e for for for did no for for it's EX e that's e every thank you ma'am to my right ser supp this is a little still than e e you good morning mayor yes sir our right side is a little heavy today good morning this is a meeting of the aleso city council for Tuesday December 5th 2023 mayor liser is present and presiding inside council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro manelo representative ernandez and Alternate mayor protim Molin it is 9:01 a.m. now will everyone please silence her electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by Ministry coordinator for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and chaplain edus for the El Paso Police Department San Fon good morning mayor Representatives officials and guests if you'd care to join me as I pray I invite you to Bow your heads yours O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the Victory and the Majesty indeed everything that is in the heavens and the Earth yours is the Dominion oh Lord and you are exalted as head over all Lord as we begin the business of this day help us to lean into your sovereignty with trust and surrender we cannot be what we need to be without your wisdom and guidance because on our own we fall short help everyone who has a part in this meeting speak and make decisions with character setting aside personal agendas and Ambitions to focus on what is best for the future of our city I thank you for and I pray for my mayor City represent atives and all who have a part in governing and directing the Affairs of our city give them strength to fulfill their responsibilities and to face the challenges that come their way each and every day watch over them protect them and may they consider every agenda item with clear minds and pure motives thank you for this wonderful time of year and how we long for the joy and the Peace of the Christmas season which is expressed in the scripture glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace Good Will towards men please watch over and protect those who guard our freedoms and those who keep us safe God bless El Paso and God bless America in the name of my Lord Jesus I pray amen thank you thank you sir and I hope you're enjoying retirement and now to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance we have Sydney Candelaria and Nolan Candelaria for the record representatives salido and Rivera arrived at 904 the awesome representative Fierro has joined the meeting at 9:05 and representative Canales at 906 yeah you and represent Kenedy good morning everyone and um it's uh you know when we think about December we think about the month of giving not receiving and um it's a special time of the year as we spend a lot of time with family but also we we reflect and u of how we can continue not to receive but to give and that's um that's something that's uh always been important and a lot of times it's not what's in the package it's who gives the package to someone and the gift and U so I'd like U really to have a moment of silence to everyone kind of think back of um some of the Great Moments in life that uh have really made us who we are today because of our parents and everyone that U really molded us into what we are today so I'd like to have a moment of silence to everyone say little you know have it back in their mind and and kind of think about uh the great things of life and I think that'll put a smile on everyone's face thank you thank you that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is gold star and Military Survivor children's Champion State represent mulard good morning thank you very much Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the importance of honoring and supporting the military dependent children who have lost a parent during the service to their Country Gold Star military Survivor children are the immediate relatives of us Armed Forces service members who died in battle or in support of certain military activities and where as honoring their families is a sign of their importance to the city of El Paso and we recognize that the strength of our military is our service members and the strength of our service members is our families and that no one has given more for the nation than the families of the fallen and the City of op Paso seeks to foster a sense of community resilience and empowerment among Goldstar children through Innovative and engaging activities and whereas Esports have emerged as a dynamic and inclusive platform providing opportunities for skill development teamwork and camaraderie among Youth and whereas Goldstar Gamers a nonprofit organization has been working tirelessly to provide opportunities for military children survivors to engage in eorts and whereas Goldstar games organization the city of op Paso division of veteran and Military Affairs is organizing a children's Esports competition and whereas the goar children Esports comp esport competition will take place on December of the 28th 2023 at the Battleground on Fort Bliss Texas and provides a platform for participants to Showcase their skills and Esports disciplines and whereas Esports competition tailored for gold star children will not only promote a healthy outlet for their energy and talents but also serve as a tribute to their courage and sacrifice now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of op Paso that December 5th 2023 shall be known as gold star and Military Survivor children's Champions Day signed the honorable mayor Oscar liser city of El Paso good morning sir morning mayor uh city council the city leadership in in particular know this is just another reason why it's always a great day in the veterans capital of the USA these kids that we're unfortunately are not going to be able to be here they're going to be coming in on the 27th this is the first time we're going to do an orts competition in conjunction with the sunbow but you know they their parents paid the ultimate sacrifice um and we're going to give them a world class uh event here in the city just another one of our very special veteran events that we do throughout the year here in our city and we're going to make this an annual event we're going to continue to um to to uh to get donations to bring even more these goldar children their families here the city and and kind of do different uh games really at the end of the day the importance of this event is is that for the first time and some of these children's lives they're going to be the ones that are on front of the stage if be kind of living um in in in the shadows if you would say of the parents that that passed away in combat and so we're going to recognize them as their Heroes um Champions uh come come to 208 so I appreciate this again and and thank you so much for your support to our military and to and our veterans and our families thank you thank you Comm sergeant major and thank you for your service to our community thank sir and our country the next Proclamation is the greetings from Al Paso mural an artist dedication to the city's vibrancy and resilience Proclamation city of El Paso whereas in 2016 Victor Ving and Lisa begs the founders of greetings tour along with local mural muralist Dave Herrera embarked on an ambitious project to create a large letter postcard mural in El Paso Texas and whereas the mural proudly displayed at the substation an outdoor retail and dining Village serves as a vibrant cice that masterfully weaves together the city's iconic landmarks cultural tapestry historical significance and natural beauty including the a inspiring Franklin Mountains and the unique desert flora and whereas the murals creation was a testament to the power of collaboration brought to life through the harmonious partnership between greed tour and local El Paso artist Dave grave whose invaluable insights into the city's distinct character infused the mural with authenticity and depth and whereas the mural has transcended its artistic purpose becoming a beloved Landmark deeply embedded within the El Paso Community inspiring creativity and serving as a tangible reminder of the city's Rich Heritage and unwavering spirit and whereas greetings to her with its unwavering commitment to fostering community and promoting local businesses has since painted over 60 postcard murals in 27 States and internationally leaving an indelible mark on the cultural landscape and whereas the greetings from El Paso mural stands as a significant artistic expression that encapsulates the very essence of El Paso a city brimming with vibrancy and resilience it is a physical manifestation of the city's Soul a testament to its enduring strength and unwavering spirit now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that December 5th 2023 shall be known as the greetings from El Paso mural and artist dedication to the city's vibrancy and resilience day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser we we had people from the mural here but I'm not sure there they are by the way I went by it this morning I think it's a requirement to anybody that comes to town they're supposed to take a picture in front of the mural I know we've all got selfies in front of it at some time or another welcome good morning good morning good morning um this is my daughter Kiana hi hi Kiana I try to get her involved in everything we do um murals in art and teach her about our beautiful city uh but first of all let me thank the city council the mayor and every body here for your support and um and your recognition of this mural it means a lot to us uh when we started this mural back in 2016 um it's okay K I'm sorry guys she's she's she's going through a sense of she's very emotional right now it's okay but I just want to say thank you I wish I could say more but uh I'm going to hit up thank you thank you my so much sorry the next Proclamation is Paul alright defense community champion day representative nundes hi good morning um Mr Albright if you could please approach the podium front and center Proclamation city of El Pasa Texas whereas Paul Albright served almost 30 years in the United States Army which included overseas deployments on top priority operations and received close to 20 distinguished medals and badges during his service and Ras in 2019 Mr Albright retired as command sergeant major with the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at for Blas Texas and since then has worked for the city of Al Pasa division of veterans and Military Affairs and leads the office as Chief military officer the division serves as a Layon between the city of El Paso foris the El Paso VA and other military and Veteran organizations and Raz earlier this year the city of El Paso was honored with the Great American defense Community award by the Association of Defense communities acknowledging the city's outstanding integration with its military installation and Community Building initiatives the ADC is now recognizing Paul Albright as one of the 16 defense Community champions in the nation for his exe exemplary efforts to enhance the welfare of Defense communities and whereas Mr Albright diligently worked with stakeholders to establish the El Paso veterans needs assessment which has been the foundation of the of change in the veteran Community leading to synchronization of services a rapid Aid response and a remarkable Improvement in the quality of life of all pason's veterans and Ras Mr Albright effectively coordinates with government and Community Partners to guide service members and Veterans through employment Mental Health Care housing as well as assisting in their transition from the military life to civilian workplace through the city's Bridge fellowship program and ra Mr Albright recognition as a defense Champion is a testament to his dedication and collaborative efforts to support our service members and Veterans by providing them with dignity opportunity and well-being now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that December 5th 2023 shall be known as Paul Albright defense community champion day signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning command sergeant major well good morning mayor and councel thank you so much I I really appreciate this recognition um you know it's it's it's been uh it's really been enjoyable um all of the work has it's it's you know I when I say it's work it's passion um and and it couldn't have been done without the great support uh that I received from you uh from the city leadership um in in the uh in the veteran Community um and Fort Bliss as well in the military uh uh leadership out there we've all kind of came together um synchronized our efforts uh really paid attention to what was needed um and then what could be attained and then what needed to be changed in order for us to obtain it um we continue to look up and out uh to see what other resources are out there across the nation what funding sources are available our last choice is always the city of El Paso's taxpayer money that is absolutely if we can avoid that we always as well there's different pots of money all over the nation and that's what we go after we go after different resources and we just try to bring it here because it's about quality of life it's quality of life for our active duty it's quality of life for our veterans about a year ago uh the city leadership made a change and put the uh military and Veteran Affairs in the quality of life portfolio under Dion Mack and uh and I have to give a shout out to uh to Miss Mack because she is just is an amazing leader um and what she has done for us um is Paramount to the success of this uh of this department um the way that she uh uh the way that she leads us um through uh I think the words that I'm looking for is just astute leadership and being able to help guide us and get us to the right um to right answers and get us and keep us on track and in the right direction uh is very important so we really appreciate um our Deputy City Manor Dion Mack for doing this um for for helping us along the way um and all of the city leadership staff too just outstanding leadership outstanding support uh so we really appreciate you we still have work to do we still have veterans we get the phone call um a veteran in need needs a heater um and you know we we could provide that heater easily but what we have to think about is the other rap around Services what's causing that veteran to not be able to afford the heater right what's causing that veteran to not have that Financial stability um for if they have a family right so we we have to continue to look at that from a quality of life perspective so we're not done yet we still have plenty of work to do um we're excited to continue to do it we will always provide for our veterans and our military um and once again I thank you for this recognition um we don't do it for the recognitions but it's nice to be recognized so thank you so much and um my wife was planning on be here actually she's walking in right over there um she was looking for parking uh but um I couldn't do it without my my wife and uh the support that I get from my family as well so thank you very much command sergeant major I do want to thank you for serving our country but then when when you decided to retire I've always said that the biggest compliment any service man and woman can make to a communities when they retire and they make El Paso their home and El Paso has become home to about 70,000 veterans today and um not you not you didn't only just pick the city of El Paso to retire you picked a profession to work with um 7,000 team members from the city and to make a difference for our veterans so I thank you for wanting and and making a difference thank you sir thank you mayor there's your wife right on time good morning the next recognition is the mayor's distinguished award to stepen Nancy Fox the mayor's distinguished award to stepen Nancy Fox thank you thank you first of all for um being here council members but um I just um before I read the mayor's distinguished award which we give very seldom it's something that's really special for our community but um you know I've known you all for a really long time and um I can tell you that uh you know we're both in the same business and we're not competitors we're friends and I admire the way you've always handled your business know understanding the business myself knowing that um you're a Class Act and you run an operation that uh in my opinion is best bar none thank you and thank you and I know that uh I'm I'm very honored to call you my friend Nancy you too because again we're not competitors we're friends and I have all the respect in the world for for what you guys have done and what you continue to do and of course for the commitment to the cancer center so I'm going to read the award here it says mayor's distinguish award Steve and Nancy Fox in appreciation for your generous contribution to make in a Cancer Treatment Center reality for Al Paso Community and for our surrounding and also for our surrounding region on behalf of the city of Al Paso and its citizens thank you for your steadfast commitment dedication and resources that you devoted Over many years to make this dream possible thank you very much thank [Applause] you [Applause] well it's an honor to address the council and uh some of the city leaders here and uh we just want to tell you how much we appreciate your service um what you do is so incredibly important and the results of what you've done is so visible downtown you know I I've been here for more than 40 years ncy grew up here but the the change in in the community the way it feels the uh so many fun beautiful things are happening I want to compliment all of you for being a huge part of that success but the work's not done in all areas and I want to thank Oscar for being my friend for so many years and uh he knows that we he and I have talked about this dream of improving healthc care in no Paso for so long and and I'm so proud we're making some progress in so many areas and I I just want to acknowledge three people real quick on this uh cancer center and that would be representative Mary Gonzalez she's played a huge role and and helping this happen and then Dr Lang and Jacobs and trone there's so many other people behind this but uh I'm confident that we're going to have a worldclass Cancer Center and I'm also confident we're going to come to you and ask for help but thank you so very very much for the honor today we appreciate it thank you and also um just for a point of reference uh step Nancy donated $25 million to make this a a reality and a possibility and I know that you and I have both um spent nights and time at uh MD Anderson and there's nothing better than to be in your own bed and be in your own home for recovery and have your support system around you and that's going to make the biggest difference as I know when when you lay there and and you wait for your to go for your next treatment the next day out of a hotel room is kind of tough you know Oscar you're you're a cancer survivor and you can relate to this uh I've been privileged to be active in the cancer Community for more than 20 years and I've worked with hundreds of cancer patients and it has troubled my heart so many times when I've seen good wonderful people that I know could survive and their their cancer but we didn't offer to them the quality of care that was necessary and so I made a commitment and Nancy joined me this commitment we're going to change that so if even if you're not a fluent and you don't have money there's no reason why you can't have world class Cancer Care and that's our mission our goal stay at home stay stay with your family and get world class care here and we're going to make that happen so thank you m p mayor would you like to uh continue with the consent agenda or res yeah let's do the consent real quick and then after the consent we'll break for pictures yes sir that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by Council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting M PR I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions item four page three move to the regular agenda Page 6 item 15 delete per representative Hernandez page nine item 26 move move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development page 9 item 27 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development page 10 item 30 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development page 10 item 31 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development page 11 item 32 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per economic and International Development mayor Pro uh is that going to take long because I would like to move the PD item item 17 if we can so we don't have to tie them up long well I think if you mve it at this point it would just follow the economic development ones thank do we have a second thank you and we do have public comment on item four from yeah we did you move that one up item four yes I moved it to regular and to the Forefront right item four yes ma that'll be the first one we'll take thank you okay so the motion was made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative Salo to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote representative salido I thank you we'll get it to to help you log into the system and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously I we re for a minute is there a motion to recess this there's a motion in a second to recess a regular city council meeting all favor anyone oppos Council take your t-shirts for the the meeting is in recess at 9:29 a.m. in order to take photos with this morning's honor good morning Council we'll be taking our photos outside today everybody being recognized today we're going to start with the greetings tour from El Paso mural and artist followed by um Steven ncy Fox and then the gold star in military survivors children and finally with Mr Paul alri thank you You' been muted to unmute yourself Press Start six what's up Jing just joking do have a motion to return motion Recon there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 9:48 a.m. mayor would you like to go to item four that was moved to the yeah before you do it four and then we'll do Mass transfer after that item four is a request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing is authorized to notify EMG Construction LLC that the city is terminating contract number 2023-24 fire station 38 good morning good morning I reading bro Derek Russ purchasing and strategic sourcing Department uh the linkage to the Strategic plan is subsection 2.3 we requested the managing director purchasing andic sourcing is authorized to notify emj Construction LLC that the city is terminating contract 2023 0403 fire station 38 pursuant to section 14 subsection 7 liquidated damages for failure to enter the into contract of the solicitation document that the termination shall be effective as December 5th 2023 and that the city may take the necessary steps to seek forfeiture of vendor bid Bond and as liquidated damages thank you motion to approve second we have go ahead we have call to the public sorry do you need to say something ma' so mayor Nicole Cody managing director would you like me to go through the sequence of events or would you like the let's call to the public yes sir the see maybe we have Mr Corbin Blackwell that signed up to speak on this item good morning you'll have three minutes please good morning mayor counsel uh I just uh would like to provide a little more information on the uh the details that transpired uh for the solicitation um we were notified the uh the bid was was opened um on April 19th of 23 um which uh would then uh dictate that 120 days following that um was uh August 17th um we received notification uh that on the uh by August 10th the agenda for the uh August 15th city council meeting that um we would be awarded the solicitation um unfortunately the notice um was not uh the official notice per the solicitation was not sent to us until August 18th which placed it at 121 days um because of that unfortunately the prices did increase and we were no longer the um um the the highest and best use um uh contractor um we then had some um um conversations with purchasing that the contract would be terminated out of convenience um the bond would be returned and there would be no additional action taken by the city um that did not happen we received a letter in October stating that um the bond would be called and that we would be penalized for three years from uh from any solicitations so we were just respectfully asking that um the the bond be returns and that uh you know no no further penalties be uh be levied so I'm and I'm having a hard time hearing you oh I'm sorry but um you're saying that the bond expire the bid was to expire September 5th you got the official notice on September 18th no sir the the the bid expired August um 17th and we received the notice August 18th okay Miss Cody come on over man Nicole Cody managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing um mayor and Council the award is awarded at the time that council is approved that's the date of award uh which was August 15th as as Mr black wall indicated the item I'd like to bring up is that please remember that we're still pending all of the signed documents at that point so we send an award letter notification to the vendors letting them know that it has been uh awarded at that date and so that's our common practice and so um we always try for that same week and it may be longer but usually it's within that week and so as he said stated he did receive it on August 18th and he is correct the bids expired on the 17th but it was awarded on the 15th and they were they notified that it would go in front of council and be approved and awarded on August 15th yes sir my understanding he received an email um that did indicate that it was going to be awarded on the 15th Mr blackw were you aware of that did you receive an email on the 15th saying it was going to council yes sir we did okay um unfortunately the solicitation states that um you know per the letter that we received from purchasing that this is our official notice and the the solicitation explicitly states that until you are notified um of the award you are not allowed to proceed and there's the there's the Run okay Mr Cody he's saying that can you kind of give me some information on he saying that it says until you are notified then you're not awarded the bid so we commonly especially with construction projects sir and Derek can speak more to this um a lot of times if there's additional documentation that's required we live we provide the notification also remind them of the time frame that they have to provide the additional documentation if it's required so even though he was awarded the bid he was not notified till the 18th yes which is after the 120 days it was the notification but the award was prior to the one okay so on your bid just to make sure because I'm trying to if once you're awarded whether you're notified or not it becomes an official award or is it the award once you're notified correct it's when Council Awards okay so when you bid it it says once Council Awards it it becomes yours or does it say once you get notified CU he saying that it says once you get notified he was notified after the 120 days so I'm looking for the specific language Let me let me pull that for you sir mayor mayor historically when Council Awards the contract at the council meeting that is the official action of the award no and I understand that but he's saying that in where he was that he would not get the B till notified and that's why I want to make sure the language is correct so I can provide you the language specific to the expiration notice that we provided it's item four the solicit it ation and so this was uh sir this was directly from your proposal item four of the expiration notice it states the offer agrees to furnish all items supplies and services at the prices offered and delivered at the designated point or points within the time set forth in the schedule if this proposal accepted within 120 consecutive days from the date set for the receipt of proposals all proposals shall expire on the 120th day after the proposal are open unless the city of El Paso requests an extension of The Proposal in writing and the offer agrees to extend in writing it was both checked and confirmed that it was read and understood so as you can see it does not specifically say what type of notification but per our policy it's based on award um I don't know Claudia are you online do you have any other items that you would like to to add to this Garcia you made a statement that said that it say once you're notified do you have that somewhere yes yes sir it's I have to can you share that with uh Miss Cody please yeah I need I I need to find it here um forgive me mayor also the language the traditional language The Proposal states that the proposal is accepted when awarded so the city is accepting the proposal of the bidder at the time of the award and that is part of of I just want to clarify for him that a bidder provides I wanted to clarify for him not me to be honest with you make sure that he's in agreement and understanding gosh I'm sorry here um yes sir it's it's in here it says uh article 14 of the solicitation um award says um forgive me uh that says that each contract shall be deemed as having being awarded when formal written notice of award shall have been duly served upon that's verbatim I didn't hear it sorry pleas forgive me so uh article 14 provides that each contract shall be deemed as having been awarded when formal written notice of award shall have been duly served upon okay Miss nman so mayor again the the language when a proposal is being submitted to the city they are checking off the boxes that they understand that upon the award they are committing to being B being bound by those prices so the argument that is being made that he didn't receive notice immediately the item was properly placed on the agenda and that is noticed to the public that this award is being awarded to this to this this group so after the fact I mean those those questions aren't for the council to consider it's whether we followed the process and he committed to being bound by the terms that he was submitting to the city which were accepted upon the award but what he read to us do state that uh he will be notified and he was notified after the 120 days so that's what I want to clarify I mean he just read that to us unless it's so mayor what we are what we are what we are proposing to council is that you move forward with with the request from staff to terminate the contract we follow the terms of the bid proposal and I get that ma'am I just want to clarify what he told us and it's in writing right there and I just want to clarification I know what we're asking for to terminate the contract that he will be reliable for um liquidated damages he'll lose his 5% Bond I I get all that but he's contesting it based on writing that he has there in front of him and I I just kind of want to be able to give him an answer that says whatever he's got in writing is not right where did you get that letter from um which one are you referring to the one you just read to us well that was from the solicitation that the city uh from the bid yes sir okay I know they're looking something up real quick yes sir go ahead represent Kennedy um when were you notified that it was going to be awarded um we had uh an initial conversation the the the uh um the project was revalued for best value and I believe that was in June were you but you you received notice that it was going to be awarded on the 15th of August right correct and Via via email we we were awarded that um roughly the 10th of August it would be presented at count the council meeting on the so on the 10th of August you got a formal written notice that it was going to be awarded no sir the council has to approve it so um we got notice that it was going to be resented to council for Council to approve and then you got a letter on the 18th saying it was awarded to you yes sir the letter um we did receive an email and the contract um States uh a date of August 16th as the award date unfortunately we were not in receipt of that until August 18th which was sent electronically by the city which uh by purchasing and and which is you know um outlined in this letter that we received and your stance is that since you didn't receive the correspondence that it was awarded within the 120 days that it violated the 120 days yes sir so unfortunately because of that we had the the contractual obligation to reach out to our subcontractors suppliers to verify that the prices were still valid um unfortunately in this environment you know volatility um the price increased um we had that discussion with purchasing and and understandably um there was a better value um which then we we had the discussion that the contract would be terminated out of convenience um which we do not have an issue with um the bond would be returned and there would not be any implications or penalties to to bidding future work with the city um we never received official response to that until roughly October 9th which the city said they were going to uh purchasing said they were going to recommend the council to terminate the contract M um to call the bid Bond and to prevent uh any business activities for three years well and and I appreciate that I think that that to focus down on the issue is whether you were required to have received post award the notice of the award within 120 days yes sir so for the solicitation explicitly says that you will receive notification um within 120 days sure so and and also Mr blackw if I I can see that exact portion of the language too that you read off because in section six under public disclosure of bid proposal information we include as part of this and so this is part of the solicitation language it's part of the template when anyone is going to bid it's included as part of that template online it states that an important notice any changes in due dat or material changes for any solicitation would be of course on ionwave and it provides the link and then it says it offers respon responsibility to ensure they all have pertinent information regarding solicitations including all amendments prior to submitting their proposal for paper submissions we refer to ion wave to ensure You' viewed and viewed all amendments of course and then it goes into recommendations for formal Awards shall be posted on the city website the Thursday afternoons prior to the Tuesday city council Andor mass transit meetings wherein the recommendation shall be presented offerers are responsible for monitoring the city's website for post hosting and awards so I the award is at the time that Council Awards right and so we are asking all not just emj but all biders to make sure that they are monitoring for the award on Council and and I understand this difference between a solicitation and the actual bid itself which is two different documents um well but in our case we we actually compile it so it's all one it's all one yes sir so this becomes the the bid the solicitation and the contract so that way there is no ambiguity or differences between documents okay and the question then becomes whether there was or was not the 120 day activated because receipt of notice of the award was not received in his hands or in his mailbox so to speak so that's that's what he's but based on our practice and all other vendors award is at the city council date and then after the city council date we provide notice okay thank you repr molar thank you mayor um Mr Blackwell I believe corre sir okay can you please State uh what your correct title or position is with emj I'm the business development manager okay how many times have you done business with the city of El Paso in any capacity um we we were successfully awarded the penguin exhibit uh the first time it was was process uh solicited um and uh due to covid it it got put on hold um so to my knowledge that's the only project we've done with with the city we have done numerous epicd projects and numerous private sector projects okay and are you well aware of everything that miss Cody says as far as the the bid the solicitation that's on the website that when you I guess you and your team or attorneys for your company they review all those documents prior yes sir yes sir we have a team that goes through all those documents and that that is is part of the contention is that you know like like I stated earlier article 14 explicitly states that each contract shall be deemed as having be awarded when formal written notice is given and at any time did you or your team have any questions to the process for the city of Al pas um sure there were lots of questions that came up okay and did you ask those questions and get reive a response um not frequently not on all of them so you weren't you didn't receive a response for all of your questions no sir and did you further inquire about why you weren't receiving responses um we tried numerous times through numerous channels um email is and to and to whom did you inquire about purchasing to miss C any specific person orti to the director of purchasing and um and and Miss Cody and is this documented let say and an email or letter formal letter email all right thank you pro thank you mayor uh Miss Cody uh the gentleman is is saying that he has a letter that says that he would receive written notice is that correct I I that's what he said but I haven't seen it I'm sorry yeah can we see the letter Miss Prim would it be possible yes we can put it on if it can you turn on the Elmo yeah that would be great yes so and well there go ahead it is the letter from our office giving him the notification but in the first sentence you'll see that it clearly states that it was awarded on August 15th okay I mean I I I just listen I think that if if you're filling out a solicitation online it's telling you to check this online portal um I do think and if you're just you know you're just applying for a solicitation I think it is it does behoove you to to follow and track that um I do think that there may be some conflicting information via letters uh or so the point of my question and the point of my statements here is that if I think there needs to just kind of be some kind of cleanup to make sure that we're being very clear about what that process is but I do think that it is the responsibility of the applicant um if in that solicitation it is telling you to check the website after the council meetings and this letter is telling you that you are awarded um but miss Cody I would be concerned that just in the future that we're cleaning up language so there isn't confusion moving forward thank you mayor thank you may represent Canales thank you m sorry I was reading the letter um Miss Cody do we typically provide notice only by email or is notice of award also sent by certified mail or any other method it's yes it's by email okay and by email only so also I'd like an opportunity just to point out that and because I don't want any confusion that this is termination for liquidated damages only so it's only a call on the bid bond this does not impact to their ability to be awarded a project in the future and then Mr Blackwell forgive me if I'm not seeing it I didn't quite get to the end of the letter is yes sir what what was the language that you read previously you said that was from not not from this letter that was actually from the solitation article 14 I think I think that's the language we were trying to yes sir so uh article 14 this legislation provides that each contract shall be deemed as having been awarded when formal written notice of award shall have been duly served upon okay are we able to can we put that on the Alo please just so we can all see it um so I this is a that this is a a letter from our outside Council um outlining that um I'm sorry that the print is very small for the actual solicitation so but this this isn't the actual solicitation and then I mean you have it in front of you Mr Blackwell I'm searching right now okay no problem I just want to confirm I mean this is I I don't doubt the citation of your Council I just want to make sure this is exactly what it says in the in this licitation as well I guess while you're looking for Align with section 14 but let me also sure sorry you can you Contra so it is 14 sections okay and then also a notice to offer is under section 14 and I should have brought this up sooner um the time of awarded each contract if I may read each contract shall be deemed as having awarded when formal written notice shall be duly served upon the offer to whom the award owner has awarded the contract by some officer or agent of the owner duly authorized to give such notice upon receive such written notice the contractor will proceed to verify the availability of required materials or equipment needed to perform the project and submit his shop drawings to the capital Improvement department or owner designated representative within 21 calendar days from issuance of notice to proceed with submitt phase if problems are encountered in the availability of materials or equipment the owner will be notified in writing immediately prior to the scheduling of preconstruction conference so I just want you to know that we are aware and we are in agreement of the required duly notice but at the time that the agenda is posted that that is a notice as well and we have asked as part of the public disclosure to ensure that all contractors are monitoring the city council agenda which is also for public information we also let them know that it was going to be at the city council and city council did award publicly that's it for me for the moment mayor thank you are you done sir all right there's no other questions so miss PR thank you for being here thank M Cody the motion to approve was made by representative F seconded by representative Kennedy on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 721 representative Gales voting nay the remainder of council voting I thank you motion carries now can we go to mass transit yes council is there a motion to recess the regular City Council meeting there's a motion in a second to recess the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the regular city council meeting is in recess at 10:15 a.m. in order to conduct the mass transit Department board meeting good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board meeting of Tuesday December 5th 2023 it is now 10:16 a.m. president presiding as board shair liser and also present in council chambers are board members Kennedy anelo Hernandez molinar salido Fiero Riva and Canales we do have one member of the public signed up to speak and that's Carol Cassidy Mr chair would you like to do that right now or Miss Cassidy is she on the line Miss Cassidy are you there star six to unmute yourself yes I'm here thank you I unmuted can you hear me yes we can hear you you have three minutes ma'am her topic Miss Cassidy are you there her topic is Transit concerns Miss Cassidy star six to unmute yourself yes I think I've done it now three times okay go ahead you have three minutes well thank you so much uh mayor uh city council uh the title is always intrigues me for all of these things enhanced and stain El pasco's infrastructure well promote the public health and safety wow well that's what you're attempting to do now some of our streets are becoming repaved uh not just fixing all the potholes which uh is a necessity uh all these streets uh need Lan lines uh and our medians should have light uh at both ends so they're defined at night with all of the uh the new uh the new people that are visitors that come into our trying to be beautiful city and those that are moving here now so I mean accidents have occurred in different places on the East the west side where I live and the rocks are still there immediately those rocks should be cleaned up they're still there from an opra year on a red Road and wrestler we're right there in front of McDonald's anyway um as a sideline I looked at all of this stuff here and uh I'm just wondering how many people I'm sure you've audited and we know how many people ride the buses daily uh because audits are a necessity for uh in order to uh rain in the outrageous uh things that the cities and counties are doing now in the great state of Texas so um I'm and I saw your your Toller thing now and that's being um uh cancelled and uh why not promote a a local El Paso business that may be making these prefab uh they can make prefab shelters or a or somebody within the state of Texas let's not go out of Texas to buy these things because quite frankly in my opinion California is has the whole state has become collateral for China um all right I want to move as quickly as I can or I don't lose my time frame but um anyway uh we appreciate running this city like I know our mayor liser runs his successful business uh we can't spend what we don't bring in so again your budget I'm sure is over a billion dollars and the debt of the city is what is it two billion where is the debt you need to cut everything that that you C everything should be cut bottom line uh um run this city like all of you personally run your own families your own uh your own uh life for heaven's sakes um if you haven't seen the movie police state I recommend you see it because that's where the nation is right now um I am actually a proponent of Texas I want to break the union I want Texas to uh stand up as a republic which it once was and because we can't assume this 30 almost 34 trillion dollars that Congress is imposing on the nation let all of those uh people in Congress that a Liv Miss Cass your time is up thank you for your comment all right well thank you and the Lord bless all of you and those that are stand thank you ma'am Miss anelo we do have one revision to the yes ma'am uh so I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revision page four item six delete per purchasing and strategic sourcing Department second thank you all matters listed under the consent agenda including will be considered by mass transit Department board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regard in items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved the mass transit Department board May however reconsider at any time any any item during the meeting and we do have a motion made by Miss anelo seconded by Mr molinard and that is for items 1 through 4 to include the deletion of item number six and voting session is open we don't have it though no we do Mr Riva thank you and the item has been approved unanimous ly we're moving over to item number five move to approve and this is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2023 038 prefabricated bus shelters to Toler Manufacturing Incorporated for an initial term of 3 years for an estimated amount of 10,36 340 thou motion made by Miss anelo seconded by Mr Rea to approve voting session is open Mr Fierro thank you sir and the item has been approved unanimously and that is all the items on the mass transit is there a motion to adjourn second motion made by by Mr Riva seconded by Miss anelo to adourn the mass transit Department board meeting of December 5th 2023 at 10:23 a.m. is there a motion to reconvene the regular city council meeting so move there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor hi anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting is back in session at 10:23 a.m. May or if we may there were several items that were moved to the Forefront they're all related would you like me to read them into the record together sir yes ma'am thank you item number 26 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning from m2c heavy manufacturing conditions to C4 commercial at 7,000 Stan Roberts item number 27 is a public hearing of an ordinance releasing all condition placed on the property at 7,000 Stan Roberts item number 30 is a public hear hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a contract of sale with Worldwide LLC a Delaware limited liability company for the sale of approximately 1,39 Acres of property situated in Section 3 block 80 Township 1 Texas and Pacific Railroad survey abstract number 2381 and section 4 block 80 Township 1 Texas and Pacific Railroad survey abstract cont number 9862 in the city of Al Paso Al Paso County item number 31 is discussion and action that the city manager be authorized to sign a tax AB bment agreement between the city of Al Paso Texas and worldwide LLC in support of the construction in one or more phases which may extend over a period of years one or more data centers and item 32 is discussion and action that the city council approves the allocation of funds from the Texas Economic Development incentive program to fund the in intersection improvements at Stan Roberts and us54 to support and facilitate development of 1,39 acres of land on the north side of Stan Robert Senor Avenue and west of US Highway 54 motion approve second okay um I have some I just have a quick question I know we went through the presentation um thoroughly yesterday we did receive and I know that there was some conversation about traffic mitigation and all of that yesterday we did receive a statement um from one of our neighborhood association president pres not in the area um but discussing some of the noise mitigation I don't know if you all were able to see that statement um do you have any comments on that I know that there's not a lot of development around this area at the time I know um that there is a neighborhood I think on the other side of 54 54 um and I don't think that there's any land adjacent to this that we assume that we'll be rezoning as a residential anytime soon is that correct right um so there is there the surrounding properties well first of all it's a more than 1,000 acre piece of property that they're looking at constructing on the company itself has a lot of security requirements so it benefits the company not not to locate directly on the property line right um so I think there's a couple though Protections in our code um first certainly the noise ordinance um secondly the reason why we're recommending the down zoning to C4 is because it's a less intense use most of the activi housed inside of a building um and then and then third of course there's protections within C4 about how far away from property lines you can be so I think those are those are the primary ones in terms of surrounding land uses yes you're correct um the closest neighborhood is chapparel to the north of the state line um and then residential within the city limits is across us 54 um the properties to the South um are zoned commercial as well um and then to the east it's Ranch farm and all of that is owned by the city so if a rezoning took place it would you know the city would have heavy involvement I know your answer was longer than the letter I just I I know that you went over a lot of that yesterday I just wanted to clarify um since we did receive that letter um thank you thank you is there motion Miss PR no more questions yes mayor there was a a comment submitted by Vero ano I'll read it into the record as she asked us to and it St stes dear City Council Members I would like to address agenda item 30 concerning the sale of property to worldwide LLC PR hyper Center data center in El Paso while economic development is crucial for our city we must consider its impact on our community residents Chandler Arizona residents have complained for years about 247 humming from data centers constructed near their homes the Chandler city council responded by enacting Zod code amendments chapter 35 section 2214 that include noise mitigation and noise monitoring measures however I didn't hear a similar provision discussed during yesterday's special meeting this is especially important since meta plans to massively expand this facility in the future to ensure that this development aligns with the best interest of our community I urge the city council to consider delaying the vote on this item until worldwi meta provides a clear plan for noise mitigation and monitoring a few Provisions among others that I humbly ask the city to consider include number one the establishment of a detailed Communications protocol to inform effective res residents about pre- and post construction including mandatory neighborhood meetings and the appointment of an on-site liaison number two a requirement for a pre-construction sound study to establish a noise Baseline the results of this study should be made available to Residents before the scheduled neighborhood meeting number three implementation of sound mitigation measures to ensure that noise levels from the data center do not exceed those observed during the Baseline study and number four mandate for the data center to conduct an annual noise study during Peak operational time for the first 5 years following the completion of construction by considering these and other Provisions from Chandler Al Paso can ensure that the our community remains a great place to live while also encouraging responsible Economic Development thank you for your consideration and commitment to the well-being of Al Paso and its residents sincerely Vero and Caro thank you yes sir the motion was made by representative Riva who made the motion by representative F and who second it alterate may it Salo and the these are items 26 27 30 31 and 32 oh on item 31 we have Patricia Osman that signed up to speak good morning again morning mayor and city council um in regards to the data center I'm not too sure if the city is aware the amount of stress a data center would put on our electric grit no different than bit far Bitcoin farms and so forth all right El Paso does not have the same issues that East Texas does and I would like that to remain a fact um honestly when I worked and dealt with paperwork for the El Paso Industrial Development Corporation what bothered me is the city only brought in low paying jobs this da data center is just another example of that call centers and so forth we need more development in higher paying jobs not low-wage paining jobs to keep our citizens at a at a bare minimum below the poverty level Something higher this data center is not good for El Paso in many aspects yes sound level but also the strain it's going to put on our grid system that also needs to be looked into because that alone is going to end up hurting the entire ire City all parts of the city all citizens as a whole so I I would definitely recommend that anything be tabled as far as that data center until there's more studies done so that you make sure that the the citizens of El Paso are not adversely affected because quite frankly anything you all do in this chamber it's not to be taken lightly your choices either harm or help our citizens so it all depends on what you decide to do for not only for for right now in our present for our future thank you thank you ma'am and the motion was made by representative Fiero seconded by representative salido and this is to approve items 26 27 30 31 and 32 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us back to page number six to item number 17 and item 17 is presentation and discussion by the El Paso Police Department on a strategic Public Safety plan to address incidents in and around the entertainment VES and House parties this item was submitted by representative ret good morning Chief good morning mayor councel Peter pus chief of police for the record we're going to be going over a presentation so we can inform you what we're doing with the uh uh entertainment uh District areas and the House Parties activities that are going across uh uh the city of alp Pas so that we um we can help you and form your constituents who going on this has been a multi-agency uh approach to this uh uh problem that we're facing um we we partnered with the County attorneys Texas uh alcoholic beverage commission um the uh military uh over at Fort Bliss with General Eisenhower in fact two of his staff members here Lieutenant Colonel mazan and uh Deputy uh director of Emergency Services Mr antonetti are here along with Amy monice from the county attorney's office with her investigator Victor bulos we have H uh held uh Community meetings with uh business owners our approach is to educate the business owners on uh some of the uh uh danger zones or minefields that they might be in so that we don't have to deal with a problems in fact we had a meeting uh several weeks ago where uh over 20 business owners uh showed up to this meeting to be educated on some of the problems that we're seeing out at these types of establishments so uh also brought all the commander ERS from uh the Area Regional commands to int introduce them to you all so you know which Commander working in your area should you uh need them to speak at any of your community meetings uh so you can introduce the commanders to your constituents also and I'll have them introduce themselves before they leave and this presentation's over so with that I'm going to turn this over to Commander uh Steve Lopez and if it can bring up the presentation good morning Commander mayor council C leaders good morning Steve Lopez I'm from the Westside Regional Command Center Commander out there and I'm going to have a short presentation to go over not only the concerns and issues that we've identified but also the the initiatives and like the chief mentioned uh we have cross functional teams we have stakeholders and we have programs in place to address these issues and concerns in our entertainment districts and to address House Parties uh if we can go to the next page please the challenges for the El Pasa Police Department is crimes against persons property crimes disorderly conduct traffic and pedestrian safety nuisance noise disturbances business non-compliance parking issues and then of course House Parties involving juveniles next slide please one of the programs that the El Paso Police Department has in place is called DX it's data- driven approach to crime and traffic for a year to date to October 31st first of this year we've identified 190 crimes against persons 1,852 officer initiated calls for service which shows that the officers are self-initiating calls for service in these specific areas we have 819 disturbance calls for service and we have of the 2,861 calls for service 462 involved weapons shots fired and subject disturbance calls and the three identified areas are going to be 200 Cincinnati Avenue 1100 Airway Boulevard and the 1400 block of North SSA Road next slide please next we're going to go into traffic enforcement crashes and DWI arrest year-to date up to October 31st of 2023 as as you can see on the graphs uh Fridays and Saturdays the weekend crash reporting are more significant between the hours of 1: and 3: in the morning and that coincides with when most of these businesses close at 2 in the morning crash report during this time period within the identified entertainment districts majority of the crashes again occur on Fridays and Saturdays during the same reporting period a total of 94 driving while intoxicated arrests were made within these three identified locations majority of the rest be uh occur between Friday and Sunday morning uh Sunday morning because it bleeds past the Saturday at 2 to 2: a.m. in the morning Sunday closing time for these businesses and then these are these arrests are taking place between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. we do have specific units out there to to address the crashes and the DWIs we have our El Paso PD DWI uh traffic enforcement unit and we have our high performance vehicle units that are out there uh addressing these crashes and these DWIs next slide please as part as part of our commitment to the overall safety of the citizens of El Paso uh one of our stakeholders a member of our cross functional team is the the US military out of Fort Bliss and the reason for this is active duty military involvements year to date September 1 of 2023 there have been 206 crimes against persons that have occurred in these three identified entertainment districts of the 206 49 incidents or 24% of the total involved active duty military uh there's a couple of press releases here where active duty military personnel have been involved in shootings uh the two mention here one's going to be on Airway Plaza which is the 1100 block of Airway and then the other one was the shopping center in the Northeast uh Northeast Regional Command Center next slide please this is not a complete list but these are our major stakeholders and uh members of our cross functional team everyone working together uh good partners moving forward with our initiatives and with a strategic goal 2.0 it's the County nuisance abatement team as Chapa CS mentioned so Miss Amy Mon Mon Vice leads that team uh TABC Texas alcohol and beverage commission Texas Department Department of Public Safety El Paso Fire Department El Paso code enforcement and Mr Alvarado the director of Code Enforcement is here with us today the El Paso planning and inspections unit the El Paso Health Department area law enforcement agencies as Chief Bas mentioned this is a multi- agency initiative that we have we also have the meetings and the presentations for the business owners and associations we meet with landlords the brick and motor owners of these establishments uh neighborhood associations uh Kerr neighborhood and rim neighborhood associations are two that uh we are in constant contact with a local school districts where we have the presentations and then the University of Texas at El Paso next slide please this slide is dedicated to miss Mony Vice and her team with the county attorney's nuisance abatement team they're known as the net unit their mission is to protect and improve the overall quality of life in our community by using civil litigation to combat habitual criminal activity occurring on properties and to hold business and Property Owners accountable a very strong partner with the El Paso Police Department and we we truly appreciate all of her efforts how does she accomplish her Mission by filing injunctive lawsuits against businesses owners landlords and properties and or by asking for landlords to take responsive action against tenants result as to bars only for 2023 criminal activity Abad at seven different locations uh accomplished with collaborative effort with the El Paso Police Department and other agencies Cooperative action with from landlords presentations education to stakehold stakeholders which is very important and then of course the lawsuits or the possibility of being named in the lawsuit next slide please we also have a program or an initiative with the El Paso Police Department known as the social host ordinance it is a goal of the El Paso Police Department to promote the effects of underage drinking at bars House parties or outdoor areas where alcohol is served to consumed by or purchased by underage persons either directly or indirectly we all feel the efforts the effects of the aggressive behavior property damage injuries violence and deaths that can result from underage drink this is not simply a problem for some families it is a Citywide concern the department continues to work with all stakeholders to include short-term companies such as Airbnb and then there's a screenshot of their efforts their initiatives to work as a partner with the El Paso Police Department to identify House parties um prior to the house party actually taking place examples on how underage drinking parties escalate immedi immediately to deadly conduct and the loss of life recently on Tira Inca six miners shot we lost two lives the 14 and 19y old 10900 Gary Player Two miners shot in the chest 5800 block of sixa three miners shot one was shot in the face and 4500 Swan six miners were located with gunshot ones so this is happening hence the reason for the social host ordinance our initiatives and our Partnerships with all of our stakeholders next slide please the noise ordinance everyone's favorite enforcement Citywide year to date October 31st 2023 and I would like to command Mr Steven alado and his team for all of their efforts the current noise ordinance and sound uh amplification violation is still at 70 DB code enforcement working along alongside our police officers have taken a proactive stance to conduct continuous disciple readings Citywide based on our initiatives and also complaints that come in from our citizens and our residents year-to date a total of 1793 readings have been conducted Citywide and a total of 375 notices of violations have been issued uh most of the uh violations and most of the readings and most of the infractions are occurring if you can see on that time clock between 10 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. next slide please uh parking initiative um we started receiving multiple numerous complaints Citywide about illegal parking uh parking blocking driveways uh fire hydrants the amount of complaints coming in so we took a proactive approach to this too the El Paso Police Department took a pro proactive approach to parking violations Citywide A multi-tiered Plan was introduced to address illegal parking complaints while enhancing the quality of life for all affected residents in their neighborhoods officers verify the residential no parking zones and areas that have been granted residential parking permits officers continue to enforce these parking zones on a regular basis Citywide due to the continued police presence as you can tell by that graph top left the number of violations has seen a a a decrease significant decrease over the last couple of quarters we did see a small spike in quarter four of 2023 but that's based on the holiday season um School letting out for fall break so there was a small increase but overall we have seen a tremendous decrease due to our efforts and our initiatives and working with our residents and our neighborhood associations next slide please proactive initiatives um there there's multiple ones that we have in place that we continue to manage and maintain one of the one of the initiatives that we have it's an average of 28 police officers are scheduled to work mandatory overtime in the entertainment districts to address calls for service crime traffic and parking issues that occur in and around the entertainment districts to meet the current demands for police resources Citywide the AP Paso Police Department continues to draft officers on mandatory overtime in order to address these calls for service on duty Personnel continue with the Department's directed Patrol initiative officers Patrol the identified districts in an effort to display presence while deterring crime and seeking compliance forus military personnel provide courtesy patrols Within These districts to help with our active duty military personnel to keep them safe and secure and to get them home safely they work in unison with the El Paso Police Department to address incidents directly related to their personnel weekly joint Entertainment District Operations with our stakeholders the El Paso Police Department continues to work with the recently hired consultation firm the reasonable Hospitality in Institute rhi this pathway is a city-led initiative that involves the rhi group the El Paso Police Department and the city of El Paso the mission is to identify and label entertainment districts because we don't have a true definition yet with an emphasis on the quality of life for all El pasoans we have a strong alliance with TABC and the El Paso County nuisance abatement team this collaborative effort has resulted in the legislative sanctions and fines issued to problematic businesses Citywide as mentioned previously next slide please some additional proactivity initiatives the a Pasa Police Department is in phase two of a plan to install additional cameras Citywide based upon our city Watch program and you can see the bullets there we have partnered with local landlords and businesses we are in the final stages of planning for installation signage will be placed throughout that will be visible and these cameras will help the Department's incident response and investigations while deterring overall crime in these districts the AP Pasa Police Department continues a light up the night initiative that we started on the West Side the installation of additional Lighting in strategic locations within our Entertainment District I can specifically say that the alleyway between North Mesa and Stanton at 200 uh Cincinnati Avenue that whole Alleyway has been lit up and has made a a profound difference in our calls for service next slide please another slide proactive initiatives continue presentations are conducted periodically Aly to stakeholders community members residents local schools and Fort Bliss active duty military personnel during their in process to Fort Bliss community service officers attend monthly Civic meetings in order to present current events to our residents while answering questions and concerns related to Crime quarterly meetings with Fort Bliss executive staff and the Commanding General for continued support for military involved incidents to include their courtesy patrols while maintaining a liaison Direct communication between Fort Bliss and the El Paso Police Department most importantly the El Paso Police Department remains proactive with underage drinking narcotic use and weapon violations uh we see the news uh it's being reported Citywide of all the issues that we have identified when it comes to underage drinking parties House Parties Citywide many of these House parties are announced within the entertainment districts via social media Word of Mouth Andor party Flyers that we have actually found discarded at the Entertainment District the El Paso Police Department also works closely with Airbnb as mentioned previously in an effort to identify potential underage drinking parties Citywide so it's ongoing initiative been very very successful all information in reference to underrage drinking parties House Parties is forwarded to the affected Regional command Commander at his Command Center and then resources are dedicated to investigate and and address the information gu next slide please so in closing the El Paso Police Department continues in its mission to work towards achieving the mandates as listed in strategic goal 2.0 set the standard for a safe and secure City 2.1 maintain standing as one of the nation's top safest cities 2.2 strengthen Community involvement in Resident safety and 2.4 improved motorist safety and traffic Management Solutions which is part of our DX plan by working Clos closely with our stakeholders the community city leaders Educators youth-based organizations and business owners allows the El Paso Police Department to continue to strengthen the lines of communic communication while creating a robust Network dedicated to Public Safety community and business-based policing is the key to our success by promoting accountability at all levels and by establishing a strong Foundation of transparency interaction and collaboration with our community as a whole thank you everyone questions thank you sir yeah we have a we have a couple questions here one question now who controls um overcrowding of uh any establishments in the entertainment district code compliance or the fire department it's uh the fire department and the fire Marshall's office now so are we doing that cuz I think that's when you go over I think that's one of your biggest issues you'll see that it's overcrowding and not a few but probably most of the establishments are overcrowded uh are we looking to be proactive on that because I think that creates uh you know a lot of pushing and shoving and people getting aggravated when when you're talking about going into a crowded establishment like that and yes sir Marin uh I I know you've been out there a couple times and you've seen the issues that we we're addressing we do work with Lieutenant Orga with the El Paso Fire Department and his Marshals actually go out with us every Saturday and assist the overtime officers with overcrowding and uh sprinkler systems and the exits that the Fire Marshals takes care of as a matter of fact this past Saturday at one of the businesses there on Cincinnati because of the overcrowding there was 277 inside a business with an occupancy of 89 so they were able to shut down the business for the night and put them on notice and then that notice was forwarded to TABC great because I think that's really important for sir control and making sure people don't lose their temper ins out of crowded area I think that's where it begins yes sir representative via thank you mayor thank you Commander that was an extensive detail report that I was looking forward to uh as as well as everybody here in order and and the reason it was placed as we discussed this is to educate the community as to what the El Pas Police Department is taking uh what steps it's taking to to Cil all the violence and and uh underage drinking and House Parties that that are plaguing our community um I noticed that uh you included the business owners how many business owners for right now do we have as part of your uh part of your team that are are co uh are gladly cooperating with the uh Department actually fully involved we have 22 and uh we had the 20 that actually showed up to our Fusion Center in the Northeast when we had that presentation for bar owners and landlords so we we are in communication with them uh we have that link and as major parrot from TABC will say we're seeking compliance that's all we're asking for you know comply with the rules and regulations in place our our mission is not to identify or target or close any business we seek compliance by working together with them by by making them uh good neighbors true but also your your your mission in this case is to deter any kind of violence from occurring or you know underage drinking correct yes sir yes so I mean you you you you described so many that that so many uh steps that the department has taken uh I'm proud to say that you you've increased your the police department's transparency and inclusion of the public Community to help you in the with this community based policing as well right are you having the same cooperation from the community itself ye yes we are and uh another big component and all the commanders can attest of this is our citizens advisory boards yes sir we have monthly meetings and that's when we invite the the community to come in and uh we we make them good partners stewards of this community and and they get involved and they want to they want to help they want to get involved and they want to help the department they want to help the city moving forward maintaining our our standing as a safe City great and this is this you you move these meetings throughout the community itself yes we do from east to west west to north to south yes and you're having a great participation on that you know what it it's starting to take off and that's because of the efforts from all the commanders of announcing the community meetings by inviting not only community and residents but the business business owners and the landlords it it has to be all-encompassing okay and and I'd like to hear from the uh military possible how what steps they've taken to to assure us that you know they're out here with you and wanting to stop and curve the the activities that we have going on yes sir and our the other guy was planet right was the uh the other gentleman that you brought so we have Lieutenant Colonel Maan and uh Deputy uh emergency director Dory antonetti from the military morning still good morning sir good morning sir good morning ladies and gentlemen um oh yes sir I'm Lieutenant Colonel Lee monsen I'm the uh director for emergency services for Fort Bliss and yes sir and and Sir uh it starts off with just the like you had mentioned the the transparency and uh that's the partnership that we do you have uh with El Paso PD along with other local state and federal uh oh you did hold on what was it hold on a second thank you sir sorry for that go yes sir and and uh with with that transparency right there sir uh it allows us to to be informed and it allows the leaders throughout uh Fort Bliss to also inform our soldiers as far as what our expectations are to be good stewards and tenants of this already supporting uh El Paso Community and uh like Chief said sir um the quarterly meetings that we have it allows us to better Nest our efforts from the the Tactical level all the way to the Strategic level and I think that's what promotes uh that way forward and and and uh you you you know you you educated your shoulders before uh before entering Ford blz during their time at for BL and once they exit I guess every so how often do you do you make sure you make sure that the rules are in place yes sir yes sir and it it starts off with what we call engaged leadership uh again sir all the way from the lowest levels all the way up and it starts with the uh um once they in process that's where expectations are shared across the board in terms of uh maintaining the standards both on and off uh off post okay and and your involvement have you found it to be a success on the base itself our invol yes yes sir um and uh we call them the the 10 percenters unfortunately there is out of the uh the entire military population we we do find at least 10% where uh they they need a little bit more uh attention however uh against our you'll see routine and deliberate efforts across um throughout the week uh to end the week additionally with safety briefs and all and uh additionally um our leadership Works 24/7 and and our soldiers know that so at any time of need um they're always there so that's one way that we try to also prevent um incidence from occurring off posts thank you I I thank you I thank you for that I thank you for uh letting the public know your involvement uh as as far as you know a leader on our on our family our sister city uh Ford Bliss the little city within the city but still their family and so I thank you so much mayor thank you so much for right now thank you represent thank you Colonel thank you sir and again uh thank her for being here and um you know us working together will be more efficient and I think this is a perfect example of how we can work together to be efficient and do the right thing to make it a safer community and Fort Bliss and El Paso are one community so I thank you for that thank you sir mayor if I if I could just make one one comment maybe uh Chief pus can talk about I think you you've seen from the cross functional teamw and the great presentation today and all the participation uh with just all the different organizations that you saw listed that Public Safety is a is a total Community effort to include uh you know getting the message out and things that are being done within our community with our citizens and one of the things I've been very impressed with and I just asked Chief pus to speak on it really quickly is his efforts to work with the media um and the approach to uh get messages out to the kids you know we're having some we were having some of these problems with House parties and and chief if you don't mind us talking a little bit about that do you know where your kids are campaigning some of those efforts yes sir thank you so uh we started a uh a proactive initiative and going back retro uh for for those of us that uh are baby boomers back in the day the media used to put out at 10:00 when then 10 o'clock news would come on uh a little campaign it's 10 o'clock Do You Know Where Your Children Are we started that campaign with the uh the repeal of the uh municipalities being able to enforce curfew laws so we started a a campaign through our pio's Communications office uh to educate parents and uh kids these House parties um are are not the House Parties back in the day a lot of these kids know that these short-term rentals uh are out there and they rent them and they even know the dangers are going on in that where they're P they're patting down the people showing up to those parties we need to get the message out and that's where we need your help at when you're talking to your constituents about the campaign of it's 10 o'clock do you know where your kids are uh uh uh Commander Lopez on on the slide about the short-term rentals with Airbnb uh on their website citizens can go in there and uh click into to their website and Report alloud house party immediately to the corporate level uh and it goes there so that they can notify whoever the uh the owner of that Airbnb that's another mechanism Airbnb and the other vermo are working as corporate Partners now that if one of them uh kicks somebody off of a campaign uh off of their platform that they're going to inform the other uh corporation that they've been kicked off their platform so the these these violators can go around and just hide behind uh uh the uh ability to apply for uh these short-term rentals there there are some other initiatives that we're going to be working on with these short-term rentals but the main thing is is we have to educate the parents and the kids with that campaign that's where we need your all's help with your constituents on our it's 10 o'clock do you know where your kids are yes sir thank you Chief represent Canales thank you thank you mayor um first thank you to Retta for putting this on the agenda I think it's super informative um and uh Commander Lopez excellent presentation and thank you too for being here today Chief um and everyone who you've brought with you because it's good to see the whole team here um I've been sharing with my constituents and trying to convey uh how much has changed in terms of the the cooperation you there's a huge amount of cooperation now uh between all of the the various stakeholders um obviously the the area of great concern for me is the the Cincinnati area because that's in my district uh there are the few others as well areas that we've we've seen a lot of uh a lot of service calls I mean again uh just three separate uh blocks essentially 2,861 service calls in 10 months is is a massive amount um you know that 65 calls for service per week and 10 of those per week involving a weapon so uh just just an immense amount of of called for service um and I I appreciate very much the approach we've taken to enforcement but also to prevention which I think is is very important you're not just out there uh you know rounding people up but we're trying to prevent these from happening in the first place um and I I definitely have to mention the involvement of uh Amy Monas from the and the the County nuisance abatement team uh they've been immense in kind of the the other the other prong of of our multi-pronged approach um and that is working with the landlords and the business owners to make sure they're aware of their responsibilities um and you know the it it has led to a few of the problem establishments being closed down or being evicted by their landlords I know that's as as you stated Commander that's not the goal the goal isn't that we're targeting places to shut down we want compliance um but I think the message needs to be clear that for the The Operators who are not uh able to comply or not willing to comply with with their responsibilities um that there there are consequences for that and and we've seen that happen already with several establishments um and I think uh as the the process continues and this collaborative work continues um uh people need to be on notice that they'll continue to see that um for for anyone who's not able to comply with what I think are some very simple uh safety requirements right s simple laws that keep people safe within their establishments um uh one more thing I I wanted to thank uh the department you all and you specifically Chief too uh you've been a a big help throughout the process uh when it's come to protesting uh license renewals through TABC uh data like this is is what you've been able to provide me in advance of that and it's it's so important um that you know again we're not targeting specific establishments uh you all aren't I I have submitted uh protests about you know one establishment in particular um that has been a bad actor and and it's so important that we're able to back that up with this kind of data and so I think it's very beneficial that you're sharing this with the public today as well um to show again uh how much of a problem has arisen out of out of these areas but also just the sheer amount of work that's being done by the AL Pasa police department but also all of the the partners on the cross functional team to address this headon I think in a way that hasn't been done uh you know going back historically this is a uh a really renewed effort and uh an escalated effort to make sure that we're we're looking to curb uh these things so thank you to you all uh for the hard work that you're doing and I think we'll continue to see the the results pay off from this I appreciate that representative but I'd be remissed if didn't recognize those young men and women out there every night uh doing very difficult work uh uh under the circumstances it is a multi-facet asymmetrical approach with all our partners the county attorney's office uh Amy Mony Vice uh the military uh with uh uh General Eisenhower uh Team I mean it's just a multi TABC you saw the the shooting that happened up on Lee trino they immediately uh suspended licenses so uh we're getting the message out we want to work with uh these businesses but if they don't come in line we will do everything legally to uh impose sanctions on them to to make sure that uh uh this is a safe Community for everybody involved and we appreciate your efforts too absolutely and I've I've I've ridden along with them I've been out there and seen the collaborative effort with Fort Bliss with the Fire Marshals with everybody um and and it's it's an impressive operation that you have going on out there to address this problem that hopefully we're also addressing on the back end so that we can we can prevent a lot of it from happening in the future thank you thank you sir represent F thank you Mr may I the the county has been big partners and has really focused on um issues with s sobs occupancy um the relationship between the Fire Marshall and and and with you all and TABC to be more aggressive when it comes to the the issue that the mayor brought up on when it comes to occupancy so it's good to hear that uh about that one uh uh establishment that you were able to uh close my question is more in regards to the trans uh functional team um it was cross functional well it's trans cross functional it's uh was the short-term rental Alliance part of this or um this team they're they're new into this uh um so we were looking at the entertainment districts that's where a lot of the stuff was happening and then these short-term rentals where these parties were happening where we we had uh shootings and uh deaths so that that's a a relatively new that we're working with them on I would suggest you you include them because I know that there's no one who wants uh who's more focused on transparency um this is a business and and they don't want to see any of this happening in in their rentals or or in their establishments uh that was I was glad you brought up that that point about Airbnb and that other group working together so people don't cross over so thank you for that work and but I would suggest that that we reach out to them and and have them have input um moving forward yeah in fact Airbnb was uh provided information to uh all the major City Chiefs at our last conference so they're doing this Nationwide it's not just uh unique to hear so and representative thank you for for putting this on the agenda you know what we need is is really data like this to make U informed decisions for our community so thank you Chief absolutely thank you represent F represent molard thank you mayor uh Chief and Commander Lopez thank you very much for all your hard work thank you for this presentation I do have several questions we'll begin with um slide number six you identify different stakeholders um you don't have to bring it up but it is there and there's 13 different entities that are there is there more than this besides what youed here yes there are these These are the main stakeholders that uh we're working with uh on there but as we see different things developing we can bring in other entities okay and how many uh people when you attend these meetings how many people people are there in these meetings as far as the stakeholders or like the business owners coming in the stakeholders the stakeholders uh it depends on the topic that we're we're we're doing uh uh at the time so we could we could have something where we're looking at where it's a fire department TABC along with u Mrs uh Miss Mony vice's office so we can have anywhere from four or five to all the stakeholders that we might need okay and how often do you meet um again like the the chief eluded to it depends on the topic in the area that we're concentrating on say it's UTP and it's uh spring break for UTP and in proximity to the Cincinnati Entertainment District we'll bring in UTP we'll bring in UTEP PD their administrators and then we'll also bring in the stakeholders that are helping us with the entertainment districts and those those big three are going to be the fire Marshall's office a code enforcement and Miss Mon's Vice with the County nuisance abatement team when it comes to community relation that's when we get into our citizens Advisory board meetings and we bring in speakers and we do presentations for the community so like the chief was mentioning it's a complete machine and it keeps revolving and evolving and then it depends on the topic at hand on which stakeholders are brought in to address specific issues okay um changing subjects here just a little bit these I'm going to concentrate let's just say on the Cincinnati Entertainment District is there any polic policy that a lot of these businesses have where patrons when they come in that they're patted down no there's no Poli that's one of the things that when we're meeting with the uh the business owners um that was one of the topics that we addressed a few weeks ago with them on uh how to properly check for weapons we've made recommendations to the business owners on on what they should and shouldn't allow coming in whether it's uh backpacks things of that nature but even with this recommendations there's no one taking that action that initiative business owners restaurant maybe not restaurant owners bar owners that are doing this through their bouncers or anything like that other employees what once again with that meeting that we held with about 20 of the the business owners that came in that was one of the things that they wanted to learn from from us on how to do that properly um and these are the ones that want to they they want to just be good partners and we're willing to help them out through through that process so do you think in the future some of them might enact this policy we're hopeful that they'll do that well we're all hopeful for that um let's talk about noise so um what type of decimal reading instruments are utilized I don't know the exact brand I I can ask if Steve Alvarado might know what I'm interested in learning or finding out is U the current state of technology that is being utilized so is this uh current is this 3 years old 5 years old good morning mayor members of the council Steve alvado code enforcement director current equipment we've had for the past three years um they're cycled through as they become they try to calibrate them and they're not calibrating correctly so we'll put in Implement new sound meters and I believe the name is ethc is the name of the sound meters may be off on that but that's currently what we're using we're looking into new meters uh for our nighttime enforcement team as well as PD Officers um we are out there taking these ratings from the public right away and um continue to educ and so have you been researching the technology on the sound meter sir uh we have we've looked at different options um to look at we're going to get with our our training academy as well to make sure that they are okay with the what we're looking at as well and get it approved and are you aware that certain sound meters do not capture the base levels when they're being recorded that is correct sir there's different levels of sound there's AC and there's also a z and speaking with the sound engineer from UTP in the past um there's different levels to measure these as well would it be more feasible to try and capture those sound meters that do record the base levels because you can go to a bar and you can hear that base boom boom boom but if it's the sound decimal meters are not capturing that what good are they that is correct we would have to amend the ordinance to implement that as well uh currently it's not in the ordinance uh this is for Miss nean then so you would have to change the ordinance on that yes sir which is it's part of the work that the CFT is currently conducting in regards to what the Sound Ordinance needs to look like okay all right and um your code compliance officers can they issue Class C citations no sir they they issue notice of violations only okay why cannot they why can't they not issue Class C citations I would have to refer to uh theace officers yeah PE peace officers are only issuing our code enforcement officers are not peace officers sir so that only a peace officer under the state of Texas can issue a Class E citation okay so we we've done that training so that they know how to do notice of violations and bring them into compliance so they do issue notice of violations and so is that uh let's say an issue of notice of violation given to that person has it filed in municipal court at a later date what's the process that is correct we issue the notice of violation typically to the the bar or restaurant manager or Club manager um they'll have to show up at a set date usually 30 45 days after the fact okay on slide number nine a total of 375 notices of violations have been issued by our code enforcement team um what is the um the data that supports that in other words out of those notices of violations what are our judges doing to say Hey you have been adjudicated and an adj part of an adjudication what did you receive as a fine and Court cause if we have anyone from Municipal cour on the call we we do sir we have Miss warl on the on teams right now good morning Miss warl you're on mute can you hear me yes yes now we can hear you okay um this is the from the municipal court I I would actually have to run some data on that but I can send it to all of city council for that the judges do hear the cases the uh the fine and and court costs are $222 um but as to the uh final dispositions I would have to send that out to okay everybody if you could do that for us ma'am and share that all with our city council and our mayor and their leadership as well uh yes I understand this slide is from uh covers everything the I guess the calendar year through October the 31st of this year year so we could do that and also miss warl do our judges receive training on proper U because the classy citation traffic citations are different versus a notice of violation do they receive training on that as well not not so no they received training from the Texas Municipal Courts education center but that's an overall relating to magistration warrants traffic State violations but not specific to just notice of violations in your humble opinion ma'am do you think they they need training for that I would say so and as a matter of fact I'm working with the legal department and we're setting up a training for animal violations in January all right that's great and the animal and the animal depart the animal department is actually conducting the train okay Colonel uh Weston so um as part of the cross functional team would you be able to have put that in the process as well I'll discuss that with them sir Juds okay um let's talk about changes gears here just a little bit mandatory overtime for police officers on any given day Friday or Saturday you have a lieutenant how many sergeants how many officers and or detectives working on an overtime basis that that going back to that slide we have 28 officers and supervisors working on these operations so On Any Given night that could fluctuate the actual number of monies funds spent from because Lieutenant of course makes more money a sergeant makes more money the the different officers on where they're at will make more money so and where is that money coming from these these uh uh initiatives are targeting the the peak hours like we showed on the slides Fridays and Saturdays into Sunday mornings um some of this money is being funded through uh the tag the Texas anti-gang unit um because our gang task force goes out there and works in the other comes out of our our budget all right thank you very much I have no further question appreciate every all your work thank you thank you represent M representative Kennedy followed by representa done this this could be the easiest question of the bunch can you introduce the lineup over there absolutely Ian I mean the individuals you brought with just looks like a lineup I'll I'll let them come forward and they can introduce themselves and tell you what area they're responsible for that' be great thank you come up gentlemen he just wants to know their name when they pull them over they're trudging like it is a lineup good morning uh my name is David Ramos I'm the commander for Mission Valley good morning uh Michael Gaither Lieutenant I'm representing Commander Thomas pñ for Central Regional command good morning mayor and Council ignasio hernandz Northeast Regional Command Center good morning mayor mayor liser uh City representatives and City uh leaders uh John Lanahan Commander Pebble Hills Regional command also want to add that Pebble Hills has four City districts under District s representative Rea uh District Five representative sasil um District three under representative head nandez and also District Six uh represented fle so it's a large region but I'm available any time any need thank you thank you all for what you do wice Commander ding thank you representative nundes if you're looking uh back he stayed back over there is assistant chief Umberto telones uh over operations and Major Crimes come on up go ahead represent nundes thank you all for coming up and introducing yourself and thank you for your your hard work um I I do have uh just a couple questions the F the first one is related to kind of the process is there any vetting from the police department in the event that a business closes in an entertainment center what is the police department vetting as part of the planning and One-Stop shop efforts to issue a new um certificate of occupancy so that they can come in and establish in your bar is there any vetting on your part and then let's say a bar does close for cause and then they just change your name new ownership and then go to a new location what vetting do you do in that case as well so we've been we're working also with uh Mr 's uh department on that along with TABC so they they have to communicate uh between the that City department and TABC to establish a license TABC is is trying to get their hands wrapped around uh somebody getting closed down and then maybe getting a family member to open it up in a different name but that's where these two uh um entities are are working together to try to streamline the the vetting and the issuance of permits both on the city side and on the state side and and from what I understand it's it's a joint venture like both the city planning department has to give the okay as well as TBC because they they ask for like um some kind of feedback from the city and so there is my hesitation is that I think loow hanging fruit as part of your CFT in your efforts is to identify who those Bad actors are and so in the event that they want to open again it's got to be some kind of report that goes back to El Paso Police to give some kind of confirmation because from what I understand it's an administrative call um and so when Representatives like representative Gales and others who are making complaints against establishments I feel like that is kind of falling to the Wayside and it's not being brought in a in just like a very formal way that we can report that um there's some kind of uh disconnect there and I think that's something easily that we can address yes and we're working on that we identified that between the three entities uh and so that we we're starting to close that Gap okay so vetting from the police department critical so that we can stop some of these nuisances in in the future you mentioned mandatory um overtime I hear many from your your um members of the police department you know quite frankly it's it's very taxing on families and your officers and part of the conversation I had with Colonel Weston is my concern that ourmes are producing less than 20 um uh graduated members per Academy and you know I've been here long enough to see some of these acmy um I think at the time it was like six months or eight months um we were producing over 50 to 60 and part of our plan to increase the number of officers um to to meet that net 600 I don't know that we ever met that because we have so many retirements is there an artificial cap for the number of folks who are joining an academy or are they dropping because these numbers are way too low no there's no artificial Gap what we're doing is we're we're uh recruiting and we're targeting our recruiting as best as possible where we're seeing the the best where we're going after the different demographics um there is a a positive that it looks like it's going up the academy that's going to start in January right now we already have 39 seat with 13 still in their last phases of the application process their medical and psychological uh exams um the the contract that was entered in between the union and the city of El Paso helped us a lot we've done some other uh initiatives to to draw more people in but it's the same thing that's going on all across the country as we're all fighting for a very small group of people that want to go into law enforcement but uh it's it looks like it if we can keep this up with this January class and then the May class where we're getting more than that like I said we're already at 9 for this class in January we're hoping that Trend continues okay um just food for thought consideration on the the length of the academy I'm so proud that you all go through so much training but I don't know that it makes a difference in the um outcome to get um some of our officers quicker to to the street I'm just trying to find ways to increase our numbers maybe reduce that um you you've demonstrated really well with this Administration the past administration on the crisis intervention team because I I think that that was part of the the the the reasoning U to increasing the academy um but I think with those ongoing trainings annually I don't think it's necessary to have that long of an academy um so just something to consider as we're looking to find innov innovative ways to increase the number of cadets in our in our acmy um I do have a question for our friends at Fort Bliss Lee uh Lieutenant Colonel um as you approach there from from what I understand the foras has a off limits EST establishment list and then there's some form of committee um at foress I'm not really sure what that process looks like can you explain to council what that looks like yes ma'am and uh so we have a quarterly meetings and it gives uh both all our partners in uh we are better informed of certain establishments where uh We've identified certain incidents and uh again ma'am as far as partnership we're partnered with TABC along with El Paso PD uh we also have other Le government agencies that inform the committee and then uh additionally again it's the the entire purpose of of that is to to seek compliance so that um our service members uh don't find themselves in certain situations or environments where it's promoting uh inadv firste type uh actions as well and then we allow for the process to go through um in terms of the compliance piece and then afterwards as we exhaust the process then a determination is made if uh if changes were made uh then okay it's not on the off limits establishment or maybe we proceed forward and recommend that it does become part of the off limits establishments uh for service members but uh again ma'am we allow and exhaust uh all opportunities the entire process so it it's fair and equal across um across the board you mentioned you meet quarterly and I think that because of the rise of some of these gun incidents and the entertainment centers I would encourage you to continue to meet even if it's like an emergency basis or more frequently um because those off-limit establishments really make a difference for the safety of our community and for for your service members um I do also want to thank um you and and forus and and our commander there um for this unity and approach to address some of the crime um we couldn't do it without your support so thank you for that collaboration um and the off limits establishment um is there any patrolling that that the MPS do at these sites or you're just kind of just put a list together and how do you enforce that list yes yes ma'am we uh so we have the the list together um and that was one of that was one of the discussions in the previous uh board was um what are certain measures uh that serve as uh direct back stops um to to further promote and ensure that service members uh don't go but but really right now as far as our partnership that we have with El Paso PD uh being out there uh and we can tell uh what a soldier looks like and um and we other it's it's a small um it's a small army so um we know our service members ma'am and when we do see them uh again as I me mentioned earlier uh we apply engag leadership uh at that moment ma'am thank you was there anything else you wanted to share with Council that we should know about about these efforts ma'am uh so to to the mayor uh ladies and gentlemen again I can't thank you enough on behalf of uh Fort Bliss uh leaders we can't thank you all enough for for the support that this community provides uh to our service members their families and additionally our our civilians as well um we're very privileged uh to have our base uh here nested within uh supporting Community thank you thank you and the only thing I wanted to mention is about the social host ordinance uh I think that was a great step forward um are are we showing up to House parties are we breaking up the house parties or are we just because I've had some situations where I just see the sirens kind of go off and then the kids disperse um but I do get requests if you were actually showing up and and enforcing the social host to yes when we have units available yes ma'am we we do um that's uh What uh what we're trying to address um we had an initiative when we had the violent task force out there and the the social or the um um the short-term rentals where we had uh officers going out there that's where our gang and some of our SWAT officers were were looking for these establishments as these calls were coming in to relieve Patrol of those opport those calls also had our par officers uh reaching out to the schools to help educate the the kids and the parents about the dangers of these uh types of parties okay um is there an a way I can look at all the par officers per um Command Center please yes we can send that to council everybody where they're at I appreciate that I want to mention one thing about the military you asked about their cly meetings um they they do hold emergency meetings in fact recently we were involved in one of their emergency meetings because they were concerned of a couple of establishments so so they they they do uh react quickly to to Trends also so thank you rep on this um May proam and this should be our our last council member thanks mayor um Chief really quick in regards to the the academy a lot of the training that you have to do is mandatory correct so about three quarters of the academy is a TI low required um but we also do a lot of uh scenario Based training which takes up a lot of time so that's not the first time a new recruit going to be a police officer sees that they've already gone through that great thank you um and then I know that we've talked a lot uh about the relationship with Fort Bliss where it comes to um entertainment centers and entertainment districts do we have data on um DUI's dwi's um drunk driving accidents and how that relates to Fort Bliss officers as well um and I don't know if the member from Fort Bliss wants to talk about how uh the the Army is addressing that my understanding is that number is very high um and I don't know if there is a way for Fort Bliss to set up a program with free Ubers or something um I don't know if you all have that data available we can look at it but I think that's a conversation in the future too I mean I know MPS are at the bars and that's been very helpful but I think we're also seeing a lot of increase um in in highway accidents drunk driving wrong way driving I'm getting a lot of calls and concern about it my understanding is a lot of those are sold that might be incorrect um but there are a number of them that are and I would like to hear in the future from Fort Bliss how they're addressing that as well thank you I can tell you from our side before the lieutenant colonel comes up here is when when we uh our officers are involved with the incident with a soldier we notify uh the military right away so depending on what what it is they could be a victim of a crime or they could be subject to arrest so there's that open communication I know we want to prevent it though before we get there but I appreciate that go ahead thank you Pro okay go ahead good morning ma'am as far as that just uh pre the prevention piece um again ma'am going back to the engaged leadership and and what we promote is that they always travel in battle buddies and and there's always a designated driver we provide the information and the opportunities for access to all the different resources that's available to them uh whether it's U Uber some type of ride share or there's a dedicated individual part program uh within that unit that okay this is going to be the designated driver um so uh those are out there and in additionally ma'am um as a also as a deterrent uh Fort Bliss does um at certain hours when it's they're more susceptible for for DUIs uh we do our uh what we call random uh access measures slash inspections and uh from certain time of the hour and this is uh 7 days a week uh we conduct 100% uh and we're able to catch um some of the individuals that are driving uh impaired so uh we're able to stop them at least uh at the access control points coming into Fort Bliss and then additionally it serves as a deterrent that hey if if you're you're driving uh you you have the potential to get caught here uh as you try to enter back into installation but they've already driven from point A to B I mean again as someone who's been through a serious strong driving accident I think that there is a responsibility from Fort Bliss to be addressing this and and I would like to see in the future um some potential programs because I again um there have been some very serious accidents involving Fort Bliss soldiers and people uh you know that we're just driving home in the evening and I I it's a very serious issue um that is occurring in our community and so I would like to see a little bit more Proactiv ISM in that communication um on how we're preventing that because again and I appreciate that you're catching them at Fort Bliss but they've already driven home and we're happy that they've gotten there safely that hasn't always been the case thank you um and then Chief I want to and and Miss Nea please stop me if I'm off of topic a little bit but I want to talk about the Outreach I know we've we talked someone just asked about the number of par par officers but in addition I I think this conversation with entertainment center started back in 2018 we saw a real increase in crime over the last year we've seen increase of crime all over the city gun violence especially in the central area I can't talk for every area has been up at House Parties there was a stabbing the other day at 7 in the morning right in central there's a body found in an alley but what I'm hearing a lot from my constituents is they're not having conversations with PD they read these stories on the news that's how I find out about them um um they're calling for information I don't have any nobody has showed up to their neighborhood to talk to them about what can be done um so I would in the future like youall to have a public conversation I may not be here um but I will be watching about how you are all having those conversations with neighborhoods right if my neighborhood has asked for you to come to a community meeting if I'm here in January we'll be reaching out on that um but what I am hearing from the community is that they're not feeling safe and in addition nobody is commun unting with them and I think that's an issue right I can't keep you can't hold you responsible for all of the crimes that are happening in the city but what we can be responsible for as a city is how we're communicating with people after the fact correct yes ma'am and that's uh going back to the uh citizens advisory boards that the the commanders are holding on a regular basis and that's where we need your all's help to help get involvement in that we we will increase our messages to the different uh uh Regional commands in the different police districts um to to get the message out um going back to your previous question with the with the military on the DWI so they do put out courtesy patrols that help us at these different entertainment districts so we get the uh uh involved with the soldier they immediately take them so they wouldn't be driving because they have their their own way of getting them back to to for Bliss also on the proactive side is they partner with our our par officers when they're in processing soldiers and they get the different uh uh and DWI is one of them uh about drinking and driving yeah and the other thing that that I want to mention and chief pus has talked to me about this is is extending the invitation to have uh PD leadership attend your meetings to be able to talk to your constituents you know one of the things that uh that Chief has been um really promoting is trying to find Opportunities and ways to be able to get the message out to the community I think that that's another good venue for for this is to do it with uh with all the council reps I also know that a number of our Council reps have also been having uh informal meetings with Chief to try to work on different issues and concerns within the within the districts so that's that's always open as well thank you sir representa mullard thank you mayor just a one quick observation so for the public here um and viewing public standing before you here and us as mayor and Council you have these gentlemen that's the leadership of the op Paso Police Department and I'm trying to do the math in my head but there's probably 160 years here of dedicated public service to El Paso the citizens of El Paso and our community and gentlemen I thank you very much appreciate everything you do God bless you thank you combine no I I know we can speak from uh the the youngest patrol officer out there on the street to the most senior officer on the department we all feel that the citizens are worth the service thank you representative Rea thank you mayor I do want to do want to reiterate uh the fact that uh you all did a wonderful job today it's a great report that was presented to the to us and to the public as well and your cross functional team we finally got to know what what it looks like and uh thank you Colonel for the opportunity to to to have this uh presentation done and as a education for our public and know that we're not we're we have a different department now we have one whose initiative and is to work with the public and be more proactive as addressing the uh issues that are pling in our city right now and they're doing so as best as they can I do appreciate each and every one of you I've I've known since rookies and so thank you very much for your present time and your time and effort Cent sir thank you for representing Ford Bliss as well and everybody else that's involved I the gentleman that was sitting down we didn't get to introduce him they've introduced him three times already sir oh did we the one that's sitting down yeah okay well thank you thank you all very much appreciate the presentation thank you all again for being here and I think I I do want to thank um everyone for being here but also Fort Bliss um we're very very blessed Community by having General license how be the Commanding General he has become an incredible partner to our community and uh I thank the Army really for sending such a quality individual to run in command Fort Bliss so thank you mayor we do have public comment on this item yes ma'am from miss Patricia Osman good morning ma'am you have three minutes morning Council again morning as you know I was here on November 7th talking about getting PD more support because as I emailed you on November 13th a more detailed explanation we have a BDSM prostitution group working out of several bars throughout our city so PD definitely needs as yes I know bad subject but it needs to be brought up because it's the safety of this city um as I was discussing with the chief they've only had one detective that Cycles through vice vice handles that okay so I'm glad we're having this but more needs to be done and I want to say more than needs to be done and Miss anelo is correct about the crime in our area Okay El Paso is in my soul I live on a piece of property that's been in my family my grandfather bought it over hundred years ago Antonio Garcia thank you I am still here my family has been here in this area from the 15 and 1600s a a lot of what established El Paso okay historic record so I take everything here very personally when I see people hurt I try to get involved so much so June 1st I had PD in my home because I have cameras they were not looking at my fence or after midnight and they were in my home 5:00 in the morning looking at surveillance footage because although I have reported a drug crimes on my same block at the corner apparently drug deal gone bad busted into the wrong apartment and then PD was called but you know what didn't happen although they were there and I kept and and that officer asked how long do you have your surveillance I let him know and I kept asking are you going to come back and get it detective hasn't called me back so there's a crime that went uninvestigated or at least they didn't get all the evidence they could have there's two drug dealers within a ston throw from where I live I have reported both they they have they are still selling drugs years later where Kiki's Restaurant is tourism comes it's on that same block so any anybody know hey you go eat lunch there you're right next to two drug dealers within a stone's Throne I do believe that the county should not be the only one picking up the slack yes the batment team I have spoken to them about this matter but they cannot do anything unless law enforcement actually triggers them thank you ma'am thank you ma'am m p yes sir the next item is number 18 and this is discussion and action that the city council declares at the expenditure of District 2 discretionary funds for holiday meals and celebrations at Memorial Senior Center Wellington chw Senior Center Grand View Senior Center ELO Plata Senior Center and San Juan Senior Center serves a municipal purpose this is repres Mayor Pro mano's item move to approve second there's a motion made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative Kennedy to approve item 18 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session will you thank you representative in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously next item is number 19 and this is presentation and discussion on the B Al Pasa Rewards program providing an overview and update on the program good morning mayor and Council Mia craigo with economic and International Development I'm here today and I'm very excited to announce the launch of the Bop passor Rewards program over the past few months our team has been working diligently with a Better Business Bureau barracuda um spectrum and kurabi and collectively this team has worked really hard to ensure that this program would launch ahead of the holiday season and so um we were able to accomplish that next slide please so through the use of a QR code uh this program is designed to boost engagement and support uh support for our small businesses um it is designed to increase Revenue encourage uh repeat business uh have businesses grow their customer base and it's also a way for the businesses to thank the businesses for for you know visiting their their establishments so creates that Customer Loyalty uh the program did launch in October and um we already have 70 businesses uh signed up uh next slide please but over the weekend we had our fourth annual bile Paso day and through um the help and assistance of of our strategic Communications office uh we were able to have another 50 businesses sign up so now we have 120 businesses signed up on the directory that you can visit um if it can play the uh video please um if you can go back it's on slide three there should be a link who's ATT touched on the email um well they do that it's it's it's going to demonstrate that it's a very simple program to join all you have to do is use your phone scan the QR code and you can sign up with your phone number um while they're looking for that um I can also fill you in again on just a successful launch of having all these businesses join uh this program is available at no cost to the small businesses and through research we learned that if a business were to implement this program on their own they're looking at spending you know upwards of $3,000 a year so it is a tremendous savings for our businesses uh as that could mean you know maybe a month or two's uh month worth of rent so U very beneficial we can move on to the next slide or or come back to that if let's go ahead and put the presentation back up you can just go ahead and and proceed okay so uh one of the key benefits um for the businesses is one of the things that we've learned through uh studies is that 78% of consumers are more likely to visit a business business if there is a loyalty program so um for the business it helps them build that Customer Loyalty base uh and it rewards the business for you know returning and and giving them that business back uh but it also creates us as consumers to be the brand ambassadors and um I think we all know if we visit a new restaurant uh a new store we are very quick to to pass the word and you know let our friends and family know about this great spot that we've identified and so um again it it helps the business in increase uh that foot traffic and it just increases the awareness for the public to come and visit you know this new establishment next slide please so again this is a two-fold objective um not only is it boosting the customer loyalty for the business but one very key um I think uh benefit for the business is that there's business intelligence behind that so for example let's just say you own a bakery uh um you now have built you know a number of businesses that have signed up with your with your business to to be to be part of the program it's end of day you realize you have inventory you'd like to uh sell at a reduced cost you can quickly send a message to your clientele base and say hey hot sale 50% off 75% off and so it increases again you know the communication with the business and creating that repeat business um another way to think of that is uh the business will have have a dashboard to also see how often and um what the peak times are so if you see that you're maybe overstaffing it might allow you to see the trends in your business and realize well hey maybe I don't need to have uh three you know business uh or three employees uh working at this hour um so it'll allow them to make those adjustments for the business and that's something that they don't have at this time and it is incredibly I think beneficial for them to see uh that something that they don't have at the presid time next slide please so it's very simple to join if you see the QR code there um you scan your code you enter your phone number so you can um be a participant um you also will see a link to the directory that shows you all the businesses that have joined and as I mentioned we're now up to 120 and growing our goal is to have a thousand so we asked you all to share with your constituents uh put this out in your newsletter and um encourage our businesses to join because it's it's going to be a really really robust program that we believe is going to help our small businesses grow next slide please and here is just uh at the end you can again scan the code uh learn what you can visit and learn more about the program uh the marketing pushes that were're done through social media but we're also happy to visit you at Community meetings and um spread the word and answer any questions for for business owners and with that I'm happy to take questions mayor if I may members of council um the Ed team will be sending you the link to the video uh the howto signing up and then all of the other information and we would love it if you would promote um and share with your constituents as appropriate through newsletters thank you thank you um Laura there's no questions no we don't don't have public comment on this item is it okay Trisha from the BBB what are we doing there's no any questions we didn't have anyone sign up for public comments on this okay thank you by the way I downloaded the thing it worked pretty good from the screen okay thank you the next item is number 20 and this is presentation and discussion on the sale process for 19 city-owned properties located in the union Plaza area of downtown El Paso good morning Elizabeth Triggs with economic and International Development um this item is an update to City Council on a a motion um previously made um directing the city manager to begin accepting letters of interest uh for the disposition of the city-owned properties in the union Plaza area which was the former um multi-purpose Center site um and so the intent of today is to provide that update um to go into a bit of detail about what um staff recommends the process look like moving forward um and then also to to gather feedback from Council as we begin to roll this process out to ensure it it um is a really smooth process and aligns well with what council's vision is um for the future of the site for its uh future Rehabilitation um so just a reminder the council motion was made on October 10th of 2023 um it was a very broad motion uh directing again the interim city manager to begin soliciting and entertaining letters of interest from any interested parties um for the purchase of the city-owned properties located in the union Plaza area of downtown El Paso there certainly has been a lot of discussion uh around what uh should be done in that area and so as we uh talk through the process we want to ensure that that we are very well aligned with what council wants to see done in the area and specifically Karina will go into more detail and specifically um talk about uh the Adaptive reuse of the properties and the structures that that currently exist in the area um so just to Anchor ourselves this is the map um the 19 properties in green are the subject of uh the direction um for the city manager to begin the process to dispose of the properties or S sell the properties uh there are 19 total um and these will be included in um the request for interest that we're looking to move forward with with respect to how we'll go about um soliciting um you know offers or interest um we propose a two-step process beginning with a request for interest um that request for interest it's not a formal procurement process instead it's um a process that allows us to gather from um experts in the field but also from Community stakeholders um people who have an interest in in looking at what happens sorry the microphone is there we go um interested in what happens with the neighborhood it's an opportunity that for them uh to tell us in a very um I guess controlled manner so that we don't lose any of these um these recommendations in the process to tell us what what is possible in the area and what they would like to see um from that request for interest those responses will be reviewed looked at um and I'll go into a little bit more detail about how we'll do that and then staff will return to council uh for step two and make a recommendation on how we proceed with the sale whether that's through a formal procurement process um which could be anything um you know including a request for proposals which certainly would we would work with the purchasing department to execute or any other formal procurement process or proceed with a direct sale um we know that these properties uh definitely have Economic Development value to the city um we know that because of the state the current state that they're in uh it like will um take some participation from the city to bring the properties back up and so there are provisions of uh the state law that allow us to entertain direct sales um we're not there yet though I want to be clear about that we today we're at step one and wanting to get council's feedback on on initiating step one and then after we have time um to put to advertise and then receive um receive interests or responses to that request for interest then we return to count ccil with a recommendation on moving forward again whether that's through a formal procurement process or a direct sale um so a little bit more about what a request for interest is um again a little bit different from a formal procurement process Economic Development will manage um this this process um of course in partnership with city attorney's office um and we have also worked closely with purchasing just to ensure that we're um we're very well aligned um but really the the purpose of it is a formal way of gathering insights from industry experts and Community stakeholders about what could be on this site about what we could do um understanding clearly though you know what council's vision is for the site so we we sort of will start um in our request for interest um with an overview of the site and and what council would like to see from the site and then ask very open-ended questions about what could be done here um the benefit of doing this sort of data collection is it helps the city understand what's possible it helps us un uncover industry standards best practices in other communities um what the costs might be associated with this that that is where it is very helpful to have industry experts chime in um they have more familiarity with what it takes to rehab um some of these properties and then also just innovative ideas things that have been done in other communities that maybe you know we don't think of and certainly we can do research on our end as well but a lot of times it it does help to have that Outreach and um that experience come to us through um a response to the request for interest um with respect to a process it will be posted online I want to be very clear that we will have a separate landing page for this RFI um it it will not be through ion wave it will be a separate landing page it will be well advertised on the city's website um but we'll also be working to do a lot of direct Outreach um to Industry experts to real estate brokers um we'll be working with other development related media things like cdfa um to work together to make sure that it's very well advertised without that advertisement it's it's hard to know it's out there right so this is really critical component to the process for us is advertising the request for interest um limits for you so to be clear uh this is not an what will result result is not an award um what results is us being able to make a recommendation to you about how we proceed um whether it is through formal procur to get to an award or if we see a really interesting response whether or not we can move to one or more direct sales um with with those respondents under the the the portions of the state law that allow us to do so which are heavily Economic Development related um and then I I've gone through how we'll use that info um on the following slides Karina will go into a little bit of detail we've we've benchmarked with other communities who have had similar projects um where you know adaptive reuse um there's an interest in in maintaining the history of the site um it that's of importance to these communities and so they've used a similar process starting with the RFI to then explain how you go um further to actually award and move to to disposition and getting these things built so with that I'm going to turn it over to Karina to go through those those Benchmark cities Karina brala economic and International Development so as Elizabeth mentioned going to go through a few sites um we've also looked at white papers otherwis but these are uh also requests for interest proposals on sites uh across the country that we think will heavily inform kind of the formatting but the process kind of taking notes from how this has worked in other communities um and seeing what we can kind of add into our process to get good proposals and good information out of the RFI um so the first one is Tulsa Oklahoma This is the Evans fin tube site so they are also dealing its 9 Acres of municipally owned property so you're dealing with a municipal owned site um and it's got a similar Urban context so it's right adjacent to Central uh to downtown Tulsa um there's you know a baseball stadium nearby the highway it's near it's within an Arts District um and then it's adaptive reuse of Metal Manufacturing facilities does include National Historic register sites we have sites in Union Plaza that are eligible for historic registry status um and then their process was two years of intense Community Feed feedback um related to planning efforts around the site um did leave their interests led to a formal RFP and selection process um and then their goal really here was mixed use project adaptive reuse and then this was the location of Black Wall Street um so there is a heavy focus on creating wealth opportunities specifically for black communities in Tulsa and a lot of conversations around Equity so looking at kind of again how their process ran how they added those components in in and um if this if our process did lead into an RFP looking at how the selection the analysis um the review would work and then San Francisco has recently released their downtown adaptive reuse RFI theirs is a little bit different it's aligning with their recently adopted downtown plan um it is targeted at private sector projects that would need Municipal support but they are broadly looking for projects ideas Concepts in downtown San Francisco um that would need assistance whether that's regulatory or financial or other means um a lot of their language is very very good in terms of how do you build housing how do you build uh you know enhance those public spaces how do you build different uh industry sectors in there and then conversion of underutilized C uh commercial space so really good language in there although of course the target audience is a bit different from ours and then Phoenix Arizon um they have a award-winning adaptive reuse program it's been replicated in Tucson in other cities across Arizona and the Sun Belt um one of their major program performances is through the warehouse District in Phoenix so it's a targeted Development Area for that program um you can see the before and afters here it's very similar Urban context and design as Union Plaza with these brick buildings old manufacturing sites um revitalization efforts Rehabilitation so really focus on small business neighborhood connection um that sort of thing so looking at their toolkit there um and how they have done their Rehabilitation projects over time again not a municipally owned area it's been kind of a longer term project there but seeing what we can take from what they've done um what worked what didn't and see how that can inform our process and our information and then the next few slides oh I guess this is the old presentation okay give me just a second here okay no then I'll turn this over to Elizabeth while we pull up the um slides on the the guidance on the vision okay um so you can see those three communities all began with an RFI process which again was very open-ended um I think San Francisco is a good example they they do actually have the RFI up online so if you have a chance take a look at how how it's structured um it very much starts with what the goal of the RFI is which in that case is to secure um to look at vacancies downtown and how those vacancies can go from Office Buildings to residential units very different situation for El Paso so we we are aware of that and are making sure that as we write the RFI what we're focusing on is adaptive reuse of the properties um I know that we've heard it's important to um to maintain at a minimum the seven properties uh that are that could be independently designated if not all of them um so that will be very clear and upfront um to structure the responses from the beginning um in addition we'll provide information about the project location um we'll um talk a lot about what we estimate what what we're looking for to gather from these responses is um you know ideas uh for how the properties can be rehabbed and and used um in an Adaptive way um we will certainly look for visions that align with those of council an estimated project schedule and then it's always helpful to have feasibility and financial information understanding that this will be very broad at this point because again this is just ideas that are generated um through the request for for for information and the slides that Karina is working with it to pull up will will help anchor um exactly how we'll structure the RFI with respect to what the parameters or the boundaries of the responses we're looking to receive um we will include reference documents uh we certainly want um local um Community stakeholders to respond to the RFI that's important to us and they may be more familiar with what what is trying to be done in this area uh but we also want others to respond um it's always helpful to understand again what industry best practices are um what's been done in other communities and innovative ideas and so in order to help guide um those responses we will include these reference documents could i t pull up I didn't notice they don't have the presentation up it could you pull it thank you so we will include these reference documents um Council has passed and approved a number of items recently um very importantly the Uptown and downtown and surrounding neighborhood plans which does in fact address this area so that will be good context um the union Plaza design standards as revised if Council so choose chooses to do so at its next meeting on December 12th um any properties that are redeveloped or rehabbed in this area will be subject to those standards um and then in addition the union Plaza property conditions assessment this is really useful for those seven properties that may be independently um contributing uh because it does go through what their current condition is um it defines what is needed to bring them back up um to to be in a place where the public can visit them and then also provide some ideas for what adaptive reuse might look like and then finally um the gurb multi-purpose Center feasibility and programming study and the reason why we're including this as a contextual document is because it contains a lot of feedback from the community about what the community's vision is for the union Plaza area separate and aside um from the discussion about the M multi-purpose Center um so those documents will all be included as context um with respect again to the process I mentioned before that advertising is critical in this case um it it must be proactive we can't just post it on the website and then hope that people respond we'll have to do a lot of Outreach um to do that and so we'll have that dedicated landing page um Council will have access to that so that you can refer people as they come to you with their their ideas you can refer them to this this landing page and to the submission process um so that everybody has ideas are collected and and eventually reviewed um we uh in the department will leverage our network with real estate brokers um neighborhood and Community stakeholders and then certainly with development oriented media to advertise on that media um one of the really good ones is cdfa among others um I think that this again provides for a way to control um and ensure that everybody's ideas are collected and reviewed in a very systematic way um one of the other things that I do want to bring up is that as we're working through the RFI process um some of the best practices that we've seen in other communities uh like the three that Karina mentioned is that we offer walkthroughs um we may get you know requests um through that RFI process that say well there might be something more we could do if we could see the properties and so we will certainly um be available to do those kinds of walkthroughs and and um you know make that available to the community and then finally um the end goal of the RFI process is to recommend the next step in the disposition of the properties so again this is not an award process it is to help us Define what is possible um and then make a solid recommendation to council about how we go about achieving what is possible whether that is through a formal procurement process or through one or more direct sales under an economic development provision Allowed by state law with respect to uh timing you you heard Karina mention that one of the communities it was a two-year process we do anticipate it'll take s some time to actually get to the point where we enter into a contract of sale um but we're breaking that up and looking only at step one this is the the RFI process um so today you have the presentation we're hoping to gather feedback from you on what you'd like to see in terms of parameters around around that RFI um and then in January we'll be releasing the RFI which includes establishing the landing page um and and begin that process of advertising um very proactively um February uh through March we anticipate receiving submission of responses and then the spring so a couple months after that we anticipate reviewing the responses and coming back to council with a recommendation on how to move forward based on those responses that we saw and with that let me I think we've switched the presentation or yeah so they're going to pull up the slides um this was discussion so just to give a little bit so again the RFI itself will be very open-ended as elizth has said we are looking for all proposals um from developers from interested buyers from Community from stakeholders what we do want to do though is place um some provide some sort of framework for those responses um so this is from the MPC feasibility study again the focus of that was the sighting for the arena on the back half but the community outreached the stakeholder feedback was about the district as a whole so they did develop this vision statement um and some guiding principles here so about breathing life into down toown making sure that it's reflecting and understanding the history of the area and engaging in that um providing opportunities for day toight activity different you know people from all walks of life Community wellbeing wellbeing and then a lot of focus on green spaces connectivity pedestrian bicycle access the site does have uh alley access for these sites so looking at maybe efforts to combine with our alley activation plans Etc and again just a framework these are not in any way metrics there are no you know like we would in procurement there are no scores associated with this this is just to provide some information on what the city has already had in place in addition to those backup documents and then goals in terms of adaptive reuse um adaptive reuse inherent to the practice is the idea that buildings will be retained and preserved or rehabilitated in some way so focus on historic building facades um enhancing the public realm so how do you bring activity into streets sidewalks spaces um generating new housing units including affordable units this is a key goal of our downtown Uptown and surrounding neighborhoods plan it's been in the housing study so we would look at we would certainly be looking up proposals that would include affordable housing um new housing units in any configuration and then activating ground floor spaces neighborhood serving retail looking at ways that perhaps we could do small business incubation there um adding cultural uses attracting new sectors diversify downtown and looking at kind of alternative so education art research technology um you know not just a co-working space or you know a restaurant or retail but just really we are looking for um creative proposals as well as something that might be considered more traditional development and we want that to be open for them but again want to kind of focus and make sure that people understand that the intent is adaptive reuse it's Rehabilitation it's something that fits in with the Community Vision for the site and then I'll click through that's it we're open for any questions M Pro time thanks Karina um I have a little bit of concern on what we're well first I want to talk about it's slide nine for me I guess that's the incorrect presentation though I so don't know what it is for you that's fine um but when we talk about this study um and this I you were calling it not the master plan what were you the guidelines the guidelines so that are you talking about let me click back through here it was something that was done I think back in 201 12 2013 um this Breathe new life into downtown understand the history of the area no that's from the uh multi-purpose Center feasibility study performed in the back half of which we've had a lot of criticism from over the years a lot of the community said that their voice was not heard in that I and and so I'm just gonna make that point I want to make a few points and and get to where I'm going um I'm concerned that your vision isn't my vision right I think adapted reuse is really important but I think we're not looking at the significance of that neighborhood right and I think the when you say Tulsa I wouldn't pick this place in Tulsa I would look at Black Wall Street and how they renovated that area how they added in historical elements until they built up Community how they use that area to do local blackowned small business revitalization similar to what the community was right I would look at Charlotte and what they've done in revitalization to not only new businesses restaurants New housing units but low income housing units community-based programs right what I Envision is a mix of of what some people would you know would say as progress and then also Community engagement historic preservation um community resource and all I'm seeing in this presentation is adaptive reuse for new restaurants and new housing units I'm not saying that's what you're saying I just want to be clear on what my vision was and when we're talking about the MPC master plan or whatever we've already heard from the community who has been in that neighborhood for decades that they were ignored in that conversation that they have not felt like their voice was heard and so I have concerns that we're building an RFI on something that we've had some concerns about so I I'm happy that we are moving forward with this process I think that we need to get input but I also want to make sure that we are not just putting out this RFI and saying okay it's online um if you know about it you know about it go apply how are we reaching out to the people who have been involved in this conversation and quite frankly this fight for you know seven years now and encouraging them right how are we building an RFI that says you know these are Community basis points versus economic points I know you don't have that right now I'm not asking you to answer it but I just just want to say those are some things that were flagged for me when I was looking at this presentation which I now know is the incorrect one that you did not want on the backup but I just I wanted to share those points you you have the correct one on the backup so it just didn't get uploaded to the system but um so I think what I would highlight just because I hear you very clearly those three communities that we brought up um they're similar in these sense that it's adaptive reuse but really we brought them up more from the perspective of the process that they used so they all three began with an RFI and that's really what I want you to take away from those three communities is that they all three had big projects didn't know exactly what to do with the area new adaptive reuse was important they started with an RFI and eventually went to or well San Francisco's in still in the process but eventually go to an award or disposition process that makes sense I appreciate that clarification it's just because I know that these cities also have a little bit more community-based projects um and so it it triggered me a little no I I completely understand and so I'm happy to clarify that really it's from the perspective of the process um it's a it is a best practice and it's one we think is useful here um the other point that I want to make is part of the purpose of today's discussion is to show you what we're thinking so that we get good feedback so we did include the list of um contextual documents that we would include um I I hear you on the multi-purpose Center feasibility and programming study and that is certainly one that is not necessary to include the parts of it that we thought were valuable were the parts that did involve the the community feedback about what they wanted to see the area look like um but it is not necessary that we include it I think what is necessary is the Uptown and downtown and surrounding neighborhoods plan because that was very recently passed and approved by Council it gives good context for what the area outside of Union Plaza looks like as well as Union Plaza I think certainly as you all take up and consider the union Plaza design standards uh during your next council meeting meeting that's another important piece because it's good for um potential um buyers uh to be aware of what those design standards are because they will be subject to meeting those it's it's a basic of the zoning code um and then finally the union Plaza property conditions I would also strongly recommend including that is a really valuable document that at least for seven of the properties tells you exactly what is needed to to put them back in a place where they can be inhabited or visited by the public um and also give some ideas for what appropriate adaptive reuse might look like um but but I hear you and we are not tied to including that final document and will not do it done represent Canales thank you mayor um yeah thank you all for the for the hard work you've put into this and for the good presentation here um I like the the method that is being proposed here using an RFI or request for information um to figure out what is possible at this site um what uh you know anyone interested in the property would be interested in doing there um and and that's a useful First Step um I do think that we uh have a clear interest in uh preservation here um and that uh there's a whole spectrum of of uh buildings there but I think they kind of fall into two clear uh delineated buckets right there are the seven independently contributing or you know independent independently eligible uh contributing properties for the National Historic register and then there are some other properties uh that have maybe a diff you know lesser historic value not that they don't have any value historically but there you know there's there's a difference between those those two types of properties I think we need to guarantee that at least for those independently eligible properties um any potential uh buyer or developer of the properties would would be willing to uh work with us to get those places on the national register um again because they are already they've already been identified as as contributing properties um so I think that's a starting point um for those seven properties um and I I personally would like to include that uh at the beginning at the of the RFI process to make sure that that is understood by anyone who's interested in in these properties um I can get to a motion on that in a little bit here if needed but um I I also think um you know for some of the other properties uh again there's a mix right some of them them are significantly older but some of them date from the 1980s and they're not they're not they don't have quite the same historic character as others I would hate to get in the way of something like uh development of affordable housing on some of those properties uh where maybe the same uh restrictions don't apply on those properties uh so that we're not stepping on our own feet and prohibiting uses that are desired in that area that we want um but again this I think the seven properties we need to be careful with uh what we put out and make sure it's clear upfront that we have a strong interest in preserving those um and getting them listed on the national register uh I don't know what's needed from us to accomplish that if if that would if if we've given you you know if this constitutes significant enough direction or if you'd like a motion to include that in the in the RFI process I don't I think this would count as Direction what I will say is that the county did do that report on the independent eligibility we can also include that in the reference material so that folks have the history of those sites as they were assessed um and then again we would just include it in the general language about what we're looking for what we're seeking um put parameters on that that the intent is that the historic registry properties seek eligibility or are in some way preserved um and then we can just take information back from the process and return yeah and I think specifically like I we want to make sure that those end up listed and so I I'd like to include that that is the eventual goal that that they will work with the city uh to make sure that those properties are listed in the National Historic register okay um and then I'll just say I'm I'm excited to see what comes back um I know they uh last meeting we had a a local organization who was here they weren't ultimately able to present present uh I I think they've since met with the city manager and team is that correct colon Weston yes we had a really good meeting yesterday uh are you able to expand a little bit on uh how that went what you were able to hear from them no I mean I thought it was a really good meeting they talked about uh the communication they received from the community in terms of the character of the community a lot of the same kinds of objectives that were brief today I think that my comments back to them was that uh what they proposed in terms of and they kind of looked at in terms instead of very specific um developments they uh talked about uh some of the very specific things that would also include potentially um the city being involved you know things we discussed in terms of Alleyways um things uh uh in terms of kind of walkability Community Gardens these kinds of projects that um not only have they introduced and talking to me yesterday but some of the things things they've heard in the community so I think it'd be a really good really good uh for that group to um bring their proposal and submit that within the RFI process because I think a lot of those things are very relevant to what I'm hearing from the city council fantastic thank you and thank you for meeting with them uh before today and this presentation I think it was important that they were able to provide their their feedback on the front end and yes I I invite them and again anyone else who's interested from the community uh and Beyond to to participate in the RFI process here uh and hopefully submit something that yeah uh we all like and that matches the the objectives that that we're putting forward in the RFI thank you man thank you and uh thank you for the presentation I know there's already been some um interest in the property and that's uh something that uh I know you all are going to work and look work through and see what what that brings but um I um I know that um by talking to some people that that could be a really neat area and uh we need to continue to make sure we preserve the buildings to the fullest that we can and also um redevelop the area and and I think the people that are interested are some of the people that are that want to do something like that so that's really good and thank you again for a presentation and M PR I know we have public comment yes mayor we have Mr arnulfo ernandez that signed up to speak on this item yes ma'am and then after this we'll go to call to the public thank you sir thank you ma'am good afternoon Mr ernandes you have three minutes sir good afternoon mayor leer city council and uh city manager Colonel Weston um I speak uh uh in support of the uh sale of properties within Durango footprint taking into account the comments by Mr anelo and Mr Canales um and in that vein we support report the call from Project regeneration that before the city sells the these particular properties that they adopt guidelines and standards and over and the overall vision of gener uh which includes say heritage Corridor with musings mercados performance arts affordable housing Mr Canales which you have pointed out in newelo affordable housing community gardens and other services one thing that uh I think someone pointed out what else do we need in here I think that Durango ought to be married with street cars street cars are El Paso it provides a mode of transportation it will bring the tourists it will bring the visitors if you develop a small spur to Durango that takes these folks to all these things that we just mentioned imagine that we revive the street cars from El Paso to wat is loop again and go through Durango I think your Merchants I think the business would love it and you would provide a much needed service to folks that don't have transportation and that even if they do they are too infirmed and unable to drive the street cars will provide that and it would also revive this Corridor uh along I think it's um the street is Plaza La or something Lao and andero and it will bring much more economic uh importance to the city of El Paso um I think what you also need is an advisory committee to the city that would include for example folks like Dr Max grman who single-handedly sued and successfully prevented the arena being built over the Durango Footprints I think it also should include members of project regeneration many of them who are co-authors of the book in the book who rues El Paso I think that these folks and others in the community would give the city the kind of guidance that the residents and the taxpayers would like to see in in in in the Durango area and again I emphasize I think it's the street cars that will make it work together thank you thank you sir M Prim yes sir that brings us to call to the public the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving 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 in attendance are expected to display civility in deorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public uses form for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have five members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Elizabeth Crawford her topic is stable Earth good afternoon Miss Crawford you have three minutes good afternoon thank you so much good afternoon um the the eyes of the world are focused at this moment on the Middle East um we're all watching the tragedy um that's unfolding um in in Israel in um the Gaza Strip Jewish people Arabic people losing their lives um Bethlehem it's a a city in the West Bank um I want to um speak briefly about about Advent what took place in Bethlehem and how that relates to our our current situation in the world and as we know it it has impacted El Paso and the community here as well um Luke chap 2 and Joseph also went out From Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the House mineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espouse wife being greatly child and so it was that while while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered and she brought forth her firstborn son wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a Manger because there is no room for them in the end verse 11 for unto you is Born This Day in the city of David his savior which is Christ the lord um the Apostle Paul and WR writing to the Believers in second Corinthians speaking of Salvation wrote for for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might might be rich um this event that took place in Bethlehem as as we um in the Advent season as as we remember this event has massive implications for the future as well the the book of Isaiah the prophecy of Isaiah a awesome prophecy um referencing Assyria Assyria will correspond to parts of modern day Iraq turkey Iran Syria in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of host shall bless saying Blessed Be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my inheritance um there there's awesome hope um in what took place the Advent there's awesome hope in the future um and it's a it's a beautiful season a beautiful opportunity to remember the past and to look forward to the awesome future for Israel um and that extends to the Gentile Nations thank you so much hope you have a very good day thank you so much thank you the next speaker is also participating via telephone Jesus mendosa his topic is Electro and chemical sensitivities on children Mr Mel has star six please to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes thank you very much thank you can you hear me yes sir oh thank you I respectfully request the mayor and city council uh to request doctors on the city payroll or doing business with or in the city to get training in environmental medicine I have been homebound for more than 12 years with painful debilitating and life threatening Electro and and chemical hyp sensitivity EHS and CHS which are aggravated by exposure to even low levels of radiation in chemicals and fumes commonly found in the environment it is estimated that because of the dramatic increases in environmental pollution more than 150 million Americans more than half of the US population especially children are suffering symptoms and signs of EHS and CHS which mimic and are being confounded with symptoms and signs of most illnesses including catastrophic irreversible and deadly illnesses and disabilities despite that EHS and CHS are reaching pandemic proportions most doctors are in the dark when denial of environmental medicine and continue misdiagnosing and mistreating the harm caused by radiation and chemicals with chemicals and radiation including powerful and toxic drugs highly addictive and daily painkillers and daily x-rays chemo and radioactive therapies these massive medical errors are for closing any possibility of a cure on millions of children children and other defenseless and un suspecting victims defeating the purpose of Medical Care according to the latest research diagnostic errors kill or disable almost 800,000 Americans every year this number is more than 250 times the number of people murdered by Terrorist on the 911 tragedy and I will say that is a very conservative number says Dr KP staller the evidence proving the fraud on the course to conceal this mass of medical errors is detailed by Terence alert October November 2023 posted on the case law documents of J mosa wiress watch blog.org wiress watch blog.org sharing this evidence as much as you can requesting your doctors to get trained in envir environmental medicine and requesting your legislators to intervene can save in M pain and suffering and the lives of millions of children and other defensely and suspecting victims government officials have a duty to verify this evidence and a duty to protect our children as the evidence demands denouncing this massive medical are is consistent with the supreme law of the Lord treat treat others the same as you would like to be treated our children cannot defend themselves from this aggressions don't wait until it's too late ignoring the facts doesn't change them Carly Cooper Our Lives no longer belong to us alone they belong to all those who need us desperately Eli wiso silence is the deadliest weapon of my destruction former congresswoman City mcken thank you very much for your response to these facts respectfully thank you again thank you Mr Renda the next speaker is Patricia Osman topic is ethics and discrimination she will be followed by Richard sheer and Michael Amaro good afternoon you have three minutes what I'm going to speak about today affects not only myself but all seniors and disabled citizens of our city November 2022 I called the city uh city of C's Department to apply for assistance meant for seniors and disabled in our city at the time I was told there was no funding but I could be placed on a wait list for when the program opened back up for applications in January of 2023 and was told to do my best to stabilize my roof as as until I was able to get receive the home repair assistance because when it rains outside it rains inside I was contacted in January of this year 2023 and began the application process applicants are on a set timeline although it appears city employees are not held to the same standard I was approved in February of this year and felt blessed at the time but that changed when in the grant process I experienced ethics violations from what I initially thought was one employee and in the course of reporting that employee discovered that it was not merely an issue with one employee but far greater it appears the city of El Paso is attempting to run out the clock so that my approved assistance on my home is no longer eligible for repairs to be made due to time and requirements of Eligibility which I met but continued delay on the part of the city could very well lose I could very well lose eligibility I was approved for assistance in February of 2023 which to date near a year later now being December and the beginning of the process in January I have yet to have the rep Grant repairs done to my home as I have been r retaliated against and my home repair project deliberately delayed by city employees the council is aware of these issues as I have emailed each of you along with Department directors and was advised to do so with all management but I have yet to receive any response as to the status of my approved Grant assistance since October when I received an email stating because I asked for a meeting with the Department director I was now being asked to provide approval proof for my project to move forward according to open records request no such approval exists for any Grant approved applicant so I pose this to the council and citizens of El Paso is this how our Ci's most vulnerable are to be treated when they report ethics violations to be stripped of the assistance they were approved to receive it's in your court gentlemen I've sent this to every everybody and I want to make sure that every citizen is aware because it doesn't just affect me there are victims before me and there will be victims after me if I don't keep speaking out so you will see me more frequently I wish I didn't have to come here but unfortunately I do thank you by the way merry Christmas thank you the next speaker is Richard sheer he's also participating via telephone topic is investigative revoking the Spectrum franchise and awarding it to another provider Mr Shor star six please to unmute your telephone Mr Shor you're on mute star six please to unmute your telephone hello good afternoon sir you have three minutes hello yes sir go ahead you have three minutes thank you good afternoon mayor and councel good afternoon um I was trying for days and days to get my uh Spectrum Bill uh reduced because I don't watch much television and when I do I only watch pretty much the local channels I was able after considerable uh calls to get it reduced to $102 from 176 but when I got back in town I didn't have any TV and when I called it turns out that their lowest uh television uh grouping uh does not include the local stations and that's doesn't make sense because when you give a company a franchise uh you do it with the understanding that it will benefit the people of El Paso and the El Paso Community so I can tell you from being at the local Spectrum store yesterday the manager told me that the CEO of spectrum will be in town next week and in his store on Sunland Park and perhaps you Mr Mayor and the members of city council and the city manager should uh probably try and make contact with spectrum and talk to the CEO when he is here in town the reason being El Paso shouldn't have to pay $653 that's what my bill went up from 102 to 152 in order to have local channels and the local channels are supported by people that buy the service for local through Spectrum the local channels sued to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court agreed that they should be paid for their um this the content that they provide and it shouldn't be at free to Spectrum so Spectrum collects $23.85 5 cents each month for the purpose of being able to have the local channels that money goes to Spectrum but is turned over to the stations in the city the local stations now those local stations benefit and when they benefit the citizens of Al Paso benefit so it makes sense that the cheapest thank you Mr sheor you've reached the three minutes sir thank you the final speaker is Michael Emeral topic is feedback impact clarification of ordinance 01 9552 good afternoon sir thank you good afternoon and happy holiday season I'm Mike Amaral and I'm here to make a public statement from a veterans point of view on the changes that you all approved back in November regarding disabled veteran parking at El Paso Airport for a city that earned the title of America's veterans Capital there have been great improvements with services for veterans throughout the city to include at the El Paso VA Health Care system over the last several years ironically adopted on 7 November of this year four days before Veterans Day in a day in a year and three days after declaring ourselves veterans capital of the USA you passed a resolution to amend title 14 chapter 20 section 240 my assumption is that you approve the implementation plan as well this change reduced the parking benefit afforded disabled veterans at epia the media initially sold it in part as improving overall access to disabled parking in 2021 I worked with Senator Blanco to clarify the state law to previously been misinterpreted to allow DV tags to park and handicap parking this new law went into effect on one January 22 yet it was six months before the airport put up signage and started passing out flyers that they would start enforcing it I was actually honored that the airport copied a flyer almost word for word that I've been using for months to notify veterans yet this recent change was approved and implemented within 10 days I happened to have been traveling leaving El Paso on four November with another veteran and his wife returning after two weeks that was when I found a notice on my car I got an the queue to check out and read it the poor parking lot attended poor parking lot attendant had been put in a very bad position dealing with people who have been who had pulled in prior to the 16 November implementation been impacted by this change there was no grandfathering for those who had already parked in the parking lot legally understanding what the rules were um she offered to go in and recalculate it based on how long I had been there after the implementation I didn't want to hold up the line I didn't want to give her any more headaches so I just paid for the whole thing fortunately I'm blessed that I was able to do that with no significant impact but I did promise her I would bring this topic to the city to the city council on the implementation of this change so for clarification that the notification that I got is right here if you want to see it um but the ordinance says long-term parking is indefinite for DV but the notification says that it's now 30 days I would recommend that you adjust uh the short-term parking to two weeks then maybe have a reduced rate after that $5 $7 whatever it is per day long-term parking if it's not indefinite like I read the ordance to say then it should be 30 days and then a reduced rate after that uh please consider rewriting the amendment to actually be veteran friendly thank you and I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas thank you sir thank you mayor that concludes call to the public thank you we go next item may now move to the first reading of ordinances these are items 21 to 23 move to approve there's a motion made by mayor po manelo seconded by representative Rea to approve approve the first reading of ordinances items 21 to 23 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative erand is not present the next two items are related mayor please there thank you there's uh emergency ordinances items 24 is discussion and action on an emergency ordinance extending emergency ordinance number 01 9333 authorizing the city manager to assign personnel and resources to assist in addressing the humanitarian and Public Safety crisis resulting from a mass migration through El Paso item 25 is discussion and action on an emergency ordinance extending emergency ordinance number 01 19485 due to a humanitarian security and economic crisis resulting from a mass migration through El Pas move to approve second there's a motion made by mayor motion made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by alternate mayor protol linar to approve the emergency ordinances 24 and 25 on that motion call for the vote mayor do you consent thank you sir yes ma'am and the voting session the motion passes unanimously with the mayor's consent representative ernandes not present the next two items are also related mayor they are 28 and 29 yes ma'am thank you item 28 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 12 vehicles in traffic parking prohibited During certain hours school days only to add 2600 Thea cadis Court from John Hay Street to th Mia Street item 29 is a public hearing on an ordinance to amend title 12 restrictions on parking in residential districts to add portions of Thea Mia motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative salido second it by representative Fiero to approve items 28 and 29 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative ernandez not present and the final item is number 33 and this is discussion and action that the city council approves be authorized to effectuate the listed budget transfers attached to the resolution as exhibit a for the El Paso International Airport move to approve second there's a motion made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by alternate mayor Pro to approve item 33 on that motion call for the vote who second that I'm sorry I heard alternate mayor pro thank you I didn't hear yes sir alternate mayor Pro him well you not I heard on on the microphone in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative ernandez not present there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed I and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday December 5th 2023 is adjourned at 12:50 p.m. thank you Council the next meeting will be next Tuesday December 12th December 12th next Tuesday the next meeting is next Tuesday one week from today