city's budget operating budget so I guess it would be really important for us to kind of be able to have that presentation with our constituents so that there's in support of that Bond yes ma'am because I mean it's a very base sick bond proposal I mean the main issue in the whole proposal is that we're listening to the public and that is being voted on even though typically streets are done through cos is being brought before the public so they can vote on the streets okay thank you thank you for that presentation I just want to confirm I'm sorry if I missed it the PCI study is that the updated one oh and that's already available yes yes oh wonderful okay yeah I would like to see the direct link for that so we can start to disseminate and share perhaps I missed that somewhere um I I just wanted to thank um all the hard work from the city manager to City staff I mean just looking at a comparative analysis what we've done for the past decade compared to decades before really it's it's a testament to a government that is working for our community a really Advanced and quality projects for our community and so I'm so proud to see all of the progress and I hope that voters in El Paso will agree that we need to do more and so um thank you for all those updates thank you for all your hard work and thank you to the the Pio team that puts these videos together um just a quick question about um the the capital projects um you know when I first came into Council we actively talked about what are the next projects that we need to look towards um that that is critical infrastructure or it's going to be anything that we've had for deferred maintenance that we need to get going now do we have a 2022 Capital list that's coming forward is there an opportunity for members of council to start chiming in on that because I would like to do that before it's presented to council and have those conversations one-on-one yeah certainly um the Jerry referenced the 15 active long-range plans that are currently underway like the elevated Corridor the small area plans you know part of the approval for the bond if City if you remember city council authorizes or directed us to begin the discussions of the 2024 potential quality of life Bond program uh with with a return to council within six months to be in the process so all that in compilation with a facilities presentation that's in the works right now that Richard and Helen are working on that will come to council to show you the needs from uh from the existing facilities that we already have you know what's what needs repairs and all that all that feeds into the data uh that will hopefully drive a quality life Bond program or potentially a capital plan that gets approved by Council so all that data will be available over the next coming and so I guess what I'm looking for is just a more um direct uh communication between offices so that we can hear all that because like they're very lengthy conversations and there's like so much needs in every District just would like an opportunity to look at those lists before they come to council to chime in um and and just to be the voice of our constituents and but anyway I I know you have all these active plans and all of these needs just would like an opportunity to meet with you all before we come to council certainly okay thank you all for the hard work if if I may also miss it on this uh with regard to the work that the CID has done I know in the in the past um we talk a lot about what's in the budget and the fact that as you mentioned decades before there was a lot of things that weren't getting done quite frankly a lot of neglect we talk about that whether it's in public safety whether it's vehicles for Public Safety streets uh all the different things that didn't get the proper attention they mentioned almost 500 projects being done in a Capital Improvements area but there's also almost 500 projects in the streets area so to your point almost a thousand capital projects have been completed over the course of a little under a decade in the last eight to nine years and so that's that's come because of the council pushing so hard I know that several of you that came in with the new Council that wanted a lot of the projects done faster and and more of them I think what you're bringing up though is a really really good point in that we might have just a special work session and or a retreat of some kind where Council can weigh in more and get more more input with all the different studies there are out there it wouldn't be a bad idea to have all of those kind of thrown out there and put them on a wall and we involved the performance office which we're calling the transformation office now have the transformation office involved as well in terms of facilitating it that way you can get more of that input that you are after especially with all the input you're getting from the residents I think that would play nicely into not only what we're doing with the bond this year but then what we're doing in future bonds as well because when we go out and speak to the residents or they need Community leaders or businesses business groups that want to hear from us they want more and they talk about the tax rate they do and they talk about valuation but they want they want to get more projects done more streets is always at top top of the list but there's also other projects that they mentioned that have to do with Community facilities and we did a community facilities assessment back in 15 and that list is long and wide and and it's it's extensive so even though we've made some progress in streets we've made some progress in Capital Improvements like we mentioned when you have 20 or 30 or 40 Years of things that maybe didn't get done they should have gotten done there's there's a lot out there to do so you know when we talk about Capital Improvement plans uh it's a little scary because if you were to really fund it it would be a big big number but that's the reason why we need consistent bonds uh and consistent increases in the budget relative to improvements that are needed that the people ask about Miss paint um we don't have a presiding officer no would you would Council like to read no I would yeah thank you like I'd like to make a motion to recess thank you is there a second there's an emotion and a second to recess a city council meeting and this isn't until noon correct Council yes thank you all in favor yes anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 11 31 a.m and we'll reconvene at noon for call to the public I'm gonna go yes sir council is there a motion to reconvene so there's a motion and a second to recumbing the council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is back in session at 1203 PM we now go 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 City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirements of city council all persons and attendance are expected to display Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public use this form for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forward be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have six members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Elaine Prickett followed by Jesus Mendoza Alfredo Espinoza Michael Sarabia and Carlos Alarcon and Wally Scheck good morning man you have three minutes good morning I'm Elaine Prickett With Honor Flight of southern New Mexico and El Paso and we are here to let you know about our World War II Korean and Vietnam veterans we take them to Washington DC to see the memorials that were built in their honor when I found out the first time I went on honorfly as the videographer this that it was much more than seeing the memorials it was actually healing and restoration we had one veteran say after 65 years I'm finally home another veteran said that you did more in three days and five years of counseling we are here to let you know about an event that El Paso is supporting us with this year after missing five flights because of kovid we are having our first flight this week we leave Thursday and we come back Saturday October 1st we would like for you in the city of El Paso to line the streets with signs and flags welcome our veterans home we had a veteran that told me once crying through tears Elaine you just don't know how much it meant to me I hope I don't cry to for to get off that bus and know that people were proud of me and the woman handed me a cardboard welcome home sign we need to do better than just a cardboard welcome home sign so please join us at the airport at 5 30 Saturday October 1st to welcome our bets home we want to see the streets lined all the way from the airport down Airway to I-10 so the veterans can see that they are loved and supported we also want to ask the city of El Paso to please help support us about half of our veterans that we take every year are from El Paso but most of our support has come out of New Mexico we've had very little to none out of El Paso we would like to make you aware of who we are and let you know some of our needs of course funding is always a need we're trying to do two flights a year we have over 150 veterans on our waiting list and it is quickly growing we need to get the healing and closure for these veterans that they deserve and the Hong Kong coming a flight costs about thirty five thousand to forty thousand dollars it's not a lot of money to for what we get for our veterans the Guardians they each have a guardian they pay their own lending the funding finding the funding the veterans and the volunteers from us for us from El Paso our I always still have time left I was thinking of um as the videographer I've listened to many of these veterans some of them have told me stories about how they were greeted with feces and urine balloons and thrown at them we need to change that and let them know we love them thank you thank you the next speaker is Jesus Prime I'm so sorry um we would like to have um uh Paul Albright say a few words please if you don't mind yes ma'am we don't respond to a call to the public but um we can um I moved to suspend go ahead go ahead thank you very much uh for the record Paul Albright Chief military officer um it's incredibly important to continue to support the Honor Flight I'll tell you the city of El Paso is really stepping up right now to give the heroes welcome at the El Paso International Airport that these veterans did not receive when they came home back in Vietnam in Korea as Elaine was saying they were treated it was a very bad time in our history and they were treated absolutely miserable feces thrown at him it was absolutely a horrible time so this is our opportunity to give back um we're gonna have balloons out there food we're going to have I've reached out to almost every veteran organization that I know which is about 85 here in the city of El Paso they plan online in the streets they're going to have Flags we're going to do everything we can the second step is to ensure that we continue the fund this program so um so as we reach out across the community the veteran affairs advisory committee is involved with this as well we're going to continue to try to keep this program going it's very important to our veterans happens twice a year costs about 35 000 per flight so it's it's not a cheap Endeavor but it's definitely something that's sustainable thank you for your time thank you command sergeant major now that we broke our own rules so I want to ask a couple questions and please come up sure again I had the pleasure of meeting both of you right now and I appreciate that and thank you for what you do know how many people are on the plane going this week okay I just want to introduce Denise real quick she's our El Paso board member and representative from El Paso and I did get to meet her okay we have 60 people so every veteran has a guardian and they push the wheel serve the veteran we we basically treat them like royalty and so we also have our crew so we have 32 veterans this year and their guardian and the crew so it's a total of 60 people that'll be going on this flight and these are all World War II veterans um these are all this year this flight is going to be Korean and Vietnam veterans we did not have any World War II is the first flight we will have that will not have any World War II veterans we did not have any on our list right now but if we do have World War II veterans they get bumped to the front of the list and then Korean veterans are next and then Vietnam veterans but we do look at our veterans individually because a lot of our Vietnam veterans have life limiting illnesses and so we do take that into account and get them on the list we've had after our last flight we had five of our veterans passes away luckily they got that healing I'm trying not to cry one was he said I finally got to Exhale because he said you take a deep breath when you go in war and I finally got to Exhale and um so we do look at that and those most of those that passed away were Vietnam veterans because of some of the diseases and Cancers and all that they have you know and and when we talk about World War II veterans I know that um we have less and less that uh survived my father was a World War II veteran and he was had in Pride every day there wasn't anywhere he didn't go without his hat on and um every just about every picture I have every memory I have my father passed away about three years ago and every memory I have is for This World War II veteran hat because he was very proud of it so um I know that um more and you know where we have less and less every year and we need to honor him and continue to thank him because of you know what they did and their sacrifice the reason why we have the ability to be in public office and the freedom of our country so we thank them every day thank you right and we need you to help us find those veterans before they pass away so we can absolutely and that reminded me when you said that it gave me a big smile to think about my father thank you I appreciate you allowing us to speak yes thank you we have one more question just a couple of questions please um do you all have any flyers or a website that you all can share with okay perfect okay that would be it thank you if you go to our website it's honorflight n m dot org there's a flyer about the homecoming and there's also a short three-minute video I will warn you have tissue um and then all of the videos I do a full documentary hour-long video so all of them are on the website so if you want to watch and listen to some of the interviews we try to interview every single veteran um but I'll warn you again have tissue thank you and your website is on the flyer as well okay thank you and I would just like to add that for those of you that can be a guardian I would strongly suggest to do so I knew when I went for my first time that it would be about the veteran and it completely was but let me tell you there's something Soul changing when you see a little bit of healing in the eyes of these veterans when they're at their walls and that they're memorials so if you get the opportunity we have an application online for Guardians as well I would strongly suggest you do it thank you thank you again thank you for being here and thank you for what you do thank you just to let you know that staff is planning a number of activities at the airport if you want to be a part of it on Saturday we would love to have you there beginning at 5 30. there'll be a broadcast message that's going to be going out across all staff for the city as well to make sure that we get as many people from the city of El Paso there present on Saturday afternoon but from at 5 30 we'll be meeting in the lobby and then there'll be there'll be the reception that will go all the way down Gateway so we really hope to see you all there and if you need more information please let me know and I'll make sure you get that directly it's been a dream of mine for five years to have the streets lined like it was during World War II and the old movies I've seen for our Korean and Vietnam veterans so that's been a big dream of ours to get flags and signs out for them thank you your name for the record I'm not sure the the other lady that spoke Denise Le buff thank you so much well um next the next speaker is Jesus Mendoza he's joining uh via teleconference and his topic is school-aged child bullying Prosecuting bullying cases to deter violence Wireless and microwave radiation good afternoon you have three minutes thank you the major city commissioner I respectfully request your office to direct the police department to investigate and refer for prosecution those who are provoking children to violence or to treat threats or violence on the ground that investigating and prosecution of bullying as domestic terrorism can be a strong deterrent to prevent more tragedies in schools I have been homebound for more than 10 years with light threatening Electro sensitivity EHS which was caused and aggravated by the same microwaves and radiation surveillance reaching children in school even though levels of radiation aggravate my EHS I have been voluntarily several times I must sleep deprived and in pain all the time this is a horrible way to drive my EHS has been recognized by federal and state agencies and by courts as a physical medical condition and as a disability because most doctors are in the dark on denial of EHS millions of children have been misdiagnosed and mistreated by harmful drugs invasive procedures and deadly painkillers the harm caused by the microwaves and radiation surveillance at school a specific concretion and dispute of medical scientific and legal levels on the record has proven that those in charge of educating protecting our children committed throughout on the course to conceal that The Chronic compulsory and unnecessary exposures to microwaves and radiation surveillances are causing children EHS and other catastrophic irreversible and deadly harm and disabilities that defeat the purpose of Education to conceal the government sponsor High glue bullying which includes school officials teachers and students are provoking children and the manually disabled to commit my students to justify under the fabricated excuses of National Security the massive powerful and harmful military-grade safety and wireless radiation surveillance schools the workplace and even homes and to conceal that on the fabricated excuses on National Security the future of our children and the future of our country National Security are being sold to the trillion dollar Wireless big Pharma and medical cartels as detailed by the statement of physical disabilities by the motion to recuse three federal judges and by the request to protect their children submitted to Texas Senator Rolando Gutierrez and poster on the case law section of Jay Mendoza at wirelesswatchblog.org wirelesswatchblog.org because pharaoh and instead of Tories courts and even the mainstream media are attempting to conceal these atrocities criminalizing bullied as domestic terrorism can save immense pain and suffering and can save children's lives a copy of the requests to Senator Gutierrez was submitted to Europe this thank you very much for your prompt attention to this matter respectfully thank you again thank you the next speaker is Alfredo Espinoza his topic is issues with property on Cortina Drive since 1999. he's requested a Spanish translation so Mariana Orozco from my office will be assisting gracias foreign opportunities good afternoon members of council uh thank you so much for this opportunity and this experience um I purchased a property over at 5648 Cortina West in El Paso in West El Paso sorry uh in 1996 when I first got it it was just one street it was over Cortina Street foreign after a year I purchased a property a new Street was built right next to mine it was a corner and he I was really happy about that however it started giving me issues with my property Skinner so after that was built um there were uh there were a handful of houses that were going downhill 70 60 meters down and now my house ended up being in a canyon so whenever it's really windy it hits my house directly de la casa so whenever it's really windy let's say it's 20 miles per hour wind my house ends up being hit by 50 mile uh hour winds right now my I do have another issue um with the property a lot of people walk past walk past my property la ciudad so of course because of the Winds my house has been shaken up a little and due to this the sidewalk Has Lifted a little and that has caused accidents there has already been two people who have fallen on that sidewalk due to this Industries so he has a I have already lost two balconies in one uh small house within my property uh around the year 2000 they both fell down due to the winds also um my tax my taxes over the property I over are over 390 000 um so I end up paying seven thousand eight thousand dollars and the value of the property is not at that point is I do appreciate the opportunity I've been trying to have this opportunity for years for over 20 years however I've not been able to due to being either too busy with my job or also um I've been denied of the opportunity with that with the previous mayor at that time um I do need the assistance uh maybe somebody who can assist me um an engineer who can check all the issues that have all this the street being built has have cost Central proof this opportunities so also my roof has been really seriously damaged due to this I have I have had to change that from three to four times already due to the wind I have the pictures to prove such damage reports the next speaker thank you Miss Orozco the next speaker is Michael Sarabia topic is revive mobile Health ambulance franchise he will be followed by Carlos Alarcon and finally by Miss Wally ship good afternoon you have three minutes thank you first off El Paso city council thank you for all you do for the community my name is Michael sarabe I was born and raised here in El Paso Texas I am a registered nurse UTEP alumni paramedic and one of the founding members of the of revive mobile health the reason for coming in today is we would like to keep you up to date on our ambulance franchise application and urge you as a city council and city manager and employees to please expedite the franchise process we started meeting with all the city council and managers and going to all Town Hall meetings Zoo meetings and in office meetings over the past four months since then we have had many incidents and calls for service from our current contracts within El Paso region that we have had to turn down because of ambulance wait times from exist from the existing three franchise providers and denial of the El Paso Fire Department's permission in serving the community since then we have received more than 800 letters of support from various uh from for various reasons from doctors nurses Hospital Executives administrators and most improv most importantly from the citizens of El Paso Texas unfortunately we continuously keep getting different time frames from El Paso Fire Department Representatives saying that they are making every attempt to sit down with each one of their representatives mayor and city managers yet when asking the different city reps separately we have had different answers we are a small business and therefore our bleeding funding for our employees retention of EMTs and paramedics as an ambulance business we cannot continue running our operation for several months without being able to operate within the city of El Paso if this does not get resolved soon unfortunately as a revive mobile health and as and I as a citizen will have no choice but to relocate to a different city for business revive is ready to serve the El Paso Community and close and close that Gap that much needed gap for private ambulance services here in El Paso and answer the calls that are being received in a timely manner thank you thank you sir the next speaker is Carlos Alarcon also speaking on revive mobile Health ambulance franchise good afternoon you have three minutes okay good afternoon respectable members of city council my name is Carlos Alarcon I'm a paramedic and one of the managing partners for revive mobile Health as my business partner was mentioning we have we appreciate the time that the city Representatives have granted us to speak on our behalf and present the information regarding our desire to serve the community you know as he mentioned you know we we do have had a a little bit of of a delay getting some definitive answers to when El Paso Fire Department will present or will place you know the uh the voting on the city agenda and of course you know as Michael was saying you know Thomas of the essence time is valuable time is money so we do have you know our staff uh you know currently Staffing ambulances and providing Services currently to entities outside the city limits because that's where we can serve but of course you know we have had a I'll give you three uh separate situations in which we have gun requests to serve of entities or facilities within the city of El Paso one of them we were able to bring a patient for dialysis transport into a facility off of lomaland the nursing home was actually called us and begged us several times to transport that patient back to the nursing home of course you know we did notify them that we're not able to pick up the patient from El Paso and return them to the city of Socorro because we don't have a city franchise we did send you know communicate with the rescue operations Captain which of course you know in turn through one of the fire chiefs denied our request to transfer that patient subsequently that patient actually ended up waiting in the dialysis center several hours post their dialysis treatment in other situations you know from other facilities that are right behind you know our office you know freestanding ER they requested assistance to move a patient that patient actually waited approximately about 12 hours to be transported to uh to UMC and we had several situations like that we continue to see that there's a delay in moving you know those patients from one facility to another once again you know our desire is to serve the community we do have that step we know that we're pending which is getting you know your approval you know through city council and of course you know uh voting for that if we can please request your assistance um to to probably possibly put that up you know that into the city council agenda so you guys can you know vote on it and make a decision that way we can make sure that we serve in our current contracts within the city of El Paso so once again thank you very much for that we appreciate your time it is our desire to continue uh you know serving the city of El Paso and the city residents as my business partner stated there's hundreds of of letters of support um you know as you know people have voiced their opinions their concerns uh their personal experiences within delays that are currently exist with the three current providers thank you very much thank you sir and the final speaker is Miss Wally Schick and her topic is right or wrong save America good afternoon milkshake you'll have three minutes good day everybody God bless America and Safe America to every one of you Mr Mayor I need you to come over here please you want me to come over there yes please okay Michelle you're in charge this is my 350th achender and I'm the boss today okay for just a little while this is my gift to you to give to the fire department our country is on fire and I paid in May ten thousand seven hundred dollars to give to the 900 firemen the book plus a hundred dollar first start for the police with the sincerity of my heart opened this box [Music] I promised would get my book as a fundraiser A lot of these people this one is from Germany the cathedral I cannot write it because it's against the thing and you already kind gave me extra time so I don't want to a special reason burn it out and put this in this is a rose from my husband's funeral who is today 12 years he had a heart attack because the city taught on the city hall and they say is for your desk to bring a sunshine and this is a thank you for all the senior citizen people on fixed income I have no authority to represent them my only qualification is that I'm 93 years old and so I can and if you have somebody that is against it beat them up there is a little bit thing there thank you I say you are the best mayor that we ever had in the 70 years that I am in El Paso and we came here because of full Bliss and River station in the Little Rock House at the motor pool where every 24 hours you know the cops came around thank you for three minutes now thank you so much see you in two weeks thank you God bless you yes yeah I gave the bus driver I wasn't gonna get told him today is my last boost drive to the city hall because there were always so kind to let me out here and I was the one that started to push stop here thank you music Council there's one more item left on the consent agenda this is item number 14. it was moved to the regular agenda and this is the award of solicitation number 2022-0245r Air Service development consulting services to inter Vistas Consulting Inc Michelle I did tell them that don't ever argue with you you're always right how are you sir there's a presentation in the backup mayor or unless there's specific questions for it certainly um 73 is director of the airport if it can bring up the presentation please this is item number 14. thank you the award uh today was being recommended is for Air Service development consultant of course the airport is part of goal number one specifically to grow the air transportation Air Service development historically in the past six years with the help of Consultants we've been able to attract three new Airlines additional destinations such as San Diego Seattle Chardon and Orlando plus additional frequencies to very popular markets in Las Vegas Austin Chicago and Seattle as well um this uh the recently the city council also approved a new incentive policy that was based on the recommendations from the city from the consultant that we had which is the same consultant that's being recommended today that basically makes us very comparable and very competitive with other airports for Air Service development our current focus on Air Service continues to be the international markets as well as five destinations nationally that I'm going to go over here in a minute part of what they're going to be working helping us work on is that we're going to be meeting with 15 Airlines here this coming October to discuss our destinations and potential opportunities for the airlines we'll also continue dialogues with most of the airlines as well specific markets and what the consultant does for us is they help us attract or develop data manipulated and prepare presentations for those Airline meetings so that they can present the best case for our community as they make the decisions on adding or reducing their air routes throughout their system these are our top 10 gold destinations that we have we have five International Chihuahua Puerto Vallarta Guadalajara Mexico City in Cancun or an international destinations that we continue to have dialogue with Airlines nationally we're focused on San Francisco New York and Washington as our top three destinations plus Detroit and Nashville is the next logical ones as well and so again the consultant keeps us up to date on what's happening in those markets help us coordinate the data what the fares are the number of passengers that go there daily and we're able to present again and develop business cases for the airlines for these markets the selection was done through the city it was purchasing department through an RFP process the consultant that we have has been very very responsive it made the current contract requirements they submitted on this project and they were selected and recommended for today the contract details are for three years as part of the initial term 375 000 plus an option for two additional years it is an increase of 25 percent um just because there's additional capacity opportunities this is an on-call contract where we task the consultant for specific for specific tasks but we do anticipate data to increase obviously salaries to increase over the next five years and this will allow us to complete and provide that service for the community and with that I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you mayor what is the funding source for this it's Airport Enterprise funds okay um and there's a 25 increase but this is the first time we've done this contract or this is a renewal it's a it's a new contract but it's the same consultant as being awarded they got selected again okay okay and they did five years previously um I don't know the previous term but it was minimum of three years okay great okay thank you representative none this followed by mayor Pro Tem I want to clarify that by the gold destinations those are the the non-stop flights that you're seeking to achieve correct those are our top ten and then what kind of benchmarks do we hold the consultant to in terms of assisting with providing new Airline Services so we we have a lot of dialogue with these pair cities so we meet when we go to these conferences to meet with Airlines we also meet with those City uh City Partners to San Francisco Washington we meet with Baltimore as an example and we discussed the data that they have and we're able to Benchmark our consultants in with the with the Consultants that they have as well we're currently making sure that we have the latest and greatest information available through our consultant and we do that through conversations that we have with other airports I'm happy to hear that we're getting support because this is such a critical effort for the city of El Paso we hear time and time again from business community that we need more direct flights to our community so I the reason why I asked to put this on the regular agendas because I don't think it gets enough attention that we are in fact putting our dollars to these efforts by hiring Consultants hiring experts I do believe that we need to have and hold our Consultants to a higher standard to make sure that they are bringing a return on investment because we do desperately need the best talent to promote our community and so for the consultants if you're listening if you're not you're not being a really good consultant we we're holding you accountable to help us take the greater step take the next step because our Aviation and our community is critical for Commerce and for families to connect with their loved ones but at any rate I'm going to support this today just would want to make sure that any contracts related to our Consultants that they have clear benchmarks that they have to achieve that they are bringing return on investment and if they're not then let's have a conversation of stopping these contracts thank you thank you and uh I think it's so important when we talk about connectivity for our community is that when we go out and we try to earn a company's business to come invest within our community you know the bottom line for any company is return on investment a return on investment could be from time taken to get from destination a to destination B if they lose two days of a week for travel then then maybe it doesn't become advantageous to them because again I think someone a minute ago said time is money and for these companies it becomes not not the best thing to do and it's not the wisest way to invest their time so it's so important that we do have non-stops it's really good important that we have flight said maybe it's a connection flight no change on planes that has a lot to do with it so I know that um in the six years I've been in office that's one of the most important things that any company will talk to us about is flights and how do we connect how past show and how Direct in Baltimore the military has a lot to do with that we've when we talked to a lot of the the generals and and companies that want to do business with Fort Bliss Baltimore is really the the biggest uh talk that we have with them is because they want to make sure and also the size of the planes because of the equipment that they carry so I think it's so important what you're doing here and it's important to make sure that we continue to connect our community with the other communities and make sure we continue to go Non-Stop and and continue to have different options as we work really hard city manager and his team Miss Trigg and her team they work really really hard to earn someone's business and this is a big part of how we can continue to earn their business I agree mayor Pro Tem thank you mayor it's great to see that this is something we're continuing to work on do we know what Target air well first of all have we used Consultants before relating to um focusing on International routes and nonpro and non-stops uh nationally at this point yes this is again this is a this is a new contract but it's the same consultant that's been supporting us in our efforts and they pretty much help us with International routes they help with other airports internationally as well so it's a very it's a very adverse company in terms of the markets that they have access to do they work with any federal lobbyists from both countries not that I'm aware of I mean I I don't know off the top of my head but I can certainly ask what how long have they been advocating and for this for for the community for these International and larger domestic flights so I know they've been on currently for the past three years they've been they've had our contract recommending for three additional uh as part of this action today it would be great maybe to get a briefing about about them to understand what what they're hearing about some of the challenges that they're hearing from the Airlines and others in terms of these non-stops and international routes to understand what what are the things that they're hearing um you know speaking to others I mean I think it's good to have them accountable I mean there's a lot of information from the hunt border Institute from border Plex Alliance talks about about that and and often we see when we're talking about Economic Development whether it's you know bringing in destination retail or you know a new grocery store or whatever it is people have a challenge sometimes in understanding that our region and our economy is one that crosses borders right and that you can't really just look at the you know you can't really just look at the MSA of El Paso that stops at the international border you really have to look at El Paso and Juarez and even Wawa to understand the economic potential not to mention Far West Texas and southern New Mexico to understand who the audiences would be for these non-stop flights as well as other Economic Development opportunities as well so I'd really like to understand more kind of what Target airlines are looking for what kind of information that they are using to to Advocate on behalf of our community and any other resources that are there you know I think again when we think about it you know are are one of our biggest gateways we have to our community is the El Paso International Airport we have seen a tremendous amount of improvements a lot of it has to do to your leadership City management leadership in terms of beautifying and improving and this council's leadership quite frankly too in beautifying Airway some may call Airways looking at beautifying the airport the Investments I think for keeping a serious face on that one that was do you laugh on that I feel like Airways is a responsible way to communicate Airway as well I refuse to pronounce it any other way the improvements that we've seen with the airport the improvements on the the rental the covered rental facility that we have there these are all tremendous steps in the right direction to make us more competitive and to make a more welcoming and user-friendly experience for people coming into our community right now convert now change that with how people enter in coming from our Southern ports of Entry right if they're flying non-stop from aerobus or from Volaris and they're coming in through Juarez they're having to cross over the bridges right with unclear response with unclear Bridge wait times or they're crossing over and it's not a very efficient way to cross and it's you know not necessarily the most attractive or comfortable way to cross either for opportunities for investment from Mexican Nationals and and other folks as well coming in from the south so I really think that that one of the the biggest things that we have when we look at those non-stops from Mexico City or Guadalajara or others is that this is an opportunity to look at foreign direct investment it's an opportunity to have people that want to invest in El Paso in our region be able to to be able to fly and have the ability to go Non-Stop and not have to transfer through Dallas or Houston or otherwise or going direct to Juarez and then having to sit on the bridge and so I can't stress how important this project is would love to to hear more directly from the Consultants about what data they're utilizing to communicate to these Airlines and their strategies as well I'm happy to support this because again I think it follows up and reinforces the Strategic plan that our Council has approved and City staff is working for it to execute as well and so I want to thank you again for your work here today you're welcome thank you for that and thank you mayor Pro tem I think that you know when companies do come to El Paso number one thing is education number two is means of transportation whether it's air or um through the roadways it's so important to be able to move their goods and uh so thank you very much for bringing this and I think it's a very important item as we continue to grow the economy of our community so thank you thank you and with that Mr Price yes there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by Representatives Salcido to approve item 14. on that motion call for the vote anything or something everyone in teams will you please make sure your microphones are on mute with the exception of Representatives voting session is open I was praying I'm sorry mine's not coming up it's still not up your vote ma'am aye thank you I apologize representative hi thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we now go to page eight item number 22. and this is a budget update good afternoon members of council Robert cortinas find a time of year where we just finished up a fiscal year we just started our need for school year September 1st and they're already looking ahead to the upcoming budget process for next year so this presentation is going to focus on really looking at those costs that we know are are going to be coming and we know our Workforce we've had a lot of discussion over the last several months about what we've done as far as investing in our Workforce looking at the continuous investment in our Public Safety and we'll talk a little bit about some of our fixed costs and then as we look to the Future you heard some of the discussion this morning as far as looking at example for some of our facilities and some of the needs in that area so again as we look at our Workforce again primarily a large portion of the budget almost 73 percent with what you all have approved in the current budget we have our first phase of the pay increases which will take effect on this next paycheck and then again the second phase in March of 2023 to increase that minimum wage again but again really about continuing to increase the wages for not only our our community but also focusing on the workforce as well we talked a lot about the significant progress that's been made in a lot of curious and I have a couple of slides on that however we still know we have a long way to go opportunity to complete the bond projects which we'll continue with Public Safety projects you heard a little bit about that this morning with the presentation that Jerry did and then again continue to monitor some of those fixed costs where we saw some pretty dramatic increases in the current year so again looking at the overall budget again for the current fiscal year again 73 of that budget's made up of our Workforce so that's the salaries benefits and taxes that go for all of our 6 000 plus city employees again so we're talking about future cost drivers we know that we're going to continue to see increases in this area not only with what we've seen as far as public safety with the collective auditing agreements but again continuing to increase our wages for our civilian employees as well so this slide shows since May of 2022 so it seems like it was long ago but it actually was not that long ago as just over four months ago that we increased our minimum wage from 1036 up to 11.11 cents as I mentioned we have just recently with this current pay period gone up to 11.61 cents now and then in March of 2023 the second phase of that will take effect and put the minimum wage at 12.11 cents which again is a 17 increase and again a very short amount of time one of the key points here and I have it on the bullet point on the right hand side there is the way that we've gone about developing these pay increases have increased the minimum wage and doing the flat amounts and so it's overall going to be a one dollar increase that all employees will receive or a minimum of one and a half percent what that does is doing that one dollar increase over the two phases actually provides a much larger increase for our lower paid employees and so they're benefiting from the pay increases that you all have approved and that's 76 percent of our civilians are in the Gs or general service which are the hourly employees and so they're seeing those large increases in the wage increase again we're a very very large employer in the area the fourth largest and so again when we talk about increasing the wages for the community that also includes the city of El Paso as an organization and again that 17 that we've seen again not increasing their health care for our employees I know a lot of organizations have continued to pass on those increases the city has not done that for the last four years and instead is taking on the increase in those costs we continue to focus on targeted adjustments one of the ones we did towards the end of the end of the budget process was added in our Animal Services focusing on our lifeguards and then also what we did with the zoo and the incentive we're provided for them expanding the tuition assistance program so October 4th over at the zoo we do have our education and job fair going on a pretty exciting event and so we encourage you all to continue to pass that message on through your your newsletters to your constituents and then finally the last bullet point there is that again we need to continue to remain competitive and that's going to be a lot of the discussion as we develop the budget for next year already working on that is how much and how much are we going to be able to continue to increase those wages well again minimizing the impact on the tax rate and our taxpayers and then Additionally the police collectibility agreement which does expire in August of 2023 and so we'll begin those negotiations with the police Union here in the very near future we showed this slide but several months ago began really just highlighting the city of El Paso's organization is very very competitive not only from the wages that we've now continued to increase but also looking at all the additional benefits and incentives that we provide across the board a lot of different areas where employees are eligible to take advantage of knowing development opportunities but also actual cash incentives whether it's through the HSA whether it's through sign-on incentives which you currently should have ongoing accident-free driving again to incur safety for our CDL Drivers perfect attendance the umatic recognitions what the city manager does quite frequently for our employees who are going above and beyond again a lot of opportunity to take advantage of all the wages and benefits so this slide it's a little vague and that's done on purpose and so as we're looking to the the budget for next year again we saw the largest portion again of the budget increase in our Workforce 26 million dollars in this current fiscal year as we project out and look ahead to next year what we have planned again looking at about another 26.7 million dollar increase again not only police and fire but all of our civilian employees again continue to increase that minimum wage and so with this we have the plan in place however we need to ensure that we have the funds available whether through sales tax franchise fees all the different Revenue sources to be able to balance out the budget well again continue to be competitive but also at the same time minimizing the impact on our taxpayers and we've done that with the current budget again lowered the tax rate by four cents the prior two years held the line on the tax rate no increase and so we've been able to do that through the growth we've seen in property values and sales tax to be able to fund a lot of these key Investments on Public Safety again this is going to be the Big Driver again not only on completing those Bond projects but again the Staffing that's going to go along with police and fire departments I've mentioned the police agreement which expires next year so we need to begin negotiations on that and then the last couple of bullet points there as we hired more officers and we're building new Fire Stations of police stations that's going to increase the need for those payroll dollars that we have built into the budget currently seven million dollars that's going to need to begin to increase as we add again more police stations and fire stations we're going to need to add more police trucks or more police cars fire trucks and ambulances to go along with those facilities and so the Staffing this is the Big Driver again on the police department and so you've seen this slide again where we've come 173 net the goal is to add over a 10-year time period to put us over 1700 and you can't see it but on your far right hand side of this column it's over 1700 officers over the next 10 years expected to be added on top of the 173 that we've already added and so that's expected to be done by holding multiple academies in the upcoming years so in 2024 so the budget for next year that we'll be working on over the next several months we're projected to add a net if you look at the net growth 64 officers and again that's by holding larger academies more frequently throughout the year and then continuing that trend of adding 47 over the next several years after that I have a couple of slides just show you what those costs are and again you've seen this information we'll continue to fine tune it as we begin to develop our five-year forecast which we present in February of every year I've been looking at Police Department alone 10.3 million dollar increase projected for FY 2024 which doesn't begin until next year the fire department looking at almost a seven million dollar increase and again primarily being driven by the Staffing increases and then a list of some of the projects that we have that are in progress and then some of the fixed costs which we've seen utilities we saw about a half a million dollar increase this year fuel about a half a million dollar increase you've seen those contracts continue to increase in price mainly due to the labor challenges that a lot of businesses are facing having to increase their wages and then as we look ahead again we had the comment this morning about the need for facilities whether it's recreational facilities police and fire stations uh streets maintenance Vehicles equipment these are all areas that we need to continue to invest in again for the long-term sustainability of the organization make one quick Point here so a future budget update we're going to focus on looking at not only capital projects but looking at the debt I know everybody likes to talk about debt and so one of the big talking points and you all have passed this on and this is one of the main things I talk about when I go out and do community meets and the city manager does as well it's talking about how the city council has approved the shift to utilizing these paygo dollars these annual set-aside funds to be able to begin to address some of these items and if a fiscally responsible manner not have to put everything on the credit card to finance everything over 25 years so on the street side you are well aware 10 million dollars a year for Street projects for residential collector roads like I said future budget update we're going to talk about debt but really want to be able to highlight and stress the importance of what that does and what that means to the taxpayer so 10 million dollars of annual money for Street projects plus seven million dollars for police trucks or police cars fire trucks and ambulances 17 million dollars of pay go money that typically in the past part eight years ago had been financed those type of things if you were to take that 17 million dollars and finance it over 25 years that equal 28 million dollars that those purchases would cost you so instead of it costing 17 million if you were to bond Finance it you're looking at 11 million dollar increase to 28 million dollars for those same items and so there is a savings to the taxpayers again that shift from having to finance everything to put in these annual set-aside funds within the budget a couple of the areas you all approved at the very end of the budget process some more money for facility maintenance it's more money for Park amenities and so again that's going to provide the opportunity for us to be more proactive and not reactive or have to go out and finance those purchases and so all of that all of the costs we have to be very strategic very forward thinking about how we continue to provide the services continue to provide all of the expansion Services through Public Safety the recreational educational and a very fiscally responsible manner again to minimize the impact on our taxpayers so again about 70 percent of the overall tax bill goes to other entities between the school County UMC and eptc and the remaining 30 comes to the city this is based on the recently adopted tax rates for all of these entities and again it includes not only the operating but this also includes the debt rate for each of these entities so some of the key areas where we've seen significant improvements and what this council's approved again always thinking about the future and taking advantage of opportunities not only increasing our reserves again to protect the city financially but also looking at the we've talked a lot about the bond rating to lower our interest rate to save costs to our taxpayers through the capital projects but also creating the operating and destabilization fund a pension stabilization fund to be able to begin to address these long-term liabilities that the city has leveraging federal and state grants you're going to see a presentation and a little bit from Elizabeth Triggs and her team on how we're doing that being very strategic again about the debt and how we're managing that through the refinancing through taking advantage of monitoring the market on a very close basis the city manager myself continue to do that every day we did do two data issuances last year which put us in a really good position to not be forced to go out and do one right now when interest rates are very high so again very being very strategic and thoughtful about the timing of when we're issuing debt as well I talked about the annual pay go but also looking at other Revenue opportunities that we've taken advantage of for example the hotel occupancy artists that we've done has brought in over three million dollars of additional Revenue that we didn't have before and then one of the areas which I believe you all are in the process if you have not already been briefed on the short-term rentals so looking the Airbnb the vrbo's those short-term rental and coming forward at the north is for you all to consider that in the near future so again some of the highlights again creating those new Revenue sources to be able to fund these priorities being more cost efficient investing in training of our employees to go through the lean Six Sigma methodology training the bulgers training zero audit findings for the last six years again which is very very important not only for the city financially but also when we're applying for these federal state grants that's one of the things that granting agencies are looking at our transit system you're going to see a presentation from Stafford a little bit about the turnaround not only with the overall mass transit system but really for today's presentation is going to focus on the lift and again really strengthening the financial position of our mass transit system to be able to do some of these adjustments to continue to provide a high level of customer service for our community and then again I've talked about some of these and you can hear more information on these from again Elizabeth tricks here in a little bit but again how we're taking advantage of these federal state grants and then finally with what we've done by implementing our Sigma methodology throughout the organization over 21 million dollars of cost savings and avoidance not only saving money but also saving paper and saving trees over 3.4 million pages so that's saving money on our printing costs and then finally also before more efficient providing better customer service for our community who's taking advantage of our services we provide so with that I'd be happy to answer any questions so uh Robert if I may uh Council just add just a couple of comments uh the 30 cents that he had up there on the dollar that makes up the operations and the bonds that are outstanding so that 30 of the dollar accounts for all of that not just one or the other as you know we have the debt financing within that 30 cents we also have the operations within that 30 cents and the other thing is that we highlight the audits because hotels franchises and sales taxes were not being audited before they are now and so as you mentioned how much money that's brought in I know in the franchise we just got a briefing that we found some additional funds there that weren't being paid I think what's important in the franchise agreements is also to audit the customer service piece of those agreements and in some cases if we don't have the best of customer service Provisions in there that we go in and make changes I've asked staff to look at Best Practices on that and compare what other cities have in their franchise agreements because a lot of franchise agreements have a lot of language and verbiage relative to customer service that's really important because when you were calling our office with respect to some of the utilities the private utilities or cutting up streets and they were having the streets cut up and cut open for quite some time there's other cities that have more stricter Provisions in there and we want to make sure that our franchise agreement is as strict as it can be so they can provide better service for the public especially as it relates to history Cuts like those thank you that's all I had Robert thank you for that hey um as you look at when she's savings and refinancing what kind of rate are we looking at uh in as we look at stuff like that today so right now like I said we did two dead issuances last year fortunately for us right now the city we're not in a position where we need to go out and do a debt insurance right now and so we continue to monitor just the cash flow working with San marigas in the capital Improvement department on the cash flow we're in a position like I mentioned where we probably won't need to go out and actually issue any bonds until spring or summer of next year what's so much I know you showed that if we had Finance of 17 million it would have been 28 million calculated on what rate four percent four percent so it's higher than that now exactly I'm just going to say so if you figure it on four it's a little higher now and so when we talk about debt it's something you know it's a conversation that we have to have and what the city has done over the last 40 50 years was Bond Finance everything and when I'd say everything I mean everything and we talked about it a year ago and uh I remember some comments were made that the market was stable and it wasn't going to go up that was the furthest thing from the truth as we see it and you know we still have at least one to two more rate hikes coming up in the before year end so hi I'm glad to see we're not looking at more in any money anytime soon when you figured that out I figured that that's why I asked that question because it seemed like might have been when you said four I don't think we can get four today so one of the things that I asked staff to do I'm glad you mentioned and make I had that question one things I asked Robert and staff to look at is when the bonds do let's say they get passed that we really look at holding on to when we sell just based on the market and really have a strategy and present that to Council on a lot of the stuff that we have in place now or bonds where we have sold you know let's get busy completing those projects and then be really smart in terms of when we sell Bonds in the future whenever it hopefully passes in order to get again the funding in place for the street needs that we need dollars in on a consistent basis thank you unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get back to the 2.2 percent we got last year on the bonds we did well we hope we do so do I but thank you representative Manila well thanks mayor that that was my question I mean I I agree with Robert I don't think we'll see that right for another 20 years right um but I wanted to know if you could re-explain how you just answered the mayor and uh and like a manner for the public right so we have this Bond coming up in November um we don't sell bonds immediately right so can you just kind of explain that for for edification of the public and how the new interest rate um or I'm sorry the increase in interest rates will impact this Bond you think so it's the discussion that city manager and I have been having and so I mean we work very closely with capital Improvement Department Sam and his team the budget office comptour's office constantly monitoring the cash flow and so I mentioned the two debt issuances we did last year unfortunately some of the projects are taking a little bit longer so there's a slow down but essentially what that does is it really ensures that we're not going out and issuing debt or having to make that payment on money that we don't need in the immediate future so that provides us the opportunity to only charge it when you absolutely need the money so you're paying as little interest as possible you're holding those costs down and you really smoothing out those issuances and that's really another strategy that we've utilized is really smoothing out how much we issue every year so that we don't have huge spikes and huge Falls that every year it's sort of a smooth continuous increase every year so we don't have sticker shock where it's you know going up three or four pennies every year so I mean there's a lot of work that goes into it again we're again very proactive last year we did two data issuances one in May one in November we did get excellent rates which again brought down the overall costs capital projects I mentioned we'll have a future budget update talking about that again really re-emphasizing how we've been able to bring down the impact of the public safety bond which we thought was going to be much higher when we estimated the original amounts and how because of those interest rates and the time we've been able to bring that impact down pretty significantly okay thank you Robert and then um I know you talked a little bit about salaries I know that the council had asked for a competitive wage study I just want to I'm sure that it's not but I just want to double check that this was not that presentation that we can expect that to the end of quarter one no so what we did with that and we talked about this when the budget was adopted on August 23rd was to take advantage or to provide the incentives for the Animal Service employees and so any position that requires them to have their immunizations they're all receiving the additional incentive that applies also for the zoo because they deal with animals and there's immunizations that are required for some of those employees and then also dealing with primarily with the quality of life which is what you had asked for When Miss Mack presented uh during that day was really looking at the lifeguards The Aquatic was the real big issue at that time being able to attract the large number of staff that we have and so we've increased their wages as well to bring them up to 15 an hour whenever the second phase kicks in in March okay but we still did authorize that that study and so we'll await those results at the end of the first quarter thank you Robert thank you hey can you explain a notice that you showed on the dollar it was 30 cents on the dollar years ago we were at 25 cents on the dollars so how did that change and how does that continue to change so when I when you plugged in the new rates actually EPCC went down from five to four percent and City went up from I know we were 30 percent on the dollar 30 showed and years ago it was 25. so how do we how did we move from that to 30 and how do we con how's that happen it's all based on the adopted rates for all of the entities and so the school districts were able to lower their tax rates pretty significantly because of the state exemption because of the exemption the state the state approved a 15 percent uh exemption from 27 to 40 000. that's exactly from twenty five thousand to forty thousand so that changed the makeup of the percentage and I think when you were in office before mayor I think it was about 27 or 28 cents right and so that's just to contingent upon the as Robert said the makeup of how it's broken out based on the taxing entities and this year that was a big significant change okay thank you for that thank you for that and um I know that we got a couple people waiting for an item but I do need to move one item forward I talked to Mr Gonzalez a little bit on item 38. Mr Gonzalez can we move that one forward yes sir are you all ready for it sir you ready for it yes or no please yes sir are you ready yes sir we are okay thank you item 38 is presentation discussion in action by the city manager's office in the office of emergency and management providing information on Key activities efforts and processes related to the migrant crisis and that the city council the city of El Paso authorized the purchasing and strategic sourcing director to increase contract 2022-0971 charter bus transportation services for an addition additional four million dollars for a total amount not to exceed six million dollars and that the city council ratify the award of 2023-0061 on-call charter bus transportation services to American coach and limousine Inc for charter bus transportation services to migrants so as you're all aware of the migrant crisis has been ongoing since late 2018 the current wave of migrants coming to El Paso began in April of 2022 and the sudden surge we're seeing now started in late August the number of people released to the city of El Paso and local non-government organizations has grown from approximately 250 to as much as a thousand per day and that's during the month of September the number fluctuates daily and is currently averaging 900 per day as far as the people crossing from all parts of the world the situation remains very Dynamic however the main countries migrants are coming from today are Venezuela Ecuador El Salvador Haiti Nicaragua and Cuba though the number of Venezuelans has been as high as 90 percent and as low as 50 percent the number is currently holding at 70 percent in terms of the crossings for most their Journey that starts in South America the migrants travel through one of the world's most dangerous migrant routes known as The Darien Gap um you don't have to show the presentation that'll be for Mario for the chief I'm just doing an overview so the migrants travel through one of the most uh one of the world's most dangerous migration routes known as a Darion Gap into Central America and Mexico eventually arriving at the El Paso widest border the migrants have arrived by bus they've arrived also by train or walking and in some cases by plane as well into Mexico so they're coming into El Paso because it's currently the safest place to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States as we know migrants are coming to the United States to escape economic Devastation as an extreme crime in Venezuela as one example migrants are provided Asylum from economic oppression drug trade and human trafficking Customs and Border Patrol apprehend and process the migrants before releasing them into El Paso migrants are assigned court dates to determine their status in the United States additionally due to the U.S and Venezuelan diplomatic relations Venezuelans are not able to be deported at this time so who is crossing so the the situation is dynamic those that are crossing are predominantly single adults however those crossing the border into El Paso also include families with young children you've all been out to the to the triage Center so you've all seen for yourself that these numbers are pretty accurate it's also important to note that city of El Paso does not separate families we continue to provide assistance to keep immediate and extended families together as some are separated as they cross into our country we communicate with other shelters to try to reunify families whenever possible and as needed families are provided accommodation in hotels so that family units May remain together and that's been our Sheltering program I know there's been questions about our Sheltering program we're doing that through hotels now Street releases are our last resort for Customs and Border Patrol but when necessary due to the capacity issues and federal regulations which limit the amount of time migrants may be held Street releases are done near travel sites such as the El Paso Airport and Greyhound bus station we're providing daily roving teams to assist migrants who have been released on the streets with temporary shelter food water communication and transportation arrangements so they they may meet up with family or sponsors in other parts of the U.S so how migrants are being processed is very important to note because that city of El Paso does not detain any migrant the federal government apprehends migrants through the custom and border patrol one CBP has processed migrants they are free to travel within the U.S we help the newly released migrants to coordinate transportation to their final destination our priority is the individual migrant we provide food and water connectivity Transportation as well as temporary shelter if needed we treat migrants with respect and dignity as a as a Transit through El Paso and we help them arrive safely at their destination of choice where they can meet with family and sponsors we currently have over 100 staff members assisting with the humanitarian Crisis City of El Paso staff members are embedded within various non-profit Partners they are assigned at the Welcome Center and provide additional support for our ongoing Crisis Support across the organization and the community according to Customs and Border Patrol officials an average of 1500 migrants present themselves daily to CBP in the El Paso region once processed approximately eight to one thousand eight hundred to one thousand are released to local ngos and to the city of El Paso once we receive them we take them through the triage process center at our Welcome Center where we welcome them we help them shelter them through hotels and we support them on their journey through our staffing that we provide at our welcome center and at the various non-profits we feed them and give them water and we help them get to their destination through transports like chartered buses from April 22 to mid-september more than 62 000 people have passed through El Paso in September alone more than 13 000 have passed through El Paso the highest number so far as compared to other months so it's important to be clear that the migrant crisis response has been a local operation the entire time the state did send the Texas state guard to see our operation in anticipation providing some help in the processing of the migrants however they only remained in El Paso for a few days the city of El Paso remains in control of Migrant operations which includes providing food and water temporary shelter hotel stays and transportation and as previously previously mentioned we've also signed over 100 staff member members to work this operation federal and state officials as well as congresswoman Veronica Escobar and ngos such as the Annunciation house the Salvation Army the Opportunity Center and see Fronteras are working with us to provide food and shelter we are also working with officials and ngos in New York City and Chicago to coordinate transportation in those particular cities as these are the most common destinations of choice for the migrants I have asked the chief also to work with the different migrants we do receive to ensure that they want to go the different places that they want that that they were sending them to the chief is also working on a plan to also serve as an intermediary try to get them to other sites if we have those sites identified as far as funding goes we are utilizing the general fund to pay for costs related to the crisis and we'll continue to file for reimbursement through FEMA's emergency food and shelter program we continue to work closely with congresswoman Escobar's office FEMA and the White House and CBP to secure funding for the migrant crisis costs have risen from 55 000 a day to upwards to 250 000 a day as a number of Migrant Rises so do costs accrued we will continue to request reimbursement through FEMA's emergency food and shelter program the federal government recently reimbursed the city 482 000 from a request made back in December of 2021 we have also received 2 million from FEMA for future costs in October we will be allowed to request reimbursement for up to 3 million from the federal government for services already provided congresswoman Escobar has championed efforts to secure reimbursement for the migrant crisis response we continue to meet with congresswoman Escobar and with FEMA officials for the reimbursement the mayor has also met with the White House several times regarding the pending reimbursement request as well as far as our communication as dynamic as the situation is we understand how important it is to communicate regularly and clearly with all the members of the community we have and will continue to follow a process to ensure accurate up-to-date information that is being shared in terms of what we've done with the council I and members of the leadership team have and will continue to provide regular email updates and individual Council briefings to ensure you are informed and aware of relevant developments across aspects of the crisis and our ongoing response we're also creating a weekly report to make it easier to digest all the happenings with the migrant Council excuse me for the migrant crisis for the city council our communication with the state and federal delegation iron members of the leadership team will continue to provide regular email updates to the delegation to ensure they are informed and aware of relevant developments across aspects of the crisis and our ongoing response as far as our partners we we have relevant staff that continues to meet regularly with our local partners and remains in close contact with our partners outside of El Paso to ensure that the ongoing crisis response proceeds smoothly when challenges are identified they are addressed immediately to ensure the continuity of the operation in terms of the members of the community the communications team has worked extensively with local state and National media to ensure regular access to up-to-date accurate information close interface with the media will continue staff has also provided FAQs available on our website multiple stories and posts for social media are also being created and dedicated and a dedicated web presence on our El Paso strong.org website this will include a dashboard similar to the covid-19 dashboard to ensure that everyone has regular access to Accurate updated information we have some highlights of recent actions taken to improve the welcome site and services for example we have a lactation room created for migrant use installation of upgraded equipment to include New Ports and data drops for better communication connections for migrant use I want to thank Mr Hernandez for reaching out to at T helping with that they didn't want to be recognized I think Mr Hernandez called them out at the last meeting in a positive way covid-19 vaccines are also available and offered to migrants catering services being are being contracted to deliver meals to the migrants and new and that that's that's uh SAC lunches and things of that nature and there's new fencing installed to enhanced security for the migrants at the site the current data that we have as of 22 September that's done on a daily basis migrants checked into hotels 361. again this is daily meals provided at hotels almost 600 lunches provided on charter buses almost 300 and then total number of charter buses almost 90 at this point the exact number is 87. you know as I close before I turn it over to the chief I want to recognize our people and our organization our staff has been working above and beyond since late 2018 with the migrant humanitation crisis the with the migrant humanitarian crisis with the hate crime that took place in our community and the pandemic along with our community they have been impacted from a health standpoint losing loved ones operationally in the plight with the supply chain and having to explain this to all the question the operational flow and they have been challenged with respect to mental Wellness so I want to recognize their resilience and to say to you we appreciate your support throughout the many these many challenges but we as a team see it as an opportunity to show our true character as an organization and as a community so to this end the ongoing crisis is another challenge we are facing with commitment we are strongly organizationally very strong across our community we'll continue our commitment to our community and we'll provide services for all El pasoans we we will also continue to respond to those in need who are arriving across the border in El Paso on their way to their final destination to you the members of city council we appreciate the support and the leadership you continue to provide during this challenging time I know when we brought forth the the state declaration and then we worked with the council to get the local emergency ordinance in place that is what has allowed us to be very agile and responsive to this humanitarian crisis I know that you you would have wanted us to react quickly and because you passed the local emergency ordinance that has allowed us to do so so we would like to share with the members of the community that they may help by volunteering their time at local NGO shelters or about making monetary donations to NGO shelters and to learn more about this you can visit our website on the El Paso texas.gov and click on to the latest updates on the migrant crisis so with that I'll turn it over to the chief we'll give you a powerpoint and also share some videos of the actual site and in what what this is all transpired towards in terms of the delivery of service for the migrants thank you Mr Gonzalez I think you know for the work for your office Chief Rodriguez and of course Chief yagustino it's been a total team effort and as it's become a you know a effort that you know it's a community as a border Community El Paso has responsibilities and we've done a really good job of stepping up to do a lot of the responsibilities that as a border Community would do you know one of the things we've had and we all have the opportunity to speak with uh the commissioner from CBP Magnus he came down here to see what was going on it's important and we talk to them it's important to see when when people from Washington and things that are going on around our country to be here and kind of talk to the people that are on the ground and what's going on and to have the ability to get the support uh we also got to meet with Tony Robinson Tony Robinson is uh the the head of region six for FEMA and this is where we were able to get some of this funding and some of the guarantees that and that came from the White House the White House actually and the congresswoman kind of push for them to come to El Paso because we we needed the funding and I actually do meet with the White House and talk to them I flew up there and met with them but also talked to them pardon once or twice a day to update them on and give them the numbers so it's kind of sometimes I'll go to give her the numbers in the in the morning and she already has some for me because she's in total communication You Know Chief Ortiz which head of um of the Border Patrol of all border patrol stations was here for four days to look at what's going on and make sure you know one of the things I told them I said the way we can keep out of the crisis in our community is not to have any Street releases and we've been working really hard with uh with the border patrol and and there make sure that we don't have any Street releases today again we had no Street releases we've not had any Street releases in the last eight days some will continue to do that as we continue to decompress and decompress as strictly as we empty the shelters empty this the our hotels and the areas to be able to as the migrants continue to come in the numbers uh kind of fluctuate a lot we've seen numbers between 1300 and almost 2 000. so that those numbers will continue to go up and down as we because we don't know what's coming in I've been dealing a lot with the Mayors from the cities across the country and um and I've had conversations since they called me and they want to know what's going on and what we're doing but a lot of the times which is really the the neat thing that's going on is they want to know they want to understand the process because they don't understand the process they see that's what's going on in us and they see that the buses that are coming in that are unannounced so see the buses that come in that really they don't have uh idea what's who's on the bus so that's not what we do here in El Paso and El Paso we've we put people in buses that go to where they want to go we put people in buses and groups where there's a family members community members so we've this is some of the things that we've been able to do as a community together and it's been very important um I know I traveled to the border every night like or just about every night I I visited the welcoming Center I go around the street I drive around the street and I get out and I talk to the police officers at night to see what you know what's going on in the streets and and how it's it's been the movement so it's really been really important and uh Chief I know you all have done a great job of continuing to work together with all the Partners the county the County judge the congresswoman and this is a total Community effort and and I get interviewed and I'm not sure I heard of some com some stations I interviewed with that I'd never heard about and I did tell them people because I talked to the migrants or they're coming in and I know you've talked to them too they don't even know they're in El Paso they're in the United States they came to the United States and they they want to go to their next destination and that's where we've been trying to help them and work with them to get to the next destination I know that the little kids we sit down and we talk to the little kids and we'll ask them you know where are they going and most of them want to go to Disneyland and and that's really you know because they're they came to the United States they came to America and they want to go to Disneyland so they don't know they're in El Paso I've talked to the federal government I talked to Washington on a daily basis and I tell them that they're not helping us we're helping them because this is a federal issue this is not an issue of the city of El Paso this is an issue of the federal government and we will continue to work to help them in the system but we need their assistance and we need help with decompression because that's going to be the most important part every time they ask me what do we need you know I know the chief in Michigan's always talk about we need funding and make sure we get reimbursed and I made I can't tell you how many calls to make sure we get reimbursed and we get reimbursed in a timely manner I know our submissions so far I think we've been reimbursed for everything we've submitted so far as far as you guys have told me and I will continue to Advocate once we submit this next quarter which is a third quarter which ends at the end of September I had a a text message from city managers showed that we were a million dollars in debt as of September 15th I'm sure it's gone up quite a bit now because the numbers keep escalating as days go on so we'll continue to work together and I can tell you that there's they understand the importance after this item is done I um I'm going to go meet with Ambassador Salazar who's come down and wants to tour some of the areas and I have a meeting with them today to discuss exactly what we'll be discussing today and with that I'll take a breath thanks chief very good Mario diagasino Deputy city manager public health and safety before we start the presentation I just want to kind of highlight off some of the words you were saying mayor um decompression that that's the critical term that he said several times while he was talking decompression that's not just what we do to move migrants onto their final destination it's about moving them out of the shelters it's all of that but it's coupled with the change since Street releases is CBP has upped their decompression and so how they decompress other than releasing two the city of El Paso the ngos and the normal Hospitality sites they're now instead of releasing to the streets they're using a lot more chartered flights and buses so daily they're having four to up to six words in flights and multiple Bus Charters that are going out to decompress before they're even released to our community that coupled with the efforts of what we've been doing the entire region is what's keeping it from Street releases I just want to be very clear that as you go as we go through the presentation today that you're paying attention to that decompression because it is a critical piece you know I did I did an interview and I was very surprised when I did an interview chief that uh one of the anchorses what is decompression that you know we live it every day and we understand it but they actually didn't understand so it's good to explain what decompression is because it's so important and that's the way we're going to continue not to have releases into the street thank you for that thank you mayor Hotel Rodriguez Emergency Management coordinator for the office of emergency management thank you city manager for the overview so we'll move on if we can bring up the presentation please I mean go ahead and jump to site too thank you so as as described by the city manager our daily apprehensions and encounters by CBP continue to to increase uh we're averaging right now A little over 1500 uh 1656 for the last seven day average if we can go to the next slide and the majority of of the nationalities that we're seeing right now at the border is valenzuelan so that is also coupled that 70 of those that are being encountered are are single adults uh the daily increase uh for for several days next slide please we have a video uh and the city manager covered this one so for the record Laura cruzicoso communications director one thing that I really want to note on this slide in particular is that we do have a fact sheet located on our home page city manager mentioned during his introduction at El Paso texas.gov migrant Dash crisis you can there is a link on our home page directly under information there but one of the things that we want to make sure that we note is that a lot of these folks that are going through the migrant crisis or the migrant attorney are escaping poverty economic oppression human trafficking religious persecution and Drug trade risks and so they're being exposed also in the process by coming up to the North America they are being exposed to the elements a number of different concerns and so we list those here but on the next slide and I'm going to ask it if you can bring up the YouTube video for us you know I I'm gonna embarrass you real quick I know that I mentioned a section at the end about what our employees have gone through and how all the things that they've lived through uh I know Mr Acosta uh Cruz Costa she actually her and her family put up like six or seven migrants in hotels and paid for it themselves you have a lot of people I mean there's a lot of people in the Deus y'all have done a lot of things like that and just wanted to recognize her and she's just one example of what our organization what our team has done over the last four years with all the different challenges that we've faced as an organization and as a community thank you sir um i.tv could bring up the presentation migrants seek Asylum are forced to leave their friends family and Home in search of safety and freedom it's sobering to consider their perilous journey to escape drug trade violence economic exploitation poverty rampant political corruption and persecution their long migration begins in places like Venezuela and Ecuador far from the United States border as individuals and families travel North through Central America they're joined by complete strangers also fleeing from places like Cuba the Dominican Republic and Haiti exposure to the harsh elements and violent criminals preying on vulnerable Travelers make this journey even more difficult once migrants get to the El Paso Juarez border Federal authorities apprehend and process Asylum Seekers before releasing them into the city of El Paso a vision and a commitment to valuing people guides the city of El Paso we respond to this humanitarian crisis with a focus on safety and care our operational framework equips the office of emergency management OEM to provide a dignified human response our city migrant Welcome Center assists individuals and families on their Journeys OEM and partnering non-government organizations ngos provide food clothes Medical Care communication services and shelter for individuals and families arriving in El Paso together we provide individuals with accommodations at NGO sites and we keep families together through accommodations at emergency Sheltering hotels all aimed at providing a restorative and refreshing setting before Asylum Seekers continue their life-changing voyages additionally Sun Metro and charter buses provide the essential Transportation so migrants can reach their preferred destination cities together with oems and ngos in these destination cities the city of El Paso has provided travel to Chicago New York City Albuquerque Denver and Dallas our hope is that all migrants and Asylum Seekers who enter El Paso remember it as a kind welcome to the United States and an encouraging staff along their Journey thank you [Music] so recapping this in this particular slide it is important for us to understand the inherent challenges that we see as a region of course our regional isolation you know we differ very different from other parts of Texas uh that also see high volumes but being out Urban Island as we've described in the past you know creates additional challenges for us to include our limited Transportation Hub right now we are seeing as an example that our Greyhound uh you we can't do same-day tickets anymore so we're already seeing a backlog there and we're tracking our transportation through flights as well we also have a limited shelter capacity and this goes back to the impacts of kovid back in 2019 we had over 30 NGO shelters within the region right now we're standing at 14 so you can see how uh but however we are still dealing with the same numbers that we saw in 2019 in a very short period of time the migration routes as we've seen we've seen a dramatic shift of Venezuelans primarily moving through our region we've been the choice area for for them to pass through in part because of the of the dangers of Crossing in other parts of Texas also going through and most of this was covered through the migrants Journey video but the I the area I do want to focus on is uh once these individuals are encounter or apprehended at the border they are processed by CBP and ice again uncompanied minors go with health and human services within the federal government once they are processed and as uh described in in a few media interviews once they're processed they have to be released and when that happens there's close coordination with uh CBP on the delivery of of these folks to the ngos and also to our Welcome Center Once I arrived at the hospitality site or the city's Welcome Center we helped assist them in connecting them with their sponsors but now as as we've seen with the challenge of 50 of the migrants that are coming through not being sponsored it's it's created a tangent an additional uh resource demand uh to help facilitate that so uh the traditional route and and the system that that's been reliant on on sponsored migrants has been there and in place for decades uh but with the recent change uh with this recent surge uh the implementation of Charters to help facilitate the movement has has been a uh a big component of of the operation so looking at some statistics this was updated from our last presentation but as you can see for uh for fiscal year 2022 these are directly from cbp's website uh we we did go up uh we're we're at 209 840 across the entire Southwest border when you focus in on the El Paso sector uh you can see that we've seen a good increase uh over the month of August and of course the numbers that we've seen uh and what that's that on the next Slide the numbers that we've seen within the El passive sector have have increased significantly uh in September these are averages when you look at the daily encounters those in custody and the community releases right now are for the community releases which is a bottom line uh our average has been 658 but like I mentioned today we're already up to a thousand they released this for the last two days uh when you look at the uh encounters at the at the border by CPP uh we're right around 1416 but as described earlier we've already surpassed that and are closer to the 1600 a day average and then of course those in custody and the comments at Chief D'Agostino and the mayor Express about decompression that's the number that we look at closely is those that are in custody because ultimately that is is uh where where that decompression has to occur within that that custody space so that's going to happen either through Community releases or flights out to to other uh into other CPP and processing centers or worst case scenario and and what nobody wants to see is the street releases so uh at the date of of publish of this presentation uh as you can see that our daily average has been between six and nine uh again the last two days we've been over a thousand uh we're over 5600 migrants have moved through our community a year to date for this first half of September and you can see how how much of that has changed just from when you compared to August and before I turn it over to Chief Thiago Sino so uh in terms of city and county Communication in regards to the migration issues uh that's been consistent uh since the beginning of the pandemic weekly meetings with uh with our federal officials with the with the County Judge uh and uh so those have been ongoing as we prepared for the potential repeal back in May of title 42 uh that's where we we defined uh the areas that that the city was going to work in where the county was going to work in our title 42 planning was going to be focused on providing engine excuse me providing staff directly within the NGO shelters to help give them capacity again because of the low amount of volunteer base that that that existed post uh covet and assisting with within and also assisting with emergency Sheltering the county was focused on establishing their processing center and what changed uh was this search and within this surge it required the city to quickly act we had as our Welcome Center is is Dual Purpose right there was an immediate need for for processing so we needed to increase those numbers uh so our Welcome Center is Dual Purpose in that it it assists with uh processing helping those sponsored migrants make those connections and and getting them move on to their final destination but second to that was also the chartering operation so again the Welcome Center is Dual Purpose one for processing and for chartering and those were the immediate needs of what we needed today so uh that that operation continues um and the intent as described by GTO by the mayor and by the city manager was you know the the the need to decompress and what not only are we assisting uh the central processing center from CBP uh by receiving at the Welcome Center but we're also helping decompress all of the NGO shelters within the region So within El Paso but also uh within southern New Mexico and those ngos there to help decompress them of the unsponsored migrants so those migrants are transported to our location and that's where we provide that Transportation assistance and then lastly the counties migrant support center uh they they have secured a third party contract they've been working on that as their planning purposes for for title 42 however they did have some procurement delays we were fortunate enough and as the city manager stated with your approval to allow to your approval of the emergency ordinance allowed us to move very quickly and to and shift resources where those resources were needed so uh we hope that the counties processing center will be coming online sometime in in October and with that I'll I'll pass it to You Know Chief one thing that uh you were saying that it's really important and um we've talked to our federal partners and will continue to is as the holidays approach the flights become full there's a holiday's approach the bus has become full you know so they have to continue to supply you know ways of us to continue to decompress so that's been very important which is the flights and then what you know I know that they have a couple buses that CBP has that they do every day they do two buses a day right now so those will have to increase and that's one of the conversations I had with them because the holidays will make a big difference and you know when we're talking about it the the planes right now to get the restoration for any of the holidays it's most flights are starting to get full now so that won't be an option for us so that the federal government again you know we told them that the street releases is not an option for our community and they need to continue to find ways to help us decompress I think you you might want to explain a little bit because I think some of sometimes people don't understand we live it every day and you know we have to adapt by by the minute it seems sometimes by the hour of the day but uh sponsored and non-sponsored uh migrants I think that's something that needs to be explained so people understand what that is sure so our migrants have been passing through our community for for decades and the way that they are processed through CBP and Ice If part of their release uh requirements is that they have someone a family member uh that that they can connect to that's already here and established within the US and that's been consistent for for decades and even with all the previous searches in 2019 uh with the Haitian surge that we saw in May of this year everyone had sponsors and uh seeing uh you know all the issues that the country of Valentines have and seeing that mass move of of those folks to the US this is the first time that we've seen that such a large majority don't have uh anyone within the country that's already has an established community so they they lack uh sponsors and usually typically and the sponsors are the ones that provide the financial means to be able for the migrants that are released to the ngos here to purchase their travel so either greyhound or or flights uh so that that has been working consistently but uh in this case this is the first time we've seen such a high number of unsponsored so that's that is placing a large Demand on all the ngos because the system is is built on and designed to continue uh keep people moving and as soon as we start seeing those delays in in flights or or right now the inability to Charter out uh is can can cause those delays so that that's that's the uh difference and the issue that we're seeing now between the sponsored and unsponsored thank you I know we have a couple questions I know we have representative benello representative um Hernandez or Pro tem and then we also have um representatively sarga if we could we still have the another half of the presentation okay I know she has a question for chief Rodriguez representative anyone else have one for chief Rodriguez just representative he's actually still going okay so we'll wait till we get we'll wait yeah we'll wait till the presentation then we'll go in the order we have him in thank you the next slide um and Laura cruzicosa with the Communications Department so real quick in terms of media outreach we've gotten a lot of local state and national attention from media the list that you see here I won't go over each of those pieces but you can see it's an extensive list we continue to get attention from the world really in terms of what we're doing here locally much of the commentary that we've received from media particularly National media who has been throughout the world looking at a lot of these issues in terms of migration and especially when it comes to crisis migration they have responded very positive to the work that we're doing here and so the next video that I want to show you is just kind of outlines in terms of the response that we've gotten especially from National media and so I am gonna I think this allows our country to understand what truly is happening with immigration through the lens of a very heartfelt Community El Paso has been through a lot over the last four or five years and I think it would be easy for people here to say no more we can't do this anymore we've had we've got too much to handle and instead it's the exact opposite this isn't about politics here for this city this is about people this is a people issue families weren't walking around like zombies sad depressed there was a sense of Hope in in the building to see how the city has responded and responded so well and with compassion was very heartwarming for me and we don't normally get to say that in the news business you know I think transparency and accountability are huge and to me what the city is doing here and being so open about it is extremely important America needs to know what is happening along the border and what immigration truly is you know the federal government could take notes about what's happening inside that building you talked to several people in there who's the heart what was the I guess the one that really struck you today when you interviewed some of the the families today it was the last one that I spoke with the last family it was a little girl and she was waving at me the whole time and I saw her posing for a lot of the cameras what makes me feel better about what is happening here if there's anything that can make you feel better is that these kids are still being allowed to be kids and watching that little girl in the moment posing and doing her thing when I went up to her and asked her you know where she was going she immediately said New York and then I asked her well what are you going to do there knowing that she was from Venezuela knowing that they don't have family there and her immediate answer was I'm going to college and that is what struck me the most is knowing that these kids feel like they have a future here and honestly it starts in that building foreign so those are some of the comments that we received from National media we did talk to several folks out there in order to get a good understanding in terms of what's Happening and I'm going to pass it back to Chief D'Agostino but just a quick note we did have um media tours out there at the facilities much in the same way that we've provided immediate tours of the facility for you all and we'll continue to um take any media out there because we continue to get media requests from National thank you can you bring up the presentation again can we put the slide back on please so this next side we're going to take talk about our key areas as we've talked about from the onset it's it's about the migrant it's about the individual themselves and how we welcome them whether it's through our our welcoming Center that we've opened since the for the month of September or if it's how we welcome them through all of our ngos or welcoming centers across the region we also look at Sheltering whether it's assisting with those over 100 Personnel that Mr Gonzalez talked about I believe it's about 121 people and Counting working on this operation we do have 20 something of them embedded with actual ngos very Innovative approach but it's to keep them operational as we all know they've been hurt by covid the loss of volunteers volunteerism isn't the same as it was in 2019 and so they're not able to continue doing the lift that they were doing back then feeding whether that's assisting we also have some some of our uh operations Personnel actually working in the shelters assisting with making meals and within our food bank to package the lunches Transportation on a day-to-day basis that includes uh Sun Metro transporting between ngos and a bus station or the airport that also includes from our Center out to hotels and so that's done on a daily basis they have specific routes now that they actually do doing three times a day Transportation also includes what we've talked about and that's those Charters those long distance Charters we continue to have people requesting New York City and Chicago as the number two look as the two top locations we also have a list of other of cities that they are naming we have been assisting as we can so they can get to those individual locations that they've wanted to go to but but it is a continuous effort City Staffing at the ngos as I talked about earlier with the with the shelter incumbent those 50 people embedded throughout the network of nbos ngos that is really keeping that lift going it is the the what keeps the them able to reach the high numbers they've been doing they've been doing in our consistent basis that coupled with our welcoming Center and how we're pulling everyone who has no means to transport we're actually pulling them from the local ngos on a daily basis to get them on the charters that's what's keeping that system going our Migrant Center stood up as the as a surgery card immediate and agile response I mean that was critical we didn't have an option to wait we couldn't wait any longer as good things we had our emergency ordinance in place and that allowed us to go operational welcoming that safety and well-being providing dignity and respect and making sure we're meeting those basic needs there's been a lot of comments about about the the feeding the their when they're in our Welcome Center there is meals being provided for lunchtime so they are getting that as they're boarding buses they're giving good bags of goods includes snacks sandwiches stuff to keep them for their transportation for their Journey we're also making sure they meet those basic needs whether it's baby bottles diapers an area for nursing mothers we're making sure those are needed we also have uh First Aid on on hand so anyone needing that or anyone not feeling well they can speak up if they want covet testing or coveted vaccinations they do have that option as well at the Migrant Center and then we also I we've had to transport a few of them out to hospitals as you can imagine any any Transportation Hub your people get sick and so we're actually making sure they get meet those requirements that they get and we're tailoring those resources on the needs so they talked about it changing daily and on the normal it's it's it's it's not we're having to be upfront about it we're making sure that we're meeting with the what the demands might bring us for the day but it is dynamic we talked about the 400 people that CBP brings to this location on a daily basis it's a lot more than that if we figure that that they're releasing a thousand people in the community and what we're seeing is 450 percent of that 400 doesn't have sponsors well the other 600 that was released in the community which would be the ngos southern New Mexico 50 of them as well so now that that's another 300 people that are actually coming back into our shelter so we're actually having to touch up 7 700 out of that one thousand that coupled with our hotel operations you could really see where we're having a positive effect and making sure that this that this uh operation continues forward Transportation as I talked about Sun Metro is doing those shuttles between the airport and bus stations in our Welcome Center as well um the charters are all been City sponsored we've done 81 Charters through September 22nd and not that accounted for over 3 800 unsponsored migrants as we look at it now those numbers are continue to climb I believe we're now in the terms of 90 90 buses sorry 115 buses and so that that is the reality of where we're going the need continues 115 that accounts for over 50 440 people so that's a lot of people that we're able to move on to their final destinations Charter coordination so there's daily manifests that are sent out I do I I'm not on all the emails but I do see several of them I ask constantly if we're making maintaining our Communications and they are sharing those manifests it's actually who's on the bus their ages and approximate time of arrival and so we are providing that to the destination cities whether Chicago or New York City in Chicago I know I know that Chief Rodriguez is coordinating with with their local and state Emergency Management coordinators and it's not as well as the NGO and the mayor's office New York City mayor's office for New York NGO grannies respond in Emergency Management as well the New York City mayor's office was set up after they came and did a tour but everyone else has been and continues to be notified every time we send a charter bus to New York City Sheltering so our NGO Sheltering Hospitality sites we talked about having 50 City staffs you know currently our staffing for for city employees is 54 I believe we have filled at this time so we have permission to staff 110 they're currently opened we're in the process of hiring 26. I know we have 56 vacancies but it's just like any of our other jobs it's difficulty filling and maintaining but again I I want to highlight the fact that we hired those 50 early on this summer earlier this year and that we put them within the ngos that's invaluable to make sure that the system continues working are a city Sheltering solar OEM Emergency Shelters use utilizing hotels so we're using utilizing two hotels on The Daily that includes meals police security and then the shuttle transportation that we talked about so these hotels is is actually able to house numerous people and that's that's waiting awaiting their transportation out of town so there's a lot of times where we're seeing we can't get same-day transportation we talked about those those 600 people that are released to the ngos we're not good they're they're actually staying within the ngos over the night and then we're not putting them on transports the following day so so that's that's already an inherent time frame where they're going to have to be housed our hotels is seeing those that we can't out get out the same day so those that don't want to go to New York City or Chicago want to go to a different destination we usually we don't usually we can sometimes we cannot get them on same day travel so that's where we put them in the hotels until we start travels covet isolation quarantine hotel that's that's where the hotel Sheltering came about we still maintain that so if anyone within the ngos has a covet outbreak you get a covet positive somebody who's symptomatic we're pulling them out of those congregate settings to make sure it's not spread in an open facility and we're putting them into the hotel rooms where they're compartmentalized and individualized and they have that that privacy that's needed we also do that for our homeless shelters in the area so this slide right here hotels versus emergency Sheltering so there's a couple of key points to talk about right here when you look at the hotels they're offering offering that privacy that dignitary and essential needs so that that's having that privacy that individuality especially with families that's very important we look at the cost of it and and it's coming out to about 118 dollars per day when we look at an emergency congregate shelter which is more of an emergency shelter that you're used to where they set up big Halls whether it's convention centers or warehouses and they put cots in there the estimate it costs to operate that is coming in at 167 dollars per day so just something to highlight on some of the differences I think the the main key Point here is the unsponsored so as Chief Rodriguez talked about unsponsored ads that new Dynamic to this operation the unsponsors do not have a means to move on to put them in large congregate Sheltering doesn't assist with the with at the end of the day tomorrow they still don't have a sponsor they still don't have a means to travel so it's just a matter of how long can you can you hold off until they get to their final destination and that's where we're trying to connect them up front and make sure it's done rapidly the other takeaway from that slide if you can go back to that slide the other take away from this particular slide is that when we say treat treating the migrants across with dignity and with respect when they're in a hotel room and they have a family that's more private than if they're out in in the middle of a big shelter with a bunch of cots they have no privacy and so that's the reason we set up the new services that I mentioned for the lactation services and as an example but again the main key here is that the hotels gives them more privacy and that's our Sheltering program just so happens to be less expensive as well so talking about that feeding that emergency hold on the emergency Sheltering in hotels the Morgan Migrant Center as I talked about we are catering lunches we're actually giving them bags and snacks and water for their Charters so as they're hitting the road they do have enough food to carry with them for their travels the isolation in quarantine again that's that's that's continues and we do have the staff embedded as I talked about within the food bank and the Salvation Army they're the ones actually on on the ground assisting those agencies with preparing the meals for them for the migrant crisis cost recovery so the female emergency food and shelter program it's uh you know we utilize our funds as we've talked about it's it's on a quarterly basis so the quarter will be finishing the end of September as we're seeing we're going to be right over to 4 million dollar Mark for this quarter that's a that's a huge increase from what we saw the previous quarters and over the previous couple of years even so we did receive word that we would get two million dollars from FEMA that two million dollars would be once we received it is for operations going forward so with that that means We'll be asking for reimbursement for this quarter by the end of the month like I said will be just over the four million dollar Mark we're currently at 3.6 as of yesterday and and you know you're looking at two to two hundred fifty thousand as Mr Gonzalez said on a daily basis we're going to hit that Mark um talking about the pending reimbursements that we had talked about you know on November 22nd we were talking about 2.8 million as I'm telling you right now it's it's hitting that four million dollar Mark we've received reimbursements as we've been told as Mr Gonzalez talked about in his opening statements and we're going to be pending reimbursement well that's what we're going to be actually submitting that July through September quarter we'll be submitting next month and that's going to come in the amount of about 4 million dollars FEMA coordination so as as the mayor talked about as Mr Gonzalez highlighted we do work closely with Congressman Escobar and FEMA's program especially the emergency food and shelter national board they're the ones who contacted us and told us we're getting that two million dollars up front uh we do have we have received word that it's been earmarked for El Paso I don't believe they've had the funds deposited yet but we're just waiting on that like I said until we receive that we're told to be asked for reimbursement that's where we'll be coming with that for four million dollars in our conversations that we've had and we've had several conversations with the White House with FEMA with with Congressman Escobar's office and numerous others it's to how can we improve or shorten that reimbursement turnaround time and maybe to provide funding in advance that two million dollars was the first step into receiving that money in advance although we requested 10 million to cover the peak expenditures we only got that 2 million but that still is a difference than we had months ago and we're also asking for flexibility and eligibility costs for reimbursements and that's to make sure that we're covered for those expenses that that traditionally aren't considered with with the immediate care of migrants but it is a true cost of the city of El Paso as we're providing those services for this operation so as we talked about already we have well over half we have well over 125 employees responding to this on the daily basis we have our welcoming Center we have those that are helping within the NGO staff support we actually have the Sheltering through our own hotels where we're operating there the meals the feeding everyone from making sure they're fed prior to getting on the bus making sure the lunches are served there to actually working in with the with those local ngos where they're actually preparing those meals we have the roving assistance teams those were very critical when they were doing Street releases those teams were going out on the daily they were checking areas where they were congregating and so whether it was the Greyhound bus station downtown or the airport facility they were going by in the daily seeing if they needed anything if they needed help with Transportation we'd help them with that and we were offering hotel rooms as well to get them out of the elements it's this represents over 16 departments across the organization the as of the 22nd when we did this this slide we're looking at over 22 000 meals were served we're averaging about 150 rooms on a daily that's 300 that's Sheltering over 300 individuals and then we'd also done the 81 Charters which were currently at the 115 as of yesterday if I'd just like to go back over one more thing and that's or just to highlight it again and it's the fact that we put Personnel within the ngos early on in the operation that was critical it was Innovative is to make sure they can run they can operate they can continue doing especially with their shortcomings in volunteerism but it also brings that wealth of knowledge into the organization itself so now we have these members of the office of emergency management that have the skill sets to know exactly what's going on within the ngos themselves to see how they're assisted with their travels to see how you make those connections and linking them up to their family and friends so that they can reunite at the other side any questions and I'd like to take the this opportunity to recognize the chief and also Chief Rodriguez as I mentioned about the late 2018 how this all started and there's and I mentioned all the different things our community has gone through an organization has gone through you know all the calls all the times all the weekends whether it was the immigration crisis back in 2018 that that's when that started whether it was the hate crime or whether it was a pandemic and now the migration uh the migrant crisis again these two gentlemen have been working 24 7 365 for our community and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize them I know there's a lot of other people in our organization hundreds and hundreds of people that have done that throughout this entire time frame as well these are the two leaders right there have been doing it for our community for our organization and I just want to stop and recognize them and then also recognize all the hundreds of people that have been doing it right alongside with them and the folks they've been leading throughout the entire time and all the Departments that have just stepped up and have not told these gentlemen no and whenever it's become difficult because they've been pressed when I say they the Department's on opening up new services I may have have to wait I may have had to weigh in a few times but but all the Departments are just wanting to make sure they get what you want what the community wants and also obviously what the need is out there with the visitors that we're getting and the way we're trying to help them along the journey so again Chief you and the chief thank you all very much for y'all's leadership and all your hard work over the course of these last four years thank you and I think to your point Mr Gonzalez over the last four years is something that's been going on probably a lot longer than that and to be able to adapt and continue to adapt and change and you know when you see the reimbursement uh first and second quarter you see the reimbursement for third quarter you see the differences in how we have to continue to adapt and re-adapt so I thank you all I know chief that uh I know that it doesn't matter when I call you you if you don't answer because you're on the other line not because you're sleeping because you'll call me right back and I thank you all for that so Mr Gonzalez for you and your team thank you very much for that and with that we'll start with representative anello followed by representative Hernandez and maripo temp thank you guys thank you guys thank you mayor um so I want to uh Mr Gonzalez reference 2018 I want to remind the community that a lot of this work is because the council directed you to get involved in 2018 right and after you and I spoke chief two week or two Thursdays ago we talked about additional dollars I spent all of last week I toured the facility with Jorge thank you Jorge and I spoke to every OEM in the Rio Grande Valley and I think I owe you an apology Jorge because they are not doing a tenth of the amount of work that y'all are down to it y'all are doing they are not providing any services to these individuals and y'all are really going um ex well according to them and I think anybody else who's aware of the issue y'all are going above and beyond and so I really want to thank you for what you're doing for these individuals I really appreciate it and I know it's it's making a real impact watching the video from the journalist I think she said it really I think perfectly in talking about that little girl and the hope that you're giving people is um it's all you like that's all the work you're doing you're really creating a future for people I do have a couple questions um some things that have kind of been brought to my attention or questions that were asked to me since we last met um and I'll I'll just tell you kind of where it came from um somehow someone found out that there was an individual that had been transported by the city that's their child's medication had been taken away by CBP it's not very clear if they communicated with that to anyone with the city um and so I I don't really know and you know my understanding of kind of how Public Health would involve themselves in a situation how we would even get medication for people if that's possible right you know we have very different laws in this country about medication and how that's accessible kind of what happens in that situation what is something that we can do in that situation because I think and this is just a story I've heard I don't know the facts to it that there may have been an incident with this child on one of our buses to New York right and so um yeah I don't know if it's true but it does if it does raise the question of okay what what can we do in that situation so that's the part of the welcoming Center and that's that's very critical that as you as you saw during your tours as they as they exit the bus and they walk onto the compound they're actually told what's going to happen for the day and what the process and the flow inside the facility as soon as they have contact they're asked what their needs are and those basic needs that we talked about that's some of them do you have any medical conditions do you have anything like that do you have your medications are you lacking anything do you need that extra medical care that's where we we call we'll use one of our ambulances to transport if need be but we'll get them to those Health Care providing services and as far as specific to that I have not heard any any of those on the bus and then my next question is when we send someone on just say it's an individual for the sake of conversation we put them in a bus we know it's about a it's a 40 hour drive right so they're going straight through 40 hours how and I know that we set up bags with snacks how many bags are they getting how much food are they getting for that 40 hour drive and I know and I also want to say that I know that food is limited we're getting that from the food bank and is there a way to um because I'm getting a lot of calls from individuals who want to help is there a way to work with churches and ngos to say hey if you guys want to put together snack bags we can give those items extra food so answer your first part uh thank you for your question so uh one we make sure that prior to leaving they receive a meal there and then we have we're not even going to call them snack bags I mean it's an actual meal bag that has sandwiches it has uh snacks uh that will carry them through there we are are looking at it we are ready to to add we on the receiving side uh from the coordination with Chicago and NYC we I haven't personally received any negative uh or concerns regarding the feeding or any concerns there but we are looking at it we're going to be addressing that okay good job before I'm probably going to know where it's coming from but I just wanted to ask I know that yeah we have discussed kind of my concerns with the County shelter and how we're saving money on that um I just want to reiterate you know I really want to make sure that those Partnerships are going well and that we're planning in a way that is is cost effective right we know we're getting this money reimbursed but every dollar really counts but I I do just want to take this time again um I know that I'm hard on y'all a lot you know that this is an important issue to me but I really do think that you're doing a great job and I thank you for everything thank you thank you for that Miss anello I would just uh on that comment just to make sure the whole council is aware that because you approve the local emergency ordinance we were able to move quickly and I think when the surge occurred in late August and then into September we couldn't wait anymore for the welcome center to open and so we just stood it up for that purpose I think if there's another entity that wants to stand that up we were happy to to step away from that and and help in other areas and again we've been Sheltering through the hotels and I think I've already mentioned what our position is on that relative to the privacy of the families and how best to shelter uh the the people that we're dealing with and and what they're going through and so I know you've all seen them and there's all none of them are the same and none of the needs are the same but we really feel like that the Sheltering program the way we're doing it through the hotels is really a role model kind of response and one in which I think really backs up the words when we say dignity and we say respective those aren't just words we're throwing out there we're actually practicing those by the actions that we're taking and how we're supporting the need that they have as they make their way to to their final destination okay thank you representative Manila representative Hernandez followed by mayor Pro tem and then representative lisarga thank you mayor thank you thank you all for this really wonderful presentation just a really great testimonies and then some of the videos I saw today were very moving I'm eager to share those if you can share that with Council um so first I do I do want to thank you all for your efforts I know this is a thankless task but know that all of your hard work has not gone unnoticed we really appreciate all the hard work from our Public Safety officers to OEM wonderful wonderful job I did want to provide a suggestion I I've spent some time in the airport of this past week the El Paso International Airport I see Sam is here I just want to I'm just curious there's a lot of folks idling in the lobby area and it gets real crowded I know we have Conference Centers so I'm just going to suggest if there could be an area where we can allow for a more comfortable idling because you're you're talking about multi-hours long long times at the airport you know San Jose director of the airport yeah we're working on that right now um we're in coordination with Chief Rodriguez to get caughts and set him up with the Placita especially we get a lot of migrants that sit there overnight waiting for the 5 a.m flights in the morning uh on average just over 100 per day kind of just wait out their flights for the morning so we're working on that uh to set that that space up we're Contracting for cleaning services additional ones so we can get that going hoping to get that within the next week and a half yeah folks are just sitting on the floor they are just in that little space it's not enough space we need we need more space in our airport but correct and chief Rodriguez said you know they do drive around to stop by we ask you know do they have a ticket you know if they have a ticket they stick around if they don't they take them to a shelter as they as they stated so a lot of coordination is happening with our staff as well okay so anyway I I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to say thank you and thank you thank you very much representative I've done this mayor Pro tem followed by representative thank you again mayor thank you sir and thank you again for City staff I had an opportunity last week to actually have a tour thank you again for your staff and organizing that tour extremely informative um had an opportunity to talk to some of the some of the folks that are there as well and um you know this is this is something that is not just impacting the United States this is something that has been a a an issue that has been going on through the Western Hemisphere you know our country not too many decades ago uh dealt with human beings fleeing a Communist dictatorship in Cuba and we're seeing and we're seeing the same kind of um the same kind of activity again occurs so many decades later with Venezuela and I think it's important for people to understand that these people are fleeing political persecution they're fleeing poverty they're feeling a Communist dictatorship that has collapsed the economy of what used to be one of the most prosperous countries in the Western Hemisphere and it's important to understand that what's happening in Venezuela close to 85 percent of the country is is currently in poverty over 22 to 25 percent over a quarter of the country has fled Venezuela over the last three to five years due to political instability economic contraction poverty in violence so you it's not just El Paso in the United States that is dealing with this challenge of dealing with Asylum Seekers and and Venezuelan migrants countries throughout South America are dealing with with with Venezuelan communities that have have occurred over the last three to five years countries like Uruguay Paraguay Chile Brazil Argentina all have sizable might all have sizable Venezuelan communities that have occurred and what we're seeing here in the United States and coming through El Paso is is something very very similar as well so I think it's important for the public to understand that and for the council to understand that and you all are doing really really important work to make sure that regardless of who is coming in how they're claiming Asylum that they're being treated with dignity and respect because that is what this country is founded upon that is what my parents both as immigrants of this country had an opportunity to be of and how many many immigrants to this country throughout the centuries have seen the United States of and we're upholding that promise and we're upholding that responsibility as Americans to these Asylum Seekers and to these migrants who are coming through this community so thank you again for that work um I'm just kind of curious again most of the the buses that we're seeing are coming through to New York Chicago some to Denver and Dallas I know that the largest Venezuelan Community currently in the United States is in South Florida in fact Miami is one of the largest communities of argentines in the United States one of the largest Colombian American communities and many many other Caribbean and South American communities as well so I'm just curious are we hearing anything from migrants about a requests in Miami or is there any discussions about from the federal government about migrant patterns are occurring yes sir no it's very few we we can't explain the the federal government's same thing they're not understanding why they're picking the upper east coast um we do have handfuls asking for for Florida destinations I haven't seen any personally from Miami okay yeah no it's and we're we're asking on a regular basis and because some of the challenges that we have with uh the emergency food shelter program is you know we have to be able to fill a charter to at least 75 so um so we're continually asking and as soon as we start finding other destinations that we can meet that threshold then then but yeah but we can continue to ask yeah because I mean in in the tour I mean for those on the council that haven't had an opportunity to tour the uh the the the the hospitality Center I mean the intake is basically as if you were talking to travel agents and those are all a lot of our First Responders who are taking up that task um in what I think is very moral and important work to do so they're often asked and some I'm just kind of curious so the the process we ask these we ask Asylum Seekers that are coming in what what their preferred destination is um they signed a waiver that's both printed in Spanish and English and so if they say a city other than New York or Chicago just again for the benefit of the public help us understand what those processes are again they they come into the hospitality Center and if they're requesting other cities how does that process work we're trying to connect them with ngos who can assist them we're also buying individual tickets as well so we've been sending them on Greyhound bus lines we're making sure they get to those destinations they need is this people have said it's thankless it's not really thankless if once you tour it I think each one of you is going to see something that'll pull your heartstring there I've had families come up to me and say you know I'm getting on the bus to New York I said well where do you want to go they said well we want to go to Dallas I said why are you getting on this bus so we thought that no it's it's they just walked in they didn't have a chance to get around like you said it is it is almost like a travel agency it's that Hub making sure they get what they need as well as feeding as well and so that is a conversation that we're we're starting we we actually started out in the ngos as soon as they arrive at our Center starting we started there instantly what is it that you need and where do you want to go we're trying to find that best location for them but as we keep seeing a lot of people are keeping the are keep choosing New York City or Chicago and mayor Pro tem just for the record so the the public can hear this everyone on the day is or all the council has has visited the center okay and the other thing just as a matter of course you know in terms of how things have occurred as has been pointed out before the the migrants that have been Crossing for decades and then here in the last four years where you've had that uptick in the numbers go up significantly across the country in terms of the the crossings they have been Crossing and going to all parts of the United States and yes they go to Major metropolitan areas and they've been doing that on their own I think the only difference today is the unsponsored ones the ones that don't have the means don't have the connections don't have the Family Ties that that is now being sponsored quite frankly by the federal government because we're doing it we're getting reimbursed and the federal government's doing it as well in terms of disbursing it throughout their CBP process in terms of the different points that they have to send them to and then they're sending them as we through this process to the major metropolitan area so I would say it's a bit more organized today than it has been in the past it's more of an orderly process not only how we're dealing with it with the migrants but how how the migrants are being processed throughout the the country because that's a phenomena that people don't just stop and think they've already been going to these major areas I just don't think it's been as coordinated as it is today because of what occurred not too long ago that you know you had some like elected officials get involved I think that's what stirred the pot and I I do I do again thank you for the work that you're doing the the facility is is one that you know it's it's really been built and stood up um for the migrants needs but what brings it alive more than anything else isn't the chairs isn't the TVs isn't that it's the humans that are there it's the people from our city that are stepping up and you can tell that um that they truly care about about the people that are visiting and coming through our community um and you know there's there's no amount of money that can show that kind of Pride and work and pride in our community because ultimately that is a reflection of El Paso and El Paso values so thank you again for all the work yes sir thank you thank you and thank you for those comments my protein because I think it's so important when I do a lot of the interviews I tell people what the city of El Paso does is to make sure that we treat people the way we want to be treated and that's exactly what we're doing so thank you for your comments um representative followed by representative Rodriguez thank you mayor mayor thank you thank just manager and his staff Chief Rodriguez chief of De Agostino I think the city manager said it earlier that his staff has gone beyond above and beyond since 2018 you know when we had to deal with the mass murders with the covid with the other Mass migration and I want to thank you all for doing all of this hard work with dignity dignity and Grace so from the bottom of my heart I just want to thank you all for your hard work I have a question I don't know if this is for the city manager or who um maybe he could answer this but none of this was discussed as a relative alternative in these presentations so my question is someone said that suddenly we had 3 800 unsponsored migrants last week so I'm wondering how would declaring a disaster declaration affect our current Financial scrambling and situation especially for migrants who have arrived unsponsored and I thought I heard this situation will only get worse well when you call for an emergency declaration you you need to call before you run out of resources that's the key to it you don't wait until you're overcome before you run out of resources whether it's Financial or people or equipment you do it proactively that's what the recommendation for a declaration came early on when you start looking at these numbers of people and you couple that with releases to the street that's unacceptable for our community and I'll stand by that statement it's the decompression that we talked about to start this presentation it's a decompressant it's the CBP and the federal government realizing that some releasing people to the streets is not the way to do it and we're not going to accept it here in El Paso so by them in acting and jumping on with decompression flights those six flights a day have a huge impact those coupled with a couple of buses that are leaving town a huge impact but then again if we don't continue with the charters we do when we ask for that it was difficulty finding Charters we were ordering at that time probably four to six a day and we were lucky to get two to three a day so that already puts you in that backlog situation where you're having to make sure they're sheltered you're having to open up more hotel rooms you're putting more Demand on our local ngos so those are the reasons why you would call for an emergency that is the reason why we asked for emergency I think the key Point that's different today is the fact that the the Customs imported Patrol continues doing those decompression flights and that's critical if those flights stop I will be back here again recommending a declaration yeah and you're so correct chief that if any of that and and when I had that conversation with uh Chief Ortiz today which is yet about the border patrol I told him any of this aspects ever stop it's going to create a problem for our community so we can't have it stop and the funding is a big part of it and you know and they guaranteed me and that's why they gave them the two million dollars up front and I know that you've talked about maybe Mr Gonzalez talked about that in October we're looking hopefully to get another three million dollars yes sir the fourth 400 I think of um off top of my head I think it was 421 000 for the December of 21 that we got reimbursed that was the first one those were the last quarters of the 21 year and then for these next three uh Cycles or quarters we're waiting on that but they gave us as you mentioned the 2 million for forward the forward spend and so so that spending the cost that we've that we are going to incur we got the 2 million for that up front the 3 million that will be submitted at the end of this month for October that's going to be around 3 million or so maybe a little bit less that's the one we'll be submitting because we're not able to submit it till at the end of each quarter I know you've been busy telling them that we want them a monthly one and so we hope to get them monthly in the future and and you also are aware mayor and just for the rest of the council's sake that in talking to Mr Magnus the commissioner of the CBP one of the things that he advised us about is that the continuing resolution at the federal level hopefully that won't be a problem but the continued resolution for the budget that that might slow up some of these reimbursements and and that's exactly and that's what we told me if it does said that we'll create a problem for us and uh so when I talked to the White House and I talk to him on two three times a day right now I'm explaining to them that we need our reimbursement that is Austin one of our partners okay oh so thank you mayor so I'm just curious is Austin one of our partners is thank you the governor's office one of our partners I'm wondering why we're not seeking State resources for this as well and what is it going to take for us to help for state to ask for State help how would making a disaster declaration hamper the efficiencies of our current efforts and as and as I mentioned before I think it's true that things are probably going to get worse well I don't think we're at that point right now to be honest with you and we have been talking about it and we talk about it on a daily basis if not more than that right now and we want to make sure that we don't get the cities blessing the when we take somebody we take somebody that we put human beings in it with food with understanding they're going to the location where they want to go we don't want to start bussing people and confusing people that they're going to a location where they didn't ask to go we don't want them to go to the White House we don't want them to go to Martha's Vineyard we want them to go where they want to go and nuts have been so important we continue to be able to do that in with the federal funding and the cooperation of congresswoman this has been we've been able to do this and we'll continue to be able to do this I think that that's the biggest question I always get and it compares to the governor's busing every time we get compared we get compared to you know what what what's so different about the city of El Paso than the governor is doing well it's there's a big difference there's a difference between sending people to the White House or to vice president Harris's house or sending them to where they want to be you know using people is upon is unacceptable and and I will not be part of any of that and I will not and I'll make sure that doesn't happen within our community let me let me see if I can help answer that question as well you know what what is a state requesting state help get us it gets us could get us Personnel could get us assistance with Charters as we saw them move in when we first asked them about it they came in rather quickly they were able to set up the Texas Military the same group of individuals as we've talked about who helped us through covet whether it was shutting up testing or vaccination sites they were actually boots on the ground they watched our operation at that point in time the charters were being conducted out of the Opportunity Center so they had some oversight there to see how it's going to do very clear point to remember that even when we do declare an emergency the city it's it's our emergency the city of El Paso your leaders remain in charge of that incident it's just utilizing other resources if I could go back and talk about some of the financial numbers you know this quarter specifically by the end of September we're expecting it to reach just over four million dollars that's what we'll be seeking for reimbursement but I want to highlight the month of July was about 180 000. can I interrupt you so Council when he said that you know just raise my eyebrows that that's the difference in that the daily spend the cost and that the last number that I got was 3 million and as you can tell these numbers vacillate and they grow exponentially rather quickly because of the the four-prong process we have in place in terms of how to address the issue that Mario was referencing and the chief and I and and so as the mayor and some of you ask questions and so the month of July was at 180 000 the month of August was 256 000. that's real that's roughly four hundred thousand that's ten percent of what we'll be asking for reimbursement that's how that's how fast these numbers are getting up so while a two million dollar advances is nice it's a positive for our community it shows that they're committed that they want to make sure we're reimbursed we also got our previous quarters reimbursed from what I understand those are all positive moves in the right direction you got a couple of that with the with the the continued push for decompression within Customs and Border Patrol not just once they get to the streets of El Paso and us through the charter assist charter bus system it's going to take that full effort of everyone involved to make sure we do it another thing to talk about is even though you're getting real we are getting reimbursed for the operation itself we're not getting back the individual's times and so we're pulling members as we talked about over 16 different departments members are assisting in this effort those are those are days lost projects missed out on that we're not getting back and so we need to be cognizant of that as we go forward so what does bringing in state resources do it brings in that Staffing power as well and that would be a great assistance thank you and I know that I had a conversation this morning this morning or yesterday with uh the chief of the U.S border Patrol uh Chief Ortiz and he um he does not support declaring a state of emergency at this point our congresswoman has urged for us not to do that in our County Judge does not support that at this point we may have to do that I mean there's going to be a point where we may have to do that but at this point and the White House has asked at this point for us not to do that and they'll continue to work with us and continue to give a supply of money through FEMA and reimbursements as we continue to move forward so these are all our partners that we work for and will rely AI for for this and for other things moving forward so we'll continue to work with them and again I don't recommend we do that either and I wouldn't support it that that's exactly it but at the end of the day I want to just make sure that we're all clear oh no we will someday it's about the ability to respond to tomorrow's incident so we don't know what tomorrow can bring us but when it does come we want to make sure we have the resources in place that our Police Department staffed our fire department our Public Safety that we're ready to take on whatever tomorrow brings as we talked about you go back to 2018 when we saw that first surge into the early 2019. we followed it up in August with that mass shooting from there we went into covet operations we've been in a state of operation for several years now and so that's why it's not it's not lightly when you ask for it but that's why you asked for that to make sure that we don't deplete our resources thank you thank you sir for that representative um thank you Chief thank you mayor thank you ma'am yes ma'am mayor um I have representative can I address something that I've addressed this this question separately by different members of council during the last week but I think that it's important for the council to be able to differentiate between the action the council approved a few weeks ago on the emergency ordinance which was to allow the city manager and the office of emergency management to expand City funds to respond to the operation the the distinction would be that if the council the mayor was to declare an emergency declaration it would allow for the unification of efforts across the entire County so as opposed to having one group do one thing and then another group do another thing it forces all of the parties to come together to the table and then have one joint discussion about who's going to do what and why and then there's no duplication of efforts and it also streams lines the communication from the office of emergency management to all of the appropriate people within the different entities of the government so that's the distinction that we're currently not working under so all of the work that is happening currently is out of the office of Emergency Management city-led so that's an important distinction for the council to also understand in the event that the mayor does declare a declaration then it's a very different flow of information and then who's required to come on board thank you for that clarification representative Rodriguez followed by representative Rivera thank you mayor so Carla based off of what you just explained it just seems to me that that would probably be the most practical solution is just to bring everybody to the table and everybody to put in their equal fair share of work to solve this problem representative our our recommendation was was provided in terms of what we were seeing on the ground and our office communicates directly with Chief D'Agostino and chief Rodriguez on a daily basis on this so we provide our recommendation based on what we're seeing and then we'll leave it up to them to give us their perspective and the last time we were briefed by YouTube augustino it was your recommendation not a disaster declaration be be put into place that is correct we were not seeing the decompression flights they were very sporadic and we continue to have Street releases at that time but if I could go back and highlight something about the county being able to operate and assist they would actually have to declare their own emergency as you all did you supported this early on so we go back to May and June when we put the emergency ordinance into place that gives us the flexibility and the latitude to do with the things we're doing to respond effectively they're working under day-to-day operations so they don't have that emergency declaration in place ordinance or whatever it would be that they would have but they don't have that leeway at this point in time until they actually declare something okay so to me I mean it just seems very you know per usual um where the city is taking on the responsibility of everybody else um currently now we're now we're doing the responsibility of the federal government like the mayor said earlier and I don't think that's fair to El Paso um I know that you said there was two numbers two numbers that were kind of contradicting each other um for what was reimbursed for December 21. um Mr mazzotti said it was 482 million but on this slide but on this slide here it's showing a different number um I think you talk about the reimbursement from yeah it says reimbursement received 237 thousand that was of September so in total we've received 482 plus 237 mm-hmm let me get verification hold on one second and just to be clear so that we don't get confused here the first reimbursement request that was in place and in play for a very long time went back to December of 2021 and I don't have it but Cody will tell you exactly what it is but it's a little over four hundred thousand dollars then there was a then there was uh the first two or three quarters first two quarters rather in Jan in um in 2022 that we had requested uh to get reimbursed now in that time frame when we asked for that request what took place is we're spending money we're spending money so we asked for 10 million it gave us the 2 million that we were referencing for future costs that we're bearing right now so we did receive the 2 million already we did we receive it in hand no we haven't gotten it in hand but it's in What's called the portal okay but currently so we haven't gotten it in our hands but it's in What's called the portal so so it's in play so the the two million again we asked for 2 10 going forward they're sending the 2 million and that's for future costs as we see them today what what I said earlier about the 3 million that that Mario then said it was 4 million and that just shows the severity or I shouldn't say severity the the way the costs are hitting us on a daily basis just depending upon you know whether it's the food whether it's the whether it's the shelter whether it's the the charters and the number of Charters we put in place now it's 4 million so so just to try to be demystify this we're good through December of 2021 okay we're good with 21. in 22 we're waiting for these these um these quarter quarterly reimbursements and then we ask for another 10 million to take care of the cost we're incurring now and we got two of that 10 million which We'll be asking for more and that's the reason why we asked for 10 so we wouldn't have to ask for more money for another you know 30 days or 45 days and so that that's where we are now now Cody will give you specifics relative to actual uh the dollar amount to the dollar of what we've received go ahead Cody so as the city manager said this is Nicole Cody managing director of budget and strategic sourcing so as he said it was 482 000 through December of 2021. we've received that then they requested reimbursement for the first and second quarter of this calendar year of 2022. that's the 237 000 that's referenced on that slide so we did receive notification that we should be receiving the 237 000 any day but we haven't yet I I was told that we would have it by the end of the week by the end of the week last week so we did receive the cash just this last Friday so we've got the 237. so now that's taken care of for what we had already submitted for reimbursement so what we're talking about now just as the city manager mentioned is the third quarter of the calendar year from July as this as DCM the agassino said August and then everything we've spent in September up until today because it's still growing correct it's still growing so that number actually yes ma'am up into today so he gave you the July number it was the 180 000. the August number which was the 256 000 and then everything we've spent so far in July and to his point that it continues to oscillate and also go up which we're expected to spend through the end of this week that September 30th approximately 4 million dollars now that's that's July August and September and then July August what she's what we're pointing out is a very small number you know those two months are very small September is your big month uh because of the influx of the surge that went up so that's the reason why you're like why is it 200 now all of a sudden total is 4 million that's because the costs are escalating right as the numbers escalate and the type of program that we're having to get them to their final destination right and the cost associated with that and you all did reference that we're spending roughly about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day now and again it it depends on the day but on average on average okay correct on average it's 250 000 a day I did the math with um the two million dollars that we have not yet received for moving forward and it's about eight days worth of of cost so once we do have spent those two million dollars are we going back to using general fund money yes yes ma'am that's that's correct we we are doing that and then asking for reimbursement okay so my guess my question mayor if I may direct myself to you is what is that number that that um I guess sustainable number or that number that we acceptable number that we can um say before we declare a state a declaration disaster declaration so we can get that additional Health financially and those resources hmm oh yeah I asked if I could direct myself to you oh me okay you know the it's not the the biggest concern is really is to make sure that we have we don't have people in the street number one and that we don't have right now that's number two is that we have the ability to have the decompression and we're having that done now when we were talking about that we needed a state of emergency we didn't have the decompression flights we didn't have the the assistance of the White House we didn't have all the assistance that we need today I can tell you that I hadn't gotten involved on getting the refunding for the second and the first and second quarter I got involved with this congresswoman she was very helpful and with the white house we got that money back so right now we're not at that point because we don't have that we do have the decompression flats are being provided by the federal government we do have the money and the assistance being provided upfront money I will continue to Advocate to make sure that we get that money and we get upfront money and we get money paid whether you know hopefully and I advocated for a monthly reimbursement to the city that when you're talking about the state of emergency is when you when we have people on the street and we and it becomes an emergency to our community the chief and michigansology did an incredibly great job to make sure that those people had a roof over their head those people had warm meals and you know the chief told me I asked Chief I said why do we have so many people on the street he goes we went over there we talked to them they don't want to go anywhere so what do you mean he goes the community is so welcoming the community came out and brought him food the community came out and brought him toys the community came out and brought him clothing they didn't want to go to shelters they didn't want to go anywhere because they really they were so thankful for the community and when they left they actually already had some rooms they already had shelters that had been assigned to them so you know we're not at a and we're not at a a state of emergency but I can tell you that Chief and I and Mr you can solve this talk and we know that it changes pretty daily and sometimes hourly and the numbers are under control right now and I I know that if they don't then we would we would have to but we're nowhere near it at this point and and I appreciate that mayor but my question was you know if we're already spending 250 000 of el pasoans taxpayer money and we're using this money to put them in hotels that they're not in in um on the streets okay let me answer that again let me go ahead and answer it again because you're not spending El Paso taxpayers money because it's we're getting reimbursed 100 of the money from the federal government the federal government will reimburse you and give you the money now we're getting the money up front we're getting 2 million up front even before we spend them the 2 million is only going to last us about eight days so my question is that number 250. even if we get reimbursed a million dollars a day my question is what is an acceptable number that we will continue to sustain this operation until before we say you know what like this is unsustainable we need to declare a disaster declaration okay I'm gonna repeat myself one more time it's not shitty taxpayers money we're being refunded by the federal government we are a border community and we do have responsibilities as a border community and we've continued to stand and make sure that we do our responsibility to the federal government we are assisting the federal government and support a community and you know what I can tell you that New York Chicago Denver and all these other communities that I am in contact with are not border communities but they will continue to work and help us and work with us when they call and I know someone asked the chief what do they want to know they want to know the process because they want to be assistance to us and they want to know what the process is and how we're doing it and and how they can be part of this process so this is something that it's a U.S it's not an El Paso issue it's a federal issue and we'll continue to to work that there is and I don't want to continue to miss misstate that it's taxpayers money it's not El Paso taxpayers money we are being reimbursed by the federal government we're getting upfront money from the federal government and my work doesn't stop every day when I leave here my work will continue day in and day out and night and I will continue to try to get reimbursement upfront reimbursement or as we talked about Mr Gonzalez and the chief and I have talked about that we will get monthly reimbursement and hopefully they will agree to do that they have submitted my request to the government I have talked to secretary Mallorca and the chief did also and talk to him about our concerns so there's we're not in there's a loan one thing that we are in it that all the Committees aren't we are a community that does more than probably all communities involved and I think representative has found that out that we do do a lot and when I talked to Chief Ortiz which is head of all the border patrols and she Chief Chavez that said they've never seen a community so involved and so caring and so giving and that's what makes the difference so well I can well I spend taxpayer money locally no well I'll continue to do my job as an elected official to make sure people are treated the way I want to be treated absolutely sure so Mr Gonzalez um just to clarify that after we expend the the two million dollars even though we'll submit for reimbursement from the federal government it will go back to being using the money from the general fund correct the general fund that's what we're using I mean because that's the only thing we really can use we can't use other like Enterprise funds like the airport fund and things like that everything's got to be funded by us now on the airport I said what I just said I think that's probably right but we'll double check if whether Enterprise funds can be used but I'm pretty certain it's only general fund and we'll just submit for that reimbursement okay and I guess my my final just comment would just be you know for us to really push to consider for this um This Disaster declaration because more importantly Chief about how many police officers we had a presentation earlier um fire department firefighters are we short right now fire is a lot closer I believe there believe that 40 of their of their target but let me get Chief when you say short are you referring for this operation or a total no in total and stuff and stuff well in total staff you know we want to get to 300 that was a plan we put in place several years ago and we've I've hired roughly um over 150 over half of it I want to say it was a little bit higher than that but I don't want to go beyond a 150 because I think in the coveted years the academies we were we were hurt hurt by the the covet experience and I think our numbers went down a little bit but I know that we've got we're halfway there and we still got another 150 plus to go and then if you add the fact that we're adding the East Side Regional Command Center and the fact that you know just the the need in terms of the response and how we've grown as a city um that yeah it's going to be over 300 so that's where we are we're about halfway through our original goal but that goal is going to gonna shift and become perhaps you know uh bigger than that 300 and we'll bring that back at some time in the future So currently I believe you said that we have about over a hundred over 150 net no no I'm sorry let me finish my question no it's okay over we have over a hundred that are um that we were able to move over to help us with this operation okay so when we said that earlier and just so we don't confuse because this can get confusing because we throw a lot of numbers around okay we can just put the argument or the discussion aside on the number of police officers and say to this operation we're we're utilizing over a hundred uh people uh in other departments to stand up the ngos instead of the Migrant Center so that that number I think is about 125 individuals that are that we're getting from a lot of different departments but police and fire fire in particular and health is being used a little bit more Chief if you want to add anything that's exactly going back to the over 125 people but it's from 16 different departments so it's people from all over the organization okay thank you Rodriguez I'm upsetting them so I'll see them thank you mayor again I just wanted to thank CD staff and city manager for all their hard work I did go to the Welcome Center I saw the operation you all are streamlined it and been very effective but just kind of hearing these numbers today I mean it's clear to me and I think we all can agree that this is not sustainable to the taxpayer it isn't you're talking about 250 a day just roughly if this goes on for another year that's like 89 million and I know we're getting refunded but it's kind of like a catch-up we're playing catch-up and it's it's it's really concerning I've heard a lot from my constituents they're concerned and so I'm just addressing what I'm hearing um out there and I think that we just need a sustainable long-term solution that that focuses on El Paso residents but then also while providing humanitarian aid for the migrants that has been our Communications when we're talking to our federal Partners whether it's the White House congresswoman's office everyone we talk to is there needs to be some changes to the system we will I'll talk about the funding last because most importantly is they have to approach it from a policy level so they got to look at what's allowing this influx of people into our community at this time and how do we manage that appropriately I mean like we said it's a national problem we're just seeing it highlighted right here in on our front yard but nonetheless it's a national problem so they need to put those policies in place that kind of control the flow of how people are brought into the country I mean even looking at how do they how do they acquaint them with the American way of life how do you help them assimilate into the communities where they want to end up at that that's a that's a policy at the federal level but without that we cannot sustain this and you can keep throwing money at it and you can keep putting resources at it but it's a continuous so until they make those changes we're going to be in the same place we were with that you look into that funding and how much funding can you can you possibly have it's it's more than the funding as I talked about we're pulling that 125 people other than the 50 that were hired specifically for the migrant process that other 75 have day jobs exactly and I think you said a statement earlier and it was quite concerning what you're mentioning to call for the state of emergency and you mentioned that you need to do it before you run out of resources or options and I think that finding ways of how we are going to address that that needs to be a conversation we need to start having now we need a long-term solution of course I I don't have that one solution that's going to solve everything but but I think that one way that one thing that you did mention that I think is very important is that staff and and resources are being taken away from areas in time you cannot get back and so I think that we we should get a uh basically contracted out so that other company either private organization or non-profit can come and bring their personnel to help us with the with the welcoming Center and allows our staff to go back to what they're doing in providing services to our constituents to El Paso and I and I think that I actually will would think is a great idea to motion to to ask the city manager to contract the operations of our welcome center before or you take the motion that is the conversation we're having that that is what we're asking for the federal government is to get those upfront dollars before we put the organization out to sign a contract with somebody to provide services long term on basic on on the on a reimbursement basis we want to make sure that funding is secure and then we can transition into services like that so when I give you cost comparisons when we're just talking about Sheltering uh hotels versus a large Mass emergency Sheltering operation that was utilizing a third party provider to to provide the the Staffing needed to operate that so we are looking at those options and even for the the processing center as well but until we get that long-term funding secured then it's kind of difficult to jump into those but I'll let city manager add anything if he has sorry no so then you basically are saying um once you know what that cost is going to be then or we have the secured funding from FEMA then at that point in time you're saying that it would be a great idea to then go out for exactly to let somebody else handle the operation so we're not putting all of our as I talked about even though we get reimbursed we're not getting reimbursed for the staffing hours lost so those employees that are doing something different no one's covering them and so those projects and those those things that we do on the daily here in El Paso some of them get get left behind and so that's that's how we would get out of that but until we get that secure funding when we go back to that 10 million dollar pot we talked about that was for one month and so we're seeing that we're already at the eight million dollar Mark and that's anticipating if we were to go into to hiring Staffing as well to do this or a third party provider that's what that would cover and so that's why we're asking for that money we're trying to secure that money we're still working we're still in Communications with with uh congresswoman Escobar's office as well as our other Federal partners and the mayor's talking to the White House is so we can secure that funding stream so we can go forward and Miss Elsie though I think you know you're thinking as a business person I mean you're making a very good point I think that we did during covet use a third party provider as you know when we did the testing and we did the shots in arms we did do that made a lot of sense the numbers were consistent we knew what we were going to expect we don't know what to expect here it it it'd be it'd be a hard it'd be a hard item to someone to bid on and to work those numbers it's not doesn't mean we're not going to do it eventually or that we wouldn't consider it eventually it's just a matter of the numbers aren't quite they're not similar to covet I mean the only thing that's similar to that is just uh like what I said the dashboard and the weekly reports kind of thing that yeah we are taking some of the communication items that we had for that and and transferring into this operation but um that that's one of the issues that I would ask you to consider you know in terms of the kind of the complexity of this particular situation if I can add to that those conversations we're having isn't strictly about the funding but the reimbursement process as well so it's hard to stand up an organization and scale up and down as we do we're very agile here in this organization we can scale up when needed we can scale back when it when it slows down we have that flexibility but with the current FEMA reimbursement process you you can't you can't control that how how is a third party vendor going to provide those Services if there's only 200 releases today so so that's the things we won't be reimbursed for so that's why we've been cautious in what we're doing so can it be done yes I think the counties they're paying six million 500 000 for a month but that is to handle those that are sponsored sponsored only when it's sponsored it is the true I don't remember who referenced the uh the travel agency but it is that true philosophy you're connecting them with their family member and you're helping them schedule a flight or a bus ticket it's a lot different than when you're handling the unsponsored and so for that we're being careful and the one thing Miss I'll see though into the council's concerns with regard to the funding the one thing we have stressed to all the officials we've spoken to including the mayor whenever he's they've called him we throw them mayor look when you talk to him would you please communicate this piece of it as well we've given them detailed information like I think we've given the rest of the council in relation to the fact like when when the chief says that you know we we scale up for 400 and they only release 200 to us you would think well that's good you don't have as many people but then we have you know meals for 400 we have charges for 400 we have you get what I'm saying and so that's what he means about scaling up and scaling down and how difficult that would be one of the things that we have communicated again up and down the stream to the local state and federal officials is that we need to be reimbursed for that if we're told a certain amount and we gear up for it and then we still have to pay the charters we want to get reimbursement for that otherwise we'll have to eat it so of that 250 000 for example we would have to eat some of those costs if they're not going to reimburse it now we did share with them the mayor was in the room when we said this uh I think I said to one of them they need to have their their their forms catch up to the emergencies because some of the forms that they have are for different emergencies like for the homeless or this or that and the other and this isn't obviously a homeless situation this is a very unique situation and we said your forms need to catch up to the situation and to this emergency I will compliment them that you know the CBP has been very um very very uh easy to work with you know they can't help some of the situations that they have to control once they get to a certain number they have to release they don't have the facilities in order to capture all and to be able to manage all the Personnel that they have that's coming across the border there their capacity is at a thousand it's like a thousand forty uh don't ask me why they picked a thousand forty like to a tax form but it's a thousand forty so it's easy to remember how many you know what their capacity is they've been pushing it like their their trigger number is anything over three thousand so they've been holding uh over 2 000 of what they can accommodate on a reg on a regular basis almost and so that when they get past that number that's when they're releasing the numbers so they've been overcrowded for quite some time and I think the chief both of them can speak more about that and so can the mayor quite frankly that they've been hitting that number on a regular basis exactly and I just had a question so the emergency disaster you talked about can that scale up or down similar to like a Private Business yes because like Mario said you'd have the the Personnel you have the equipment and things of that nature and and when that happened before we didn't call a state declaration it was just a matter of the chief coordinating with TDM the Texas division of Emergency Management no different than he did with flooding and no different he did with covet look from where we're sitting what we want to share with you are the facts that's it I know you all have to deal with a lot of issues at the state level National level and all these other noisy kind of things we just want to make sure you have all the facts you have the information and and that you know what we're doing is we're working off the data no different than when we dealt with covet no different than when we've dealt with immigration before there's a lot of people that have a lot of input we're the ones on the ground actually getting it you know doing it and so when we follow the data you know hopefully you've been pleased with what you've heard today you know that our priority and what what I told staff from the get-go was that the migrants needs need to be our priority period everything else will fall into place after that and it's worked out really well because when you think like that you're thinking of them that you know you're not thinking of that it's a disturbance you're thinking they're people like we are because it could have been any one of us that crossed I mean I have a story y'all probably all have a story you know with regard to to being an immigrant and so I think that that was the very very important piece in terms of how we attack this issue and how we attacked it as an organization so I'm very proud of our team how they've responded very proud of the council and the tough decisions y'all have made that have given us the ability to be this this agile because I can't say enough had y'all not approved a local emergency ordinance we'd have we'd be having a different conversation today and you wouldn't be very happy the fact that you did make that decision we've been able to move and be you know agile as agile as we can be given that we have to follow a lot of the state and federal guidelines that are in place uh thank you Mr Gonzalez I just had a last question I know that you mentioned the of course we can see it the numbers are escalating so when do you think we're going to need to look at being able to contract or look at those options because we don't want to be reactive we want to be proactive and I know that takes a process and that takes time so that's exactly it now operating under emergency ordinance or even a declaration gives us we can speed up processes but it still takes time until we secure a funding stream that's actually going to cover for those ramping up we've seen it since 2018 that's when the 1040 came out at the border patrol that's when their number was of what their occupancy was at that time that's when it hit it's been up and down since then while we're at all-time highs right now we don't know what it's going to look like 30 days from now so it's that we don't even know what's for me tomorrow that's exactly it but it's it's how do we how do we anticipate what's coming and is that funding stream going to cover for this so when we were when we were working for for covet operations uh we're using Keras funding onto onset that gave us that flexibility to scale up and down as we saw Peaks and and we could bring staff on it and off because it wasn't it wasn't specific to having to provide this funding stream is very specific as you can you have to be providing the services so if we get into that contract I don't the way it currently stands I don't feel that we'd get complete reimbursement okay thank you thank you and thank you representation I think you had a lot of really great points as we're moving forward because it's so important that uh you know as the president himself said about last week when they had a news conference he talked about that we do have to talk to our neighbors in Mexico and Canada and talk about controlling the flow and that's one of the things that every day I talk to the White House on because he made that statement and I know the chief made that statement right now that that's going to be very important so to your point it's something that's being worked on today and um it uh at some point if if things don't change there would be a Breaking Point you're right so I thank you for that representative Rivera thank you mayor first of all thank you Chief Rodriguez thank you Chief delacino of Staff mayor for all that you're doing for this humanitarian effort that we're making from El Paso um I believe I'm going to say the word that I'd use a couple months back Trust I trust you guys would would be the first to come to counsel and let us know when we were at that breaking point right right and so uh right now everything that's been done I understand what you're saying about what was what's been asked here okay this can't be more reactive than being proactive this is you've been reactive to everything as far as that's concerned but uh I for one and and I know when I went there to visit the welcoming Center and talk to some of the people they're very grateful as to what El Paso was providing they had never been treated like that they were looking forward they're forward towards their destination and of course the the staff that you have there was magnanimous they were they were in uh playing with the kids as well as as well as uh mixing with the uh the the adults there and talking to them carrying the conversation as if they were friends for a long time so I appreciate that uh I know my wife said as well and she appreciated it as well and the thing is that first of all if we get the government involved I sure as heck wouldn't want to see military dressed individuals dealing with these people that you had there this is this isn't this is they're not they're not any sort of enemy they're just somebody that's wants to build better better tomorrow for their family for themselves and so I believe that what you're doing now is really fantastic oh and and the fact that you all truly believe that right now it's not the time for any emergency I think Miss Neiman expanded well um I was one of the ones that asked her about that and she explained it to me as well program that you're doing this whole uh migrant issue that that's that's happening it wasn't because El Paso called on it but you know what you responded to it with the grade a effort and you're still doing so um I I don't know how many kids those kids were smiling on the way to the as they tracked their way to all bad so to the states really to the States because they know that somewhere in staying in El Paso they wanted their family in different locations and that's been asked why well they have that uh notion about New York and Chicago but they don't know El Paso is just a great place to live too so I mean they're just passing through but I want to thank your efforts I want to thank your staff suffers and so just to make that clear because one of these one of the questions was about personnel at this point no services from either the fire department police department are being curtailed in any way everybody's out there that needs to be out there to cover well you can always use more but yes sir yes we have minimum Staffing within the food you're covering your fire trucks are staffed we have patrols out so there isn't there again there is a shortage in Personnel I understand that but I understand how what makes a cheaper Chief in the fact that he's got to utilize every Personnel in a proper place and you've done that you've done that with with the welcoming Center and you've done that with that person has been doing it for several years now exactly since the last exactly migrant of 2018 2019 through the shooting event through covet operations and it's that tax on the staff so yes there's there's the the seats are filled in the streets but it's taking a toll the ones who are filling the seats in the street are having to work extra hours longer hours so they can cover the gaps for those who have been reassigned to this operation yes and and I and and I would add Mr Rivera as I said before I I we totally understand where the council is coming from when I mentioned earlier about the noise that's around you but I know that the way we dealt with immigration before the way we dealt with the hate crime and the pandemic I think you all have seen there was a locally LED operation in all different facets and all those different emergencies and this is the same way and if State resources were utilized it would still be the same way we would still be in charge of the operation I think we need to be responsible from our end I totally respect and understand where you are coming from but the state resources of Staffing and or and or equipment would would be helpful in the long run if if this is going to last you know another six months another you know year and and so I think that that's what Mario is saying so I I just want to ask the council for their continued support and patience on existing services that we have been slowly but surely opening back up because obviously anything of this nature taxes that as Mario pointed that out so as long as we continue to have you all support and understanding that some of these openings are going to take a little while longer and and understand that it is um you know one more thing that they've been they need to work on you know as long as we have that support I think I think the answer to your question is that we can hold for now although again notwithstanding the fact that Staffing and Equipment would be helpful true true and what's been said uh not only by you by not only by both teams and not only by the mayor but you guys be the first to come with us and tell us yes sure yes sir and we absolutely want to Enlighten the public as well our community yes who who who really has taken so many years of real adversity so to speak in in our budgets and stuff but um I I commend you for that and uh one more time the difference between Contracting and I understood it Contracting and what you're doing now and if I'm correct if you build the government for 400 people that you shipped you can't say that for the whole week correct because Monday you might have 400. Tuesday you might have yeah and so it's a dynamic number and so as we've seen it climb over the last few weeks when we first talked about upfront funding earlier on this year it was brought up in what if you had to do this processing what if you had to do Sheltering and that's when we went out and we looked at facilities we got estimates we were looking with those what would a vendor cost to do these type of operations and that's where we got these when we went back to FEMA and we talked to him about that about securing the funding that's when they informed us that that you can't do it for the what ifs you have to be actually performing the operation at the time so that's why we're telling you that we need to work with them to change the way the funding stream works so that you can get that upfront funding we've got to remember that the FEMA emergency food and Sheltering Grant is for the homeless it's not an emergency response Grant they're making that fit for the operations that we're having to do across the country today it was originally designed and it's really originally funded for for our homeless population throughout the country and so that's why when we talk about the forums not matching that's exactly it if this is an emergency response but it's not covered under your traditional emergency response funding so the Safford Grant or act where you'd actually get the reimbursement for after the fact for those responses that declaration when you go up to the you have to meet the thresholds at the city county state and federal level so you can get reimbursement it doesn't fall under that funding this is not one of those type of responses so until the federal government can do that that's where we're saying it's it's we're trying to do it we are doing it in-house but it's so we have that ability to scale up and down and we are bringing more staff on specific and I talked about it that we have over 56 66 positions opened right now we do have some coming on board in the next couple of weeks but that that's that ongoing thing so we can pull staff that are working from the 16 departments hopefully and just utilize these strictly higher foreign I mean for migrant operations thank you thank you for that response tonight also I I inadvertently left the congresswoman Escobar out of this mix and she's been great she's been very uh attentive to the issue and working with the mayor with the with you all the staff city manager and uh I don't know if you all saw extra on Sunday night but the County Judge also came out and flat out said he would he would not call an emergency either right he is adamant about that he says just as you are mayor and the rest of us but you all feel you all you're there you're there you're you tell us what you need and and what you don't need at this point what you're doing is working and so um I thank you so much for that yes sir everybody involved in this thank you thank you sir thank you and I think it's very evident that the federal government the White House and all our partners that we keep dealing with is uh making sure that we have the resources and continue to make sure that we're successful in um and doing our job so I'm very thankful and I think the congresswoman's got a lot to do with that as you just said and uh and them coming down here and making sure that you know the operations working so um we're going to go to representative molinar followed by representative Nella he hadn't talked thank you very much mayor Lisa so I'm going to call this welcome to America and so the national correspondent media mentioned something about Charlie wanting to go to college here in America the mayor mentions about a child wanting to go to Disneyland welcome to America again I did have the opportunity to have a tour of the processing center so thank you very much Mr Gonzalez to your team thank you very much for putting everything together Chief the Agostino great work chief of Jorge Rodriguez once again great work it was a very eye-opening experience and to see the heartache to see the even just the faces the different people talking getting food getting water playing being triage all kinds of stuff so everything was good I do remember that map that was on the board pointing to the city of El Paso so I mean if you think about it we this is history we are living history American history El Paso history Texas history and we should all be proud of what we're doing extremely proud of what we're doing okay so with that I moved to approve we do have a couple of accompanying items that we'll go through no that's right well we still have questions yeah go ahead representative Manilow thanks um Jorge when we were at the when you were giving me a tour of the facility we we spoke to a young man that was helping process and he had mentioned that he had started working at the city while doing temperature checks during covid do we know how many employees that are assisting in this program also were temporary employees during the pandemic I don't have that number offhand but we we yeah I mean I think we're able to shift those resources yeah I mean it's an interesting conversation right because we we are utilizing resources and we are moving people from their jobs so we're also creating jobs for individuals that haven't been at the city before and I think that's a conversation to highlight too because we're obviously seeing um some pushback from that but I do think it's worth highlighting that we have essentially created jobs for individuals that have never worked at the city before and we've been able to keep them on post covid um through the situation but my question is and I apologize I stepped away for a second to get my flu shot upstairs so thank you for providing those um but I I did kind of miss a little bit of the conversation and I just want to be clear um we're talking about calling a state emergency in regards to project Lone Star for funding well essentially it's it's for us to be able to utilize State resources that would be under our Direction uh and to help augment our current operations sure and there are two State programs for Border um and for uh you know utilizing Public Safety resources from the state um those are lbsp and those are Lone Star I just want to say that lbsp closed in March and the application for Lone Star closed on August 31st so we're having this conversation about available resources they're not available anymore and they will not be available because we're in a legislative year until July or August and so we're having an entire conversation that can become very political about resources that are no longer available to us these these are two different Grant programs and I understand what you're saying yeah I'm just I was just pointing out when you declare an emergency it's looking for those resources above just like right here we had an emergency we have a crisis going on it wasn't just the opposite of emergency manager responding it's 16 different departments from the organization of the city of El Paso we all respond to that it's the same resources well no I declared an emergency or if we had help with flooding and we have the severe flooding and you've seen where the streets wash out we've seen apartment complexes they have sent resources down outside of those fundings so when you tied it to operation Lone Star we're not asking to be part of Lone Star we're asking can you help us with resources whether it's Staffing whether it was Charter operations because at the time we weren't getting a charter companies that could keep up but those are all Lone Star that is what Lone Star is and that's how this is your emergency but I understand but that is how the state disseminates funding for a border and border security and I was just making the point that because I know you and I had a conversation conversation specifically about lone star two weeks ago that application deadline has closed and unless we're willing to call an emergency and ask the governor to go above and beyond any other community in this state that has declared Lone Star we are asking for him to do that intentionally under political will because the governor has specifically said many times we're the only County or community that has not declared plot project Lone Star right he has used that as a talking point against us and if you were to ask him outside of the funding guidelines and outside of the deadline I'm sure he would come down here with every camera he could find and I agree with the mayor and I respect the mayor and the county judge's opinion and I agree with him and would not in any any way shape or form support doing that in this community so that that's all I had to say Lonestar the grant is for border security and law enforcement purposes this is completely separate you can call it political if you will as I described earlier and I stand by my words you declare an emergency so you don't run out of resources you declare an emergency before you run out of whether it's people assisting the the Staffing involved or it's the equipment or the contracts such as Charters or feeding operations or having to do Mass Sheltering that's why you declare it's a completely separate funding and the good thing is we're not we're not in that position at this point which uh and we'll continue to monitor that moving forward uh representative thank you representative Hernandez followed by representative I know I know this has been exhausting I don't want to deliver any issues I don't agree with a lot of statements that have been said here today I I do support the OEM um what I mean it's it's incredibly frustrating that all of this is being politicized a lot of us say let's take the politics out of it while making political decisions at the same time but ultimately my concern is the risk to taxpayers I think it's a true statement to say that these are such polarizing issues that at the federal government you cannot always count on that monetary support you can't even count on policies from Congress so the notion that it's not being supported by taxpayers is false because we are and we also don't have um anything in writing any promise to pay back because again we are at the whim of of Hopes And Promises so while I recognize that we do have to do this I also don't want to mislead the public to say hey we are using our funding we are utilizing our Public Finance system to to fund these operations and there is a potential that we may not be reimbursed for these costs if let's say some dramatic things happens at the federal government you can't you can't like um think that that's not going to happen because we've seen it we've seen it time and time again that our federal Partners have shifted funding and policies and leave communities higher and dry but I have full support and respect for our Congressman because I know she's working diligently to get us that funding losing my voice again but I do want to say that my concern is with our city services I mean I can't go anywhere without people saying like hey pull up my weeds making sure we improve our response rates so it is concerning to me that we are utilizing public services so um I am making a request so that in the future as part of these updates on your emergency ordinances tell me exactly where staff is coming from and tell me as granular as possible what departments are coming from and what districts because I need to be able to convey to my constituents hey your Firehouse is short firefighters your Regional Command Center is short police officers it's going to be short for response times we're going to have delays response times your public services are not going to be operating at full capacity because of this response it's not it's no longer going to be an emergency if we are going to be doing this for long term that means that and I agree with you representative see that we need to have conversations about Outsourcing these these programs and operations because it is unfair that you utilize all of your resources in one Department which is the office of emergency management in the event of an another emergency what is our Fail-Safe what plan do you have if there's another dramatic event exactly and so I know why you're trying to prevent that we need a body that is going to be here for you know that I support you and and the request for additional State resources I've told you mayor as much that I believe that we need to get those State resources and that's people and that's equipment and that's more than just Transportation it is everything so I just want to say that um again thank you for all of your support all of your work I wish I wish circumstances were different I wish politics were really out of this they're not um and so I think this is the best opportunity moving forward we do need we do need added resources and support I'm supportive of that we just need a political body that's going to be supportive you too that's really important because uh talking to the congressman telling the federal government there's guidelines we do have to follow and have followed the guidelines we will be reimbursed I've been told that if we do follow the guidelines and I know Mr Gonzalez talked to Mr Robinson Tony Robbins and Magnus yes yes and he um he did tell him that there's some guidelines some has set up for the homeless which that you know based on the form we have to fill out which doesn't allow us to get reimbursed with some of the items and he agreed to go back and and work with us to make sure that didn't happen to us you know and and that's really important and another thing you said again that I couldn't agree with you more let's stop talking about Republicans and Democrats and let's take politics out of this and make sure that uh you know we we have there's people involved and we need to treat people like human beings just just to decouple some of the the points that were made I just want to be clear before I forget that some of the commentary uh that has been made I want to make sure y'all y'all have the the proper information the the reason why that Outsourcing is a concern is because of being able to to recover all of those dollars um that may not be considered reimbursable so I just want to be clear about that I think that I've said this I said this to the federal Partners in front of the county the county was there the judge was there and his staff was there that they did it in a Smart Way in that in that they did it through the procurement process we did the local emergency ordinance because I didn't feel like we had a choice we we had asked for State declaration uh because of the circumstances the push was not to do that and so we then pushed very hard for the local emergency ordinance and I want to again recognize you all for making that that decision because that if that wouldn't have been made that this this wouldn't be the type of discussion we're having today we would be why aren't you doing this why aren't you doing that and be like well because we had we didn't have the means to do so so I just want to be clear about that particular comment that was made a second ago with regard to Outsourcing and want to be clear as to why that's a concern for us now what missing on this said is very accurate and that is if if something's not reimbursable because they say a form wasn't filled out correctly look we know what costs we're getting we've already communicated what cost we just gave you an example of of one and which could not be reimbursable but is based on the information you have on the ground which is we're gonna we're gonna release 400 today and you only release 200. now I say that that might not be the case every day okay but I'm giving you an example of what has actually occurred now we're going to submit reimbursement for what we prepared for if we spent money for 400 lunches 400 for the enough Chargers to to supply for 400 people and Sheltering and so on and so forth that's what we're going to submit for now if we don't get that reimbursed we're out that money period so whatever the percentage of that 250 000 was that day we're out of that money can't be any clearer than that I don't want there to be any confusion about that now with respect to utilizing State resources I understand the complexity of of the discussion I do 100 but also understand that we have not lost control under anything that we've had in an emergency setting since Mario and I have been in charge of these operations and they won't I will guarantee you it won't I mean we don't live in in a communist country where the state can come in and just say no we're in charge you're not you know unless there's some National Emergency of some kind that that would predicate some action like that to actually take place so I want to be very crystal clear with all of you that we are in charge of this operation if we got any additional resources like we're getting from the federal government we're still in charge of the operation uh we we have gotten um dollars in assistance Personnel whatnot in other emergencies just these last four years from the state I do get it I do understand y'all's position on it but but don't misunderstand what we're saying I mean we want to be very clear I know you'll repeat something we said and it's a little bit different than what we said I want to make sure you hear it from my mouth that there are some concerns and and there are some risks I like Mr Hernandez and the mayor and the rest of you I have full confidence in the congresswoman she she has gone to bat for us she has championed these initiatives and has done Yeoman yeoman's work for us in order to get these reimbursements and so I have no doubt that that will continue but we do have some concerns on some of these things that that we feel like may not get reimbursed again hopefully they will all get reimbursed and then yes if we get reimbursed 100 then yes we didn't pay for anything other than the carrying cost of the money because we could be putting that in in an interest bearing account like Robert has reported and earned interest on it you need to know that too just just so that you want us to always be transparent with you and the public that's full transparency right there so I just wanted to make sure I address those comments thank you for that sir representative Salcido followed by mayor Pro tem and he'll be our last speaker thank you mayor um I know you had run out of 10 my 10 minutes last time so I had a couple of questions in regards to the um the county are are we having Communications with them I know you mentioned you are are in order to Not Duplicate services and what does that look like so that they're processing center that they're getting ready to stand up is for the sponsored only so those are those that they're just doing those quick connections those that have a means to travel they're just making sure that they can secure their ticket and move on to their next destination so what we're doing is still going to be a need it'll it'll have to work in conjunction with because we we don't have the ability to filter out to only receive sponsored and unsponsored so we're getting that daily mix but that's when we have to provide the transportation services from what I understand they're not getting into the transportation piece outside of assisting those who are sponsored get to their final destinations okay so no funds are being like collaborated and used in tandem for an effort or anything like that no no is there any conversations and and we've had conversations but they they want to specifically get into this part of the operation that's what they want to handle we realize that there's there's another side to that operation that need must be maintained like we talked about is decompressing it's not just at the federal level before they're released to the community it's decompressing our ngos and our local Sheltering capacity right here in El Paso so if we don't keep them moving on to where they want to be then we're going to backlog that and at that point you won't be able to to handle the situation so it's about keeping it moving perfect and so I just wanted to thank everybody for for the comments and I also want to say thank you again for all your hard work and also anybody that has collaborated out there with with us and they've worked with us in in collaboration but my question is going to be towards you all um this is a small business owner your boots in the ground I'm not there and so I really want to hear from you all do you think we need a state of emergency do you all feel you need that extra Aid I need to know from you all if that's what you feel that you need while we are maintaining without Street releases while the CBP and the federal government continues to do decompression on on the streets of El Paso while they continue to Flying them out that's that's the alternative so as long as they're not being released on the on the streets we can maintain what we're doing today okay so the point that you cannot maintain that so that's basically where you would say we need state of emergency where we cannot maintain that's where you're asking for those resources yes ma'am so that's when you would declare and then ask if we can get some receive some additional resources from the next level up which would be the state perfect and I just wanted to know that we're aiding you all and making sure that I'm hearing it from you if that's what you do need so yes ma'am I thank you for that if I can go back and add just one more comment there was a statement made about not having enough firefighters and not Staffing all companies and and police officers we don't we don't shut down companies we we fill them with overtime so it's a very costly and it takes a toll on the individuals because they're now they're being forced to work those extra shifts so that does add difficulties but but I I want the the community to rest assured that we're not taking companies off the street to do this now if they're responding to an emergency whether it's an injury down on the bridge or a sick party within one of the shelters that that's an emergency like any other where they're out of service and not available to make runs but on the whole we're not cutting our resources back I think the chief's point was about the taxing of the Personnel I mean I think y'all heard recently the council you all got calls from the police department on the current Place area or in the Cincinnati district about hey yeah they don't want overtime I think you got some of that and that's what he was referencing in terms of the taxing of of the individuals who are working this overtime that's what he meant thank you sir thank you Premiere Pro Tim he'll be our final speaker thank you mayor and I want to thank all my colleagues for speaking up because at the end of the day we're all concerned about the same thing and that's the Health and Welfare of our community um as well and part of that responsibility we have As Americans and as El pasoans is to understand our unique role in this world's history as being a a country that by and large no country is perfect but a country that's founded upon immigrants and supporting immigrants and supporting things like freedom and democracy and religious tolerance and our country when we put those those values front and center we were really honoring the promise of what we see with our founding fathers the fact is is that many of these Venezuelans are are fleeing a murderous Communist dictatorship no different than the waves of humans who came to South Florida and came to Miami from the 1950s throughout the night 1980s and Beyond you know from 1959 to 1962 almost 250 000 Cubans came to the shores of the United States fleeing persecution fleeing violence feeing political repression and the movement of Venezuelans that we're seeing not just in the United States but Across the Western Hemisphere throughout South America is a similar sort of migration as well and so I again want to thank the kind of work that your team is doing um Deputy city manager D'Agostino everybody at OEM I say that right I still want to call him Chief I still want to I still want to comment I'll always be Chief you'll be Chief um I want to thank all the work that police OEM fire doing and all those volunteers I I know that that we we have this position and we have a large responsibility to our community but it's hard not to take it personally I can't help but think about my own grandmother who is a refugee to this country after the Holocaust she uh she only knew one other person after her her husband passed away and that was my Aunt Helen who came to Philadelphia before World War II I was the only person she knew in this world and she was able to come to this world work hard she worked as a living maid in Philadelphia with my mothers as a young young daughter to her and I can't help but think about the people that are going through this community that are coming through El Paso right now who are coming only with the clothes on their back and being welcomed by the people in our community and being welcomed by the brave men and women that we have here in OEM that are treating them with dignity and respect there's no promise or guarantee what they're going to see and what chance they have to claim Asylum but we are giving them a welcome that they deserve as human beings and I want to thank you for all that and I want to thank Council as well for the work that we're doing it's not easy and it shouldn't be political because this is about humanitarian concern a humanitarian response and treating people with dignity the way that we would want to be treated as El pasoans and as a human beings let me tell you how important y'all's work is we need to vote because we have charters on the ground waiting for y'all's vote so when we say y'all's votes are important y'all support's important we're not just saying it you know it's pursuant to what the mayor Pro tem just said I just got a message we have charges on the ground waiting for this vote before they depart and again I know that we have a motion on the floor you want to make some amendments chief but I do want to thank everyone it's uh you know there there's as you see it's important for all of us to be informed there's so many people behind the scenes whether it's uh ice the border patrol um you know the uh ngos there's so many people that are making this possible and when I talk to um um the chief Ortiz and chief Chavez and Lou Who they moved down here from um Tucson to come down and work down there they said we've never seen this type of togetherness and working together and it's made an incredible difference and this is why it's working today so thank you all and thank you Council and with that we have Motion in a second yes there was only emotion made by representative can you please repeat the motion second the motion is to approve two resolutions the first one is that the city council authorizes uh increase to contract 2022-0971 charter bus transportation services for an additional four million dollars for a total not to exceed six million dollars and to ratify the award of contract 2023-0061 on-call charter bus transportation services to American coach and limousine Inc I will second that I I'd say I get it representation it's me yes ma'am um so question so we two weeks ago we approved two million dollars this is an additional 4 million for a total of six million yes ma'am not 68 6 not to exceed six million um in the next 16 months correct correct but I mean it was just two weeks ago that you were asking to not exceed two million now two weeks later we're asking not to exceed six million um so where is this money coming from so as the city manager has mentioned that it is going to be covering coming from the general fund until we receive reimbursement from the federal okay and and this now six million dollar potential tab um is in addition to what's already been owed to us through the different quarters and this is not being funded through the pay as you go fund that they're giving it to two million pay as you go is just two million the two million okay so it'll it'll run out and I know it gets complicated it's complicated because of when we're receiving these dollars but it's not complicated I mean if you know how much is being spent how much we submitted for it just a matter of how we're getting reimbursed and when we're getting reimbursed um and and just the explanation uh that that we get in terms of how we can use those dollars okay thank you yes with that can we take a vote yes mayor the motion was made by representative molinar seconded by mayor Pro tem short spine to approve item 38 on that motion call for the vote representative lizarga aye thank you and the voting session the motion passes six to two with representative Salcido Rodriguez the remainder of council voting I the motion does carry Mr Price I do apologize I do have to step out I had a meeting that started at three but I felt the importance of this so I thank you all for doing this and uh great job thank you sir can you take over please another approach I have a request yeah I was just going to ask if we could move item 25 up since there's been a member of the public signed up this week since sure can we uh Miss Prine can we see item 25 and thank you again Council for the positive and respectful deliberation item 25. I think we're on left so I think it's fine you just want to do 25 now no can we go in the order if that's okay sure what's the next item on the agenda 23 is the next item and this is a presentation and discussion on the street infrastructure program thank you good afternoon Mary Council assembly is chief operations officer if it can bring up the presentation please it's a lot of slides in the presentation but it's mainly for your backup and for you to share with your constituents so I'm going to go over the highlights of the presentation as quickly as I can because there's another two more presentations after this one are we uh on the streets Laura or yes this is item 23. 23it please thank you so the update today we're going to give you an update on the current programs that we have in place as as we've mentioned before we're on the tail end of the 2012 Street CIP program touched on the 3 million collector program that's currently on the way that's the Pago money as well as the seven million dollars for residential resurfacing and then touch on the capital plans from 27 to 20 that had various projects mainly a lot of the federal matching dollars are associated with these programs our streets of as you all know continues to be a high priority for our community and I'm going to touch also on the meetings that we have underway for our progress 2022 progress Community progress Bond program as well the reason streets are high priority I mean it touches everything every part of our life whether it's Transportation Economic Development just Public Safety in general is it's it's it surfaces to the top at every survey that we have underway for the 2012 Street CIP program we're currently wrapping up the Reconstruction side we have eight projects still underway we have seen continue to see a covet impact and we've seen it now more than we did last year in 2022 I mean in 2021 labor shortages material shortages continues to impact the the delivery of the projects we see contractors struggling to keep up with Staffing across the the city and you heard that from other agencies as well and we're no different so we're continuing to work with them obviously it continues to impact them and we make contracts adjustments as needed the project is still in design and for right-of-way acquisition that's currently scheduled to go out to bed here in October it's Philippi reconstruction we I do have one project that's scheduled to come to award reconstruction of Padilla that'll be coming to council here in October as well and then these are the six projects that we have plus the ntmp that's still under construction as part of this program the completed list of streets are all listed here again just for backup and for you to share with your community as part of the link this was part of the 2012 Street CIP on the resurfacing side we're complete on this program all the funding has been exhausted with regards to the residential 374 streets were completed from this program and then arterial program we completed eight of those uh for 400 completion on the resurfacing on the residential side um as previously reported we have two two-year cycles of funding that are associated with this and that we're still proceeding to complete the fiscal 19 and 20 and 21 and 22 which are now scheduled to be completed through 24. we've completed 72 streets on the original list and 21 on the second list and we're making progress on that we have we got a late start in fiscal year 22 because of procurement and protest but we've got another contract that should be going out to bid this fall in anticipation for the community bonded program and then on three million dollar collector program we've completed pretty much on schedule uh 2021 uh and then 23 22 is also complete as part of this list these are the lists of completed for each district so again I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time it's really for your backup and for you to share with your community and constituents so all the districts are referenced here from the 2012 Street program I'm going to zip through these on the seven million seven million residential this is part of the original this that was approved back in 2018 to come back to some of the the selection criteria and this will be really important as we gear up for the next list we use the PCI Data that's our starting point we get that list we work with utility companies and I also work with Geographic locations to try to my uh to try to finish various neighborhoods so that we address some of the feedback that we receive from residents such as you completed my neighbor's street but not mine and we basically have the same pavement condition so that'll get sticking into account while we develop these streets uh 41 41 streets have been completed from that original list these are the ones that are still pending um and under program for fiscal years 20 uh two and 23. so those will be completed this this upcoming uh 20 fiscal year 23. the next list that was presented to council was back in January of 2020. these are now scheduled to be programming and completed within fiscal years 23 and 24. again the list we got 21 completed we got various underway and additional programmed as part of this list again these are the maps of those lead of those streets so I'm going to go ahead and go through these um quickly on The Collector program there's been two lists have been presented to city council The Collector program is funded through the three million dollar annual allocation from the franchise fee with El Paso water we have started the program back in 2020 we used again same same criteria PCI Data utility clearances and then looking at neighborhoods as much as we can to leverage the impact that we have in our city fiscal year is 20 21 and 22 are all complete the last one that was completed was Belvedere fiscal year is 23 were scheduled to do South Kleinfeld in Montwood for those limits that you see referenced on here that will be coming up later this fall and into 2023. again these are the maps for those two segments and these are the segments that were previously completed these shows you the the various neighborhoods that have been completed with the various funding sources uh just a very good map for you all to share as well Sun Valley um cell climate Edgemere were part of the three million dollar collector program on the 2017 Capital plan we still have projects underway on this we've completed 34 throughout the city the projects that are still underway are federal matches as you see on here the Delta Bridge the signals in Rojas widening are all being funded through certificates of obligation on the 2017 Capital plan the 2018 Capital plan also has various streets this includes one project that's currently in design which is a railroad reconstruction that's funded and scheduled to start construction in 25 or 26 I'm sorry five projects are in construction again federally funded projects with the exception of Schuster and Ted Houghton those are completely funded by the city the Schuster's scheduled to start construction this fall and then one project that's been pushed out is Tom Lee's slope stabilization looking to get that funded in the upcoming years and then we've completed 11 projects out of this plan on the 2019 Capital plan this is the program that addressed the top 25 arterial with safety and improvements on the various corridors we have uh nine nine corridors under design right now we're Hunter treywood Rojas wrestler Edgemere and Edgemere are part of this uh the what we call phase three of the top 25 material and those are kernian design we have four projects in bidding Sunland Park Shadow Mountain West Wind and Red Road phase two are all scheduled to start construction later this this year this calendar year and then temp projects under construction to include various corridors on phase one and half of phase two are also under construction right now the um the the issues that we've been having with some of these corridors uh with regards to some of the material on the electrical side I have delayed some of the energizing of the corridors as well we're working very closely with El Paso Electric to get these energized as fast as possible but again we continue to see the impacts of covid um throughout and we we hear the comments uh in the feedback and we'll continue to address those and this is the map of the 25 materials uh of as far as the improvements that were completed or scheduled to be completed on the 2020 Capital plan you'll consider an item here later this in the agenda includes the traffic signalization of a lot of these intersections throughout the city we have one project that's still in design the Sun City District three that's the MCA area um and then the various traffic signals again are scheduled to be awarded for your consideration as part of a an agenda item today within the mpo again we're looking to leverage our local dollars to bring in a federal funds this is a conversation that we're going to continue to have you you just approved earlier today a commitment or a support for for us to submit the McRae Corridor those uh match dollars will have to be discussed in the future as well as we continue to submit applications to the mpo the capital plans was the way to fund the local match we right now we don't have the ability to do that so we're going to have to bring back recommendations to council as as we continue to get funding from the mpo we have approximately uh almost uh 80 million dollars worth of construction or active projects within the mpo funding program two projects are in design it's the its in the federal funding that was received through the state funding that was received there are 32 million dollars it's 18 million dollar project that's scheduled to start construction this fall as well as Sean Hagerty extension is also scheduled to start construction in the beginning of 23 and that's the extension in the bridge projects that are embedding is the 16 million dollar its project this article so again part of the 32 million dollars that was received through the state as part of the LSS project and the bridge uh committee that that was formed through that process uh we got 10 projects under construction as well again mainly federally funded projects to include bicycle connectivity CBD Base Four uh Rojas whitening to name a few are all part of this program as well we have completed nine projects um you saw one today Alabama Bridge reconstruction but we have others such as Davis was also completed for eastside Transfer Center was scheduled to have a grand opening on November 1st on this project all these projects have been completed and are all funded with federal dollars cdbg has one active Street project that's a Trowbridge improvements that's currently under construction and scheduled to be completed by the beginning of 23. so what's next again Paving continues to be a high priority so we do have the community progress Bond 2022 the web links for the PCI study that was referenced earlier are in this presentation on slide 72 but we'll be sending this out separately to city council that you can share with your constituents the next funding available opportunities as we discussed before the recommendations for streets will be presented in the first quarter of 2023 based on criteria it will include fiscal years 24 and 23 24 and 25 14 million residential that's a seven million dollar pay goal money as well as fiscal years 24 and 25 for six million dollar collector program that will be part of the three million pay goal funding and of course if the bond passes as well we'll include seven million dollars for the residential that will be for fiscal years 24 and 23 and then also the rollout for the top 50 arterial program as is included in the bond we included some of these slides just to remind you what's in as what's part of that we got 90 million dollars allocated for resurfacing and 45 million dollars for reconstruction within the top 50 corridors of our city we utilized PCI Data that was recently completed focused on low pcis as well as working very closely with utility companies this is the data it's a little hard to see on the screen but it shows you all the PCI Data with the the lowest the highest in the various corridors we do have Community meetings that are ongoing we had several last week we have additional ones scheduled this week on we have one uh tomorrow at 6 pm at Memorial Senior Center as well as one on Thursday at the Gallatin recreation center and then Friday will be at the Denny's in District Four in the morning and then we have additional ones next week and I know we're working on additional meetings for the community for the progress Bond as well with that I'll be happy to answer any questions yeah I just had a couple questions before going to um their staff at uh representative lazargo if you have any questions just text me and I'll recognize you as well um so one of the things just as a quick note I know that the Tomley civilization um is listed in district one and currently is in District 8. another thing that I noticed as well is that with the upcoming 23 24 Pago funds uh district one wasn't referenced I think it would just missed the slide when it printed out okay cool but we'll revised that we get a review yeah I just I want to say that I know that that the way that district one has sort of shifted um you know there's a lot of parts that are new similar to District Five where we have a lot of new parts of the city but there's also some very older parts of the city that are 70 years old um specifically I can think of Love Road in the Upper Valley that probably has a pretty low PCI study and I can tell you that recently we just had a meeting with some of the neighborhood associations by the Coronado Hills area and Thunderbird currently has a piece CCI PCI rating of 16. yep PCI rating is 16. so whether that's a candidate for for this pay go funding or from a candidate for the resurfacing funds through the potential Bond project if it passes just wanted to sort of put that out there so look forward to seeing the slide and learning more about this project as well again our one of our biggest responsibilities we know from what we hear from residents is the condition of their streets so I'm happy that we're able to have this update very informative one as well I'm represent vanilla thanks representative Schwartzman mayor Pro tem um super quick uh clarification question Sam um we discussed earlier and in this presentation you also discussed the bond and the street resurfacing and I know that if the bond does not pass we cannot approve those dollars again for another three years but at the same time we also have pay-as-you-go fund so I just want to be very clear that we are not tying the bond to any specific list of streets so that way if it does not pass we can still you know do those streets at a much slower Pace with the pay as you go funding correct and if it can bring up the the presentation again so that we can see so what we're saying here is the next available funding the paygo money we're still bringing a recommendation to you for fiscal years 24 and 25 for the 7 million residential Pago and the Six Million Dollar 43 million dollar pig annual for The Collector so that will come to you whether the bond passes or not I'm sorry say what slide is that 72. I can see it down here sorry as you are yeah 72. um so yeah we will still bring because those funding is anticipated to continue the paygo money so we will have a list in front of you in the beginning of the year okay I just want to be clear because I I think there's some I didn't want there to be too confusion because people have already commented about what you said earlier about having the PCI available and it's like those those are not connected that will make money available for them but the bond is not like attached to this PCI yeah and as a city manager Stadium I think we will schedule a PCI update just so you get full understanding of the study and share that with you in a way that that you can share with your constituents as well you know I just want to say that the the way that that PCI the 16 on Thunderbird was there was City staff had gone and presented with the neighborhood association and I guess it's live on the community progress team but just so I'm clear and so the public the reason why we're not attaching certain resurfacing streets um to the 45 million dollars is because we want to give ourselves the flexibility to fund them alternate alternative ways if the bond does not pass the top 50 is is intended to be the way we were presented it to the public the the three and a half million dollar per annual the 35 million for residential is not included with detail streets because we want that flexibility to be able to work on a two on a two year every two year program and so it's safe to say too that if the bond would fail in terms of the top 50 arterials we would be at least two or three years out and looking at another way to fund these correct which again would probably relate to either GEOS or cos correct that would be correct all right but but but you could not do CEOs in the next three years got it you would have to do a Geo or just pay as you go so you would be handcuffed and not doing seals but the way this community has and some people have politicized CEOs so badly I don't know that you would you would want to do cos anyway that sounds good counselor any other questions at this time question I'm so sorry um I'm looking at the link now from that this is the updated PCI that is the updated data correct I mean there are I'm looking at a street that was repaved in the last three years that is is scored in a 27. so um I'd love to have a briefing with you and that's because I'm very confused about this I don't know if I'm I'm doing it incorrectly but this is a brand new block and and it scored at a 27. it's kind of impossible take a look at it but it should all be updated thank you thank you next item thanks Sam the next item is number 24. and this is a management update on American Disabilities Act Ada and living independently facilitated by Transportation lift uh members of council as Ellen's making her way to the to the podium I'd like to provide some comments uh to you please um Sun Metro has faced numerous challenges over the past years including poor financial management under First Transit and numerous issues created by the covid-19 pandemic which we as an organization continue to navigate and address understanding the importance of Sun Metro and the services it provides to our community we came together as an organization to address the long-standing financial issues experienced by the system with an all hands on deck approach led by city manager Tommy Gonzalez our CFO DCM Robert cortinas and managing director for budgeting and strategic sourcing Nicole Cody our teams work diligently to support Ellen Smythe and the Sun Metro team to get Sun Metro back in the black and back on track I want to be very clear with you that Sun Metro is able to Pivot now and make the changes you will hear about today only because we now have Sun Metro finances in order we could not have achieved this type of effective efficient response to customer needs two years ago because of the poor shape the system was in as a direct result of poor management under First Transit Sun Metro simply did not have the financial Health then and therefore did not have the additional resources required to do what we are doing today the path to get to this point has been paved by much hard work and investment from the city in conjunction with Community Support to understand where we are now it is important to discuss where we have been the lift service is designed to be a highly a highly valuable resource to our parent Tran our Paratransit dependent community the ultimate goal is to use our newly adopted electric vehicle Fleet to provide curb to curb and door-to-door pickup and drop-off services to Riders Sun Metro has been the Premier Transit service offered by the city of El Paso for well over a decade we constantly look for ways to efficient efficiently and equitably meet the needs of our citizen Riders and this approach includes the development of a strategy for expansion the Sun Metro management team regularly asks themselves how can we meet the unique demands of our citizens one of the most pressing areas which we determined needed to be addressed first was expanding accessibility of our services to our Ada community in 2014 MV Transportation was awarded a five-year contract to both manage and run the lift Paratransit services at that time 65 new vehicles were brought into service rotation this initial step was very well received by the community and was a solid foundation to achieving Equitable accessibility however the work of Sun Metro was far from done the strategy for expansion was a huge undertaking which was complicated by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic including ongoing severe supply chain issues all capital work was halted in March 2020 necessitating the extension of timelines to complete projects and increased funding requirements for Sun Metro Capital project project expansion these tighter conditions limited Financial spending for the repair and maintenance of old Sun Metro lift units spare parts were not being produced but fortunately warehouses still had a good inventory which could be pulled for vehicle maintenance in 2020 and 2021. the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic also included a decrease in lift ridership by about 40 percent an unintended benefit of this smaller pool of ridership was that fewer Vehicles were needed to be in service to meet right or demand and good customer service could be maintained Federal funding including the 75 million dollars awarded to Sun Metro by the cares act provided much needed investment in areas including Personnel vehicles and Facilities early on cares funding was used exclusively for personnel costs staff was sent home and they were fully paid we had zero furloughs in that department even though many routes were not running we were also able to quickly put together a fleet replacement plan and much of the other two Federal grant funding uh opportunities that were rewarded that were awarded to Sun Metro were used to order new units repair facilities complete Capital expansion projects and strengthen roots as we rebound from the covid-19 pandemic the impacts of the last two and the impacts created by the pandemic over the last two years the lift project is looking to the Future a second five-year contract with MV Transportation was signed on October 29 2019. this new contract requires that the city provides 65 new lift units the units provided by the city of El Paso in 2012 and 2014 are now very old and they all are running with over with hundreds of thousands of miles on each 33 new units were ordered and expected for delivery in 2020 an additional 32 new units were ordered and expected for deliver in 2021. however because of supply chain issues and resulting production delays the delivery timelines have been severely delayed 10 new electric vehicle units were delivered in June along with five repurposed ESD sedans 10 more units are expected by December 2022 with more anticipated to be in service by early fall 2023 the current limited number of lift Vehicles available for use has unfortunately led to stranded customers ride cancellations and mounting frustration for customers and employees and the previous customer dispatch software has not met the needs of our community as a result last week Sun Metro launched a more intuitive user-friendly customer dispatch system that is expected to address the previous customer service issues the team will work diligently to implement this system and repair relationships with Lyft customers and Riders the team would like to thank representative mullinar for sitting in on the new software training session that was offered a few weeks ago and we hope that he will share with you that he can attest that this new software is a great improvement from previous systems as the software is still in transition mode the online version will be launched shortly Sun Metro is listening to customers and has heard them a town hall meeting was held by management and a group of Lyft Rider representatives and other interested stakeholders on September 22nd customers voiced their Reliance on the lift system to travel to work to the grocery store and for socialization at this meeting customers requested more Sunday service offerings which is something we are currently planning to provide soon the key custom request request heard though was for better customer service to ensure that Sun Metro never allow operations to decline to poor levels moving forward we have always been committed to high quality customer service so improving relations with our community regarding lift Services is of the utmost importance to us customers have encouraged Sun Metro to partner with local isds and project Amazon to Aid in managing ridership demand overflow and the team is currently working on this recommendation we were asked to placard and clearly demarcate any and all contracted passenger vehicles and taxis as Lyft service providers for our customers and we are working on that suggestion too in order to meet and exceed customer service demands the team has developed to plan going forward to modify our contract with MV Transportation to allow them to subcontract with other Transportation companies including taxi services mvt May subcontract to meet Peak demand late night service or backup service taxis will only be dispatched for ambulatory customers current lift units will be sent for those who depend on the use of accessibility devices and as requested all subcontractors will be required to have placards and windshields identifying them as part of the Sun Metro lift program this response to be clear would not have been possible two years ago because Sun Metro did not have the financial health and additional resources required to make this response possible soon new units previously ordered will be delivered the new Fleet replacement plan will be diligently followed the new ft FTA EV grant for 11 million dollars will provide for 50 electric lift units and this new system will be designed and built over the next three years raising the lift operation units from 65 to 90. recommendations from the city-wide routing study being done currently being done by Nelson Nygaard will also be implemented Sun Metro will work with Partners such as El Paso isd's the county and Las Cruces towards a seamless transit system that will cover the entire southwest region and assist in Peak demand to ensure better planning and future service provision we will also purchase more vehicles to have backup units when some of the regular regular operating Vehicles need repairs or out of service forward planning possible again only because we have our financial situation now in good order and therefore have the money to care properly for our community so Metro is no longer in debt and it no longer is surviving on a month-to-month basis mandatory customer service refresher training for all MV transport employees will also be required reinforcing the approach that Sun Metro is not in the bus business it is in the people business overall the future looks bright for Lyft the streetcar and fixed route Brio system a contract Amendment for MV Transportation to be to implement plan changes will be brought for your approval at the next council meeting on the 11th of October and the team thanks you in advance for your support I'll now turn it over back back over to miss mice in her presentation thank you Tracy um Ellen's my chief Transit and field operations officer and that was a introduction by Tracy drum covered many of my points and we do have a short PowerPoint presentation put together for you this afternoon so if I could oh yeah item 24. okay so of course some Metro falls under goal seven which is the Implement improvements and activate programming that support and promote multi-modal Transportation we're working diligently with the planning divisions on all the Uptown downtown plans to include street cars and bicycles and pedestrians and of course the semi to Transit and so with the goal seven we worked together with many other divisions and departments I'm going to just have a real quick recap and then go over our key challenges and opportunities the status of where we are now and then our long-term future so in 2019 as Mr mentioned we signed a new five-year contract with uh MV Transportation as she said 65 units are required for the contract and the city is to supply those the 33 units that were going to be delivered in 2020 and 20 32 more and 21 did not occur they are on order we will be bringing them in over the next two years and I won't rehash all of that about the the impact of covid and the parts aren't available and so but basically in 2020 and 2021 while we're waiting for the vaccination vaccination rollout and people were not traveling as much we were able to survive with the units that we had parts were still available in the warehouse although the people who are producing the parts weren't working this past year where the warehouses are empty the people are going back to work but the supply chain has isn't caught up to refill the parts and and many of you might notice that if you take your car in to get it fixed personally and they may or may not have the part that you need for your repair it happened to me just two weeks ago with my car battery they didn't have the battery that I needed so um it's not just some Metro it's a nationwide problem and so but because our ridership was down we were able to to meet the demand so the challenge of course is improving our reliability nobody wants to have a department and a a service that's not reliable and so we we are expecting the 10 units to be delivered here very shortly in December in 10 more in August as Tracy mentioned we did repurpose five Environmental Services sedans they're fully placard with the the fare box and all of the dispatching equipment already and then they are using them already we have had listening sessions and conversations we just had a meeting on last Thursday evening with our key stakeholders and some of our passengers and like Mr mentioned the number one thing is don't ever let this happen again and so my pledge to them was to make sure that we never find ourselves in this position again because we have been able to right size our finances and we were in a much better position to respond to the the needs that we have now in front of us and so we are exploring Partnerships with the various taxi cab companies the modification to the contract that you'll see next meeting is to allow Envy to enter into these subcontracts and so it's a very short modification but it will be a make a world of difference to the them being able to hire these subcontractors we're also looking at exploring a voucher pilot program you know vouchers are used and many other instances where um you know the the customer is provided about for two dollars and fifty cents that's our current rate for a Lyft pickup just like buying a ticket they would buy a voucher they would redeem the voucher with the driver and the driver would submit the voucher to the city for full reimbursement of the contracted price and so we are looking at that it becomes uh more problematic with that what the voucher looks like and if it could be duplicated and things like that but we're working through the logistics of a pilot program so the future as Mr Mitchum looks really bright we'll have our partners on board here in the next month the pilot Voucher Program being explored and our new units will be delivered the parts will start rolling in the old units will be retired and the new customer service software just kicked off this past week as Mr I mentioned represent molinar thank you for attending we did have a short demonstration on how it would work and it it appears to be very user friendly the online version is will be rolled out here in the next two to three weeks but the phone system is working where you do get text to confirm your reservation you'll get a text when we're on the way we'll get it you'll get a text when we when we're at your at your uh building for your pickup um the clean energy um is currently we run CNG Vehicles will be supplemented by this new EV grant that we received we are going to have a hybrid Fleet of both CNG and electric the electric vehicles have a much shorter rate distance that they're able to roll out every day and so um because the city continues to grow we're just going to go ahead and do a hybrid Fleet and have some EVS that will be in shorter distance areas and then the the cngs that will be able to go the longer trips we will increase our Fleet from 65 units to 90 units and I have a short video here if it could help me out with that one were the sixth largest city in the state of Texas and the 22nd largest city in the nation hi my name is Edward Esparza and this is the Sun Metro main facility here in the city of El Paso I've been working with Sun Metro for 35 years well Sun Metro is the cities of El Paso mass transit Department currently we're probably offering a public service to about 4.5 million passengers we have three divisions a fixed route parrot Transit service and also the streetcar the fixed route is composed of 160 units okay that provide about 55 current routes throughout the city of El Paso and the Paratransit service has approximately about 65 Vehicles we were the first to go fully compress natural gas and also at one time they were the largest before we converted to CNG I remember reporting to work and imagine over 120 only a diesel units all started up at four o'clock in the morning and you would see this large cloud of smoke and of course that all changed once we've converted to CNG one of the main reasons that we switched over to CNG is because of the air quality that existed back in the 90s here in El Paso in the Borderland people actually relied on the public service Transportation here because they are Transit dependent you know they have no choice there's no alternative for them to use our service well the reason that that CNG was the best option for Sun Metro is because of one environmental and also cost you know it was much cheaper than Diesel and it provided assist with the air quality foreign this video to let you know that CNG is a clean burning energy it is the the first clean energy and El Paso was the very first city in the United States to go into a CNG Fleet and as Everett mentioned we were the largest for a long time and now some of the bigger cities have also adopted CNG we're really fortunate here in the El Paso region because we are on the with our air quality borderline non-compliance in some areas actually a non-compliance and so I just wanted to assure you that as we've transitioned to Electric if we do keep the CNG that it's just as clean and just as affordable as as the electric vehicles are and will be until the larger EV Vehicles catch up in the United States as you know we're just now catching up on the past on the personal vehicle side with a personal charging stations and as the country progresses into the large Vehicles will be right there with them at that time but honestly we don't want to be the first to to go Evie on the big buses but we are excited about doing it for the lift and I believe that's it if you have any questions I'm open for questions and also on the line logged in today is Darren Hoover he's the vice president of the Messiah Valley Regional area which encompasses the El Paso region as well as I think six other states if you have any questions from Envy as well represent vanilla thanks representative schwartzwein um so um looking at some of this uh so I see it says you're looking for taxis and other Transportation providers um the thing is that the lift has to be Ada accessible right and so I know there are very few taxes and lifts in this community I would probably say zero lifts right or but very few taxis that do have um actually I don't know if there are any taxis but yeah so what the the ones in addition so we have ambulatory lift um customers it's probably 70 of our customers are ambulatory and 30 do have Mobility devices and the the units that we have that are accessible of course will be reserved for those who require it but the people that we're talking to right now to partner include uh Viva which is um accessible with a Mobility device project Amistad also is accessible for Mobility devices and then the regular taxis for the ambulatory customers so we're trying to get a mixture contract out Services okay um it's interesting and and then the new units that will be delivered they're the same as the units we have the ones um that are coming in December are the same as the ones that we just had the ribbon cutting in June they're this this you know a regular passenger van and then the ones that we're looking for going forward are going to be smaller our data shows very clearly that almost all of our trips are single passenger the the current Vans are set up for shared rides where you can have two or three people going generally in the same direction but we found it improves customer service if we're able to just pick you up and take you where you want without having to share the destination because even if you're going um somewhere like once on Lee Trevino and one's on Yarbrough generally um the person who has to wait for the other one to get dropped off has to wait and so we our data shows that typically our well our data shows not typically is 1.2 passengers per ride so that a majority are single um or just a small percentage have two people rarely three people on the same bus except this last three months we have more ride shares because we've had fewer units and those but those so those other vehicles those smaller vehicles are coming from MV no ma'am we're buying them the city according to the contract we provide the vehicles so I had spoken to uh you know one of the stakeholders and one of the questions that they wanted me to ask is that there are these these smaller Vans at MV is going to be providing and I don't know where on the presentation that is I don't know if that's the action that's coming on the 11th that that the action on the 11th is to change the contract with MB to subcontract with the taxis and the project amistads and the vibas okay but MV is so I guess they're only contract sure but but one of these I guess stakeholders were saying that back in April MV offered to to provide smaller Vans like they do in San Antonio and we were told we couldn't do that so I guess I'm just trying to understand why we cannot take vehicles from a company that we contract with but then we can go contract out services with other organizations again actually during the contract amendment in two weeks if we we could add a clause in there that they could provide vehicles at some cost um we were just going answering the question at the time was the way the contract is written as the city provides the vehicles period and so it was there's no way for them to have provided them for us well we could have done a contract Amendment back at may we could do it right now and uh and uh but so I guess because I this is being asked of me and I can't answer that and I don't feel like I'm getting an answer that I'm comfortable about these vehicles in May that MV could or couldn't contract out or buy or what a provide or obtain I didn't I did not I didn't get that message apparently you were on that call so um I I don't I don't know I this is what I'm hearing from community members when I've been hearing for the last few months it's not the first time that this has come up so I'm just trying to understand what has changed going back to Sunday service I know there's been a lot of conversation about you know we've gotten ourselves out of the red and so but I'm trying to understand why now with the Sunday service what what has changed with this that we're able to bring the Sunday service back we're looking at the first or second week in December for Sunday service so not immediately because we do need to get additional drivers and make sure that these subcontractors um are able to do what they say they can do okay you know they're not on board yet so I don't want to commit Sunday service before I have a good understanding of how many units and drivers are going to provide us during the week and then on Sunday okay and so I just I want to be very clear for my information for the public we will no longer be utilizing bus stops for the lift service we will be doing door-to-door service we have always done door-to-door service there was a whole conversation and you brought it up in a presentation that we could and were able to and I just want to make sure we're not doing that no ma'am and we should never have done it the first time that was an absolute error on our part okay well I appreciate you saying that I just want to make sure that the word happened that one weekend and it never happened again and it was it a total misunderstanding and implementation of of the intent of what we were trying to do well I appreciate your honesty Ellen thank you so much those are all my questions anyone else with any questions at this time representative lazarga I can see your forehead okay nope she just popped out of the she popped out of The Ether okay she's gone back oh we have someone else I actually do not have a quorum right I think we lost her represent Rodriguez to the front Rodriguez to the front representative Salcido to the front to the front so we're missing representative Hernandez I think representative Hernandez representative Hernandez bounced one of them can return the meeting can resume it's like Kmart there's representative thank you Representatives look at that look how convenient speakers back there I know there's speakers back there represent Rodriguez to the front thank you uh thank you so much Miss Smythe representative Rodriguez rep Salcido any questions for Miss Smythe fantastic wonderful presentation thank you so much next agenda item is prime yes sir that is item 25 and this is presentation and discussion on El Paso Animal Services reunification and pit support maybe next time good afternoon Terry kept your honor Services director I.T could I have the presentation brought up please I.T this is item 25 please I.T Winnie the presentation for item 25 please 125 presentation to the front oh that representative Rivera taking a nap right now good to see your alert how many fingers I'm holding up president Robert you can't all right it if you'll go to the city's website it is also posted as an attachment on the item that is the incorrect presentation I.T it's in the chat if you can please grab it from there and there we go sorry for the delay there okay again uh Terry capsule Animal Services director uh this is going to be a quick presentation on our Arena reunification or return a home for our pets so we fall under strategic goal number eight nurture and promote a healthy sustainable community and in order for us to meet that goal animal services along with Cedar City leadership several years ago we came up with our own uh strategic goals as well so that we could meet the city's strategical eight there but we came up with six goals so that we can meet that agenda so first of all in returning pets from home to home first thing we've got to do is remove barriers returning pet home it's it's used to be the job of completely of animal services we would pick up an animal take it to the shelter and then people would come to the shelter and look times have changed over the years and we have technology that helps us tremendously so we provide social media Avenues we have Avenues on our City's website to create Lost Pet reports and found reports um and other things that we can do too is make sure that we know our neighbors um if you lose a pet post signs again social media other things that we've done to remove barriers for the community is we we we sorry we waive fees some of those fees that we do are like microchips um if a we find a lost pet out in the field and it doesn't have a lot a microchip which is a requirement of city ordinance instead of finding the individual we'll just provide a microchip so the next time the animal does become lost that we can quickly return it to home other fees that we do waive if we do have an animal impounded instead of keeping it away from the home because people can afford things such as empowerment fees we have the opportunity now to reduce or completely waive those types of fees so we have several things for community and pet supports some of those things are include things like Pet Pantry Pet Pantry we just had a individual yesterday to come in and there's some kittens newborn instead of bringing those to the shelters she knows our messaging about kidnapping not bringing them in so she's come to the shelter to ask for help when can she bring them in to get them spayed and neutered we advise that they have to be at least the two months old um they were just recently born on September 11th uh she knows the exact day they were born they were being taken care of by some families but they they recently moved so she came to the shelter we provided her with that information and also some food as well for the for the mom cat um other things that we do are are if animals are running the streets and they need something simple as a minor fence repair we can provide those types of services as well other things that we do we we're thinking outside the box several years ago we implemented the chip scanning at the fire stations we now have one at a park and it's our intent to spread that that technology to other types of businesses pet friendly businesses and other Parks throughout the city so we have our pet wellness events this ties into returning pets home we want to make sure that if they do get lost and they do roam the streets that they'd return healthy and safe so uh many of the animals here in El Paso I think they would put Houdini to shame on the way they can escape their their confines at the homes and stuff so making sure that they have that microchip so they can be reunited as quickly as possible and also that they have the vaccinations so that they do get out and they do come across other animals other diseases that they are protected so and so they go home safe with that said there's a if it can bring up a quick video presentation on this [Music] thank you [Music] it's good when I wanted to get my pet's microchipped it's been really expensive and being a college student this makes it very affordable and easy and convenient especially having a drive up so that's what I love about it [Music] assistant [Music] foreign [Music] once in a while but with with good with good kind kind things I'm not asking for more than than my dogs can eat until I get my paycheck tomorrow [Music] so the key there that's one of those things that we talked about removing those barriers we want to make sure that the these types of things are there's no barriers they're convenient they're easy we've already provided over 7 000 uh vaccinations this year alone and over 13 micro 13 000 microchips during these types of events so with that said I'm going to turn the mic over to Adan bada research and management assistant for El Paso Animal Services um so just getting back to our our resources that we provide on that next uh slide right there is is our award-winning Innovation award-winning uh Pet Finder map uh that actually came with a ten thousand dollar um donation to to the shelter uh for that technology that we innovated here here in El Paso it allows uh every pet that comes into our care uh goes onto that map and so finders or owners of lost pets can zoom into their neighborhood and see if their pet has been picked up by one of our officers or a Good Samaritan it also shows those orange pins on there are the actual Scan locations where they can go throughout the city and get their pet scanned for a microchip so we're just expanding accessibility to to the members of our community that want to help and um trying to be Innovative about it as well next slide okay these are some of the some of the additional resources that a lot of us know about Facebook Instagram our name namely the ones that members of our community use members of the community are posting more and more on on these sites and Petco love lost is is huge PA boost is is an amazing amazing feature as well because once you go and submit your um the pet that you found it'll also automatically go in there and do a Facebook post so next door is very very popular as well a lot of those neighbors that have those doorbell cameras and things like of that nature have been you know helping each other out to see where where the pets come from and then that the that shot on the right is actually a screenshot from our website um that's you know another Innovation that we came up with was just a pet resource page a lost and found pets page it walks you through the steps of what to do when you find a lost pet simply just taking it for a walk around the area where it was picked up filed that lost and found report posting it on the Paw boost next door Craigslist and just giving us a day or two to help reunite that pet with their with their families so since 2000 2019 we've actually come up with that award-winning Pet Finder map we've done the fire station scanning we've done the Paw boost Petco love lost Resource page the reunite site which you'll see here in a bit the resource Rovers which were are constantly out in the community offering free microchips and those those Mega vaccine and microchip clinics that you saw the video on as well there you go so this is the a glimpse of that reunite site which we have a video right after uh I get done here um and it it's uh in District Five on 12 480 um Pebble Hills thanks again to representative sansilo for going out that day and helping us unveil this new technology that's first in the nation first in the world um we're very excited about it still piloting there's uh of course you know things that we have to work out because it is the first in the nation and world and um so we're definitely excited to have this in our community and uh an additional resource to the members of our community to be able to help get pets back home as opposed to having them have to come to the shelter if you could play the video please [Music] El Paso is definitely very Innovative right and the animal services department was trying to find new ways to get pets back home faster so that they don't have to go to the shelter if they ever get lost so this reunite site basically allows if a Community member finds a loose pet they can come over here scan the QR code and then scan the animal with the microchip scanner to look for a microchip and get that pet back home without ever having to go to the shelter at all this is a person a kind in the nation in the world this is a self-sustaining microchip station so if somebody find a Lost Pet they can bring it on over to the station here first thing they're going to do is scan the QR code it's going to go to a website that's going to have lots of information and it's also going to explain what to do next after they scan the QR code and get that information they're going to use this scanner you essentially waive the scanner over the animal if it's microchipped that scanner is going to beep and a microchip number is going to pop up on the screen through the website from the QR code you can enter that microchip number and hopefully get connected to the owner of that animals to get them straight back home without ever having to go to the shelter this is a pilot program so we would look for and we partnered with the parks and rec we were looking for places where we have high intake where we have lots of lost pets if it's your own pet you can check to see if they have a microchip if if they don't it'll give you information about how to get a microchip or it can help you register a chip that maybe you didn't know your pet had make sure your pets are microchipped but it also has to be updated they don't update themselves so if you ever move change your phone number make sure you go into the system and get that updated when you find a pet help your neighbor again they're they're just lost pets help them find their way home foreign so you know as you can see it's a pretty exciting technology that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world and we're excited again to have it here in El Paso it's just very important that's why we're making every effort to be out in the community offering those free microchips offering at the mega Clinic events because that microchip is definitely your pet's very first line of defense in getting back home to getting back to you uh in your in your home here we just want to show a little bit of data since 2020 you know the community has has ramped up and and helped out tremendously when it comes to getting some of those pets back home these numbers only reflect those of uh that are actually filed a found report uh we know that this is happening so much more in the community by those Facebook posts that we're seeing but these are the ones that actually made contact with us and went through the process of filling out a found report after we follow up with them to see if they were able to successfully reunite the pet with their owners they'll let us know the ultimate outcome of what happened whether they re-homed it kept it themselves a lot of times or or actually got it back to their owners on the right hand side is our field rtos we don't um you know we we're waiving those fees as we mentioned for for people to come and pick up their pets but if they don't have to come to the shelter to begin with we don't we would rather just return them out in the field so if an officer picks up a pet it has a microchip they'll scan it they'll look up all of that owner info and they'll return them right to the owner's home no questions asked and um you know trying to counsel them see why it is that that the pet got loose and loose to begin with and in the bottom left is our microchips as you can see we had a 23 increase from 20 to 21 and we're projected to have a 40 increase of a number of microchips implanted from 21 to 22. that uh bottom right picture is actually a picture of a microchip it's about the size of a grain of salt and uh you know that's the only data the only data that we don't track at El Paso Animal Services is the actual owner's info it doesn't emit the owner's info when it's scanned it doesn't store any personally identifiable information it's not a GPS tracker of any kind so it's it's definitely all it does is give off that 15 digit microchip number and um you know it's it's up to us the members of the community to to put in that leg work and get that pet back home so again you know we've we've offered we've done a lot of things here in the community like director kepschel said a moment ago we've we've given away over 20 000 20 000 pounds of food through our pantry uh offered more than 7 000 vaccines to the community and as you can see in that that graph over 13 000 microchips so far this year uh we're doing them as much as we can to help the members of the community help the pets in our community get back to their owners and out of the shelter so we'd like to invite everybody to definitely do the reunite thing when it comes to finding lost pets and help us get them back home so I'd like to take take this time to say thank you to everybody for your support um and I also have an additional comment that I want to bring up um I sent an email out earlier I just want to announce to the community as well that we did hire a new veterinarian to help with our medical operations at the shelter and our next report will be on our medical operations so with that if there's any questions thank you very much thank you thank you excited thank you sir we now go to the first reading of ordinances these are items 26 to 32 on the agenda move to approve second there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Rivera to approve the first reading of ordinances items 26-32 on that motion call for the vote voting session is open representatively zaraga aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present the next item is 33. second and this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2022-0594 traffic signal improvements to z-tec Construction Inc there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve on that motion call for the vote representative lizarga I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item 34 is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of El Paso and Carl Daniel Architects Inc for a project known as architect and Engineering Services El Paso Health Department relocation phase one move to approved there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem schwarzbein second by representative Rodriguez to approve on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem representatively zaraga aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 35 is a public hearing on an ordinance vacating portions of the city's right-of-way adjacent to a portion of pioneer Plaza at 106 West Mills Avenue motion to approve there's a motion made by representative Lisa we have a question from representative anello representative yes representative vanilla thanks uh is there staff on the line um I guess I'm just uh wanting to understand what the purpose of the vacation is um and uh to understand if they'll be blocking off pedestrian access good afternoon hermita Martinez planning on inspections um yes ma'am they're proposing uh sitting areas and there'll still be accessed as the Park is open it does it but the Park area and the uh there is a room for pedestrians to walk through portion correct that um because there is that side street there that runs in front of the restaurant and so it seems like they're kind of blocking that off I don't know if there's access on the what would be the west side of the street hmm near the west side entrance to the hotel no I'm talking about the other uh so slide six um if you see there is that small side street which people often walk from that restaurant to their hotel or to this park and so I see that this evening is there where that opening is what I'm unaware of if there's a sidewalk opening to the left of that image on slide six yes ma'am okay thank you okay color question yes sir there was a motion made by representative lizard seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 35. on that motion call for the vote representatively sarova I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 36 is a public hearing on an ordinance granting a special privilege license to Airwaves Solutions Inc for the construction installation maintenance use and repair of 62 linear feet at 1740 Curie Drive second there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem short spine seconded by representative anello to approve item 36 on that motion call for the vote Representatives aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item 37 is a public hearing on an ordinance to amend the 2025 major thoroughfort FAIR Plan to delete a portion of Roanoke Drive a proposed north-south connection between threadfield Avenue and will Ruth Avenue second there's a motion made by representative molinar seconded by mayor Pro tem shortstein to approve item 37 on that motion call for the vote mayor Pro Tem representatively zaraga aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 39 is presentation and discussion on the grants and strategic initiatives program Miss Prine is there a way where we can just be individually briefed on this item I think some of us have been made aware of it but or would you prefer to postpone for two weeks okay well we could delete the individually I think postponing for two weeks would be good because there are some projects here that I think are important for the community if that's okay we could just postpone for two weeks item 39 is fine to postpone thank you so much okay for two weeks okay thank you Council there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Rodriguez two postpone item 39. for two weeks on that motion call for the vote oh my God okay representatively zaraga uh um excuse me I thank you thank you represent lazarga and the motion passes unanimously item number 40 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept and sign a grant agreement for the bill back better Regional challenge pays 2 Grant from the United States Department to approve second Catholic development Administration you can't you can't make the most until she's finished supportive element and construction of 250 acre Advanced manufacturing districts move to approved good interception representative Rivera I appreciate that councilman we have a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve at this time second second second there's a motion in a second this Pride according to Roberts rolls the orders you would point of order please stop harassing Miss Prine she is also tired and wants to go home okay and on item 40 Council we did have uh Miss Carol Cassidy that wanted me to read this into the record she had to leave and wasn't able to stay but she says mayor city council Bill back better spoken by Biden Administration and World economic forums Claus Schwab due to USA's 33 trillion plus debt compounded by States cities counties public hospitals isds colleges are beautiful god-given nation is in the greatest of dangerous in 1776 Declaration of Independence our irresponsible federal government plus all the states taxing entities have totally indebted us El pasoans Texas Americans to embrace a one-world leader dictator totalitarian monster who according to principles of buildback better means we would be slaves to the nation New World Order dictator we will owe nothing and be happy El Paso City County umcisd's colleges according to Texas bond review are carrying the greatest debt in Texas in conclusion no more taxes bonds no mas in puestos thank you that is 4 40. call the question yeah yeah and the motion we have a motion and a second to approve on that motion call for the vote representatively zaraga hi thank you in the voting session thank you Miss Prine and thank you Council again for supporting this motion to approve and thank you all right okay one more item and if I may read the item into the record before you make a motion I would appreciate it please item 41 is discussion in action on a resolution that the city reviewed and approves the issuance of unlimited tax bond series 2022a by Paseo De less than Municipal Utility District One second there's a motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by mayor Pro tem shortsby and I do have a comment from Miss Cassidy that says unlimited tax bonds like Pontius pilot or El Paso city council are washing their hands for responsibility with a Paseo De Lester Municipal Utility District number one on that motion call for the vote the voting session is open representative Molina thank you representative Rivera representatively Sarah I thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to the end of the agenda I'd like to make a movement to adjourn and wish everybody a Happy New Year there's the motion and a second to adjourn the council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the city council meeting for Tuesday September 27 2022 is adjourned at 507