e e e e e e e e e e e good morning Miss PR it's 9:00 a.m. good good morning everyone good morning everyone Miss P can we uh get started please good morning mayor yes sir good morning this is a meeting of the AL Paso city council for Tuesday July 30th 2024 mayor liser is President presiding in council chambers along with mayor Pro Kennedy representative alternate mayor protim mol representative salido and repres reprentative Gales it is 9:01 a.m. representative Riva is running a few minutes late this morning now will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Pasa police chaplain Robert Hill Jor good morning sir good morning everyone to the mayor uh ascal Lisa uh also the mayor protim Brian Kennedy and uh altimate mayor protim Joe molai good morning giving honor to God the mayor and all department heads here I'd like to give you the invocation talks about doing good do not grow weary in doing good this is according to 2 Thessalonians 3rd Chapter 13 Verse I want to encourage you that doing good is right and good may feel thankless and difficult but it's always worth it you might think that it doesn't matter or no one notices what you do you work hard and you try to do the best you can and live this life the way you should don't grow weary nothing that you give to God is fruitless nothing that you do for the community is fruitless nothing that you do for El pasor is fruitless every decision you make to do it helps you uh develop your toolbox and do a good job in what you're doing so I'd like to encourage you to continue to build on something good in this city and go forward and and this path that God has set for you because you all have been appointed to do this will this work for God may God add a blessing to the hearer of his word thank you thank you sir now sir we have a yes sir this morning to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance we have Daisy Girl Scouts troop 64114 we have Ana Lu Vargas tan Lee Mia Adas Lena Cosgrove Bri Cosgrove orola tenu orella tenu and Ariel Wyatt morning the United States of America naice job B Victoria she's not here we apologize their sisters they're not here sorry I'm not cont sure will everyone in teams please make sure your microphones are on mute thank [Applause] you thank you going take a picture with sure come on now that' be great and for the record representatives ernandez and Rivera join the meeting at 9:05 a.m. we over here and then right to the center and then [Applause] thank you you huh I didn't hear you good morning everyone and um as we uh sit here today uh we're a day closer to um the fth anniversary of August 3rd it's a day that U change El Paso and really our country forever and as we remember the victims and their families we need to continue to always keep them in our prayers I don't think there's a day in El Paso that we don't think about it how a senseless act of violence changed our community and how great citizens not only of El Paso but our neighboring country lost their lives so I'd like to have a moment of silence to remember the people that lost their lives in a senseless act of Ence and also their family members and um we'll always keep them in our prayers and um it's 5 years ago on uh Saturday which was a Saturday when it actually happened so um I want to have a moment of silence to U remember all the people and always remember one thing will always be El Paso strong thank you and may God bless America and may God bless El Paso Miss PR thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations for those honores receiving a proclamation this morning your group will have up to 6 minutes collectively to speak at the podium the first Proclamation is gastrosis Awareness Day representative um Canales thank you mayor Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas gastrosis is a condition that affects one in every 2,000 babies from birth characterized by a hole in the abdominal wall allowing the the intestines to extend outside the body and whereas the exact causes of gastrosis are often unknown likely resulting from a combination of genetic and environmental factors and whereas the estimated cause for hospitalization and physician fees related to gastrosis is approximately $120,000 and the impact on affected individuals may last throughout their lives and whereas gastrosis awareness day is recognized globally on July 30th and communities are urged to turn green to raise awareness about this rare birth defect and whereas the city of Al Paso desires to join the global community in recognizing gastrosis Awareness Day bringing awareness to Al Paso and all of Texas about the challenges faced by individuals born with gastrosis and the long-term effects they often endure now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that July 30th 2024 shall be known as gastrosis Awareness Day signed by our honorable mayor Oscar liser welcome good morning good morning good morning mayor liser and City my name is Leila Martinez and I'm here to tell you you about my birth defense G Keers I was born with four incens intestins out of my stomachs I had two surgeries with one week of birth which caused me have a Starbelly button thank you it it's great that you're here uh raising awareness for this condition and hopefully can help other people uh who have to go through this after you did so thank you for being here this morning thank you thank you for being here and I hope uh everyone is you're doing well and that um you continue to do well because one thing I've always said and you just I say that the future of our country and our city is the youth and getting to meet you we know that our future is very bright so thank you thank you good morning my name is Latasha Martinez I'm mom and I just wanted to bring awareness because it's one in 2,000 babies that are born with this rare disease and now with medical technology and advances you're able to find out as soon as I did at 13 weeks um so at 13 weeks I saw Specialists and knowing that the amount that it causes families just to see The Specialist the surgery she was in the niku for 30 days um she had two life-threatening surgeries day one and day six I didn't get to hold her until like day eight um she just basically whisked in the O and performed on and then she also just had her gall water and appendex put back or taken out uh last year in August so she's doing great um my logo for my shirts that my lovely peers are wearing that is my logo that I created um El Paso is home we're a military family so we moved here right before Co and it's home and I wanted to set some Footprints and make awareness because it is very rare but her surgeon actually just did a surgery on someone last year so it's very common but rare at the same time um so the logo explains it not all stars belong in the sky because it's a star belly button um their intestines are out of their stomach and they sew them back or put them back in and sew the stomach together and that causes it to be a belly button so my star is not in the sky but it's right here and she continues to amaze me every single day she's amazing and then I'm so thankful for this cohort the Bard by change put together by the a Paso Hispanic chamber um it's taught me so much and I'm able to lead my daughter into success and bring awareness to Al Paso and the nation thank you thank you you guys can come to the microphone over here thank you we'll do the high you guys shall have two and a half minutes three minutes good morning uh council members and mayor liser I'm desire manatus the public policy director with the El Paso Hispanic chamber of Commerce and we in coordination with Wells Fargo have developed this leadership program known as bordered by change and the whole purpose behind it is to teach leadership skills but also compassion for the community so this year when we heard latasha's story we were very moved and we decided as a group that this would be our community project so we've been working on this for about a year and we're so proud of the progress we've made as Latasha had said 1 in 2,000 babies are born with this disorder it's becoming more common and surgeries for this range up to hundreds of thousands of dollars so in this community where often insurance is a luxury you know having a child with this disorder can cause financial and emotional uh issues so we applaud The Bravery of Latasha and of Leila and I just to introduce you to Pearl and also Maria these are are fellows from border by change and we're just so happy that we're able to be here today thank you thank you [Applause] the picture how are you thank you s congratulations Sarah I'm GNA try not to tell anyone you had a birthday the other day when was it Sarah last Tuesday huh yeah Ann thank you sir and for the record representative Fierro joined the meeting at 9:12 a.m. that brings us to the next proc the next Proclamation is David El carasco job core month yeah good morning we're going to read the proclamation first thank you good morning mayor Proclamation city of Al Paso Texas whereas our nation's youth is one of our most valuable resources and whereas job corpse program is celebrating 60 years of vocational and academic training to the youth Nationwide and whereas the op Paso David El Gasco Job Corp Center has reached its 54 years serving the Youth of op Paso and its surrounding areas and whereas during these years the Job Court program has provided much needed assistance and attention to the youth by helping them become responsible employable and productive citizens and whereas the city of El Paso commen the alumni and the 2024 graduating class of the David alasco Job corpse Center as they celebrate their accomplishments at a reunion dinner and dance on August 22nd and at the commencement ceremony on August 28th now therefore it be proclaimed by the mayor and the city council of the city of El Paso that the month of August shall be known as David L Gasco job corpse month signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning mayor Lisa and uh fellow council members and guests uh my name is Jamie harness I am the business Community Lon representing of David El carco Job Corps I'm accompanied by my colleague Miss AA m in 14 outstanding young students from various trades um Miss uh Salo pretty much took uh a lot of the information but just wanted to reiterate we are celebrating 60 years um nationally for the job corp program 54 years in op Paso we've served nearly a 100,000 uh young adults from 16 to 24 we will be hosting our reunion dance on August the 17th at The Forum Ballroom uh we do have tickets for sale and we would invite the community uh to come out and help celebrate um just wanted to go ahead and um give some more information we have students representing different trades from office administration HVAC facilities Automotive technician culinary arts welding so we're very proud to have these young people uh represent um and we just want to reiterate that the youth are the future okay so we ask you to support you can stop by anytime 11155 Gateway Boulevard East and give us a look seat okay we thank you for your time thank you do youall want to introduce yourself real quickly we still got four and a half minutes one at a time please hi good morning my name is Kenya Hernandez and um I'm studying office administration good morning my name is y Lopez and I'm starting office administration good morning hi good morning my name is EO Franco and I'm in office administration good morning hi good morning my name is Genesis and I'm of waling good morning hi my name is is him and I'm to the office administration good morning good morning I'm Marana on this and I'm studying for office administration good morning hello my name is jacobe I'm studying welding good morning good morning my name is Ranna Donovan I'm studying culinary good morning my name is k Walters and I am on my second trade I did culinary and I'm doing office administration good morning my name is Jaden I'm studying rehab good morning good morning my name is Brandon urina and I'm studying facility maintenance and protective services good morning okay well I think the rest of them are shy but uh we appreciate your time and once again just uh never forget the David aladas Job Corp celebrating 54 years okay thank thank you and good luck to all of you and um thank you for being here thank you m you want to come on up right there all right you guys if we could get if you're a little shorter if you could come up one row in the front and then we'll have the ones that are a little taller right behind everyone to the center please and if everyone could take one big step this way for me please Perfect we'll do a little bit more this way behind just your back oh hello yeah sorry all right I think that looks good big smiles ready one two three actually I'm s Council can I get you all to come in just a little bit for me please thank you so much uh representative Hernandez can I get you to come this way just perfect all right ready one two three perfect good yeah thank you I just don't you I appreciate you and the next Proclamation Is Jovana zuad okay okay good morninga thank you mayor you talk about being youth day it is and I'm so honored for this one Proclamation from the city of El Paso Texas whereas the city of El Paso takes great pride in recognizing the outstanding achievements of local students whose achievements have brought great honor to our community fostering a spirit of excellence and a commitment to academic and extracurricular activities and whereas Jovana zuia an accomplished scholar and student athlete has already persevered through many obstacles at her at her young age her grandmother was battling a rare disease which caused organ dysfunction around the same time frame that her grandfather passed away meanwhile she found she still found the strength to overcome personal and family challenges and maintain a 102 Point GPA that helped her earn over $1.5 million in scholarship whereas Jovana was eighth out of 545 graduating students uh she was a national Hispanic scholar the recipient of the Eastwood Trooper award which is only awarded to five males and five females served over 300 community service hours and was homecoming pr princess served on the student council and the National Honor Society she was also in the Spanish and science Honor Society and whereas while the captain of the cross country in track and field she also served as president of track for 2024 Joana also broke two records in track and field one being a 38-year-old record and finished third fastest in the 400 meter race in the history of Eastwood High School track she is also honored as a top athlete top scholarship recipient class officer and the top trooper and while also representative for the El Paso Sports Hall of Fame received two full ride scholarships one academic and one athletic equaling to the upward mentioned $1.5 million in scholarship now therefore it be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that July 23rd 2024 shall be known as Jovana zuia signed by the honor mayor Oscar ler I must said it's a a 23 but it's a 30th today so you have two days go ahead good morning Miss subia and congratulations on all your Great accomplishments and you know being good in sports and also doing great in school is a huge accomplishment and based on everything that uh representative Retta just shared with us I can tell that you're you're going to be able to do whatever you want that nothing nothing will ever be too tough for you so congratulations and what an honor for us to sit here in front of you and uh honor you with your Great accomplishments thank you ma'am thank you thank you so much I just want to say my deepest thanks to all of you I really do appreciate it and um I take this with great honor and I'm going to be leaving to the University of New Mexico uh this August and I will be running at the division one level so I will just uh represent Paso well and make you all proud and thank you thank you and there's no doubt you are going to represent El Pasa well again congratulations on all your Great accomplishments and good luck thank you dire I'm sorry sure thank you thank allish oh yeah we need that the put it to work you and the next Proclamation is John pervis [Applause] Day oh mayor proam we have some breaking news for you Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas John pervis has been a journalist for 44 years more than 30 of those years dedicated to the El Paso Los crusis area and whereas his mother was a newspaper editor and one of his Inspirations was to get into journalism and whereas his first TV job was in high school he was a cameraman at a TV station in Roswell New Mexico which is where he grew up and whereas he first came to the Sun City in 1992 to be the weekend anchor at kvia whereas John is an exceptionally passionate journalism who prides himself on work ethic and his journalistic Integrity he is fascinated by history and those are among his favorite stories to tell and whereas John peris has been The Trusted voice for viewers through some of the El Paso's darkest days he covered impactful stories like 911 the 2006 floods and the August 3rd tragedy and covid pandemic he also Prides himself in telling some of the borderland's unknown history now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and City Council of the city of El Paso on July 30th 2024 be known as John pvis Day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning thank thank you very much uh representative Kennedy um thank you mayor liser and city council um it's an honor uh to receive this uh from you um I knew giovana was a very bright young woman when she said that she was going to be attending University of New Mexico which is my alma Mo and uh and I'm wearing green today in honor of uh gastrosis which I actually just learned about yesterday at County Commissioner's Court and that's when I realized why I love journalism why I love what I do it's it's sharing information with people that you may not know about it it's sharing knowledge um one of the things I've come to learn living in El Paso for so long is how historic this place is I mean it's one of the most historic cities in all of North America and because it's a Crossroads of cultures and civilizations literally um there's always something happening here we're in the news headlines now we were in the news headlines unfortunately 5 years ago we were in the news headlines a century ago when General persin was the commander at at Fort Bliss because this place simply is about the history of our nation and the border and uh and and the diversity uh of what is North America and it's just been an honor to be able to uh to bring the news uh to El Paso daily because it's a wonderful Community I mean you know the people make the place and and I've always loved uh the people here and the culture um you know and and it's got so much to offer um and I'm I'm grateful for that I I do want to talk about one concern I have you know and that's the future of of local journalism um I'm actually I I know something about this building um and it used to be the home of the El Paso Times and my mother um for several years from 1976 to 1981 was the Southeastern New Mexico correspondent for the El El Paso Times They used to have Regional bureaus and so she would take me along on new stories and different places and and one time she came here because because she was meeting her bosses at the El Paso Times and I remember coming into this building and back then it wasn't different rooms I just remember this massive very long office with literally it looked like hundreds of people to me sitting there and putting together the news of the day uh for El Paso and the Borderland and I was all struck by the size of the operation um and how much it's changed since 1977 when I came here I mean the El Paso Times no longer even has an office um and that's my concern is the future you used to have dozens of reporters covering uh uh you know El Paso and the various aspects of the community because it is a diverse and Broad Community um but uh we just don't have those resources anymore now I know you know things will eventually work out I mean you know uh uh we figure things out as a society and I do have hope but I do have concern about the future of local journalism but I've really enjoyed my career and it's been an honor um delivering the news um to El Paso and the Borderland and and I thank you very much thank you hey John John I'd like to congratulate to you um you know as the M protim read you were the voice of reasoning you you have that voice and still I can sit here and while you were talking I could close my eyes and picture you behind the desk cuz you have that voice you have that command and people trust that and it's really important as you say you're concerned you know with journalism people trust that voice people trust somebody that they can tune into and be able to know whether if you say it's going to rain to take an umbrella you know so it's um even though you didn't do the weather but um but I get asked that all the time how's the weather so no but I do want to congratulate you on a on a great career and U you know you still like I said while you were talking and I could close my eyes and and picture you and I know when I ran for office you did some interviews and uh you always you know you talk about journalism and fair journalism I can thank you back from 2013 running for office to this last time that uh he reported fair and truthful and that's what's really important to us elected officials but also the our constituents that want to know and understand so um I do want to congratulate you on a great career and uh I know that uh your peers are standing behind you because they'll miss your wisdom and what you brought to The Newsroom so congratulations and thank you sir thank you very much and I also do want to give credit to these people I mean theyve what has made my career great it's the people I work with and uh and I've loved working with this crew um and I know the first time I was in a TV station once I got over the intimidation of all the equipment that was around me I sat down and talked to the people and there was just something about them I I knew I'd found my tribe you know TV news is is where I made my home for 44 years and I've loved it and as I head to the next chapter of my life I'm I'm excited about that but but I know I I'm going to miss this and uh you know so we'll see what's next thank you congratulations [Applause] did you want me to take a picture you can be I just need to take a picture of the Proclamation for sure you're fantastic tell me thank you okay you're good awesome okay we'll look right this way ready one two three okay please couple more right ready one two three I'm so sorry s on the end can I get you to come over to this end instead please thank you all right ready one two three anybody else good thank you thank you thank you so much it's right there just and the final Proclamation is Professional Engineers Day represent molor good morning thank you Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas licensed Professional Engineers are dedicated to applying scientific knowledge mathematics and Ingenuity to develop solutions for technical societal and Commercial problems while holding Paramount the public health safety and Welfare and whereas the city of El Paso licensed Professional Engineers have made significant contributions on a local and national scale and whereas the city of op Paso's economy has grown in part because its licensed Professional Engineers are instrumental to our community whereas August 7th has been declared Professional Engineers Day by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers in conjunction with the National Society of Professional Engineers who show the highest level of dedication to their profession in all 50 states and US Territories now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and the City of coun City Council of the city of a Paso that August 7th 2024 shall be known as Professional Engineers date signed Oscar liser the mayor Studio Paso good morning mayor liser council members thank you for having us today we appreciate it so much my name is Daniel Carrera president of the Texas Society Professional Engineers tsp here in El Paso and with me I got some other fellow uh Professional Engineers uh with me I did want to give a special thank you to council me council member Molina for helping us facilitate this uh PE day is about raising awareness about the professional engineering industry and and recognizing licensed pees and the awesome work that they do and that we do uh this includes all disciplines uh mechanical civil industrial chemical uh it goes on it's a very rewarding uh career and we're all very proud of the work that we do and we take a lot of pride in the work that we do uh and and the projects as well while upholding the highest ethical standards for ourselves and our colleagues uh so just wanted to say thank you again I think someone else want wants to speak as well I think that's it thank you and congratulations and I know without the Professional Engineers it would be tough to be able to operate our city our airport so it's a great profession it's something that's so well needed within our community and of course within our city government so thank you and congratulations thank you you thank [Applause] you e right all right before uh we we go on I do want to wish where's where's Anna she takes our pictures every week and um Anna AKA Sarah is uh we want to wish you a happy birthday I know you had a birthday a week ago today so happy birthday and Carla that's right Miss Neiman on Saturday happy birthday yeah but I I do want to you know Miss Neiman uh I know that you've been with the city a long time and uh congratulations and and uh of course Sarah I didn't know if there was anyone that could make us look good but thank you for that so happy birthday to you and everyone else that's had a birthday just recently and with that Miss Prim you get to sing thank you mayor council per The Rules of Order no use of personal cellular devices nor personal communication should take place on the deas while the meeting is in session once you obtain the floor from the mayor you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and you may speak twice per item and only one Mo main motion on the floor is allowed at one time please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the day while the meeting is in session for those of you joining us virtually please mute your microphones to reduce any background noise that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion and a 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 appr approved Council May however consider any item at any time during the meeting mayor protim page 10 item 28 postpone for two weeks per capital Improvement Department page 16 item 40 delete per capital Improvement Department page 15 item 36 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development I'll learn to say regular page 15 item 37 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda for economic and International Development page 15 item 38 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development page 16 item 39 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development Motion in a second Canalis um the first one that you read pretend this item 28 postponement for 2 weeks yes sir okay that one wasn't that one wasn't mentioned during the agenda review yesterday uh can we possibly get an explanation as to why that's being uh postponed there's a lot of work that's gone into getting that one prepared for today good morning Dion Mack Deputy city manager last week sir our team met with code enforcement as well as the police department and there was some questions that were being asked in terms of coordinating with other plans that we had made within the community we wanted to take the additional two weeks to make sure we're aligned across our various departments and particularly for an ordinance what we bring forward is really achieving the goals and the expectations thank you ma'am go ahead I I'd like to remove that from the revisions um this is just an introduction I understand if there needs to be adjustment and then I believe it's two two meetings away that the public hearing would happen um I'd like to introduce it and and I'd be happy to sit down with the Departments to talk about we'll take that item separately sir is that a motion or do we need a second that no he will need a second second but we'll take that one separately and so we'll so we have a motion by uh mayor poam is our second as read it was motion seconded by Representatives Al though there is public comment on item 24 from Miss Turner and I saw Miss Turner and item 24 is a request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing the authorized to decrease contract 2020-24 R travel demand model this deductive change order is due to a discount provided while exercising the optional year of this contract good morning Miss Turner you have three minutes I was just looking for an explanation of what you're doing I don't hear anybody what do you need Mr Turner I was asking what you were doing an explanation I apologize I didn't hear you okay item Okay so so derck rose with the purchasing sourcing department so this is all this is just a cleanup so the option to extend was already exercised last year and so they offered a discount um with us exercising that option to extend of $75,000 so this is just a cleanup um on our end that's a good thing thank you Miss PR yes sir there is a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as revised to clarify is that including the change to item 28 no 28 will be taken separately sir this is just to delete item 40 and move items 36 37 38 39 to the Forefront of the regular agenda okay thank you on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously I'd like to take item 28 first ma'am yes sir on the motion on item 28 I'd like to take the motion of Representative Canales second by representative Retta so the motion to leave it on would be to introduce the item is that what you want to do yes we we just approved the consent agenda yeah but we but we took that one out of the consent okay yes sir so we'll keep keep that item as recom you want go ahead and vote to introduce the item as yes ma'am okay there is a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative F and this is to introduce the ordinance on item number 28 on that motion call for the vote up to keep it on the agenda and that is to introduce the the ordinance on item submitted yes yes sir yes voting session is open Council and the mo voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 20 the on who moved up which was 36 37 38 I think yes sir item 36 six that was moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda and this is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a First Amendment to that certain subrecipient agreement between the city of Al Paso and the Better Business Bureau Foundation Al Paso to revise the funding amount and increase it by $140,000 go ahead M good morning mayor and Council glaris mies economic and International Development item 3 36 and 37 are arpa funded agreements so this funding was going to be utilized for the allocation of a boss building however now that we've shifted programming uh the money has been reallocated to continue and expand current programs with the Better Business Bureau project vaa and uh live fund the 14 million in arpa funding allocated by Council to small business assistants has provided access to Capital addressing Workforce needs strengthening and supporting the entrepreneurial support ecosystem so what we are requesting today is the approval of two amendments one is with the Better Business Bureau and project vaa and lastly a new agreement with LIF fund as they have completely um executed their initial contract represent Sal thank you thank you mayor this is really great to see the the money being allocated to these organizations can you tell me a little bit about um the process and that they had to go through to uh be able to qualify for the arpa fending yes yes so they were selected based on initial um it's based off the car's funding so they were able to utilize the funds and then they submitted an application and then we go ahead and disperse that way we continue uh the support with the local economy did you guys advertise it to like like on online or how did how were people made aware of applying that was before me Karina pascala economic and International Development so a little bit of additional context right we were we have a running list of our entrepreneurial support organizations these are folks you know you've seen that list of 22 25 um so like cladisa said we worked off of the cares funding list because those were programs that we had seen support for in the organization we' done the dispersement we knew that these were uh organizations that were capable of meeting the auditing and dispersement standards set by the federal government but for this specific reround right opening up the funding what we went back and we looked at was which programs were spent out and needed additional capacity and which ones met the highest need so if you go back if I go back a slide everything is in align with the approved policy set by city council for arpa so when we talked about the strategy for this funding that 14 million it's in these buckets there's a set of programs in each of those buckets um we here a few months ago going over the arpa completely so each of these have subcategories about technical assistance access to Capital specific types of uh microenterprise loans so looking at those in combination with the recently updated hunt Institute study about small business needs in the community that was how we identified the priorities and then we reached out to the partners that provide those programs that provide a little bit of extra information oh yes that's perfect no U these three organizations are great they do a lot of things and a lot of support for the business and thank you so much for for everything they're doing for our [Music] community um representa Adas followed by represent Canales thank you Clarissa for your presentation excuse me um very excited about these opportunities how are we going to notify businesses uh other folks who can utilize these Services there's there's a lot of avenu so we do have our social media we do have our Facebook page we have our Instagram uh we also have a newsletter we utilize it by Al Paso we utilize EP busr so there are various avenues that a lot of the businesses will be notified as well as the newsletters from the partners is there a is there like a a website that just refers to all of the resources is that yes so we have EP business strong and then we are working on the boss website as well as the B peso are they all going to is the boss and EP strong going to consolidate are they going to be different platforms the EP business strong will be moving over to the boss that's where you'll be getting a plethora of resources for small businesses okay great and what are does is the I'm assuming there's going to be announcements on once that b uh website is available yes okay looking forward to it thank you for the hard work thank you mam represent Canales thank you yeah just to ask as clearly as possible this is just funding uh it's it's adding additional funding to existing programs that we've been supporting since that first allocation of our but correct correct okay that's all thank you thank you sir and um just like sentive canalas just said these are programs that have been really important to the community and the continue funding them is uh really important I know that uh we have a few people here to talk about it I know may bet Stevens from the better bu Bureau is here but it's really important that we continue to fund programs that are going to enhance the life of our citizens and and uh also some projects so thank you again for doing that and with that uh I know we have a public comment yes mayor was Council going to take 37 and 38 also at the same time yes ma'am okay let me read it into the record item 37 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a subrecipient agreement between the city of Al Paso and lift fund providing $200,000 to LIF fund to administer arpa act funds for the continuation of the interest buy down program to small businesses affected by the covid-19 pandemic item 38 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a First Amendment to that certain subrecipient agreement between the city of Alo and project VA to revise the funding amount and increase it by $200,000 we do have Miss Mary Beth Stevens signed up to speak on item 36 followed by Lisa Turner good morning ma'am you have three minutes good morning M good morning thank you um Mary Beth Stevens I am actually the former president of the Better Business Bureau and the Better Business Bureau Foundation um I do want to just take the opportunity to my successor is Elizabeth tasus she's been completely briefed on all of these programs um and I know you all have been briefed as well so I don't want to take obviously too much time but I can assure you that the city has done a really excellent job of um ensuring that the resources have been um analyzed and figured out how to most support our local businesses um in this amendment key to it is that the programs all would have terminated in January um and now they'll be going through August 2026 um and it also includes um a minimum of $200,000 that will be directly um supporting local businesses um through the rewards program so um again I just want to commend the staff they've done a lot like you mentioned um combining now EP business strong it has served its purpose um through the pandemic and such and moving towards the boss um so really pleased um and selfishly very nice for me to be able to sort of see this inset going forward and not leaving any kind of too many strings for um the BBB and the city so um if you have any questions on the programs obviously um very happy to answer any questions thank you ma'am and thank you again for you've been UNM mened 2013 with the electric company did a great job and then moved on to be head of the Better Business buau you done an incredible job and I wish you a lot of success in your new Venture unfortunately you'll be leaving our city but thank you for everything you did while you were here thank you all thank you the next speaker is Lisa Turner followed by Lilian speno Enrique Aragon and Sonia ola on 36 we're using arpa funds 372 right yes ma'am so my question is when this all this money is spent what's next are the programs killed or do you find another way to fund them on 37 interest buy down program for small business affected by covid penny that was nearly 1 trillion dollar in PPP loans that went out that were forgivable somebody has to explain that to me because all those loans were basically free money to business very little going to workers so I need to understand why somebody is buying down interest on a forgivable loan thank you is 38 also includ included in this or okay no that was 39 thank you thank you Mr turn the next speaker is Lilian spinel Enrique Aron I'm Sorry Miss pennel if you're in the Q star six please to unmute your telephone star six please ma'am you're on mute Miss penel you're on mute star six pleas please good morning you have 3 minutes yes can you hear me yes ma'am good morning yes good morning thank you uh mayor and councel uh for letting us speak today the um and for considering this this motion uh last year the buy down program that was supported by the city um funded uh 12 businesses and with that funding those businesses were able to create over 50 jobs and retain them about 70 um but we're still seeing the Demand Being great just this year we've already received over 100 applications from City of Senate of El Paso businesses that are um citing of access to Capital and the high cost of goods as being among their top challenges that they're facing so this bu down program directly addresses those those needs and challenges so we thank you for your longtime support and partnership thank you the speaker is Enrique Aragon Mr Aragon star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes I was along with Lilian so I don't I'm not speaking sorry thank you sir the next speaker is Sonia ala good morning you have three minutes good morning everybody um my name is Sonia ala I'm here representing uh the economic development department for project VA and I do want to appreciate uh thank everybody here um for giving us this opportunity I project vaa we deeply understand the vital role that small business play in our community a lot of them are able to create jobs Drive Innovation and add to the unique character of our local economy however we under we recognize the significant challenges that come with running our our small business that's precisely why our technical assistant program exists to support the Empower and micro micro Enterprise business owners our program offers personalized one-on-one assistance to approximately 300 local businesses we help them create comprehensive business plans Financial projections outlining clear future goals and strategies to achieve them we provide the necessary goals and resources through workshops trainings networking opportunities addressing common issues such as the lack proper training among the entrepreneurs one of our primary goals is to offer personalized bookkeeping services to every business enrolled in a program by doing so we will equip these entrepreneurs with the knowledge and the tools they need to build a solid foundation for Success our support extends to various operational areas including the social media marketing Financial wellness and effective networking additionally we prepare the businesses for to for for and to facilitate access to loans through our strong Partnerships with microlending organizations credit unions and Banks we are also proud to for our collaborations with our nonprofit organizations we also want to thank the collaboration and funding to the El Paso city city of El Paso the county of El Paso Horizon and Soro their unwavering support has been instrumental in making our process our our program a success since the beginning of the technical assistant program we have witnessed remarkable success stories among our our members entrepreneurs who once faced significantly change are now thriving thanks to the dedicated support of our team they improveed their financial uh management expanded their customer base and build valuable networks opening doors to new opportunities in conclusion the mup economic development department at project VA are committed to empowering local entrepreneurs to achieve their fullest potential we are building a stronger and more resilient Community thank you all thank you mayor that concludes public comment on these items can we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative Federal seconded by representative Riva to approve items 36 37 and 38 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 39 which was also moved to the Forefront and this is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a First Amendment of the chapter 380 economic development program agreement between the city of Al Paso and tenant hospitals limited to revise a full-time definition in exchange for a reduced Grant period and total aggregate Grant amount good morning hi good morning Alejandra Fuentes with economic and International Development this is a proposal for a First Amendment on the chapter 3 agreement for tened hospitals so some background on these hospitals their agreement was executed on May 6th of 2014 and this was to build a 325 square fet uh 325,000 Square ft building at 2,000 Trans Mountain so that tenant could expand their operations it was an 18-year contract and their minimum investment commitment was 120 million which was exceeded totaling 185 million as a total capital investment their employment metric was to create 300 full-time employees at the Trans Mountain location and 270 be paid at least 90% of the medium County wage for that year um they also had to retain a minimum of 2,991 full-time employees at the other three existing hospitals in El Paso additionally they had to meet a requirement of 20 ,80 hours over a 12-month period which is 40 hours a week and also to pay at least 50% of the health insurance premium for all their full-time employees their incentive package was composed of three rebates one being the impact fund grant for 5 years a property tax rebate for 15 years and a building permit fee rebate of a one time for $100,000 totaling 12 .8 million in total incentives over a 15-year period and to date no Grant payments have been made so to preface this employee timeline the agreement was executed in 2014 then there was a three-year construction period they obtained their certificate of occupancy in 2017 so finally they could request their first rebate in 2018 and that's where these numbers start starting at 27 since for compliance purposes we go back one year to be able to verify all the employees and metrics done they were able to create about 86% of the required 300 full-time employees and 75% of the 291 full-time employees um full tenant had more employees than these listed however due to our contract um definition they must meet 20080 in order for them to qual qualify as a full-time employee we are requesting to amend the 2080 definition to 1820 hours per year which is 35 hours a week that way it can align more with Hospital regulations regarding their shifts um now most nurses and doctors will work 3 12 hour shifts so that is more at 36 hours that they can commit to during a week additionally um it meets and exceeds the Texas Workforce Commission definition since they also uh qualify their employees at 35 hours and also at alignance with the Texas Enterprise Zone definitions and um not just for this contract but moving forward 35 hours is the best practice that is being followed at the state and federal level additionally we are requesting that they continue to create the 300 full-time employees and they are asking for to 2,398 employees instead of the 2,991 to work at the other three hospitals so that is an 18% reduction due to the first number including part-time employees so now amending this would align with full-time employees only which is what we verify through our compliance and regarding the minimum wage and health insurance they are still required to provide those starting at the minimum wage of 1731 for 2023 and adjusting that as the year increases and as well as paying 50% of that health insurance premium as consideration they we are asking that they forfeit the years that they were in default so from 2017 to 2022 and additionally to reduce the package of by 18% additional reduction to match the 18% reduction in their full-time employees so we're looking at a total reduction of 6.4 million for their new incentive amount to be 6.3 million over a period of 10 years and approximately it is a 50% reduction of the total incentive package tened constructed it's operated in teaching hospital they also exceeded their minimum investment and they have done a great job at retaining quality jobs for our community and I would also like to highlight the significant contribution made by the hospital hospitals during our recent pandemic their dedicated efforts in providing critical care and support for our community were invaluable at that time and in recognition of their essential role capital investment in high quality jobs in the medical industry we recommend the approval of this amendment motion approve second we have a motion second but we do have representative protm Kennedy followed by representative Canales I was just going to say that I look at all amendments of 380 agreements very closely um this one for a lot of reasons makes a lot of sense and I want to thank Tennant for being a good partner over there um and and I'm I'm going to very confidently vote for this thankes um I I'll start off by saying that I I do think that there's sufficient consideration here they're forfeiting half of their incentive plus plus more um and I do think that in this case that's that's sufficient consideration um but I also think that we you know we we've seen over the past several years several 380 agreements come back to us for amendments like this um I I don't think that we can tolerate too many more changes because uh you know I I understand that there was a difficult period during uh covid but what I also don't understand is why uh we still have these years unpaid out from you know 2017 through 2022 and you know what what happened during that time that tenant was tenant reporting to us their their uh compliance figures between 2017 and 2022 they came to us in 2018 and that's when we noticed that they were out of compliance for their 2017 numbers and then we started discussing the amendment in 2019 for about a year and then in 2020 that's when covid happened so the priority shifted uh for a little bit so recently we picked up on um trying to bring this contract back into compliance and um we verified that like you mentioned for this not to happen in the future to make sure that all the metrics are going to be met and to also adjust our contracts so that they can fit Texas Best Practices with that 35h hour definition see I'm okay with our contracts being more strict than the state level of 35 hours like I think a full-time full-time employment is 40 hours a week and if we're going to be incentivizing companies for the idea of job creation like we want jobs that are paying at least the the meeting County wage and I think offering 40 hour a week employment so um again there's huge consideration for the change and I accept that this time but um I think anybody who has a a incentive agreement with the city needs to be aware that um there is a lot of scrutiny of 380 agreements especially right now um it does not look good for a company to come in asking for a change especially to reduce uh the the hours that they're looking to uh hire employees at um you know again I understand they they want to align this with State incentives that they receive but I think if our incentive are are more strict that's okay so I'm I can support it today uh but I I don't like these and and I hope that we never see one again so thank you thank you sir represent thank you for the work and bringing this to us today I just was wondering um do you foresee any others that might be coming down the pipeline in the future regarding the amending the hours or no just like another I know that we did ADP we did this one so I'm just thinking is that something that might come up again so Karina pascala economic and International Development I can't predict I don't we don't currently know of any major amendments that we're negotiating or looking at but there are always chances that when people come in for compliance that there have been issues um you'll know that we have shifted and we've talked about this to giving some administrative flexibility in our agreements for things like permit deadlines um when there are circumstances that delay construction that aren't quite a force majure but are outside of the company's e you know best efforts and they're working with us in good faith we've started adding some of those in just to be responsive to what we're seeing in terms of the business need you know things like um you can only really get a Transformer so quickly and there's nothing that I put in a contract that's going to speed that up for folks um I will also say that we've been working with the city attorney's office on talking about kind of a a superseding uh amendment that would just apply specifically to fulltime employment definitions that is shifted over time so you'll see 40 hours in contracts you'll see 32 hours you'll see 35 hours um we don't have the specifics of that worked out when we're we're looking at what we're allowed to do and what makes sense and whether there is an actual business need um but that is something we've identified that this is our biggest cause for amendments besides the construction timelines and so looking at ways that we can treat those holistically and make sure that council's understanding what we're asking for rather than again waiting 5 years to uh Rectify an agreement thanks I I think that's the appropriate work to do so I appreciate it absolutely thank you sir represent F followed by represent Salo thank you mayor before you sit down so the the exception in this amendment in this is that we're taking in account that these are doctors and nurses and and so they're not like City reps that work 40 hours a week they're their their their hours are 3 five hours a week so we're not lowering it to we're not lowering it to meet uh to lower the standards we're lowering it to meet what the industry standard is is am I correct yes in this case we worked with tenant very closely U Miss F has ran several different models with them worked very closely with them in their payroll department their Administration to make sure that the hours and the employment limits would really reflect what we're seeing in that industry and the changes in that hours that said uh representative canalysis concern is noted and I do think that there are places where it does make sense for us to not just rely on state definitions and make sure that we're really holding our local businesses especially those receiving incentives to a higher standard um in this case and and I think he credited this but it is a very specific circumstance to do with the medical industry with the way that they do their scheduling sure and thank you represent Canal this really my point um you know just one last comment if we're going to if Council and mayor are going to keep keep lowering or holding the line on taxes we're only going to do it through the to bring these type of businesses to to come into El Paso grow and grow the tax rate so thank you for working so hard on these these uh agreements thank you mayor thank you and I think one of the things we need to know that's important and when we were doing the briefing I think uh we talked about it was that uh the medical industry has changed as we saw 10 years ago where a lot of it's become subcontracting and hiring outside of the nor hiring they used to do back in 2014 so when you look at there probably are working 40 plus hours but being that it's a subcontract uh business and they're coming in from out of areas it's kind of um hard to report and I see that and then also the nurses work uh three scheduled to work I think they work more than that I know that that's the nursing shortage and all but uh they work they're scheduled for 33 12 hour shifts and and that created that uh I know when um we talked to him back in 2014 and um Eric was uh head of the area then he he talked about that the tenant was looking at either expanding in El Paso or somewhere else within their Network and it was really important for our community to to be able to get that into that Northwest area to take care of a kind of a vacancy that was there so um I know they've been good partners with Texas Tech they've been a good partner with the city and it's you know and it's been something well needed uh and one of the things again then when we talked about the change of the industry the change of How It's become a subcontract uh when you go in there now that uh it's totally different so U I know they've been good partners to continue to be good partners and I'm not sure they may be the second largest employer in the city of Al Paso so thank you for that thank youon sou thank you mayor and uh thank you staff for the presentation um wanted to uh ask what was the initial investment from the company um with this project their minimum investment was 125 million uh but they totaled at 185 million no that's uh definitely a substantial amount uh of them investing in our community I just want to thank tenant for investing in our community um as as a representative art FOH mentioned we need really the tax base to to turn around in order to really change the tax space we need 70% uh businesses sustaining us not just individuals so we thank you for that investment and I also do agree with uh mayor PM Kennedy he mentioned uh that this agreement is is fair and balanced I I thank you all for being um balanced I would say and and fair uh to to this ask and so today I do feel very very comfortable supporting um thank you for investing in our community and uh last Point uh representative Canalis um I I agree with you I think we do need to make these a little bit um you know more more strict hold them to the highest because there is an opportunity cost that's lost when we do do these um um agreements and like any business person knows right uh but we do want to again stay to the topic and thank you all tenant for your your continued uh support in in in our community thank you and I'm going to go a little further when represent conel was talking about the 380 agreements I think foak had uh given the auditor a mission to look at the 380 agreements and make sure I think that we're still a long way from looking at all the 380s and coming up to make sure that they're all performing based on our agreement uh and that I'm looking forward to having some type of method and some type of timeline for each one of them that we continue to audit and look at to make sure they do perform so to uh representative Canal's Point uh we need to continue to to make sure that if this this is what we agreed upon that we inspect what we expect and make sure moving forward we do that so um I know foak had that in mind when when they asked for a an audit of the 380 agreements and U I'm I'm hoping that that uh process will continue thank you Miss PR yes mayor we also have Miss Turner that signed up to speak on this item Miss Turner and just roll off a few numbers here June quarter for tenant 5.1 billion net income up 110.5 s% diluted earnings per share up 129% net profit up 109% operating income up 18.5% net change in cash up 170 137.5 and cost of Revenue is down 3.21% now they're a for-profit company they make money but they got a 380 agreement now a 380 agreement that quote 5 years in default that's from your agenda five years in in default and it's 2024 and we're finally doing something about it there's a problem here when your Economic Development Department doesn't do the job when up that chain of command all the way to the city manager and a failure to bring this issue to council to take care of five years in default it's unacceptable it's mismanagement it's incompetence I'm sorry to be using these words but you use the word default in a 5-year period it's unacceptable now when we talk about full-time employees are we just talking about the regular person who comes in they gets higher and they clock in every day and then go home or are or does these full time employees also include contract employees can somebody answer that well um Miss Turner we'll we'll answer for you in a minute after you get done we'll we'll go ahead and uh we'll ask the question please address the council okay that's it thank you thank you Mr Turner if you could um answer that for us go ahead go ahead ma'am yes so to answer the question question yes they have to be directly employed by tenant um they can't be temporal temporary employees thank you and I and I think the biggest thing and I I said it I'm going to repeat a little bit is that U the the industry has changed in the way of reporting the the time and the way because you pay the subcontractor not the individual and also the the way the nurses have their schedule which is has made a big difference but U I know that uh it shows default and I know we're we're taking over half the the incentive but at the end of the day I I think that um they've been a good partner and a lot of it has to do with the church of Industry thank you Miss PR yes sir there was a motion made by representative Federal seced by representative Kennedy to approve item 39 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously thank you we now return to page eight to item number 25 item 25 is discussion in action to authorize the expenditure of district 6 discretionary F funds in an amount not to exceed $3,500 to fund the attendance and participation in the 14th annual Texas Tribune festival for the office of district 6 as it serves a municipal purpose of setting the standard for sound governance and fiscal management as well as cultivating and environment conducive to strong Economic Development and this item was placed by representative F motion to approve second a motion and a second to approve there's a motion made by representative F seconded by representative Salo to approve item 25 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously mayor protm cedy not present item 26 is discussion and action to direct the city manager to take the steps necessary to opt into Health Care coverage of gender affirming care for the city of Al Paso employees and in advance of implementation to conduct a review including benchmarking of coverage provided by peer cities and other local government entities analysis of typical claims and development of potential coverage options to be presented to the city council within 60 days this item was placed on the agenda by Representatives Canales AO and ernandes representative Canales thank you mayor um I placed this item concerning the inclusion of gender firing care in our employee healthc care plans uh on the agenda because I think it's both a matter of equity but also a strategic imperative for for the city uh and I'll explain why by ensuring that our Healthcare benefits are inclusive and supportive for all of our employees we're taking a really significant step toward fostering an environment where every individual in our organization feels valued and and respected and has access to the care that they need so I I'll start with the moral case um providing gender affirming care is a matter of Human Rights and Equity uh gender affirming care is is essential for the health and well-being of uh transgender and non-binary individuals and many others uh numerous Studies have shown that access to these Services significantly improves mental health uh outcomes reduces rates of uh depression and anxiety uh and greatly and sometimes absolutely vitally enhances uh overall quality of life so by offering comprehensive Healthcare that includes these vital Services uh the the city of alp Pasa will affirm our commitment to uh inclusivity and demonstrate that Al Paso values all of its employees equally uh implementing gender affirming care also aligns us with best practices in other municipalities and States uh cities such as San Francisco and New York were early Pioneers in this area offering comprehensive gender affirming Healthcare benefits uh to their employees for many years San Francisco for instance uh included these benefits in their package for their employees beginning in 2001 uh other cities across the United States have since followed suit uh Chicago Austin Denver Portland Seattle Madison Philadelphia Salt Lake City uh and Minneapolis all provide gender affirming care as part of their health care plans uh but of course I I recognize that we're not San Francisco or New York or necessarily on the scale of all of these other cities um and and it is essential to Benchmark our our policies against our peer cities and other local government entities more similar to us in size um so for example the cities of Tuscon uh Louisville Kentucky and Kansas City much more similar in size and scale to El Paso uh are also uh already offering these benefits uh for their employees so by following their lead we can ensure that our policies are up to dat and reflective of the the latest standards in in healthcare across the country um speaking of our our role as an employer and what this means for our city strategically uh offering gender affirming care is also a really critical component of Workforce retention and recruitment so as as we strive to attain uh attract and and retain the top talent for all of our departments uh I think we need to recognize that today's Workforce values comprehensive benefits uh adopting this can reduce our turnover rates and improve our employee satisfaction uh when employees feel that their employer genuinely cares about their well-being they're more likely to remain in their jobs and they're much more likely to remain committed to the long-term success of the the organization uh of course that reduces recruitment costs and training costs and ensures that we retain the valuable experience and skills of of our Workforce um so as I think I've explained including gender affirming care in our in our employee healthcare plans it's not only a matter of of fairness and Equity it is absolutely those things but also a strategic decision to enhance our our retention and recruitment of our Workforce um this will position El Paso as a as a leader and especially a regional leader in inclusivity this helps us attract top talent from across the region it boosts employee morale and again it aligns our city with the best practices of municipalities across the country who have elected to to take care of their employees so I I urge my colleagues on the council to support this initiative today um and to take this important step to creating a more supportive workplace for all of our employees thank you mayor thank you sir and I thinkk you when you're talking about City team members and how the city values you're correct and I appreciate you bringing that up because it is important that um we treat everybody equal and fair and um so I thank you for that representative nundes followed by represent thank you representative Canales he he mentioned everything very eloquently uh I have no words to say other than um I'm very grateful that we are a council that stand in unity um to support our um Folks at City Hall who work tirelessly for the citizens of El Paso and there's no better way than to recognize our employees to say thank you you matter we're going to provide you the health benefits we care for you we want you to be your authentic self and we as a council are going to do our best to find this effort in this process uh understanding you know the environment that we're in in um and I just also want to remind and and thank some of our our advocates in the audience today that last year um an effort led by representative anello um to implement a gender affirming um signages gender neutral signages um for individual stalls so the city has led by example um it's now time to re-evaluate um the services that the city has I also thank the women's commission um for bringing this uh proposal as well forward to city council and so we're very grateful for all of the advocacy across the city um and then but most importantly if at atna is listening or whoever the provider will be there are specific um medications and specific uh procedures that you know we need to carefully look at and before you can even provide those Services there's is self-reflection that we have to do internally to say you know what can we afford what can we produce um we can phase in this process but making sure we consider surgeries making sure we're looking at medications um and I would I'm not brave enough to read all the medications that folks have emailed me that are important um I'm going to uh not pronounce them well um but it is whatever U medication that is needed we our uh medical experts consider this medication to be lifesaving measures this type of medication is equivalent to providing insulin to a person who has diabetes and so we should consider this no different than a life-saving and Health Care measure that our city employees need and when the city of El Paso leads by example then other communities and other businesses and nonprofits will follow suit and so it's so important that the city of op Pasa takes the step now to um the folks who have to find a way to fund this I would I would feel more comfortable if we were to try to consider um what those procedures and what medications are needed by asking our Workforce and I know that um concealing that information and not sharing that information is very sensitive and I don't know to what extent you can or maybe you can we could just do a call out to any city employees to see what are the services that you're needing so that we can better serve you because I would hate to check a box and say oh yeah we're providing gender affirm care but Define what that is and how um to the extent how can that really serve uh the the health and citizens of of the city of El Paso and so I just ask for us to do a little bit more due diligence um in investigating what those needs are from our own Workforce and maybe other Advocates who can who can teach us how to be better allies because I know that's the intention of of city council thank you representative Canales and to for your leadership on this and I look forward to approving this thanks thank you ma'am thank you mayor uh a lot has been said a lot of great words from my my colleagues I I just wanted to add a little bit to this I I think this is um something that could really make the city of Al Paso as an organization be a leader um in our community right and and I think that when we look at this uh employees will be um gratified by seeing something like this p right cuz I think a lot of people sometimes don't feel completely seen and something like this that is moving towards Equity is really coming um behind everybody at the city of Al Paso we have thousands of employees different needs I think we um can look at this and celebrate this and I think we have to do with a lot of care as well and so I think that when we offer different options of inclusivity people will be happier and I think we'll have better outcomes for the city overall but I think that as as um these next 60 days um there there will be um a lot of research done in the next 60 days I hope we approach this with a very positive tone you know um no pessimism I think we could get this done I think this is really really important and I think that um sometimes we get caught up in costs but I think at the same time those costs will give us an investment um over time and I think that there are a lot of different community members that can help in shaping what this looks like and I did receive a letter for from somebody that I I want to read into the record because I think this person would be a great asset to getting expertise on informing what this looks like and this is from Dr Tony Ramirez she is um the lead clinician for gender affirming Care at project VI the health center so it's already in her title and she probably has a lot of knowledge and it might be a good time to reach out to her but I'll I'll read this letter into the record um July 29 2024 steam Council it is my understanding that you're considering appropriate City employee health insurance coverage specifically one that is inclusive of gender affirming care I commend you for making this a priority and strongly urge you to choose an inclusive and medically appropriate health insurance plan for your employees I am a family physician at a community health center in El Paso I have 11 years of experience in gender affirming Healthcare and consider myself an expert in the field gender affirming healthc care um which is medical treatment with medications mental health therapy if appropriate gender affirming surgery is supported by all major Healthcare institutions as medically necessary care as you know insurance companies can discriminate and exclude certain health coverage aspects that are not founded in the medical fact or necessity however as consumers of healthcare coverage we do have an opportunity to choose health coverage plans that are not discriminatory ensuring that the city's chosen health insurance covers medically necess necessary care such as gender affirming care is not only Equitable but life-saving insurance insurance companies should not be allowed to refuse to cover gender affirming care and in fact it is illegal for insurances to exclude such care in some states while Texas may not have similar anti-discrimination laws that prohibit restrictive HealthCare coverage it does not mean that the city cannot choose an ethical Health Care uh coverage plan choosing a health insurance that does not cover gender affirming care is equivalent to choosing a health insurance that does not cover diabetes hypertension or cancer treatment these medically necessary treatments are the same and excluding them is not in line with medical guidelines I urge you the city council to choose health coverage that is inclusive aligned with medical recommendations and understands this to be an ethical decision an intentional decision as such can set airm examp example of ethical employee benefits that should be Universal I would love the opportunity to discuss this in more detail if you wish I can't be reached that the contacts below Dr Tony Ramirez gender foring care lead clinician and then her contact information is here but I think as this hopefully moves forward today she would be a great expert to really inform how we get to the Finish Line on this and I hope that the city will consider um her input in this as well thank you thank you sir repr Canales thank you mayor um yeah I I uh definitely failed to thank my my co-sponsors representatives ernandes and ASO on this uh on this item uh and a few other people uh Dr Tony ramz among them you know several months ago when I first started working on this Dr ramidus was the first person who I went to um and we we had a long conversation about what this could and should look like um and I absolutely think Dr amus will be an important um Informer of of how the city should proceed on this as really a leading expert uh in gender reforming care here locally um and and I hear some of the concerns about about cost and especially about the difficulty of uh you know projecting what the claims will look like uh in in a relatively new area of care for for the city of El Paso um I think it's important to explain for the public the the city is self-insured um and so uh we get to make the decisions about what we cover um you know our our uh plans are administered by by Etna who we've hired to to do so um but we are making the decisions internally about what the city will and won't cover um I I want to kind of address the the cost concern uh I I've tried to do uh pretty comprehensive research about what other cities are seeing uh many of the the municipalities that I mentioned in my initial comments report really low overall cost of of providing gender affirming care uh city of San Francisco for example found that the addition uh of gender affirming care to its its health benefits and again this goes all the way back to 2001 um has resulted in a really negligible increase uh gender affirming care claims account for less than uh 1 1000th that's 0 one% of their Total Healthcare expense uh expenses so again th those figures are are pretty similar across municipalities uh throughout the United States um I I just don't think that we will have uh a huge surge of claims that come all at once uh that will somehow overwhelm us um and again uh there are you know a limited a number of uh companies that are managing healthcare plans for for cities uh Etna is the provider for lots of these cities and so they're already very experienced in implementing gender firman care uh coverage and you know they they have a really robust uh understanding of of what that will entail uh and they can help us through that process um and of course I think provide high quality service to uh our our employees who are seeking that care so I just wanted to address those things um again I I think this makes tons of sense for us today and won't have a a huge impact financially but will have a huge impact on the employees who need the care so uh with that I I move to approve the item is written m p we have a motion in a second I know we have some public comment yes sir thank you the first person signed up to speak is Andy tharo Andy tharo good morning Andy you have three minutes hello good morning good morning to council it's uh nice to hear from you again um yes so uh with this um agenda item I as a transgender woman uh in in the city of El Paso I believe this will will greatly impact uh many of your employees who uh who are uh transgender or gender non-conforming as um there's there's many within uh with within employment with the city that give so much to the to the city and its uh citizens um to be able to provide uh something like this for those employees will not only uh a affirm them and help them be seen as you know true employees of the city and that the their employers are taking care of them but it'll also help them give more back to their city and give more into their service because as you know a lot of times when we are um when we are looking for work when we're uh trying to uh work for ourselves we're trying to provide for ourselves we're trying to um be able to afford just our own way of living our own um you know needs for living and for Trans transgender folks and gender nonon confirming for folks um gender confirming care is one of the things that we're working towards and that we're trying to afford so to be so for city employees who are trans or gender non-conforming to be able to have access to that not only helps them uh cover what they're you know working towards but it ALS it it will also help them uh it will also help to give better service not just to their employe employers but to the citizens that they're working for as well thank you thank you the next speaker is Brandon Brooke Meritt followed by Amber PES Lorena Edwards and Lisa Turner good morning you have three minutes good morning thank you council members um I actually came prepared to speak in more depth about the benefits to healthc care for people who are a gender variant such as myself um but I'm very pleased to see that you all have done an excellent job of speaking for us um you have done your due diligence to in to to research to investigate and to understand the necessity and the importance of these services that you provide um so instead I'll just tell you a little bit more about me and my experience here in El Paso as a new transgender woman um my name is Brandon Brook Meritt I'm a college professor here and I moved here about two years ago um and at the time I was um meeting people in the city who told me about some of the disparities um that people experience here that don't have access to resources and services in including many people that don't have insurance coverage I'm lucky enough with my position to have gender affirming care as part of my insurance plan and I can tell you that the peace of mind and the just the benefit to my mental and my physical wellness has been outstanding I sleep great at night knowing that I have a a physician and a medical care team that is competent that understands me that understands the problems that I have um both personally and medically and has a network here that they can refer me to um for different for different needs that we have um so for me El Paso is an important place to be right now because I think we're on the cusp of um really breaking ground with being more Progressive and especially in a in a red State such as Texas um to kind of show that we are Forward Thinking in this way um so just thank you all so much for your consideration of this and again I really appreciate the the thoughtful words and the work that you've already put into considering it thank you the next speaker is Amber pz followed by Lorena Edwards and Lisa Turner good morning good morning good morning mayor council Amber Bettis with the Borderland rainbow Center uh I came here fully prepared as I think the rest of the community was to kind of go a little bit more in depth and much to my surprise uh I didn't have to um I see a council who has done their research I see a council that is very different different I think than a year ago um in the way that we are speaking about these things and the fact that this has come to council is so incredibly important because it shows a shift within uh the city itself that it's looking at the lgbtqi plus community in a holistic way and looking at the way it's intersectional and one of the most exciting things about this as well is that uh you all are getting to know some of the other people involved in the community like Dr Tony ridz who is probably one of the most amazing people you ever meet um and who was incredibly knowledgeable and who I hope that you will reach out to um and speak to on this subject um but again this type of care is akin to somebody getting a diabetes treatment right which is what uh representative Hernandez mentioned earlier this is not something that is outside of the scope of these things what it is is that when everyone was kind of looking at insurances and this is something that we all can understand right because we all look at different insurance companies and we think oh this and oh that um and then all of a sudden we realize that there's a gap and so what we do is we say hey there's a gap let's go ahead and fix that Gap and that's what we're doing at this exact moment and we're also sending a message not just to the queer Community but also to all of the Allies to all of the people who are progressive that this is a place where you can come you can build your family you will have comprehensive insurance and you will have a city C Council and Leadership who will sit there and say hey you know what there's a gap let's fix this so it adds into all of our Economic Development it helps us with our brain drain issues right and it attracts talent and keeps Talent here in the city but I would definitely like to thank uh representative Gales representative Hernandez and representative oelo for really taking this up and saying hey let's just fix this thank you thank you the next speaker is Lorena Edward L AAR 6 please to unmute your telephone and you'll have 3 minutes good morning hi are you able to hear me yes good morning good morning mayor and members of city council I am the IRL director for the Borderland rainbow Center our department sees to the needs of the lgbtq community in the Borderland from youth uh to seniors and everybody in between so normally when I get the chance to speak here I do so as an advocate for Trans and gender diverse youth in Al Paso as a parent however in my professional life the center is pivotal in assisting to help gain access and referrals to gender affirming care for transgender and gender diverse community members here in the Borderland so as you can imagine we get to witness firsthand what the lack of access to this kind of care can cause for these individuals while we were all panicking about the devastating blow our Trends you took earlier uh this year when legislation attacked them Medicaid was busy changing their coverage parameters right under our noses we found that starting January of this year coverage for these Services was suddenly ceased for adults in our state eventually it became clear that this was going to remain a serious disparity for the adult members of our community and it continues to be a significant barrier to these individuals being able to afford their care all major medical institutions recognize gender affirming care as standard of care so we'd love for El Paso to follow suit a reminder that Transit and gender diverse individuals are already working for the city of El Paso but also noting that we would love for the city of El Paso to be featured as a premier and coveted employer that would attract additional talented and skilled employees we want to attract this Talent rather than losing both existing and potential talents to those that are fleeing the state in search of safer and more inclusive environment I want to thank uh Representatives Hernandez Canales and so much for uh just basically putting the words out there for us as The Advocates before me have mentioned I came prepared to give this big long history and find that I don't have to um it it's such an endearing and safe healing for me as a not only as an employee but also as a member of the community to hear you all say these words in um so I I want to thank you all and I want to thank you for hearing us today and ask that you please vote in favor of this item thank you so much thank you and the final speaker is Miss Turner good morning again miss Turner good morning mayor and councel you could say that I am a subject matter expert in this field as I've been involved in this field for decades uh pushing maybe half a century at least people oppose this care based upon false ideals they say it's experimental it's not um they start talking about uh puberty blockers it's EXP mental no it's not they came out in the early 80s and is are used on quote sis cisgender children for puberty related issues like short stature early onset but somehow doing it for a trans child is a no no but doing it for a sender child is okay uh I've been forced to read basically every study to deal with doctors who really don't understand they're field uh and have to point these things out uh the treatment is not expensive you'll spend more money on one individual with colon cancer than you will on 10 to 20 trans individuals if not more uh when you look at all the medical conditions it's at the bottom and there's not that many of us so that will even make it even less the cost issue is not a concern it's whether you are going to treat all of your employees on an equal basis that's what we did when we decided to give health insurance coverage to samex Partners I went through that fight it was a knockdown drag out fight they had pictures of Mayor Cook's head on the platter it was a horrible fight but our city council stood up and saw this was the right thing to do to treat all our employees as equals and I'm glad we're going down this way because that's what we should do because quite frankly if someone is looking for job here at the city and see that you they'll check out your health benefits they'll go somewhere else that Talent will go somewhere else and let me tell you about that Talent a lot of the people I know are doctors they're nurses they're graduates of the military acmis they're Engineers they're scientists one recently died thank you Mr turn you wouldn't have a phone or a computer without Miss Conway thank you Mr Turner mayor that concludes public comment on this item thank you ma'am we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative Canales seconded by representative ernandez to approve item 26 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 721 representative M voting n the motion does carry that brings us to the first reading of ordinances this is for items 27 and 29 to appr Second there's a motion made by representative Riva second it by representative Pio and this is to approve the introduction of ordinances on items 27 and 29 and 28 no 28 has been taken already we already took that okay yes sir yeah this is 27 and 29 I thought we took a motion just to C it normally but that's okay can that's all right can we go ahead oh sorry um can we take 27 29 separ separately yes sir and then also just a clarification on 28 I thought we had moved it forward to yeah we there been a motion to delete excuse or to move it for two weeks so we just took a motion to move it forward so either way it doesn't matter it's the same thing yeah so I was under pression we had to vote on it 28 was introduced the already okay so that it's fine so it could move forward it's moving forward it was introduced okay so on item 27 this is for item 27 only the introduction of item 27 call for the vote 29 will be taken separately sir as requested this is for item 27 voting session is open and the voting session and the motion passes 7 to1 representative ernandez voting nay the motion carries now it's the introduction of item 29 move to approve the introduction second there is a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative Fiero and this is to approve the introduction on item 29 on that motion call for the vote voting session is open and the voting session and the motion passes 5 to3 Representatives Kennedy molinar Fierro Riva Canales V Representatives ASO Hernandez Salo V the motion does carry that brings us to item number 30 and this is discussion and action on a resolution that the city manager is authorized to sign a street Improvement and maintenance agreement between the city of Al Paso and the rim area neighborhood association Inc for the design installation maintenance of RightWay and Landscaping improvements for traffic calming on ha Road between Stanton Street and rim Road my mar represent caneles thank you mayor um yeah there's there's a lot of history to this item uh several several years ago uh there was a conflict between uh the the neighbors and the and the hospital um a lot happened I won't rehash all of it but it it ended up in in a settlement uh by which the the hospital provided uh funds to the rim area neighborhood association specifically restricted for use uh for traffic calming in the area uh those funds have been sitting in escrow and and uh this now is the time to I think deploy those funds in in the neighborhood to make some improvements uh that will help with uh the the design of the streets to slow down traffic speeds um and to approve the approaches to one of the roundabouts um I want to thank the rim Maran neighborhood association who's worked hard to get to this point and uh especially to our Capital Improvement staff and and hen and your team you've done a great job uh designing something uh doing it inhouse uh enable to enable them to use uh These funds effectively to improve the neighborhood so thank you thank you sure and I move to approve there a motion a motion in a second from representative Salo motion by representative Canales thank you there is a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative salido to approve item number 30 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present item 31 is discussion and action that the city manager be authorized to sign contract number 2024 0412 R auditing services and grants for the office of the com controller between the city of Al Paso and Forest masor LLP for auditing Services motion to approve second there is a motion made by representative salido seconded by alternate mayor Pro Molin to approve item 31 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present item number 32 is discussion and action that the city manager be authorized to sign contract number 202 24-24 forr cyber security audits for the internal audit Department between the city of Al Paso and Global solutions group Inc for cyber security audit Services motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative Riva seconded by alternate mayor Pro molinard to approve item 32 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative FAL not present item 33 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024-25 job order Contracting and Facilities construction to Noble General Contractors LLC B company LLC DBA bise Construction mstar Inc Jordan Foster Construction LLC and meridor Enterprises the award of the contracts will allow to perform maintenance repair alteration renovation remediation or minor construction for the city of Al Paso facilities using the job order contract method motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative Riva seconded by alternate mayor proen molinard to approve item 33 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present item 34 is a public hearing of an ordinance granting a special privileged license to EP mono it 10 Development LLC to permit the construction installation maintenance use and repair of a surface encroachment for two art sculptures and ancillary items over City RightWay at the roundabout intersection located at Vin rambla drive and ren Roa Drive additionally this ordinance encompasses the placement of 23 wave finding signs and nine electric meters at various locations within the mono development motion to approve second thank you mayor I on this item yesterday when we were discussing it during the work session I I just kind of wanted to understand if there are controls in place to um not be bringing us St after the fact correct uh good morning mayor council Philip planning and inspections um I think yesterday uh Miss Martinez provided some answers to your questions so the reason we're here is because the city accepted the streets uh early this year so that's the reason we came before you for the uh special privilege however um 2022 we cited uh the developer or the applicant uh for building with that permit and that went to court you know it took about a year or two in court and I think it's still pending in court till as we speak so this is just while the uh installing Court you know to adjudicate that case you know we have to move forward with the uh uh special privilege because they're already in the RightWay so um we we um the um the citation went out you know uh I think uh May of 2022 and we recently you know um cited them as well um just give them a notice of Correction so that we can get this process completed and there will be a triple fee when they get the permit so there are there are consequences for building with our permits okay and so you don't foresee any others that might be out there that you're going to bring after the fact no sir okay I appreciate it and um thank you for priority more information on this well thank you thank you sir thank you and with that we have a motion in a second yes sir there's a motion made by representative cido seconded by alternate mayor Pro mol to approve item 34 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present item 35 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute a quick claim tax resale deed conveying all right title and interest to ignasio viua Maas for the parcel at tract 11 block 44 s elisio Al Paso County Texas motion approve second Motion in a second there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro molar seconded by representative salido to approve item 35 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representatives ernandez and Fierro not present that brings us to item number 41 item 41 is discussion and action on a resolution calling for the 2024 general election on November 5th 2024 to fill the expired terms of the mayor four District representative numbers 234 and 7 and five Municipal Court Judge Court numbers 2345 and the judge of the Municipal Court of Appeals and calling for a special election in the city of Al Paso to fill a vacancy in the office of Representative for District 1 and authorizing a contract with Al Paso County to furnish election services and equipment there is a motion made by representative Riva seconded by alternate mayor Pro molinar to approve item 41 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative ernandez not present item 42 is discussion and action that the city manager or designate be authorized to effectuate the listed budget transfers for the capital Improvement department and Animal Services Department in support of Al Paso Animal Services relocation to 5625 confetti drive for the museum and cultural Affairs division in supportive project needs the soci OT with a Mexican-American cultural center and for the El Paso Police Department's purchase of minor Capital Equipment motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative Riva second it by alternate mayor Pro molinar to approve item 42 on that motion call for the the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative atan is not present item 43 is discussion and action on the award of task order 14 V-1 for solicitation 20218 one1 Animal Services kennels and HVAC improvements to bise company LLC there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro molard second by representative FAL to approve item number 43 on that motion mayor i' requested to speak profes sorry about that that's great thank you mayor um I'm very excited about this I've been uh promising the public who has been to the facility and the volunteers who have been working there that will make a big investment uh here and to see uh uh you know I've known it's coming but I think people will be very excited to see uh an investment of $7.9 million in improvements at this facility um anybody on the council who hasn't yet come to see it uh I recommend you come soon I'd love to take you there because it'll be a last chance to see it how it was uh so that when we're there for the for the ribbon cutting one day you can understand how much of a transformation uh the place has undergone so uh thank you to the team who's been working on this I know uh it's been a a cross Department effort uh to do the temporary Renovations there already to get it ready for the animals and this will be a huge undertaking so thank you all for the hard work and I'm excited for uh finally seeing it ready uh to to open to the public uh hopefully in a in a short time thank you thank you and I think you'll see that the vision was to to be able to have an animal services department on the west side of El Paso where you could take uh stray animals you can take an adopt animals have a a dog park for the community but also a place for the animals to play and run and you be able to see them and just a short time and you've seen a transformation of that facility from a school to really already Animal Services working out of it uh I was there two fighters in a row and just since then I've seen more changes as the floors were being sealed and it's um it's coming along and it's um you know it couldn't be fast enough uh because we I know that we have a great need and for for animals and the desire to to be able to provide that so I thank you all for for doing that and look forward like representative can said to the you know we did a soft ribbon cutting kind of to open up uh couple Fridays ago to let people know that we're open for adoptions it's well signed where you know where to go and also so to be able to drop animals off so thank you for that and with that we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by alternate mayor protim molar seconded by representative F to approve item 43 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative ernandez not present the final item is 44 and this is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of Al Paso and Ry and Doin Architects for a project known as architect and Engineering Services for the construction of the Donathan citizen collection station there is a motion made by mayor protim Kennedy second it by alternate mayor protim Molin to approve item 44 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative ernandez not present mayor would you like to retire into executive session or re this until no let's go to Executive session they said it'd be about 20 30 minutes maximum yes sir is there a motion so move second there's a motion and a second to retire to Executive session all in favor anyone opposed and the city council of city of El Paso May retire into executive session pursuing to section 3.5a the El Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss executive session item one revocation and defeasance of General obligation bonds related to the 2012 bond election for the downtown multi-purpose performing arts and entertainment facility HQ number 3170 under 551.071 consultation with attorney it is 1118 a.m. is that what you left yesterday leave no proed I you thank you I'm so pleased with that w e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e call to the public um motion to return second do we have a second oh second have Motion in a second to return from executive session there was a motion made second it to come out of executive session all in favor anyone opposed and the regular meeting is back in session at 1209 p.m. may or may we go to call to the public yes ma'am please thank you the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons and attendance are expected to displace 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 forum for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have six four members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford's topic is For the Love of Money good afternoon ma'am good afternoon thank you so much good afternoon uh recently in El Paso as we know there's considered and voted on the proposal of universal basic or guaranteed fixed income with no strings attached at city and count county level it may sound like a good idea on the surface until you dig deeper to the source and the context of the universal income concept what are the pilot programs for and where is all this headed um BNN quote the one scoffed idea of guaranteed income is receiving renewed interest as AI becomes an increasing threat to American jobs so AI proponents are pushing this idea experimentally now so people whose jobs in the future get replaced by AI have money to live on there's a principle throughout the scriptures that to work is Honorable the gift from God Psalm chapter 90 and let the beauty the favor of the Lord Our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us yes the work of our hands establish thou it sitting around while AI does our work for us won't have good results all we need to do is look at the tragedy created by the US government on Native reservations across our land to see what happens when people don't have regular jobs the world economic Forum which meets in DAV swiz is a big proponent of experimenting with universal basic income the WF is also pushing hard for the great reset what is at the core quote the fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical digital and biological worlds impacting all disciplines economies and industries and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human from the world economic Forum website CL Schwab what's wrong with this AI is a mechanism and the bridge to transhumanism National Review Wesley J Smith stated transhumanism boiled down to its bone is pure Eugenics it calls itself H+ for more or better than human which of course is what Eugenics is all about we are warned in the Holy scripture of things to come on this Earth The Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation we don't know when but ultimately things are heading toward the day described in Daniel and Revelation the key strategy of the enemy of our souls its deception to paint as good and attractive something that has IR reversible consequences Eternal consequences we're told in Revelation 1315 to1 17 as many as would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed and he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell say he that had the Mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name the Book of Daniel one of the most fascinating books in God's holy words deep in detail of the end times the One World governing system to be set up the Final Chapter we read these words quote and many of them that sleep in the dust of year shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt the key strategy of the enemy of our souls is deception to paint things as good and and attractive to have irreversible consequences by contrast Jesus declared Matthew 11:28 come to me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you thank you Miss Crawford thank you so much the next speaker is Steven Strummer Mr strummer's topic is Street lining for West and East Nevada Avenue and North Campbell Street this is in relation to honorable Oscar liser promise to me on June 15th 2023 good afternoon Mr Strummer star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning sir or good afternoon Mr Strummer star 6 please to unmute your telephone good afternoon sir you have three minutes can you hear me yes sir uh I am asking uh for painting of the Nevada Avenue all of it for Street lines this would go to St Patrick's Cathedral the Day School uh the parents of the day school um the full area of Nevada has not had Street lining in 30 six years of living here we have seven veterans living in my building they need I do not want they have served some of them in Iraq Afghanistan I am asking as you'd promised sir uh in June 15 of last year for North Campell Street to be restri the reason is the lives of the people of our community they are have some of them there are taxpayers particularly for the sun Carnival uh it is critical uh we have had pileups here a piece of paint is not going to be a $30,000 job I don't believe it do we value the life the lives of those who are a part of us in our city do we value the UT uh Houston school of health sciences professors some of them are from Europe one's from Poland do we value the students or has life become so devalued that we say this is important it's important to me we have a e veteran lives across the street for me sir uh he honorable mayor he served seven tours and if you have seven tours you deserve a retirement and so I'm asking you to show compassion on me to um to build this uh paint with the do if it's possible uh it's it's critical uh we don't have any lines at all we don't have a stop line at where I live at 319 East Nevada I've asked we have the El Paso Independent School District headquarters here it has become a microeconomic climate here people parking all over the place I need your help sir can I believe in you and I believe in you with a fervor honorable mayor I voted for you the first time and I voted for you the second time I will stand with you will you stand with me thank you Mr Strummer people's thank you thank you so much thank you the next speaker is Ron KL Mr kl's topic is constitutional rights to the rescue 1983 and animal services good afternoon sir good afternoon G good afternoon cir hello hey so Sunday we had a a zoom meeting from rescues acos directors and uh rescue coordinators at shelters across the country um they're all fighting to get rid of the worst Sheltering plan in US history one we run and uh I learned something I'm was kind of curious about the one of the directors said to me oh yeah I applied for the position of director at op Paso animal services this man has years of background as a director for a Texas shelter he he is one of the only Texas shelters that has remained open intake which is what he goes around talking about to other cities and you know he asked me how come we didn't hire somebody that had a background in Animal Welfare I told him that was a good question have to ask his friend so I just want to bring something else up if it'll play okay did you guys see the kvia 7 newscast about the animals that got killed over in no side and ate dogs running loose and they talked to a gentleman from the the Texas Parks and Wildlife trained in human or animal behavior he explained that we were in a situation where people and their children are at danger because of the Strays running loose in the city of El Paso and he said it was from all over the city of El Paso not just the West Side ladies and gentlemen you're here to protect the community we have been telling you for years that these situations that we have today were going to happen they're happening are you going to protect the community or are you going to Pro protect the director we need a qualified director we need to get stop we need to open intake we had a conversation about going back to your plan it was decided that was the right thing to do when are we going to do it last meeting on the 15th I heard you say intake intake intake that meeting didn't show up in recordings and they are still turning stays away when are we going to fix the problem does somebody have to die before we go oops $7 million La had to pay for that exact reason best friends paid it because LA City wouldn't pay it they said it was their fault fact I know it's you know something you don't get a lot thank you Mr K thank you sir the next speaker is Maria Lopez Maria Lopez and Miss Turner has asked to be removed from the call to the public list so that concludes call to the public mayor thank you ma'am no we still got to do the executive session item are they well they can we start again H start again yeah no well um let me go check real quick Council just a friendly reminder that there is a special city council meeting on Thursday August 1st at 9:00 a.m. again 9:00 on Thursday we will be having a special city council meeting August 1 this Thursday yes ma'am August 1st special city council meeting we will be upstairs in the main conference room okay they're com that was discussed out budget time and Council will be taking action at that meeting on Thursday to introduce the tax rate so we would ask you all to please be here thank you all right um let's uh take executive session item ma'am ex1 yes sir motion made seconded and carried that the ballot language related to item 29 on today is July 30th 2024 agenda shall read as follows to cancel the city's authority to issue the remaining 128,00 8,455 636 in general obligation bonds for the multipurpose performing arts and entertainment facility to be located in downtown El Paso which was approved by the voters in the city's November 6 2012 election resulting in the revocation of the bonds second we have a motion in a second yes sir there was a motion made by mayor protim Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor protim to revise the ballot language on ex1 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 5 to2 Representatives Kennedy molinar Fierro Rivera Canales voting I Representatives Alo salido voting nay and representative ernandez not present representative nandz we you like to take the item over can we take the vote over again please is there a motion to reconsider Rec there's a motion and a second to reconsider ex1 on that motion all in favor anyone oppose n the eyes have it we're back on ex1 mayor poen motion made turn on motion made seconded and carried that the ballot language related to item 29 on today is July 30th 2024 agenda shall read as follows to cancel the city's authority to issue the remaining 8,455 6636 in general obligation bonds for the multi-purpose performing arts and entertainment center facility to be located in downtown El Paso which was approved by the voters in the city's November 6 2012 election resulting in the revocation of the bonds second a motion a second m p there is a motion made read into the record by mayor protim Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor protim molinard to revise the ballot language on ex1 related to item 29 on today's introduction of ordinances on that motion call for the vote representative feral thank you and the voting session and that motion passes 5 to3 Representatives Kennedy molinier Riva Canales voting I Representatives AO ernandez Salo voting the motion does carry there's a motion in a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday July 30th 2024 is adjourned at 12:25 p.m. thank you Council