stop something I don't have it who has it I think pictures how are you doing except for uh representative everybody else's schedule don't worry you're not going to have any issues here thank you foreign because she's first item you remember all right we're gonna of course Miss fun Miss Prine we're ready okay thank you you ready Mr Prime good evening mayor yes we do have a quorum good evening this is a special meeting of the El Paso city council for Friday December 23rd 2022 it is 603 pm mayor Lisa is present in presiding inside council chambers along with mayor Pro tem shortfein representative anello representative Molina representative Salcido representative Rodriguez representative Rivera Representatives Hernandez and lizarega have requested to be excused this evening mayor we have a quorum foreign thank you if we can rise for the pledge allegiance please one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you sir yes sir that brings us to item number one on the agenda and this is discussion and action to approve I'm sorry before we begin with item one we do have a proclamation this evening and it's for the Borderland mountain bike Association day thank you mayor Pro tem no no problem very happy to meet you here to witness this historic event Proclamation by the city of El Paso Texas whereas the Borderland mountain bike Association bimba has served the community for promoting mountain biking preserving Open Spaces maintaining trails in West Texas and southern New Mexico for over 15 years through its Founders and community members and whereas bimbo was founded in the 1990s promote wellness and degree in to create enhance and preserve great trail riding experiences for mountain bikers in West Texas and southern New Mexico and for the creation of a bicycle-friendly community Through cycling awareness safe safety advocacy and the promotional riding for fun fitness and transportation and whereas bimba has for the Fantastic outdoor experiences that the Franklin Mountains have to offer via the annual Puzzler mountain bike race and through other races event hosted in our mountains and whereas the 2023 El Paso Puzzler mountain bike race will take place on January 14 2023 and we'll draw competitors from predominantly Texas New Mexico and Chihuahua Mexico and whereas the El Paso Puzzler mountain bike race will showcase the Franklin Mountains on three different courses of 15 35 and 50 miles and whereas bimba has contributed to the quality of life RC by raising funds and investing those funds to improve trails trailheads and to expand open space in West Texas and southern New Mexico now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso December 23 2022 shall ever be known as Borderland mountain bike Association day and I would like to say if there's anybody I would like to come up and speak that if it wasn't for groups like The Borderland mountain bike Association our community would be a lot of a fun less and beautiful place to live and specifically wanted to shout out the hard work that the Borderland mountain bike Association did in Saving lost dog preserving over 1100 acres in perpetuity and have worked on countless other initiatives as well I don't know if there's anyone in there mustard and navy blue spandex Lycra tops I would like to say a few words thank you all for doing this for us uh please uh please announce yourself sir yes I'm Joe Garibay uh with the Borderland mountain biking Association also the chair of the open space Advisory Board and it's one of the things that we do is advocate for open space advocate for trail advocacy making sure things go well we're working with the state park all the time to try to see what we can do to improve that process so we can get more tourism here we're an organization that really is about the outdoors and making life better for El pasoans in the outdoors so they can be more healthy and just enjoy the outdoors because that's one of the great things we have here in El Paso so thank you again for doing this for us absolutely Mary would you like to take a picture real quick we'd have to recess the meeting if uh there should be a very short meeting we'll do it right after the next okay Miss prine's good yes sir item number one is discussion and action oh before Mr I'm sorry Mr cortinas I know that um you're gonna um thank um representative Rodriguez for his service but I I want to thank representative Rodriguez again for her service not only representing District six but also representing our community thank you for all your hard work and uh again congratulations so just wanted to share a few words so on behalf of the city of El Paso on the entire 6 000 plus employees that you've represented over the last three years now thank you for all you've done for the community for District Six being a city council representative I know is not an easy task you all are faced with a lot of difficult challenges and difficult decisions that you're forced to make but doing so during a pandemic an immigration crisis and everything that we've dealt with over the last three years while you've been in office has been even more of a challenge than you've done a lot to help not only districts but as a leadership for the entire community so on behalf of the Civil past we have a small token appreciation for all you've done for the community over the last three years so thank you represent Rodriguez yes ma'am please thank you so much Lee it has been the honor of my life to be able to serve the city of El Paso I have learned so much in the very short time that I was here I don't know if I've been this is the shortest term that anybody has ever served but if it is I proudly wear that that badge I accomplished a lot a lot of the things that I set forth to do I accomplished getting money securing money for the train depot for Union Depot to get restored it's going to be restored in the next five years saving buildings finally I know that you all have an item in January 3rd meeting and we're finally saving those buildings and that I couldn't have been so so more proud of what I accomplished there right because that was my main mission was to save those buildings and by the grace of God and by the decisions of this Council those buildings will be getting saved I want to also thank the mayor for everything that you did I know that I started ringing the alarm on on this emergency declaration back in May and I feel that the world needs get to know the story of El Paso the world needed to know what was going on here and and we got that attention and El Paso deserves that attention I also want to thank all of the staff you all are amazing we have a great team you guys are a great team of not only um service members but you guys are a great team of Educators you all educate not only the council but you all educate the public and you do it knowing that it's not an easy thing to do right to how to educate the entire public of how a budget works as an example um very proud of all the work I'm very proud of District Six I love my community I I was born and raised in District Six I have my children and my husband here and I did this for them and I know that they're very proud of me and I know that when God closes one door it's because he's going to open another one and one way or another we will be back so thank you all again thank you Mr cortinas would you want to you want to present that to uh representative thank you Mr Prime yes sir that brings us to item number one on the agenda and this is discussion in action to approve a resolution to Canvas the votes cast in the December 17 2022 city of El Paso runoff election and declaring the results and I'll read the resolution into the record which says resolution canvassing returns of the runoff election for the 2022 general election for districts one six and eight whereas the city council of the city of El Paso called for the 2022 runoff election to be held in said City on December 17 2022 to fill the terms of three District representatives from single member districts numbers one six and eight for the terms as established by an in accordance with the charter of the city of El Paso and whereas the election officers who held sit election have duly made returns of the results thereof and said returns have been duly delivered to said city council now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that number one that the city council officially finds and determines that said election was duly given that proper notice of state election was duly given that proper election officers were duly appointed prior to said election that said election was duly held that due returns of the results of said election have been duly made and delivered that the election returns have properly been made out and fully certified by the officers of said election and the different voting precincts of the city and that the city council had duly canvassed and said returns all in accordance with law and the resolution and amendments thereto calling said runoff election number two that the city council officially finds and determines that the following votes were cast as said runoff election for the following officers by the resident qualified electors of set City who voted at the election District 1 Brian Kennedy 2972 votes Analisa Cordova Silverstein 1303 votes district 6 Claudia Lisette Rodriguez 1045 votes art Fierro 1362 votes District 8 Betina Olivares 885 votes Chris Canales 1536 votes and number three that in the case of the following offices the following persons who receive more than a 50 majority of the votes cast for candidates for such offices are hereby declared elected to such offices for the ensuing terms or until the election and qualification of their successors subject to the proper issuance of certificates of election by the presiding officer and that the number of both cats for each person who has a candidate for such offices according to the returns is shown in paragraph two here of District representative number one Brian Kennedy District representative number six art Fierro District representative number eight Chris Canales number four that on file in the city clerk's office and made a part here of by reference our copies of the mechanical Precinct tabulations of the votes cast at the runoff election for the December 17 2022 runoff election to elect the District representative districts 168 showing the number of votes cast in each precinct for each candidate number five that this resolution is adopted subject to the right of any candidate to condest such election in any way provided by law number six that this resolution was acted upon in accordance with the law by the presiding officer and that the city council and was deemed by said city council LED upon passage of the resolution it shall take effect immediately number seven this resolution shall be spread upon the minutes of the city council and the city clerk shall record the Amendments so adopted in the separate book kept in her office for such purpose adopted this 23rd day of December 2022. there's a motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by representative Molina to approve the resolution on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number two is discussion in action on an emergency ordinance extending a disaster declaration due to a humanitarian security and economic crisis resulting from a mass migration through El Paso move to approve ment thank you mayor I'm not sure if um Chief Rodriguez and chief degasino are here to answer some questions sorry y'all I didn't see you back there all right y'all this is the slowest walk ever no I'm just kidding good afternoon hi Chief thank you um so there's been a lot of concern that I have and that I've heard from the community um and there are first some things that I think that we I think y'all should be clearing up right and some misunderstandings um I know that there has been a conversation going on in the public and by the ngos about a lot of uh individuals who have not been processed by CBP not being allowed um to be or who are I guess I don't know what the correct terminology is so forgive me but who are essentially not reimbursable by FEMA and so there are members of the public and I think some members on the call who are under the impression that the city is not assisting them because we cannot get reimbursement from FEMA from those individuals I've spoke to the congresswoman I've spoke to many other individuals I know that's not true but I want to allow you all the opportunity to kind of clear that up a little bit and and I think that's important because I can tell you that I've been every night working with the chief and last night it was a really hard right as we knew that the weather was going to be five degrees in a wind chill factor and it'll be in five degrees in his efforts and the efforts of I mean after he gets done I I'll kind of go through some of the things we ended up doing last night but it was really an incredible job to make sure that we took people off the street Chief yeah and I'll start off by talking about the difficulty of getting people off the street there there is a group of individuals who are here in El Paso and we've seen him stay on the streets there we are trying our best to convince them we're using faith-based trying to get them to some church shelters where they feel more comfortable trying to get them into some of the ngos it's been an all-out effort these people have had a a long journey just to get to El Paso they've been abused taken advantage of charged fees they've just had a rough Trek and they do not trust anybody and you can understand that and so we cannot force anybody to go where they don't want to go but we are trying our hardest to help them get off the streets especially when you have a five degree wind chill factor so we are working as hard as we can we're assisting the churches they're asking to to shelter people we're assisting with Transportation we're assisting with wrap-around Services as well this week we opened up the convention center we set it up for an initial of a thousand people the reason why we set it up with that floor plan because we've talked about it we've talked about 2 000 people but we set it up with a thousand because we don't know what the population is yet we don't know what the mix-up is going to be as single adult male single adult females or family units so we want to make sure we have separation within the convention center itself and just so we can expand from there we've also worked on the two facilities the two School District facilities we took possession of the first one today teams have been on the scene on the ground all day they've been looking giving the assessments making sure that the I.T all the connectivity is up before we go into the next phase where we actually start setting up cots we're going through making sure the fire systems work or all the appropriateness of the facilities are there that the kitchens are operational and so we're assisting in that manner as well from there we'll be taking possession of the second School the following week this would be about midweek we'll be doing the same process there and setting that one up for a shelter as well all this is in anticipation or for when when or if title 42 is taken away as we know there's a lot of people in juatest they're waiting to cross over we don't know what that flow is going to look like so we're we're being proactive we're setting up as much bed space as we possibly can that bed space is because right now as you've seen it just with our going into this week our airport availability was approximately 600 flights a day and so there's our last minute flights out as you've seen today in the last 24 hours flights around the country have been canceled and delayed that's only going to increase throughout this weekend bless you with that that puts that delay that requires you to shelter more so by building that that's the reason why we're doing the bed capacity even without the weather situation if we see those thousands a Day released right here in El Paso we're going to need the bed space just because as we talked about our airport our bus terminals don't have the capacity going into this week we do know that Greyhound was a three-day minimum before you could get a ticket out of town that had already started the delays before the even weather I I don't know what it is going into this weekend I can imagine a bus transports have shut down as well or really being canceled or delayed and so that's going to have a huge impact too so that's why we've been focusing on the shelter operations with that you know as we go into this and we go into the next week coming days if title 42 goes away that's also going to require that Transportation piece because we know we cannot shelter everyone and so the key there is to make sure that we can keep people moving because we will be overwhelmed will overwhelm the local capacity we worked with the bishop congresswoman's office last night tirelessly to set up two additional churches those churches are trying to convince some of those people on the street to get out of the cold and get to a warm bed Sharon I understand that we we cannot force individuals to go into a shelter but do we have any safety protocols do we have people on the street there to insist you know I mean it's it's Christmas Eve in a few hours it's going to be freezing temperatures if individuals want to choose to stay there they can but is there someone there standing by in case someone does need medical assistance we we went last night we worked the the crews were on the ground tirelessly late into the evening so was the bishop so was the congresswoman so it was all of our city teams working to get people off the street we worked as hard as we could the Greyhound bus station wasn't letting people into their facility because they closed for a few hours a night now they're opening up at 1am so those who are waiting for that early minute flight they can at least get into the into the bus station or that transport sorry they can at least get in the bus that takes some off the streets doing that and doing all of our continuous efforts to try and gather people there was still around 50 people in one location and approximately 30 in the other they did not they refused to go we are not forcing anybody to go what we did is we put two large Brio buses one at each location we said here is warmth it will not turn a wheel you're more than welcome to stay in there was a handful a dozen people on each bus at both locations and there was still some that remained in the street by choice You Know Chief one of the things I think is important what representative is asking last night we had a lot of people and originally they would not leave the streets we took a bus out there and 11 of them loaded on the first bus load and we went ahead and took them to shelters from wherever we could take them to and then Bishop Seitz and the nuns went out there and started talking to them and trying to convince them that these people are here to help you they're not here to hurt you they're not here to take you back in Deport you and we ended up getting another bus load and then we got some more we ended up last night we could have given up after the first bus load because no one would get on there but everybody worked together we ended up getting 238 people that were taken off the streets last night and then again after we couldn't get anyone else to get on there the chief went out there and put like I said the two buses we walked away from the buses so they'd see that you know they were safe to get in it and we put the buses out there to allow them I know that I the last time I think I talked to Bishop's Seitz last night was I don't know 11 30 or so and he was out there and really was you know giving him you know and they didn't they didn't even they didn't trust him and it's basically even the media the news started talking to them and the news that was out there and asking them get off the street it's going to be cold this is these people are here to help you so it's been a effort that I know it's the county the city the congresswoman the Senators offers everybody understanding that right now we're preparing for the unknown and then known is supposed to happen on the 27th of December where President Biden assigned with Chief Roberts the agreement that they would look at pulling back up title 42 so and that might not happen but we know that we need to be prepared but our biggest uh priority today is to take people off the street because it's going to be another cold night and we want to make sure that everybody's treated properly and we'll continue to go out there and talk to them I can tell you that I'm out there at midnight talking to him I'm at the airport and on Wednesday night like Chief says we have 600 we were down to 212 the other night and uh so um and I know and I went down to the border and talked to the border patrol and they've actually moved down a little bit and still you know the numbers actually have gone up in the last couple days again so yeah it's um it's a um job that we'll continue to do but representative nello the biggest challenge we have today and it's a challenge that we'll meet and be successful and just take people off the street and give them proper shelter food and make sure they're okay so with that if I could just add those buses I talked about that are on the street for the warming centers talking to Reuben at the enunciation house and the diocese today they were able to get more people to get into their shelter system so hopefully that's even less tonight some of those people who chose to stay on the street last night they actually saw people who sat on the bus all night and it was a safe place we're hoping that that they'll see that and they'll choose to get in at least in the bus and so with that those buses have not left they've not left there we've kept them on the ground they've been there since midnight last night and they will be there as long as we need them there so that people have that option to get out of that cold we have our roving teams up you have our fire and police department if something happens I mean it'll follow that process but at this point we can't force them we're just giving everything we can to make sure they have that option to get to a warm spot quickly if they won't take us up on shelter and I don't think that we should be forcing people but when we say we can't force them I that's not necessarily true correct because I think about cities in the east coast when it gets to temperatures like this or lower you know there are always populations of people who do not want to seek assistance right and a lot of those are unhoused individuals and they will in in freezing temperatures they will force individuals into shelters for their own safety and so again I'm not saying that that's something we should doing but I just want clarification on that statement because I've received that question and I can't answer that you know what what option do we like is that something we can do or we cannot do and again just asking for clarification right and you know we could make a decision to to to tell people we are going to shut down an area we are going to put a curfew in place or something to that fact and we can pull them from their location but this is a delicate situation and we're going to have people that are going to still afraid if they won't come to a shelter now with the clergy with all the The Helping Hands that are out there right now trying to help them they are going to to disperse they are going to run and hide and then this problem is going to be spread across the community and so right now we're doing the best we can to keep it as organized as we can so we can gain their trust that's the best we can do okay thank you part of the emergency declaration if you look at it that we do have the option or the opportunity if we need be that we do set a curfew and talk to the chief earlier that we can set a curfew only on certain segments of the community and not the whole city okay and so that's a good segue into my questioning about the emergency ordinance um the emergency ordinance is doing two things to my understanding it is allowing us to do certain things as a city and then it is also asking for State assistance so I would really like to be able to clarify those what is the emergency ordinance allowing us to do that we wouldn't be able to do and what specific assistance are we receiving from the state um and yeah I'll let you answer that before I continue with my comments so the emergency ordinance the one we set up last spring the emergency declaration the Declaration that the mayor called that we are here to reinforce so I have two different things to the the Declaration goes further the ordinance allows us to do the lifts we need to do on a daily basis but it doesn't get us into the Sheltering aspect to being able to declare the other items or getting those resources before I go back to that I'll talk about the resources we have asked for we asked for three items as we talked to you all last week and in all the correspondence and Communications we've been putting out and that was in in the terms of security there's a lot of people in the streets it's the holiday season kids are out of school it makes for a congested area we want to make sure we have enough law enforcement here in town to protect for the what ifs is the protection for the safety of the migrants and the safety of our community just as just as well we asked for transportation assistance as we're seeing today there's a backlog in flights they've been shut down there's a backlogging buses already three days before we got into this weather Spike when you start backlogging and you start filling up your shelters and every day there's a continuous release those shelters continue to fill even as we're building shelters we don't want to risk the point of overflow or we'll be right back where we can't we don't have any room to bring anybody in so we asked it in the form of transportation when we asked for that request they were in town within I'd say about 48 hours they provided four buses to date is to my my recollection right now they provided four buses to date these are people who chose to go I believe one was to Chicago and three were to New York City the vast majority of people who were passing into the community right now are not looking for transportation that's not their request so it's not the same as we saw back in September and October the thing is we know that with title 42 going away there's a large portion of the population that's waiting in waters for that to be lifted and so they will be in that same those same unsponsored no ways no no means to get to where they're going so we might look look into that so we already asked for that they already arrived the security we talked about came in the form of DPS agents they're actually out helping Patrol the downtown area with our Metro units they're helping that in the evenings when it's even more congested they're not going into the shelter or they're not going into the congregate areas where they're they're just providing general assistance in invisibility it's not it's not just the protection because they're here it's because of the large people we have downtown we know what our last surge in 2018 2018 2019 did to our community so we're ensuring that we have enough law enforcement here so if something does go wrong we have the extra assistance we all know police our Sheriff's units Department Staffing is short everyone's trying to hire we're trying to graduate as many as we can but we want to make sure we have enough resources here now our final request was for Staffing General Staffing for Sheltering food operations processing and general wraparound Services when you're into the emergency Sheltering those requests have been made we haven't we haven't utilized any of those requests I know they moved some people over but they have not been activated so they're there for the what ifs that's why we put in the requests but those the only two functions we're using of that is the transportation and the security so my understanding was that Transportation was secured by Cesar Blanco Senator Cesar Blanco prior to the mayor calling the declaration has additional transportation from the state been provided excuse me my understanding is that the transportation that we've been using was that that funding or those transports specifically were secured by Senator Cesar Blanco prior to the Declaration being called has there been additional Transportation provided since yes okay and I do have a lot of concern about the idea of security my understand is DPS was on Artcraft the other day stopping cars at random nobody is sure why nobody's sure what came out of that these are the concerns that we had about calling this declaration prior to concerns I had um I think that you know having a DPS putting corsetino wire on the border trying to push people away from the checkpoint to be seeking Asylum only pushing them to another checkpoint where we know that border patrol has set up a large station at the downtown bridge and pushing them to another is is moving resources but I I do have a lot of concern about what has been happening already I I don't think that we have received from the state what we were told we would receive when calling this declaration and so my follow-up question well I did I'm sorry before I get to my last question I'm I did want you to be able to clarify for the public what it's allowing us as a city to do and I think there's some ability for us to use different facilities as shelter that we normally wouldn't be able to and I do think for mine in the Public's edification that would be really important to clarify that there is a portion of this declaration that does not involve State resources so going back to the law enforcement aspect I'm going to cover that one first what we've asked for they're giving anything beyond that anything you see at the border with the concentrating wire that's that's the state's own operation that's not being coordinated to us that's not what we're requested what we asked for was the extra Patrols in the downtown area we received that you talk to people at the state they're already saying the governor has been very clear in the last few days that they would not have come down here and done this if we had not caught called the Declaration unless there are repercussions for the decisions that we have made and we need to be very much aware and honest about that and I have a lot of concern about what's happening I'm not saying that not approving the Declaration would stop them from doing that that they would get up and leave I don't think they would they're here and they're going to stay but I just I think you know those were my concerns they've happened in real time and then I'm just expressing to you that I still have those concerns and and so thus I have concerns with continuing so you know Chief one thing when we're talking about law enforcement DPS has been patrolling the the Lower Valley and the Border Highway where there's been a lot of uh people on the highway and one of the things we asked them was to make sure the community and uh and also the silent Seekers were safe and uh they they went out they started uh in the last two days patrolling that area to making sure that people but we're not running across the freeway and because it's hard to determine the distance of a car going 70 miles an hour and we want to make sure that everyone's safe so they've they've actually had have given us that type of assistance uh in coordination with the El Paso Police Department also the sheriff's department to how they could work with them to make sure we got that type of assistance so reasons for declaring there's a few bullet points I'll go through and it's to exercise extraordinary powers to formally Implement our provisions of our emergency plans to provide additional liability protection to government agencies special and volunteer emergency workers to formally request the general assistance from the state and federal that's this is a normal process and to activate our preparedness response and Recovery aspects of any and all applicable local emergency management plans the effects of declaring allows us to put the economic stabilization measures in place such as price gouging wage rent controls it allows us to set curfews it allows us to commandeer facilities equipment or materials it allows us to cult and control access to a specific geographical area it allows you to issue time warrants for the payment and cost of equipment and it allows us to suspend selected codes and ordinances that's what's allowing us to set up these temporary Emergency Shelters the schools the convention centers are not built or designed for people to sleep in they're not our normal Sheltering operations is handled through hotels we know it's the holiday season hotels will not keep up with the flow especially if tidy 42 goes away so with that that's one of the most important parts there is that we can keep up all of our plans we've done everything we've said at the convention center the forward motion we have in both School properties so and this is a hypothetical question I'm not posing this at all but by declaring the Declaration we do not need to be asking for City for State resources so in the future if the council decided they could direct you to discontinue asking for those but keep the Declaration in place totally hypothetical okay um I did say I have one last question I actually have an additional question and I want to discuss the schools that we'll be using I know that the um the episd trustee and through superintendent reached out to me when the school in my district was selected or before I think even they had told you all that that was a school they were going to select and and my concern and I shared this with the city manager was that the individuals in that area will be very concerned about safety I know that that has been expressed I think episd did ask for additional security I have received over you know 50 phone calls and emails together which I guess shows that we know our community as well but I just wanted it for again public edification if you could kind of discuss a little bit what that will look like and and how we will be making sure that those neighborhoods will will be safe and secure so exactly yeah so we're looking at it I'll let the I'll let the chief answer that this is Tommy Gonzalez uh Chief you can answer it in library but I did want to speak since you um mentioned that we talked right after you we talked I talked to the superintendent of the PSD and also to the Chief and to our City attorney to ensure that that was in the agreement and it is in the agreement to give the necessary security that they requested and uh the chief can elaborate on the wraparound services that we're working on right now to make that more sustainable and make it more long-term yes so so we included the security in in that aspect we've already had the security teams both fire and police services out there giving us evaluations of the facilities making sure that we're making it as safe as possible for the community at large we're looking to house family units there this is a facility that you know unlike you know we have some shelters in in the area that where people stay overnight and then they exit the day and they Traverse around our shelters are made so they can so they once they entered into the shelter system we're gonna take it we're going to process them we're gonna do it and by process I mean where is it you're going you know we do we know they have a means so we're going to help them facilitate that we're going to give them the Wi-Fi network the connectivity that they need a place to charge their phones or a device even if they don't have it we'll have people there to assist them get their tickets if they need that assistance and then they're in that shelter from there they'll be provided they're three meals a day a nice safe place to sleep there'll be some you know some wraparound services for for their to you know for the children and everyone else staying in the center but it's not one where they're going to be traversing in and out of the community they'll arrive more than more than likely via bus they'll be processed in and they'll be as they process out they'll be transported either to the airport or to the bus terminals okay thank you for that I appreciate that and then my last question is for Mrs Neiman I I just want to make sure that I remember the information you gave us at the last council meeting correctly that count also will need to ratify this every seven days every 30. no ma'am this will be ratified if Council passes it today it'll be in place for 30 days and then you'll have to um re-extended in 30 days the mayor's declaration expires in seven days and then he can issue a new declaration okay would it be possible to have this back on the January 3rd meeting because I'm not comfortable going ahead another 30 days so so the ordinance is um by I Believe by by Charter 30-day extension you can certainly have the discussion again on on Council in terms of the status of of the emergency operation so it's it's at least 30 days but you can bring it forward sooner yes okay and so I'm asking today if you would be if it would be possible to do that yes we could bring it back okay so I want to support this today I I think that you all are doing a great job under the circumstances I want to be very clear I have absolutely no issue obviously what you all are doing I'm very proud of the work that you're doing I'm very impressed I know that we need assistance I'm in no way saying that I don't agree with that but I've already been concerned prior I'm concerned now and I just am not comfortable with what could happen in 30 days so with with Mrs Neiman's assurance that that'll be coming at the next meeting um I will support this today Laura we will need to do a revised uh in terms of postings since you posted the agenda yesterday or Wednesday the agenda deadlines have passed how what need to happen is the mayor could call a special meeting to place that item on for January 3rd and that meeting can be on January 3rd if the mayor closes I can also do a emergency state of emergency just like I did for seven days and it can be renewed every seven days right but the the emergency ordinance of it is approved today right no I'm saying if it wasn't me yeah I mean one of the things I do want to you know there is no easy answer to what we're doing there are no ifs and much about it and as we see what's going on in the federal government and everything we're doing today it's a Band-Aid on a broken immigration system that has to be fixed by the federal government and really get the UN involved in the country surrounding if we're going to be able to move forward it's not uh legislation that will be able to be done in the US to be honest with you in my opinion if it will fix it and we really believe we need to get the UN involved in the countries around but right now what we're doing it's strictly a Band-Aid on a broken system that needs to be fixed and there's no easy answer and you know we should work day in and day out and we've been here every day and basically every night talking about what's the best thing we can do city manager the County Judge Betsy Keller congresswoman um the state Senator Marco everybody's really involved and then episd got involved and until the rent they're going to charge us for the schools is zero they wanted to become a partner and they wanted to become part of the solution for for today so they're not charging us rent to use the two buildings and so the superintendent and the board you know voted on giving us that um that Liberty to be able to use those as long as we clean them up maintain them and pay the utilities so I think I want to thank the superintendent and the board for giving us that opportunity because like I said earlier we're preparing today for the unknown and when I decided to call state of emergencies when we saw that we were averaging 2500 a day and the temperature we're going to drop and I can tell you that under no circumstances was not going to jeopardize anyone's safety or anyone's life so and that's the reason we did it um thank you representative mayor Pro Tem thanks um I just wanted to oh thank you Chief uh for for the work that you all are doing right now I know it's not easy um it's really really uh challenging to see these scenes here and to know that um we're trying to provide shelter and support at a time where still some folks are not accepting it I do want to say that I I did see that y'all did have the Sun Metro buses up there um as a sort of shelter of Last Resort quite literally I hope more people take advantage of that um and um I know that the next couple days are going to be difficult as well as the weeks and months ahead but um also gives you a lot of confidence you're able to stand up the the convention center thinking outside the box and so in terms of the schools and need to continue to to look at ways that we can go and help to protect our communities all these visitors coming through as well so thank you um representative Rodriguez thank you and again I want to thank you all for for your hard work this isn't an easy task this isn't a test that you all are accustomed to we were not trained for this but it just shows a resiliency of our department of our teams that were able to chameleon our way through all sorts of tragedies right and crisis so I really appreciate all the work that you all are doing not only for the migrants but for the community of El Paso I think that I feel comfortable leaving here knowing that that the community is in good hands with the leadership that that the city has so thank you for everything um you know for me in my opinion more importantly than calling on the UN I think it's more important to call the president of the United States and I believe that President Joe Biden needs to come to El Paso and needs to see what's going on and needs to see how this community has came together for in all different forms from the Catholic Church to the school districts to this community and how we have been able to fix this as much as we could as put a Band-Aid on it like the mayor has said but it is not our responsibility but again I thank you all for doing so because that's what El Paso does that's what we do we step up when we are at our lowest points and moments so very proud of you all very grateful that I have been able to work with you all I Feel Again comfortable that you all are here and with your leadership and God willing we will be okay um I really hope that the migrants will understand that we're doing this for their safety that we need them to be sheltered for their safety and we don't want to have any more tragedies in our city we don't want to have people running across our border Highway and our freeways getting run over and killing and being killed so it is important that we do have that assistance here to have that extra Public Safety it is for Public Safety that is our responsibility as as an organism organization in the city of El Paso Public Safety is number one so thank you again and I will be supporting this thank you representative Rodriguez representative molinar thank you mayor chief niagostino chief Rodriguez thank you very much for being here thank you for all your team the hard work you've been doing I know there's an operation in plans and it's a fluid operation um having been in the police department I know what you're dealing with to a point I didn't ever deal with like this with migrants at all however people need to understand that you must have a plan in place you must have a plan B and just in case something happens something doesn't go right and this is fluid we're already how many months into this and things are happening and things are not happening the weather just like we said the school district they took the lead and said hey let's let's work with our our city of El Paso so we thank them for well the Catholic Diocese of El Paso as well and all the other churches that are helping as well we need to we need help it's it's not just the city alone the county the state and everybody else and I applaud you for your work it's not going to end tonight it's going to continue and so um I wanted to know if you haven't been reached out um our office has been receiving different calls if you go on U.S 54 across from Mesquite do you know what the exactly is going to have the plans there if you can share that with us so I do know that border patrol is putting up a soft-sided structure that is to add additional capacity as as we know that there are CPC their central processing center has a capacity of a thousand forty so 10 40. we we know that their breaking point is five thousand right now they're at a comfortable number actually they've been able to keep maintain that through our daily releases here in El Paso but they've been able to maintain it with this surge they know that they will not be able to hold it it's going back to where we were at a week ago when we were seeing the high releases of 1700 a day into our community and so they're they're building up a soft-sided structure those are for people who are still being processed so they're in federal custody it's just another place to house while they're doing processing so they're expanding their footprint so they can they have a safe environment for people to stay okay thank you very much chief chief thank you very much and um to your comments I know that we've talked about this and the chief and I and all the partners right now that we really believe that um the it's still going to get worse before it even gets better and that's what we're preparing for and that's what I call the unknown um representative zubetta thank you thank you Chief Rodriguez San Andreas you know thanks again uh my colleagues have pretty much summed up what you all have been doing out in the streets during this cold weather you've been out there yourselves uh again just like rev Molina said having been through the police department we know how you're feeling and how it can be aggravating at times how it can be disappointing but you're coming through with flying colors on behalf of my constituents on District Seven along the border Highway they want to thank you they feel so much secure now as from the previous time before and so my question to you is I've got two questions in particular is what is a Time weight or the turnover for those that are are set to go to a different location that that's that's the variable we're at right now so looking with with flights being canceled what 600 a day availability we had right there is going to be drastically released so that makes for longer stays you know it's the holiday season it's already a reduced flow knowing that Greyhound is three days out and then you add this cold weather so that extends that's that's the unknown variables that you have to deal with we're thinking long term we're thinking without the weather obstacles without the holiday season being here because it's it's passing us and at that point we know that our transportation system still won't keep up so that's why we put the ass in for State assistance that's why our model looks at also doing transporting that's why Chief Rodriguez and the office of emergency management has been working closest with closely with other offices of Emergency Management such as Dallas Denver Houston Austin and is to build that Rapport those teams are getting ready they're getting prepared so this way if we're scheduling people's people are securing their travel we tell them we'll secure your travel out of Denver and then so we'll chart our buses so they can get them from here to there just to make sure that the traffic capacity can keep up as far as thinking Thanking us for what we're doing I want to take a quick second and I want to thank the crews have been on the on the ground it's been some cold days it's been some long days Sun Metro we had a driver on there who went numerous hours last night sure and and those those people are really and I feel for them I mean they're doing it they're doing a great job they have a passion for what they're doing but what I feel is the weight that they feel because they couldn't convince everyone to get off the street so I'm not saying anything I just want to recognize them for sure and you know what uh I think we have uh the uh the council there's no doubt about it staff is has been doing the utmost possible and possible work that they've been doing yes we were out there just like the mayor my wife and I were out checking out the area and your roving teams were out there and the cleanup Crews were out there by the budgets people just like you said so what you're going how you're coming across is you're telling what is happening in real time here and what's going on my other question to you with with the influx could possibly being lifted on the 27th have we heard and I know this was brought up on a previous console mayor is have we heard from Ford Bliss are they going to help us out when the numbers get higher or what's the status between Fort Bliss and the city of El Paso and that's been a request there's been a request made by the congresswoman and at this point they still have not granted us you know access to that and that's why we're moving to as the plan that you see when the Red Cross came on Sunday and we met with them they had um they brought 10 000 cuts and they're setting them up at the schools at the Civic Center the Civic Center they put out a thousand on Wednesday night and with the capacity of another thousand that prepared to do and then the schools each school will be able to have a minimum of 1500 in each school and then we'll continue working with the ngos and working with the diocese we we believe in in the help in the Red Cross they've committed to us to be here to supply food medical and clothing and she and blankets through uh December 31 I mean January 31st okay thank you and we'll continue because that is uh you know when the refugees came from Afghanistan that was a great facility and we understand that and we're trying to get the same thing that was going on there but uh one of the things that did tell us is uh that congresswoman what should Congressman I don't remember someone told us that had been quite a few deployments at Fort Bliss at this time and that changes a little bit of what what the Canon cannot do on Federal Land yeah but the clouds they've housed there before so I mean that that would certain that would certainly help our community out here and um it's not an ass that we haven't asked repeatedly okay but thank you so much for what you you've been doing you and your staff and the city is as a whole has been uh accommodating and yet uh I too feel like those that are staying out there should somehow be convinced but I understand also that we cannot force them I I truly do that I understand that so keep doing what you're doing sir and and uh hopefully we can get them all inside thank you mayor thank you and I think last time was a a great step forward of them being able to trust us and come in and like I said at the original bush had 11 people on it at the end of the night we were able to to get Sheltering for 238 so that was that was the last thing thank you that was a great idea there right there thank you thank you represent Rodriguez I mean um thank you mayor and uh thank you so much Chief augustino and chief Rodriguez I've been in Endless calls late night with you all and you all are putting so much work into this and so I just want to thank you all the staff also thank the mayor for calling the the emergency disaster declaration that was much needed Public Safety is our priority for the for the community that was the biggest issue so I know that's being addressed I I know in that we're also dressing shelter feeding and just getting doing the best we can with what you call the broken system needs to be handled up in in comprehensive immigration performance to take be taken up federally but I think more importantly I do I do think that Biden needs to come out here in El Paso and and see what it is to work and be living here in this border community and for him to know the needs uh and we're just trying to put the best processes in place with a broken immigration system so you're all doing a great job continue to do that and and you all have this this Council I'm here to support hurt all the efforts and we're going to continue to do the keep the migrants safe and also keep our community safe and thank you so much for everything thank you representative Salcido and I thank you with everything that's going on I think it's important to mention that El Paso is still one of the safest cities in America without Miss primary I'm almost here in a second mayor I've got one more question for the chief for you you can answer it I know I've had people call the office and wanting to volunteer our people being taken in is for volunteers or work or no so Jorge Rodriguez Emergency Management coordinator for office of emergency management so thank you for your question so we we have a lot of Partners on the ground Red Cross of course is assisting so we're asking anyone that wants to volunteer uh that they become affiliated with the Red Cross that way they can go through their process and then they can be utilized I know that there's local El pasoans that have and are currently working within the convention center the Red Cross did bring 80 to 90 folks from out of town but I know we have a segment of el pasoans that are assisting there so they can join our forces essentially to help us during this period also they can volunteer at the Salvation Army with the food bank there's other ngos that are in need of assistance as well so time more than anything and really it's all an all hands on deck so but that's our recommendation okay thank you do you have a number for the Red Cross we'll we'll put it back together all right thank different organizations thank you sir thank you mayor yes sir thank you again sir um is there a public comment yes we have nine um members of the public before he responds just uh Laura Cruz acosa communications director for the city of El Paso just to answer your question sir on our website for the um city of El Paso if you go to the city of El Paso website we have a migrant um information they're listed there's also a donation section that donation section lists a variety of different agencies to include the Red Cross and Paso Paso Norte Community Foundation which recently launched their own efforts which also combines all of the agencies thank you without Miss Pine yes mayor we do have 10 members of the public that signed up to speak and I'm sorry can one more point that I just want to stress I apologize Laura one more point that I want to stress is that we are not taking physical donations at the convention center so we'll actually ask the community to please not take any items to the convention center please visit the website at those agencies they'll be able to provide additional information thank you all right thank you we're going to try this one more time Mr Pine yes sir the first person is Emmanuel Torres Emmanuel Torres will be followed by Fernando Garcia Samantha Singleton commissioner David Stout Yvonne Diaz Carlo Palacios Emmanuel Torres Fernando Garcia if you're in the Q star 62 and mute your telephone Fernando Garcia star six please to unmute your telephone I don't see Mr Garcia's phone number in the queue we'll move on to Samantha Singleton Samantha Singleton star sixth place to unmute your telephone good evening you'll have three minutes thank you good good evening everyone I'll be speaking on behalf of Fernando Garcia and the Border Network for human rights so one of the things that I want to just say really quickly is I don't think the question was ever answered regarding the city and the FEMA affiliation that has been one of the biggest issues that we've been hearing out in the community we do have B HR members on the ground that was out there last night as well assisting with individuals to help get migrants on the the buses to get to shelter you know their um concern is because they're not processed or they're unprocessed I'm not sure the correct terminology that um they will they're in fear that they're going to be deported so they don't want to um receive any any shelter so what can the city do about that um your warming stations are only open from 8 A.M to 8 pm can those hours be extended I understand that you have some buses out there and that's great but what more can you do we understand the city has a surplus what resources or funds can the city dip into to assist in this we understand that title 42 may end next week but right now we're talking about tonight we're talking about temperatures that will be uh freezing and I've heard several individuals talk about because of the weather conditions we want to ensure that people are safe and no you can't force anyone's hand but 80 people is is 80 people too many to still be out there so what more can we do what can we do as an organization as an NGO to help in this humanitarian crisis what more can we assist than we have already collected winter jackets and we've packed out almost 100 winter jackets in addition to assisting with getting these individuals out there what about um facilities that you all are not using that belong to the city that maybe have nothing to do with the federal government is that something that can be opened up for these individuals to sleep in um so those are the the my main comments regarding this issue thank you so much thank you and the next speaker is commissioner David Stout good evening star six please to unmute your telephone can y'all hear me yes sir okay thank you uh good good evening mayor and members of council uh Happy Holidays to you all I appreciate the opportunity to address you this evening as elected officials I believe that uh we must be United and collaborate at the highest level um as we help with the humanitarian crisis in which we find ourselves and especially at this point in time we must ensure that people are not subject to the freezing weather that we are experiencing and as has been discussed in this this evening our overriding goal in the next few days must be to avoid the deaths and any deaths and injury that people may uh come across not having a place to stay warm and that applies not only to all migrants but to an in-house people and and so I want to I want to stress continue to increase collaboration and communication is going to be the key for that and I also want to say I can't express enough gratitude to the organizations in our community who are doing this work despite the disgusting threats from our state to criminalize their humanitarian missions I am in full support of our El Paso ngos efforts as we all should be along those lines I'm also very concerned about the effect that the militarization of our border and bringing operation Lone Star to El Paso has and will continue to have on those efforts that said I respectfully asked uh that that we continue to uh our collaborate efforts to support the work of Sheltering and trans and transporting migrants to unite them with their sponsors or ngos and other cities that are ready to host them making sure that these efforts are coordinated at the highest level possible again I think we should push back against the militarization of our area as well as against political toys to make the work of supporting migrants more difficult for those in the community who are doing that work I applaud representative anello for asking for clarification regarding what exactly the city or or our community is receiving from the state as a result of the disaster declaration I had the same question and now understand that we have not really received much other than militarization and DPS harassing people on the West Side apparently this in my opinion is not beneficial and only has served as a play in the governor's political game and that said I ask that you communic communicate in writing and give specific accounting of what specific benefits toward the goal of Sheltering and transporting and feeding migrants the city of El Paso is receiving due to the emergency declaration that we otherwise would not have received it sounds like uh you all are going to continue with the disaster declaration and I hope that in doing that you also push the state government to come through with true and meaningful assistance with things like food shelter and coordinated transportation and I am here happy to support you and back you up in any way I can thank you sir I also want to thank you very much for your work helping people's shelter against the dead thank you sir especially it's nice and grateful for the work that we're doing together as suggested by rabbanello in the new year to evaluate the situation have a very happy holiday thank you thank you speaker is Yvonne Diaz pardon me the next speaker is Yvonne Diaz Ivan Diaz star sixth place to unmute your telephone good evening you have three minutes Hi how are you all today can you hear me yes okay cool uh well hope you're all having a good night like on a Friday I'll move like um Christmas Eve um I know this is not something that our city or anyone like uh especially I was working um in non-profit organizations and uh in the community we were expecting but I think in El Paso we once again show how we are united as a community and how we show up for each other so thank you again everyone that has been volunteering that has been put in the time that has been out there uh with um the human beings that are in our city so I think that there's a lot of still like confusion what will be the benefits or what are really the benefits of declaring El Paso uh um a disaster zone or like um having military station on the border I think what I've been hearing is more talked about the security and keeping Public Safety but it really sounds more like a fear for what the migrants are here or it sounds more that um you all want to um do more border security but it's uh and I hear that it's a humanitarian crisis but it sounds more that there's more fear about the border and I think that's um a lot of the time talk that um you know certain political affiliations um uh imposed so I really think that that's not what we are here for because I still haven't heard that what that FEMA has been helping uh but I don't know if like we are also taking into consideration people that have not been processed so they cannot access any federal resources and those are the people that have been left behind I was yesterday they're like more past than 11 p.m and I was having a lot of conversations with a lot of the migrants so I think it's really important that we get to know like the people so if members of the city council uh mayor Luther if you have not been out there I think it's really important that we have these conversations with the people that we are um serving because it is part of the responsibility as human beings it's part of us on Earth to respond humanely as well and I think um more military Fusion in the border is just going to create more fear and I believe that um the people could take the industries like the police have been uh um uh out there with their best intentions I have witnessed that myself and I think the same way that they're there out there with their best intentions there's also migrants here with their best intentions that they're only trying to make a better life for themselves they're not trying to get in trouble because it was so hard for them to come here thank you thank you you've reached the three minute limit for your time but yes it's Carla Palacios Carla Palacios star six to unmute your telephone Carla Palacio star six I don't see Ms palacio's phone number in the queue the next speaker is Wesley Lawrence followed by Anna Resa Michael Grady Irma Cruz good evening sir you have three minutes thank you good evening Council Amir how are you I come here today as someone who is deeply disturbed by the rhetoric that I've seen in our community for those who are coming here for better life and better opportunity I come here asking you to please demilitarize our U.S border it is unacceptable and it is a violation of Human Rights but it's also a violation of what makes El Paso special all of us here in El Paso come from a migrant background no matter your where you're from whether you're from Germany or Mexico or wherever that may be and it's time that we start honoring that as City reps I challenge you to tackle the hateful rhetoric that is on next door and that is in our community these are people that's lives matters these are people that need help and we need to be honest these are people that are coming here because for decades the United States government has destabilized these countries whether politically or economically are socially these are people that are that for the last four years have been told time and time again through xenophobic rhetoric that they cannot come to America we need to address that as a city we can do better and I'm glad of the work that we are doing but we do need to accept that we can do better equipping people with with blankets if they don't want to leave where they're at we can still give them blankets we can still allow them to shelter in place we can stop by taking away their shelters we can stop stealing their tarps we can stop stealing their blankets and we can ensure that these people that if they do not feel comfortable coming with us because we are strangers they don't know us but if we can give them the comfort that they deserve the dignity that they deserve and the love and compassion that El Paso is all about we can better the situation we also have to understand that this is not a migrant crisis this is a humanitarian crisis and we as El pasoans if President Biden does not want to come down to El Paso we need to go to Washington we need to talk to everyone possible so you have to understand what's going on we know here in El Paso this is not the first time we've had a humanitarian crisis and it surely will not be the last until Democrats and Republicans come together to pass meaningful immigration reform at the federal level we also need to ensure that when we do go to Washington we talk to them about the two the millions of of people that are here undocumented that also deserve justice that also deserve to feel safe in our communities we as a city can can really be loud but we also have to take to task Governor Abbott and ensure that our community is not being used as a political prop for a future presidential campaign nor is it being used to push hateful uh harmful rhetoric on people that are different than we are so I challenge you with that and I look forward to working with you in that capacity because as an elected official myself representing sd29 this this issue does not just affect El Paso it affects everyone thank you thank you the next speaker is Ana Resa anaresa star sixth place to unmute your telephone anareza good evening you have three minutes yes hello good evening my name is and I'm a community activist um greatly mayor and city council um thank you for your hard work to bring people out of the streets and I think the city closed their City shelter now preventing a lot of support and relief or while we have started seeing slowly Street releases and now we're at this level of course this is beyond that this is another big issue of the reality of what's Happening um in our in a Fronteras but we'll get into when we talk about the priorities it looks like you all are going to pass it well worry me is the militarization and cops that are at these sites because we're talking about I know that they're doing work um they're trying to get people moving but I think the presence the lives of like three or four cops is not a very healthy thing for our community because remember the first experience they these community members had in the U.S how has been horrible they were in detention centers with a lot that never turned off they were sleeping on floor it was really cold they took showers at 2 30 in the morning they were waking up they were there for eight to ten days some of them um they were threatening to be separated by their children um they're in by giving more hours so what we need to provide is a very welcoming process and I think we failed that at the beginning and we failed it every time and I need you to start preparing ourselves for the future in our budgets this is a reality that's going to be happening from now on so we need to prepare ourselves to be loving caring supporting people and I feel like the big part you're going to ask this would be staff not security I think staff to help run the shelters have to go talk to people to give out information about the risk of being in the streets the the dangers surround them being um you know a coyote by harassers Knuckles they're still in the street we know the reality of that so we should be giving out those kind of vacations against staff can do that and also Community communicating to our community of the the beauty of of migrants in our community and how we can let's celebrate that let's uh make it something that is beautiful so we need to stop for good healthy meals for showers a warm one heat for clothing for compassion to where they are come from and where they're going and supporting me you know but no military station so please keep that in mind as you're looking at this right now I think the biggest support you know where the people are still up in town after 3 P.M the less Sacred Heart um and it's very dangerous but people go I would suggest there's a lot of help me you need a lot of helpers but please don't continue that damage of militarization of that forceful until you've reached the three minute limit thank you thank you for your time the next speaker is Michael Grady Michael Grady star six to unmute your telephone Michael Grady star sixth place I don't see Mr Grady's phone number in the queue Irma Cruz star six Irma Cruz star six to a major telephone I don't see Miss Cruz's phone number in the queue either submitted a statement that she would like representative anello to read thank you Miss Prine uh statement from Veronica Carl Hall I do not support extending the emergency declaration unless the following occurs one that the city and the county coordinate efforts to help migrant populations to the city explains how the declaration has resulted in monetary assistance from the state it seems a declaration only resulted in the state sending the National Guard to scare the migrants from reaching CBP agents and now many of them have crossed without declaring their Asylum claim immediately this has an immediate impact as people cannot stay at the city shelters without their CBP issued documents three of the city accounts for how it was the city accounts for how it will spend the money it has received thus far and explains why the county didn't have the same issues with the reimbursements from FEMA four coordinates better with the shelters and provides transportation for migrants turned away at the city-run facilities five the city has a plan for insurance migrants are not sleeping outside in deadly weather I requested each council member the mayor city manager City attorney and every top administrator at the office volunteer at least one hour of their time at one of the shelters or churches to help the migrants directly thank you for honoring carbohall thank you representative vanilla the final speaker is Peggy Hinkle Peggy Hinkle star six twenty major telephone Peggy Hinkle star six I don't see that phone number in the queue either mayor that concludes public comment on this item thank you and I want to thank everyone that came and spoke on this uh while we were talking I got a letter um sent to me that uh and I think Chief D'Agostino got the same one that uh we will be receiving between the city and the county an additional seven million dollars from FEMA and the way it uh it's they're breaking it out which is again to help us continue with with uh what we're doing right now the amount will be 2.69 million to the county and 4.39 million to the city in addition to The Upfront money we've already been given and allocated and this is part of the 79 million dollars that FEMA has for the first quarter thank you with that can we take the vote Mr prank yeah I just have one question I don't know yes sir Chief Douglas do you know is here but um I know that that we've set up these shelters um so far is is there any other other public entities like the county that currently have shelters open during this time oh yeah there's quite a few I just tried a few additional other other entities I know that the school district's working with us so your question is specifically for Sheltering yeah for which other ones are not Sheltering so we have our ngos pronunciation house facility our churches we have our our opportunity assistant or Center our Rescue Mission we have the convention center the schools we're working on the county has a processing a welcoming Center of their own it's not housing it's creating those connections that's still about five o'clock at night yes the County's welcoming Center okay and then and then just in terms of coordination OEM is is comprised of members of both the city and the counties uh First Responders can you just help to clarify that again because it is the city county office of emergency management so it's a joint City County okay just wanted to make clear of that because it seems like there's questions about coordination so um to the extent that we can do anything with with tonight in terms of encouraging people to get on those buses just to stay overnight or anything like that I think it's really important really doesn't make a difference at this point whether it's the city the county the school districts whoever it is we're all trying to work together here and I think it's important to understand that that those are important questions to ask at the end of the day but we really need to be looking uh beyond what what office we're in and what we can do to help help these human beings that are here in our community exactly thank you thank you mayor Pro tem for that Mr Pine yes sir the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve the emergency ordinance on that motion call for the vote mayor do you consent yes ma'am thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously with the mayor's consent thank you Council again representative uh Rodriguez thank you again for your service and uh mayor Pro tem I did not announce that uh congratulations on your wedding on Saturday thank you and also I know that Argentina won the World Cup so correct both of those things are very important and both of them are on the same day so Mr Tatiana thank you again and uh everybody uh happy holidays Merry Christmas and may God bless everyone listen to adjourn godspeed representative Rivera there's a motion and a second to adjourn the special meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the special city council meeting for Friday December 23rd 2022 is adjourned at 7 22 pm thank you Council