e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning mayor yes sir we're still pending um a quorum but in the meantime um we can begin will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police ch Robert Hill Jr good morning sir good morning Mr Mayor mayor protim and officers um directors and members of the community let us bow our heads for the invocation at this time Heavenly Father we come before you today for this city council meeting seeking your guidance wisdom and Clarity in this meeting we ask that your Holy Spirit be present Among Us guiding our decisions for the common good and ensuring that we serve the best interest of our city open our minds and hearts to new ideas and help us to work together with Integrity help us to set aside any professional differences and work together in unity ensuring that our efforts reflect your will for a better community in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit we pray amen thank you thank you and this morning for the Pledge of Allegiance we have students from share Law Firm internship and scholarship program we have Valeria arano from Loro Academy Luis Cruz Rees from Cathedral High School Kimberly escara from canoo high school and Joseline Rosales from Soro High School right than good morning this is a meeting of the AL Paso city council for Tuesday October 8th 2024 mayor liser is present and presiding in council chambers along with mayor protim Kennedy representative ACO representative ernandez and representative Rivera representatives molinar and Fiero have requested to be excused today it is 9:03 a.m. mayor we have a quorum thank you good morning everyone and um thank you everybody for being here I um I do appreciate people that come to city counil and have their word heard and it's important so I do want to thank everyone who's here I want to thank uh the uh young young and upand cominging El pasoans that were here this morning to U give us the pledge allegiance I think it's important that uh they see how politics and and their government works and um I say this and I um probably when my Saints I'll miss when when I get out of office is the the future of our city is the youth and every time I stand in front of young people like I did this morning I can tell you that our future is very bright moving forward so um if uh I can have a moment of silence uh prayer silence for everybody and and pray for what makes you smile thank you and may God bless you and may God bless America I didn't see a lot of smiles though but that's okay I was looking down Miss PR thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations for those of you receiving a proclamation this this morning your group will have up to 6 minutes collectively to speak at the podium once your Proclamation is read the first Proclamation is National Chiropractic Health month which I'm Sor National chiro Chiropractic Health month good morning good morning everyone uh the proclamation for the city of El Paso whereas the years we live and good health without major chronic illnesses and disability are known as our health span and along with cardiovascular health metabolic health and other factors musculoskeletal health is an important factor in extending Health span and whereas in the US muscul musculoskeletal conditions are a common cause of chronic pain and result in more than 130 million Healthcare visits annually making them the number one reason people visit their doctors whereas worldwide back pain is a single leading cause of a disability historically one of the most common reasons that people in the US are prescribed opioids and whereas the number of people worldwide living with back pain is projected to increase by 36% to more than 800 million over the next 30 Years and whereas doctors of Chiropractic are experts in the muscu muscular skeletal health and offer a variety of non-drug approaches to treat common muscular skeletal conditions such as back pain along with advice on nutrition injury prevention ergonomics and lifestyle modifications for Optimal Health and Wellness and whereas guidelines for the treatment of low back pain chronic pain by the American College of Physicians the center of disease for control and prevention and other groups support of the use of non-invasive non-drug approaches such as spinal manipulation as a first line of defense against back pain before the use of pain medications and surgeries and Raz with the theme Chiropractic plan for a strong Health span National Chiropractic Health month 2024 REM citizens of op Paso Texas that chiropractors can help maintain and improve their muscular skeletal Health throughout their lifetime contributing to a strong Health span now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as National Chiropractic Health month signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations mayor city council thank you very much I truly appreciate it good morning my name is Mike Pon I represent the Texas Chiropractic Association for district one which represents here in El Paso you guys have supported us the last few years truly appreciate it it's an honor to be here this morning so you guys can read the proclamation and know how we can provide value to the city of Al Paso thank you thank you would youall like to introduce yourselves please hi good morning my name is s Baka and I'm the office manager for Dr Bon's Clinic good morning good morning good morning my name is Maris and I'm the massage therapist for Dr B's Clinic good morning hi good morning my name is Alysa Rubio I'm the receptionist for Dr Bon thank you all thank you for being here for and for the record representatives salido and Canales have joined the meeting at 909 one more [Applause] and the next Proclamation is domestic violence Awareness Month sen nundes go ahead ma'am hi good morning have the honor of reading the proclamation onto the record and it states whereas domestic violence is a serious problem that affects individuals families and communities Across the Nation and Raz domestic violence is a complex issue with devastating consequences including physical and emotional trauma economic hardship and even loss of life and Raz October is designated as a domestic violence awareness month to raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence and to provide support for victims and survivors whereas the center against sexual and family violence is a dedicated organization that provides essential services to victims and Domestic and Sexual Violence in our community and Ras CV's theme of break the silence end the violence is a powerful message that encourages individuals to speak out against domestic violence and to seek help and Raz it's important to recognize the work of the casfv and to show our support for their efforts to prevent domestic violence and create a safer Community for all and whereas the city of El Paso urges all citizens to actively participate in scheduled activities and programs to work towards improving victim safety and holding perpetrators of domestic abuse accountable for their actions against individual victims and our society as a whole now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October as a shall be known as domestic violence Awareness Month assed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations thank you for all your work good morning good morning good morning everyone my name is Sandra nades gcia I'm the executive director for the center against sexual and Family Violence um so as mentioned thank you for the opportunity for being here for for recognizing October's domestic violence awareness month as mentioned uh break in silence and the violence is an important message to us to ensure that survivors across our community can feel comfortable enough to reach out for not only services but also gives us the opportunity as a community to be able to embrace them understanding the complexities of domestic violence and the situations that they're dealing with is really something that um can only be dealt with as a community we want to ensure that individuals feel empowered um in making those difficult decisions as they move out of um these particular situations understanding that your home should be your sanctuary and unfortunately that is not the reality for many of the individuals in our community this past year the center has done um various Services through are non-residential and residential services and so just to give you an idea of how many El Paso winds are seeking our service through our non-residential we've served over 2700 unduplicated clients this past fiscal year our shelter um that operates 247 has served over 824 different individuals with 446 of those being children um we have our hope line that takes crisis calls at any particular time 24 hours a day 365 days a year that's been a little under 7,000 calls this particular past year and so including therapy hours um and also just job training and making sure that they're self-sufficient so they can move on in their lives as they try to live a life without violence we do have various activities this particular month because it is domestic violence Awareness Month um we have things like our movie night we have some lives going on on our social media so we invite you to look at our website look at our calendar of events hopefully you can join us for some of those events um and again we're having a screening of a movie to just highlight kind of those difficult situations where individuals say why didn't that Survivor leave um again kind of highlighting the multitude on how a lot of times we minimize ourselves think it's not happening to us um or understand that maybe it's not as bad as with my previous family members or what I saw growing up so thank you again the individuals behind me are some of Representatives of our organization um that I'll invite up to kind of introduce themselves to you thank you thank you good morning everyone my name is Paula Fernandez and I'm the director of development at the center good morning good morning everyone my name is janana spra and I'm the grants compliance manager good [Applause] morning we do also have our social media relations for for [Applause] and the next Proclamation is white Kane day Pro whereas every Blind and Visually Impaired citizen of El Paso has the right to carry a white cane which will assist in facilitating them to live a full and independent life and whereas the white cane makes it possible for the blind or visually impaired person to move freely and safely from place to place and whereas every man woman and child residing in the El Paso area should be aware that the law requires all motorists cyclist and cited individuals to exercise appropriate caution When approaching a person using a white cane and whereas El Paso Texas law calls upon employers both public and private to be aware of and utilize the employment skills of our Blind and Visually Impaired citizens by recognizing their worth as individuals and their productive capabilities and whereas El Paso Texas through the cooperate Cooperative assistance of its public agencies are encouraged to facilitate the expansion of employment opportunities in the competitive labor market and whereas we call upon our schools colleges and universities to offer full opportunities for training to blind or visually impaired persons in our Ever Changing society and whereas we will call upon all citizens to recognize the white cane as a tool of Independence for the Blind and Visually Impaired pedestrians on our streets and our highways now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and City Council of the city of El Paso that October 15th 2024 shall be known as white C Day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar ler good morning thank you for having us I am Alfredo Perez I am the current vice president of the El Paso Council of the blind um we have the Flyers up here we have an event coming up on next Tuesday um I'll be happy to distribute those uh we also have our triols uh this gives a little description of what we do services that we provide it that are that we provide that are completely free to individuals that would like to join or to come visit uh some of the services that we provide is a free Barrel class free home Skills free notary service uh we uh assist in lift applications for Sun Metro some of the events that we have our group activities are game nights field trips we have we attend sporting events together we have movie Nights with audio description and we also have uh cooking classes we have food Club these Services again are all free to any individuals or family members that would like to uh visit us and uh we're also proud to announce that we are bringing the 47th Annual American Council of the blind of Texas conference to the up house Marriott in 2025 thank you sir mayor poam I was I was particularly I'm sorry go ahead go ahead go ahead I don't want to I don't want to Edge into your time go ahead go ahead ma'am he'll he'll right after don't worry I always talk so go ahead no I'm Katherine Perez I am the treasurer of Al Paso Council of the Blind and we are here for the amilies as well as those that are visually impaired or blind and we've got um our younger generation gets help from the schools once they're out of school that's where we come in and we can help them as far as well how do I eat on my own without spilling something that way they can be more confident and going out and being in the public again that's it and thank you for your time explain to them what you're going to school for also oh I am currently going to school at Texas Texas University online for onm um to become an onm instructor what is onm um that is the orientation and Mobility specialist so that I can help them so that I can be certified to help them get around on their own and um live a more a productive independent life thank you thank you for being here youall want to come up I was just going to say that I I was particularly honored I was a a former board member for a long time for Lighthouse for the Blind and I spent 10 years reading books to tape M um which Not only was enjoyable I got to read great books but it also helped my reading ability because uh it was the library they had over there was great and and I have to encourage everybody that if you find a program like that please step up because it's worth it yes we will take all the help we can get thank you thank you [Applause] canc October canc pink yesterday we today you guys congratulations the school oh my goodness yes this is my congratulations no that's good you keep going oh thank you thank you pleas [Applause] Mee and the next Proclamation is Breast Cancer Awareness Month I have the honor of reading this today um I'll get right to it so proclamation of the city of Al Paso Texas whereas National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease through community outreach public education collaboration between organizations advocacy and research in El Paso and whereas the r Grande cancer found Foundation is dedicated to reducing the human and economic impact of cancer on the citizens of Al Paso County through the financial support and development of effective programs for advocacy education early detection and other services to cancer patients and their families and whereas the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation is the foremost Center for enhancing the quality of life for those affected by cancer and whereas for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation reaffirms its commitment to support support local organizations in order to provide breast health and breast cancer services including education awareness early detection resources and support services and whereas the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation promises to serve the women and men of El Paso County especially those who are medically underinsured and uninsured and whereas the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation declares its solidarity with breast cancer survivors co- survivors Advocates healthcare workers and research by observing National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the city of El Paso and now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month signed the honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning mayor city council and congratulations to Miss Mack our new city manager thank you for being here my name is Carol bowy I'm the director for the Rio Grand Cancer Foundation and we're very grateful for your Proclamation this morning I'm going to yield my time to the friends and peers behind me because rgc f is only one component in the system of care and I'd like you to hear from them thank you ma'am good morning Mr Mayor good morning city council uh my name is uh Dr s salivar I'm a GNE oncologist and medical director of spir women's onc ology associated with Las Pama Del Soul Medical Center and uh so I'm the uh numbers guy with our our group here um and uh so according to the National cancer institutes uh for the year of 2024 it's estimated that there will be uh 310 uh thousand death uh incident cases of breast cancer with 42,000 deaths uh males not excluded there is such a thing as male breast cancer 2700 uh new incident cases with approximately 530 deaths uh the incidence of not only cancer in general has been increasing I can't quite put my finger on uh on what it is I don't know if it's our diet or or our sedentary lifestyle in in the Western countries but cancer across the board we're seeing earlier uh breast cancer colon cancer uh so the incidence has been rising approximately 1% per year but our death rate has been decreasing at approximately 1.2% uh per year and that's namely because of our new Therapeutics and early detection uh approximately 10% of breast cancer is her hereditary So a family uh with breast cancer uh ovarian cancer uh should should definitely get uh evaluated uh with genetic testing um so yeah I'm here with my colleagues uh in in order to uh hopefully despair some of the gender inequalities and also access to breast cancer screening that we see in our communities uh approximately 30 to 40% of the Latino population and africanamerican population have a uh increased uh risk of death compared to their Caucasian uh counterparts so uh thank you very much for your time thank you uh good morning Carmen would you mind joining me as well uh Shane Griffith and Carmen Marquez from Desert Imaging we're a locally owned El Paso owned Radiology outpatient Imaging Center and one of our core studies of course is mamography and so we're in the daily Fight Against Breast Cancer where we we provide approximately 26,000 mammograms per year across all five of our imaging centers sprinkled across El Paso County uh and it's and we just it's so important you know for again against all forms of cancer to that the earlier you catch it the more successful the outcome will be uh and so I'd like to turn it over to miss miss Marquez here who's the director of our mamography program for more information thank you sir good morning my name is Carmen Marquez like he said yes it I'm just here you know to say how important it is you know early detection is the main reason that uh we all we we try to get everybody to screen do their mammograms so anybody that's 40 years and over whether you have problems or not please I encourage you to start doing your mammograms and start preventing early thank you thank you I would would be remissed like Dr salivar was mentioning uh and Carol buy as well uh we provide uh free mammograms to unassured women through various funding Partners here in the city of El Paso so if you have any uninsured constituents who need mamography uh then please just have us have them give us a call and we'll take care of them okay you it's very important thank you good morning mayor city council thank you for having us my name is Charlie swopes and I am a certified breast cancer nurse I come from the patient side I come here to tell you what uh we do as Navigators and how important it is for patients who have been diagnosed with any cancer but in my specialty breast to be a support system for them um whatever they may need whether it's emotionally through the system because we know how hard the healthare system can be uh and so we're here to kind of hold their hands from the beginning of diagnosis all the way through survivorship so that's what we do and we see patients every day and you know as Dr salivar mentioned I have an increased number of patients every year and I have an increased number of younger patients that's why it's so important for us to get also the word out about screening and early detection so we just want to you know let everybody know that although October is Cancer Awareness Month all year round we have to remember our cancer screenings thank you thank you good morning ma'am good morning I'm felipa Solis it's a privilege to be with you here today and as a breast cancer survivor or what I like to say as a thriv um there are so many women in this community who benefit from all of the people you heard here today and for you members of the city council and our distinguished mayor to give us this opportunity to explain how important it is to for that early detection to save and help your loved ones because it's those people around you Charlie was one of the first people I I spoke with seven years ago and yet here she is still working to make a difference for so many women in this community and we thank you for that support we hope that everyone continues to get early screening the early detection is the key to survival and we thank the real grand cancer for their unwavering support of women in need and making a difference especially for the families of the people who are diagnosed with breast cancer and we can't forget those angels who look down on us who maybe didn't make it through the fight but are there with us to make sure that we do indeed at some point in our lifetime find a cure thank you so much thank you and you know it's U so important and the thing everybody kept saying is early detection early detection and I can tell you as a Survivor I understand that early detection is why we're still here today so it's very important that uh we get uh awareness so people go out and and um make sure that uh you know I tell people it's when you hear you have cancer it's the last thing you ever want to hear but it's good that it was detected and now there's a cure as the doctor said 1.2% you know increase in survival and uh without if you didn't have the knowledge of knowing that you needed the treatment you wouldn't your survival rate would go down so it's important to make sure that people um like I said uh get checked and understand your body and and and go out and make sure like I said uh as a Survivor I understand the urgency of early detection no doubt thank you representative Salo thank you mayor good morning I just want to thank you all for the great work you're doing in our community the stats to hear those stats they're they're very scary right you said one% we're going up and we just can't really Define what that is and but I just want to let you all know that the work that you're all doing is impacting our our community it's good to hear that not only cancer survivors but cancer thriver I love to hear that that resilient Spirit that's what we are here in El Paso so I just really grad to hear that and I actually one of my members just was diagnosed with breast cancer and so I feel a little helpless because I don't know how to support and help or you know and it's just being there supportive as a family member and and hoping but but just for the general public if you all can share um you know if somebody doesn't have uh Insurance you know usually what is the cost and is there any nonprofit that can help somebody get screened if anybody knows that answer okay um yes there thank you there's uh various um Partners here in the city uh desert Imaging being one where we partnered up with local foundations and we also are recipients of State funds uh that we jointly administer with Texas Tech so we were're able to provide free screening mammograms and any diagnostic uh if it's if the patient needs a diagnostic mammogram a breast ultrasound or perhaps even a biopsy we recover the patient from screening to diagnosis uh the Rio granded Cancer Foundation works with uh lots of other uh nonprofits here in town uh particularly as it pertains to uh patients who have already have a cancer diagnosis uh and so if you don't mind me giving you a plug for the big event you have coming up yes so we do have an event coming up on October 19th it's called The Pink Boutique and it's really designed for women and men who are survivors of breast cancer but what we do is we pick them up after the diagnosis so we're there to provide financial assistance so they can get the treatment that they need and then we provide free wigs if they lose their hair from treatment and then we provide free bras and mastectomy garments um if they've had to have breast removal thank you ma'am early detection saves lives yes ma'am thank you thank you and without you all please come up for for for e and the final Proclamation is Amigo Air Show day repres Retta good morning sir good morning mayor thank you proximation City V pass oh first of all are you're the only one here I'm waiting on Shane's actually taking two proclamations today oh okay okay we'll start then Proclamation city of Al Paso Texas we're asked Mount star Sports Group Amigo air show is committed to enhancing quality of life and promoting economic development in the El Paso Del Norte region by providing an exciting family friend friendly event with aerial performances along with variety of ground activities and whereas Mountain Sports Group Amigo Air Show shares a special and unique partnership with Ford Bliss and receives unparalleled support from The Bigs Army Airfield including facilities equipment Manpower St static displays leadership and input and whereas Mountain Sports Group Amigo Air Show aims to Foster unity and collaboration between military and civilian communities and support higher education in aviation and Aerospace careers through Steam initiatives and whereas we recognize Mountain Star Sports Group Amigos Air Show returned to Ford Bliss with the support of dedicated Partners sponsors board of directors volunteers and the community at large now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that October 8th 2024 shall be known as Amigo Air Show day good morning good morning mayor Lisa and city council the Amigo air show is back just back my name is Vanessa Martinez I'm the chair of the Airfield operations for the air show and on behalf of the staff the board of members all our sponsors uh we're really proud um to have your support thank you as you all know this has been something that's four years in the making and it's finally here this weekend and we're committed to making this a tradition keeping it going for the next several years and and inspiring the Next Generation um I'm a homegrown El Paso and um my grew up the last time I went to one I was 14 years old um I was always inspired I grew up I ended up being a pilot I joined the military and now Aviation is my life so I hope to pass that on uh to to citizens of Al Paso and and to kids in our community especially um you know I really take it to heart that uh Hispanics actually only make up about less than 5% of the aviation industry so I would love to see more kids from all Paso grow up to be air traffic controllers aircraft mechanics and Pilots so thank you again for your support and we'll see everybody out there all right thank you Vanessa and as she was mentioning uh the this year's Air Show it's marks the return after a 12year Hiatus and thanks again to our partners at Fort Bliss and all the tremendous support of our of our of our sponsors uh and the community at large we've got maybe four 500 volunteers of which I'm one of them um and so I my honor to be here you know on behalf of of the of the air show all of the high level staff they're actually out there at Fort Bliss right now making sure that this event goes on off without a hitch we're expecting about 80 to maybe 100,000 folks here to attend the two-day event which kicks off uh this Saturday uh doors open at 9:00 uh we have lots of static displays on the tarmac there at bigs Army Airfield uh thanks to Fort Bliss and we've got some amazing aerial performers uh headlined by the Canadian snowbirds they're super excited they actually rearranged their schedule to when once they heard that the Amigo air show was coming back uh they had other events already lined up but they made way for us and so we're just really grateful for that um and as as Vanessa was saying uh a big component of the air show is giving back to the community and and furthering stem career stem education so we have a a wonderful scholarship so portion of the proceeds from each ticket sale goes towards the scholarship which will be invested here into our city where we can have hopefully more Hispanics get into the aviation uh field where Vanessa actually also represents the war eagles uh Air Museum and as a helicopter pilot as well uh so we're super excited it's going to be a great event uh bring your F friends bring your family speaking personally it was my favorite event when I first moved here to El Paso about 16 years ago and to you know get that fly by you know with the Roar of the jet engines over your head and you know the jet truck and everything else we've got it all we're back and I'm just we're we're super excited to be volunteering and making this happen so come on out everybody we encourage you please do thank you [Applause] I do want to make a couple comments that Fort Bliss was so instrumental in being able to do this and general Eisenhower who just got moved up um was so instrumental in making sure it happened he believed in our community and was really part of El Paso and him and Command Sergeant um major I mean Command Sergeant yeah major what's U Williams was so instrumental in making sure because without for Bliss and our partner we wouldn't have been able to to do this but then we take it a step further there's thousands of volunteers thousands of people that really have given up a lot to be able to be part of this and and volunteer their their hours because they know what it means to our community and just like he said when you were 14 you know it was the last time you got to see it now Shane did kind of tell on you because he said it's been 12 years since we last had it so he kind of said how old you are there but um it's um it's really a community project uh Teresa Rock well and her team and you all have done a great job to bring a quality of life and something that'll be very impactful to the youth and the city of El Paso so I do want to thank you all but also the volunteers in Fort Bliss because without them we wouldn't be standing here talking with each other so thank you all thank you all very much for your support it's team effort for sure absolutely um representative you better thank you mayor all I want to say is uh what took you so long what took you s you're you're right it's one of the programs that opas look forward to uh the whole community and I hope and Vanessa holding to it now you're from El Paso keep it going and we look forward to being out there to enjoy all the festivities you have out there thank you for being here thank you'all you want to come on up absolutely you bring another change your close Shane sh e M PR Council per The Rules of Order no use of personal cellular devices nor personal communication should take place on the day while the meeting is in session once you obtain the floor from the mayor you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per item please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the day while the meeting is in session and for those of you joining us virtually please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any background noise that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routined 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 item three excuse me page three item two request to excuse absent city council members and that's to excuse representative art Fiero page nine item 31 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative oo second um mayor go ahead representative Canalis representative m is already uh listed on the agenda this are the revision sir Sor yes and we we do have represent can real quick and I request that we also move item 32 to the Forefront of the agenda thank you okay and I ask you all and I appreciate this but please let's try to do it on Monday so the people that are going to sign up to talk know what you know there'll be one of the first items please and items 31 and 32 are the first items on the regular agenda already yes ma'am yes sir and we do have public comment on the consent agenda from Jesus Flores oh that is one and two Mr Flores signed up to speak on item 10 which is the re reappointment of Chief pasas good morning good morning uh my name is Jesus um I wanted to counter a request to make a policy that would require residents to get a license in order to have cardboard and wood outside of their house or else they would be fine $2,000 a day um I want to just go over a quote some momology history Omission some facts and then I want to go counter him I mean go ahead and counter and so uh the quote comes from the Leaves of Grass and item number 10 is the reappointment of Chief pasas to the aleso County 911 District sign speak on 10 and that's item number 10 I'm I'm honestly a little bit confused because it's it's not very well organized I don't know exactly I just saw the chief speak and so I saw his that it said the chief so I just picked that one yeah this is a this is a board appointment um I just wanted to to speak about the that that they want to tax the people $2,000 a day you can come at public comment which will be at noon and we can move that to that point and we will be no sooner than than 12 sometimes we a few minutes behind but it won't be any earlier than 12:00 today yes sir we'll see you then thank you very much for being here sir thank you you yes there is a motion made by mayor protim Kennedy seconded by representative salido and this is to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that that motion passes unanimously mayor the first item on the agenda is 31 yes maam and we do have The Interpreter has arrived for those folks that requested assistance this morning item 31 is discussion and action to approve and adopt a letter by the AL Paso City Council in support of the US general services administrations identification of alternative 4 for the bridge of the America Port project in Al Paso Texas before the 45-day public comment period which ends on November 4th 2024 pending review and approval from the city attorney's office and this is representative as's item represent thank you mayor and I I appreciate everybody that's here um to speak about this item there's there's been a lot that's happened over the last two years the the GSA has had a ton of opportunities for people to come in person and share their thoughts on the modernization project and the options that they shared with everyone and they have been clear in selecting um option four and we um have seen that over these two years not only did the GSA have Community meetings but we had our congresswoman Le many meetings as well people were able to submit written comments uh if they could not make the meetings directly to the GSA my predecessor held Community meetings as well I attended some of these Community meetings I worked with the Congress women's office since I've been in office to really be that voice for my constituents that have really made it clear over and over and over again that they really wanted to move these trucks and I think that um something else to highlight and what's happened is that this has been engagement that has happened on a bational level so wasn't just in El Paso but also with Mexico and either option that would have been chosen was going to be closing the bridge for three years either way and I think that's what everybody needs to remember because we we know that it would close for 3 years and in that time people were going to have to figure out what to do and there was no guarantee that they would even come back to the bridge of the Americas and we've also seen data at Bridge of America said in the last 10 years we have seen the commercial traffic decrease and Over The Last 5 Years specifically 50% of commercial traffic is down and so I I think we really need to make that intersection with public health with What the residents are asking for it's been very very clear there's been surveys that have been sent out and the community resoundingly said that they they wanted these trucks out and so I'm hoping that my colleagues will will support this item I I know that we um we are in the home stretch now that GSA has made the option of the people the one that they support as well and we Unite with the Commissioner's Court that unanimously approved a letter yesterday we with the congresswoman who has been very very supportive and has led these efforts over the last two years and we Unite with our neighborhood associations whether it's um valde Washington Delta San Juan um Famas Cham who have really really played a pival role in many things over the last years and this is something that I think the the public needs to know that this has been a generational thing for Famas cham the people that are in Famas Cham now their mothers their grandmothers have been fighting for this for many many many years and now that we're closer to reality we really really need to um bring all the support that we can to making sure that this is going to happen with within the the period now that we have until November 4th to submit written comment to GSA and so my office has come up with a very basic letter saying that the city council um supports moving forward with submitting this this comment and the city attorney's office is reviewing that so I just wanted to um say say those words and um hopefully we'll we'll hear more of the stories from Familia Cham some of the neighborhood associations that are also here and um I also wanted to say that um vales sent a statement saying very simply we support the gsa's selection of viable action alternative 4 which eliminates all commercial cargo operations on the bridge of the Americas viable action alternative 4 is the only feasible alternative that fulfills the purpose and needs of the Boda modernization while reducing dangerous air pollution and harm to environmental justice communities alternative four is not only the most coste effective alternative but the only alternative that promotes environmental justice by removing commercial cargo trucks and avoiding unnecessary land expansion alternative 4 achieves the overriding goal of NEPA to minimize environmental impacts and promote public health and on top of all of that we have seen that CBP participant is now CBP has said that the other ports that we have can handle it and so um I I think that if we delay this any further it's us risking money it's us um risking the money that we're not going to have for this project moving forward so I think we really need to support this today and I move to approve this item second thank you thank you sir here how was that I'm sorry okay I I do want to ask Mr tinao a couple questions because I think it's important that as we move the traffic away from bodha that the conception is that all these trucks that are coming over are going all over the United States now the freight that comes over is going all over the United States the biggest issue that I see and it it is a big problem and I haven't seen the air quality report of what it's going to do which I think it's important to be able to see that but if I'm not mistaken 90% of all the trucks regardless of where they come across will come right back to that area because they're warehouses and they're there to drop off the freight and then go back and reload and come back and drop off the freight so even though probably 95 or even higher percent of the stuff coming across the bridge is going all over the United States it's dropped off in that area still and then come back and they continue to do that so I'm a little concerned that we that we're doing it and not really addressing the root of the problem which is the trucks will will be right back into those neighborhoods regardless of what port they enter can you kind of I know you had that conversation and and I kind of like to kind of explain that to to us good morning everyone uh Roberto tinero with the international Bridges Department um you are correct mayor um most of the commercial traffic uh it's local uh so it's usually back and forth so it's not unusual to see where the maquiladoras and the industry located on the H side versus the warehousing are located on the US side so because of the proximity there are a lot of Industry located close to uh Bridge of the Americas and a lot of warehousing uh located close to uh Bridge of the Americas so uh we don't know what's going to happen uh but most like ly uh if the commercial operations are closed through uh Bridge of the Americas those uh cargo vehicles must go around and take other ports Alternatives Zera Santa Teresa or Marcelino CNA and so that will imply longer distances for uh the cargo vehicles I'm not sure what the impact will be for the environment uh recently the El Paso n did a micro simulations uh for that scenario and they found out preliminary I should said that uh the environment will be worse uh because again the long longer distances that this vehicle will travel uh again it's a preliminary study uh I don't think uh uh I'm not sure if the no is present but that's the information that we have so far yeah so what percentage of the cargo that comes across regardless of what Port of Entry comes and it's dropped off in the warehouses in the neighborhood area uh I'm not sure about the total but it's local traffic uh through the ports of Entry uh in the region it's about 90 90% um so that means that 90% of these cargo vehicles are back and forth Crossing through the de Sports of entry and that's what I'm concerned of we're talking about closing a bridge but we didn't cure the problem and that's what I'm really concerned about so I'm kind of putting out a warning out there to say you know let's take care of the problem our neighborhoods deserve clean air and are we really taking care of the problem it doesn't sound like it so I think we really need to look and see how we can address the problem and are we Shifting the problem further out and then can bring it back in so that's a huge concern of mine and I I didn't see in the GSA report of the impact it would do to the environment in the air and like I said so I got a huge concern about that that uh we really need to look at and see what really the real impact going to be on all the neighborhoods and then especially the chasel neighborhood you know coming back in so I um I thank you for for bringing that up uh I know you're at a meeting in wsh and and you brought that up and it was part of the discussion so I would I would love to see the the GSA report on and then we need to look at how do we really clean up the air how do we really make an impact and change things and and is this the real way of doing it and I'm just putting a caution that we may make it worse and I'm really concerned about that thank you for that sirk representative Canales thank you mayor um I posted a previous uh agenda item requesting a letter of support for this option several months ago this time around repo took the lead uh the the bridge of the amas sits on the dividing line between our two districts um that said I I want to start with the bottom line up front I'm wholeheartedly in favor of the city providing a letter of support for alternative four uh which is the gsa's selected preferred alternative in their proposed modernization of the bridge of the amas um this alternative I think represents a really pivotal opportunity for El Paso to address address uh some very long-standing challenges at one of the busiest Crossings on our border and it does so in a way that directly benefits the health and safety and quality of life of our residents but very specifically the residents who uh live nearby to the port so I'll emphasize like I did last time I spoke about this issue um that coordination on this has been significantly large and and far-reaching uh from local coordination between the city and the county the Metropolitan planning organization local Customs and Border Protection uh our congresswoman Veronica Escobar and her team all the way up to communication that's happened between the US state department and their counterparts uh at Rel exteror in in Mexico so all of this coordination and process has happened and as a result the GSA was confident and comfortable enough to select this alternative number four uh that removes the commercial truck traffic from the port uh one one of the key components of alternative 4 and a main reason that I believe it uh deserves our our full backing is the elimination of commercial truck traffic at the bridge uh for far too long our our neighborhoods particularly in the communi surrounding the port like bario chamisal in District 8 like the Washington Delta and Valverde neighborhoods in District 2 uh have borne the brunt of the congestion the noise and the pollution that's created by the heavy uh commercial truck traffic passing through daily so these trucks they contribute very significantly to air quality concerns in those neighborhoods and frankly to health and safety issues for uh anyone living nearby uh by removing commercial cargo operations from the port alternative 4 not only alleviates these problems but allows for more private vehicle Lanes uh improving the the flow of traffic for Al pasoans who rely on this Crossing to commute to visit family to conduct Business Daily um we've identified time and time again that there is a choke point on our freeways particularly I 10 as uh in the area surrounding the spaghetti Bowl where the exit uh for the Port of Entry is uh removing commercial vehicle traffic will help alleviate those congestion issues uh on our interstate highway as well um I want to emphasize also the the environmental and health benefits of this change um I I have seen the npos m simulations I did not see the conclusion that the environment will be worse um I I I understand that it's it's possible that there will be more uh total emissions that's a possibility as trucks have to travel a further distance but part of the the the environmental benefit here has to do with concentration right uh not all of these vehicles will be concentrated idling in one particular location contributing to one single point sour source of emissions uh and impacting one single neighborhood that impact spread out across a wider area uh can have health benefits to people in the area um fewer diesel trucks idling on the runup to the port and Tra making you know hyper local trips through the neighborhoods uh will mean cleaner and quieter neighborhoods uh alternative four with the city's goals of promoting sustainability and environmental justice the reduction in commercial truck traffic uh means that our our streets will be safer and cleaner um but it also will allow the ports to more efficiently process private Vehicles so it'll reduce weight times for everybody uh ensuring a smoother more secure and honestly more customer friendly experience for travelers who choose to use the bridge of the am Bridge of the amas um the plan is also beneficial I think in that it involves minimal land acquisition just 4.4 Acres from Tech doot uh avoiding any major disruptions to the surrounding Community it's a it's a smart and Compact and costeffective design uh that GSA is is emphasizing uh it allows them some room for future expansion within their own footprint uh and it ensures that as the the city grows the bridge can continue to adapt into the future to to serve Us in the best possible way um of course I have to acknowledge the residents of bario chamisal who have been vocal advocates for this change for years uh fam cham the neighborhood association in the area in District 8 um has consistently and loudly called for Meaningful action to improve air quality and reduce the truck traffic that affects them in their daily lives um this alternative really directly responds to their concerns um I'm glad that the GSA listened to them uh and I stand with them in urging the council to support uh alternative four and to provide a letter saying so uh their advocacy really has been tireless and we have an opportunity to act in solidar in solidarity with them uh by by pushing for this much needed Improvement to the port and also the removal of the commercial vehicle traffic like they're asking for um in closing I I urge the council to consider the the profound long-term benefits of alternative four um not just for the efficiency of the port but for the well-being of the people who live immediately around it um I ask that we we stand with the families of of barois and the Washington Delta neighborhood and all of the other surrounding neighborhoods valde San Juan um and the broader Community by by submitting this letter um and I I'll note one more time that the city is not making a decision to to close a bridge or to remove traffic this is a project of the federal government um they are asking the GSA the the general Services administration of the federal government who administr administers the The Bridge Project um they're asking for input uh for for the input of the public for the input of uh local government entities and so this uh is our opportunity to to give input and I think our input should be that we support the alternative that they that have selected as the best alternative for this project thank you mayor thank you and I think uh it's really important to note that the nor the spaghetti Bowl was never intended to be a parking lot for 18 wheelers and there is a huge concern of the safety and them continuing to park there cannot continue that is dangerous but my my biggest concern is that because we're going to move traffic from Boda we need to continue to advocate for clean air we need to know the impact that it's doing and I think that's really important because we don't want to kid ourselves and say because we stopped commercial traffic at bodha that now the air is clean we we have a long way to go and we need to continue to Advocate to make sure that that it doesn't get worse and that we figure out a way to make sure that air gets better because there's no doubt that uh we should always talk about safety and health before profit no way some buts so I know that uh it's been a long time coming and we need to make sure that uh we don't stop here cuz there is bigger concerns than just stopping the traffic at Boda of making sure that the quality of the air becomes um what really the the change is doing because we don't want to drop our our guard and say we've done it and yet it didn't help or it didn't make it better and we need answers is what we really do need representative hernandes um quick a quick question first um to the authors of this item thank you first and foremost for presenting this to City coun so um do you have the letter drafted already by chance because I was looking at the back up here and I I didn't see it but is it online for the public sent it to City attorney has it been approved from legal that's a good no not yet we sent it to the City attorney for review and the City attorney came back and asked us to add a little bit to the item um pending review and approval from the city attorney's office on the item so I think that now you posted the item then the letter afterwards to City attorney right and so that's why I think and you know what I apologize uh representative nundus please would you like to add I was just going to say representative for thank you um our office will review it once Council directs uh you know if Council approves the item then our office will follow council's Direction uh we do have it in our office uh ready to review and make sure that it does does comply with with what the the uh viable alternative number four is if Council approves the item sure um and and just to clarify I am in support of this um item I do feel like we need to have some larger discussions about the content of the letter and um My Hope Is that there's room to add some color as relates to the economy and the resources that we need from the federal government I want to just highlight a few uh points that have been derived out of the hunt Institute and I would like to share that data to the authors of this item so that we can Reen reemphasize correct to reemphasize the economic um potential and concerns as it relates to the temporary closure and then the steps that the city of El Paso in tandem with other governments and stakeholders on the steps that we need to achieve in unity so that we can be prepared the baker Institute concluded that Mexican tourists um and Shoppers play a crucial role in Border communities and economies and without these International ports of Entry the losses are unprecedented potentially reducing the GDP for Border communities by nearly $4 million annually and so we need to let's just say Boda Bridge closes there's going to be pedest rans and commercial truck drivers that are going to be red diverted potentially to theeta Sosa bridge and to the Toro Port of Entry now all of those folks and all of those people need to be red diverted our infrastructure isn't ready for that and so I'm proud that our staff and our grants team are having the foresight so that we can apply for that however there is a big concern that we could lose uh retail sales revenues as of as a result to this temporary closure so in the letter I I would hope that we can highlight what is at risk with our Mexican Shoppers um and the resources that we need from the federal government specifically for overtime and Personnel dollars for um border patrol for um our customs agents so that we can have quicker access into the United States the S Port of Entry is already um highly utilized for commercial truck traffic and The Pedestrian activity happening at that intersection is really robust and I I'm a frequent user of that bridge and I and I walk it often and I can tell you there's a like a lot of need at that site so we need to have some temporary shading components so that we can make it easier for pedestrians to cross and to wait in long lines um having temporary staging areas there's two vacant Lots at that intersection they're privately owned I would like for the city to consider to work uh with teot and other stakeholders if we can purchase those L Lots making sure that the youth um there's a lot of young people that cross that bridge um and it's not quite frankly pedestrian friendly um if we can apply for additional pedestrian access for Transit um staging areas for our pedestrians I think that's it's going to be very critical we need additional law enforcement support at that intersection there's a lot of backup already that's happening um even looking at the uh gateways as you're exiting going um eastbound you're going to see more backup of that traffic and and I live very close to the Border freeway and I can tell you like certain times of the day you avoid that area and so that will be exacerbated with commercial track TR truck traffic going Southbound so it's not just a matter of sending this letter it's a matter of requesting additional resources highlighting the economic um opportunities and potential losses of the temporary closure and then all of us need to be prepared with a strategic plan and how we're going to shift all of that traffic so that we are not left behind with the revenues that we depend on from our Mexican tourist also looking at the quarter of Saragosa and Isleta it's predominantly uh residential and so in in these areas there's there's not even a wide enough uh Street if you're going northbound there's a railroad there's um it's often blocked uh up uh Union Pacific often blocks that intersection which can cause more backup and and something that I learned recently is that Union Pacific cannot block an intersection for more than 10 minutes so it's my expectation that our law enforcement are monitoring these intersections so that we are giving citations to some of these conductors uh because that is the a federal law and that we need to make sure that we're prepare for everything I think that these staging temporary solutions at the bridge itself um for commercial traffic I think we cannot ignore the fact that it's going to be uh completely stopped at this site and we need to be better prepared now related to the city's part and our infrastructure of the roadway if we can put these technology available so that the traffic lights can run smoother I think that we need to focus on that um uh that technology at those intersections as well um and then finally the top five ports of entries along the border of Mexico of those five top five port of entries op Paso is the second highest and 80% of all of the trade that goes north and southbound is in those top five uh ports of entries so El Paso is part of the national solution and there will be National consequences if we're not prepared so my hope is that I in support of this item today that we can highlight all of the contributing factors to traffic emissions Mexican Shoppers tourists and Commercial traffic and think about this holistically and not in in silos um and I think that we do have a big opportunity here um I think this is inevitable it's going to happen and you know although I'm very concerned about the timeline this is a call to action so that everybody's on board ASAP uh again thank you to representative asav and Canales for bringing us to the Forefront and um I'm excited to to get to work on this thank you representative nundes representative Telo thank you mayor uh also want to thank representative Canalis and ASO for this forward thinking it's a great place to start I uh do share you know some of the concerns that mayor liser shared and also um representative hernandz on on the trajectory of really being able to plan this out and make sure that we're looking at every every angle of this and making sure that it's going to be the best uh for for everybody uh I think one of the things that I I want to really focus on is having those Communications with hes I've been in Communications with the mayor of hes and and we did talk about this particular issue and they're looking at ways where they're also going to work with El Paso to make sure that the best where we're going to be able to move the the issue that it's not going to create another issue right in our community so it's kind of sitting down with with everybody that needs to be at this table and really looking at everything holistically and making sure that it's going to not create the problem somewhere else as as mayor liser mentioned um and and that is where I want to really focus I the spirit of the letter I I do want to just kind of make sure we we are covering you know some of those um strategic partners that we need to partner up with I think that this lens itself for also the state um some kind of funding or helping us with the air pollution or what not because they are one of the ones that import export a lot of a lot of the in utilize these ports so just L for opportunity but I want to like thank you all for the Forward Thinking and looking forward for it to move forward and and really make sure we address all the concerns we've heard today thank you thank you ma'am representative vetta thank you mayor as I've stated before I I I do support this I grew up in that area where the chami Sal was at I know what it is to breathe unhealthy air when even before all these trucks started uh dominating the uh the uh Bridge there but and and I also am in support of this thing uh this letter right now but the main thing that that I that hinders my support right now is a solution what Solutions do we have I represent the C Goa Port of Entry it has become one of the most important entries in Port of entries in the nation and I've been told several times by government officials and and other people people that work there we do have an industrial park area that's growing but as mentioned the roads over there can't handle the uh can't handle semi trucks coming down Saragosa the only me point of uh travel is the uh the uh Border Highway or Loop 375 we must I I if Mr comes up here and says that the will'll make matters worse as far as the air pollution uh yeah you can come up here I I'd like to know in what do you know what's in what Manner because of the the the stagnant uh commercial vehicles uh coming down the Border Highway as they were once with the 375 that I also uh yeah uh kind of made a point of cars darting out from between semi-rs into a moving Lane where he nearly you would have vehicle accidents or near near vehicle actions and uh I I was concerned about the structure itself supporting all those trucks uh as the mayor said as a parking lot because they couldn't get across fast enough what happened to the automated trans uh program that was scheduled to be slated here in El Paso first why they took it away um this would have been a great program for this for this particular problem right here and solve the issue for both both the centrally located residents as well as I'm looking at uh the the East Side residents for uh that that reside around s Goa point of entry yes traffic's traffic's increasing very foot foot track is increasing very much at the C Goa point of entry where to where the point where uh we're even going to accommodate students going into our schools with the the the mini buses when what I was told by you know some of the representatives for mass transit um what is the alternative we don't know yet correct correct um we we don't know uh in terms of the environment uh what we are assuming and this is based on the proximity of the ports is that if uh breach of the America's closest commercial operation most of that traffic is going to move into the isas OA Bridge just because of proximity and because of the connections again between the madora industry and where the warehouses are located now uh we have heard a lot of numbers uh we don't know how many uh cargo vehicles cross southbound through uh reach of the Americas uh Northbound we know because CBP that's controlled by CBP southbound is controlled by uh Mexican customs or Anam uh we have requested those numers numbers but we haven't been lucky uh to receive them so again we have heard numbers uh in terms of southbound crossings that are about 2,000 Vehicles Crossing through uh Bridge of the Americas that's the number that it's currently Crossing through Isa Saragosa so if those 2,000 Vehicles move all the way to ISA Saragosa that's doubling what we currently what we currently have right now so we're not going to be able to handle that capacity CU that's double uh right now you can see sometimes uh when there's a backup uh the line of commercial vehicles all the way to the loop uh so if that happens that will complicate matters uh more uh but again we haven't heard uh from uh Anam uh in terms of the number of vehicles but uh discussing with the industry and CVP and uh some industry members on Mex side that's the numbers that they are uh mentioning about 2,000 Vehicles Crossing southbound Northbound is not as much as an issue because currently through Bridge of the Americas cross about between 500 and 700 Vehicles those can easily be absorbed through the other ports of Entry uh the southbound part it's when we are more concerned okay doubling the traffic there definitely will not be cannot cannot be handled by that area and sagos and 375 and the Border Highway um I know during our briefings I had made some suggestions to you hopefully they they could be of some help we are worse yet and I asked you this also during our briefing is uh our hope not to lose any of this commercial traffic to New Mexico at this point do you foresee that well let me tell you when you have a problem moving it to Santa Teressa right is the Artcraft reconstruction of Artcraft which is going to last about 3 years so that that is not an option so it's not it can't go that way because the freeway will be under construction and it and that's why it's really important that they come up with a game plan and I don't see that and it's very concerning to me because you're not going to Sena because of the Artcraft it'll be the next 3 years will be under construction so they can't go that way right there's no disagreement with you on that and and you know when every time they want to talk about it they talk about building another Bridge there at Midway we can't handle that there either that's a highly residential area with kids crossing school uh crossing streets to get to school what is the solution that we can reach here that's my my frustration because every every concern has been stated here every positive point every negative point every Point possible my concern are for this the citizens of each community side of the city that we're talking about having and and I have connection to that having grown there now I have a connection to the people from the East side that I represent and you know it's what what can we look forward to Sir from n yeah to to be honest I think we're doing as much as we can with the funding that that we currently receive uh we cannot do a lot uh with the current funding uh as you know most of the funding that that we collect through the bridges goes to the general fund uh we're talking about 60 65% of toal operations goes into the general fund so what we keep it's mainly to uh for our operations uh we don't have a lot of funding to to do big uh infrastructure Investments uh that's something that we will need or we will require in order to do like plan more ahead something else to think about is that these type of projects are not short-term projects most of this are medium to long-term projects uh expanding a bridge uh building a new bridge uh requires a presidential permit uh the uh process for those presidential permits usually takes a long time uh it depends on essentially on the federal administrations they have been changing uh the processes through Administration so there is not a Set time uh to uh get a presidential permit obviously it has to be uh presidential permit for both us and the Mexican side we both have to agree so it's a complicated uh process and again it's not a short-term uh type of deal um the timeline current timelines obviously doesn't help uh it is I agree that it is a very good opportunity uh bringing new investment it's 600 million project for bridge of the Americas uh but we will need something similar in order to to get uh Bridge uh of Isa Saragosa Bridge uh to make it bigger expanded to so that we can handle additional traffic um something also to note is that most communities along the US Mexico border are trying to expand their ports of Entry now in these case on our community we're trying to close one commercial and without having an alternative or a viable alternative so I think that may lose competitiveness uh for the region just because again we're shoting down one versus other communities that are trying to expand or build additional ports of Entry thank you and I understand the ripple effect the ripple effect also uh in looking at Economic Development back there how what is Al Paso's uh Economic Development going to start in bringing in or develop or is going to be I'm sorry is is Al Paso Economic Development going to be hampered by the fact to bring in more companies here that which is what we're trying to get to lower the taxes and you know get get more more businesses in here is it going to hinder and I could ask Miss Kina who's back there if there's a a problem with that uh I mean that's that's another problem added to this to this uh ripple effect that this letter is going to have might you could take it just as easy as I can Karina rascala economic and International Development certainly we would expect some impacts um I will point out that later on the agenda there is an item related to the atleta board of Entry um and so I think if we act now to your point representative Hernandez and those of you have spoken um we can be ready for the show um so whatever Council decides we'd expect there to be an effect but there's opportunity here to make sure that we capture that traffic that we minimize the impact on commercial vehicles on industry um and really take advantage of some of the reshoring and near Shoring opportunities and overcome that so we're ready for the challenge um so I'm not going to say there's not going to be there's going to be a net zero impact but we can mitigate it and I think we can really turn this to our advantage however it works out at the ports yeah thank you thank you thank thank you sir thank you Mr D hood No thank you and I think uh everyone's points as we continue to talk is that uh we need to make sure there's a good alternative there's a good game plan because you don't want to change a problem to a diff to an different area and still have a problem it's really important that we improve the quality of air and this region in the chasel area has deserves for us to clean up the air they deserve for us to make sure they have quality of air but we need to make sure we don't shift the problem somewhere else and uh and make sure that other people are infected so this is a a good start to to not have commercial traffic but we need to have a game plan we need to have an alternative and we need to have a good game plan and that's what I'm looking from from GSA they say this is our plan and this is our next move to make sure that we don't move that problem somewhere else and uh and we don't want to move it somewhere else we want to make sure that our whole Community has quality of air and make sure that uh people are not endangered because of some of the things we're doing today so it's really important that uh they have a a game plan and I don't see it and it really concerns me uh it needs to concern all of us because we we don't want to leave the problem where it is today I I agree and I and I don't think anyone in here disagrees with that because I think we'll see that this item is going to pass so we don't disagree that it's time it's about time but GSA has to have a game plan not to continue to move it from one area to the other and we still have the problem as a community uh representative Canales thank you mayor um I wanted to note one more thing that I didn't say earlier and that is that um again we are not the city is not uh deciding one way or the other we are not the entity that gets to decide what happens with this port of entry that that's ultimately a federal government project um but the the general Services Administration part of the federal government the GSA who is carrying out this project um they have put out their full environmental impact statement uh for the project so that is available online on their website and I would direct anybody who's interested to go to the GSA uh website uh if you search you know simply Boda uh GSA that'll be the top result um and you can read it's 235 Pages uh it has uh discussion of essentially all of the topics 235 Pages all the topics that have come up uh today during this conversation uh from environmental impact to economic impact planning for rerouting all kinds of things um you know huge huge amount of information that the GSA put together in collaboration with local entities uh through their conversations with Mexico um you know this this is a process that took them uh more than a year to put together this report and there's a lot of information about what the plan is what the potential uh uh investment would look like at the Port uh and what the impacts would be on again uh a number of things from environment to Community Health to to economy to socio economics um and they also include I think eight different appendices with data backing up all of the uh decision- making uh that they describe in the in the Eis so I just wanted to make sure the public was aware that that's there to read um if this is something that's interesting to you uh you can find it online again if you just search uh Bridge of the America serota uh GSA uh uh environmental impact statement any combination of those things thank you mayor thank you and again I think that based on the comment here I would be surprised if it does not pass unanimously because we do believe in the safety of our community and that's our number one priority so but I want to make sure we continue to look at making sure that all areas are taken care of and make sure that uh we don't like I said move the problem let's take care of the problem that's the important part Why move it let's take care of it so we after we leave office other administrations don't have the burden of trying to take care of the citizens where this should be our responsibility so um I I know that uh I believe it's going to pass and like I said I'd be surprised it wouldn't unanimously but again let's not stop working on the quality of air that we need for our community and with that uh representative HTO and this will be your last turn thank you mayor and so I I appreciate what my colleagues have been saying and I share a lot of the same concerns and I think that as a city it is incumbent on us to really create vision and use our leadership to tackle this issue right because I think as we have said clearly this is going to close for three years and it's going to impact our city so what is the city of El Paso going to do about this right and so I think that we are missing that vision for what we're doing next I think a lot of what I'm hearing from conversations that have happened in this last hour is I don't know that information we kind of always done it this way and that is not going to bring a solution to this issue and so I think we need to make sure that we are collaborating with our departments here at the city this is another great project for our city manager to lead um and bring bring people from different departments together to see how we could get this done and I think that we could work on adding two lanes to the Sosa bridge I know that from my understanding uh a permit that is needed um I I think the the presidential permit that was um mentioned earlier this would not be needed for any of these of entries like if we wanted to expand the the Sosa Bridge we wouldn't need to get that because it's not a new bridge the only thing that we would need is a diplomatic note and that diplomatic note is already issued so I think it's very different than a presidential permit so I wanted to clarify that and then the only other thing that we would need is a country to Country agreement and so knowing those little things I I really think that we can't be looking at this in a negative way of like oh this is all the stuff that's wrong with this and I don't know all that we're going to do with it instead we need to find Solutions so yes we know that this information is here the they've given us data we know that it's going to close for 3 years so what are we doing about it and I think that's the framework that we need to really take when we're looking at this and so um other things that I have seen work well is other communities Laredo San Diego they've had public private Partnerships some of those public private Partnerships include uh Private Industry saying okay from 11:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. you are the only one that gets to use the bridge for commercial traffic I think we need to start being Innovative in that way to really tackle this issue and use data to also inform our decisions around this and then the other thing is is that CBP has set that the other ports can handle this so I think we need to take that information knowing that and then see how we to start working toward identifying funding whether it's going to be a capital Improvement project whether it's going to be grants that we're looking at whether we're looking at federal state funding on this matter we need to really approach that with a real clear plan to say okay we need to get two more Lanes of commercial traffic at sat aosa how do we get there what are the obstacles and how are we going to tackle it rather than complaining about it and so I I think that as we move forward with this we know it's coming we need to be prepared and we need to start completing a strategic plan specifically on handling all of the the issues that my colleagues raised which are very valid concerns and I think that we can do it if we have a plan moving forward if I may I would like to clarify some point some points um the first one about the presidential permit it does require a presidential permit as far as the research that we have conducted uh once you change the layout the the current layout of a bridge or even the inspection facilities that triggers immediately a presidential permit so an expansion in this case or changing even the layout of the facilities will trigger the presidential permit and so I on that I think that that you might need to go look at that again and ask the state department because my understanding is that an expansion or a modification does not require a presidential permit if you do want to build a brand Bridge somewhere along our border absolutely you need the presidential permit but I I think we need that clarification from the state department to reaffirm that because then I think that clears one of the biggest obstacles that you've brought to the table today we we look into it we look into it but again that's that's my understanding based on the research that we have done in the past but we we will we will Revis it again okay um the other one is that uh is not that we're not doing anything we're actually doing a lot of of stuff uh later on you will see the the capital Improvement program that I'm going to bring it up uh in there there are several projects that are dealing with uh Isleta uh Port of Entry improvements for pedestrians and what we are doing right now is preparing the bases uh making the uh feasibility studies or uh preliminary engineering reports things like that that can lay out the basis for future expansions and and future uh uh improvements at that Port of Entry um one of the I guess drawbox that that or horal that we have uh in terms of the commercial site is that we don't own property uh around the commercial uh Lanes so that will require buying the property if it it's available of course uh we need the funding so again it it's not that we're not doing anything but we're we're preparing the steps uh for future either through grants or public private Partnerships in the future that can help us to bring but like I said before these are not short-term projects uh that will require more medium to long-term uh projects yeah no and and I think that makes sense but I think if we are in more the affirmative tone on well let's make this happen what do we need to make this happen and it's like well we don't have the money to do that right now so let's find a way to do it right what what what are we going to do um what are we using this funding over here and you know our our CFO has been really strategic and getting a lot of of funding mechanisms in so it's like okay so let let's go talk to him let's go talk to Omar let's go find that funding right rather than ah we don't own that land and we don't know what's going on there and you know you know what I mean like we can't be in this negative tone we have to be in an affirmative way and saying there is a path forward we're going to figure it out and we're going to have a solution to this and so that that's kind of where where I'm coming from on this and um go go ahead yes uh so Council Ian Ved strategic and legislative affairs uh so I did want to clarify we have been very proactive on this so uh 2019 uh the city of El Paso got a big uh writer from the state of Texas for the Isleta port of entry for its um you'll see later the CIP from Bridges they they do have a plan for this expansion uh Council approved earlier in the year our priorities for this incoming legislative session so we're we're going to be pursuing Federal well we're going to be pursuing State funding pretty aggressively uh we're going to bring to you a federal legislative agenda later this year we're also going to be pursuing Federal funding pretty aggressively for this project uh as uh director tinao mentioned it's going to be about a5600 million project and federal and state funding are going to be a big component of that so I did want to make sure that Council knew we're approaching this pretty aggressively we have an internal working group that meets every Friday it's composed of the the bridges team Economic Development strategic and legislative affairs so we are working on this project I want make sure that's absolutely clear we we think we can get this we think that with uh something like the the Boda closures happening that provides a lot of momentum for us to pursue this funding for these SLA Port of Entry no I super appreciate you saying that and that that makes a lot of sense and I know that that Omar is is just always giving us all these grants and stuff and so I'm sure he's playing a key role and I'm thankful to the team that's meeting every Friday because I think we really are in need of tackling this and I'm glad to hear that the oh the other thing I'll mention very quickly is we've been working very closely with the the congresswoman's office to shorten the period of time it takes to get those presidential permits uh we tried to do it at the previous uh uh Federal uh legislative round and we're going to try again this year okay awesome thank you thank you sir representative um we and this will be your second turn yes sir thank you uh I like Omar Omar can you come back up can you come up I know you wanted to say something I know you bre me a lot on that on that those projects that you're working on for Grants and for SOS as well so go ahead sir good morning Omar martinis uh Street teaching and legislative affairs um in terms of comments that we have for for this Council um I want to reiterate what both Roberto dinero and Ian vit said about the city staff collaborating and tackling this problem head on this this was uh something that was brought on To Us by the federal government please know we will will absolutely request from the federal government that they help us solve the after effects of this investment $700 million is just the beginning of a modernization of the entire Region's ports of Entry so congresswoman Escobar has secured money for B but please know that our federal legislative agenda is centered at making sure that we make those requests both the presidential permitting side we have a bill currently with congresswoman Escobar to create a dedicated Grant fund for non GSA ports this is Santa Teresa this is toro and this is Isleta PDN and Stanton so legislative Solutions are certainly something we've been looking at we've been working at this for about six months gotta make sure that we we reiterate the leadership of of director Dino on making this happen he has assigned staff dedicated to these weekly meetings that we talk about and just know that you're going to hear several Bridges items today but you're going to hear from us often where we're going to just count on us to focus on on this making sure that we we make uh we we we're ready for whatever closure does come from from B if that's the ultimate decision that GSA makes and I thank you for that um Omar because you I know like I said you kept you kept us informed you kept me informed as far because the C go of bridges mind also Mr Dino and I know you can't get ahead of the book with the federal government because just like your grants they got to be precise correct so you're not you're not lagging behind you're working with them side by side right that is correct sir just to give you an example you mentioned earlier the crossing at Saragosa if you recall the city of op Paso submitted a $28 million project for the SAT Goa overpass project we requested $2.1 million from uh the city as match we also got one $2.1 million from El Paso County and then $1.4 million from up uh again knowing that we could have additional traffic in this area we we've been creating our strategy around making sure that the that that the city's ready to for for these Le aort thank you sir thank you mayor thank you thank you and I and I think this is exactly what I was talking about that make sure we have a plan and that we execute a plan to make sure we don't move a problem somewhere else and we take care of it once and for all and I think this is important and uh you know right now we're going to apply for a lot of federal grants state grants and I think GSA needs to look at uh you know helping us because of um of the safety of our community is so important and you know taking care of chal is number one number two is let's not move the problem somewhere else they take care of that up front thank you and with that Miss PR yes mayor we do have 17 members of the public that signed up to speak on this item we'll begin with Jerry ctia followed by Javier Miranda Hilda Vas selia agil Maria Rodriguez Maria Lisa Thea good morning Mr CA you have three minutes thank you madam clerk how are you sir good morning honorable mayor and Council good morning yes I'm Jerry CA and here on behalf of Community First Coalition and I want to thank those of you who participated in our candidate Forum on last Saturday your appearance contributed to a great turnout almost 300 citizens turned out for that so thank you on today's business I'm asking you to please vote Yes on item 31 and support the federal government's choice of viable act Al action alternative number four as articulated in the draft environmental impact statement for modernization of the bridge of the Americas this is a result of two years of community-driven advocacy centered around the health safety and quality of life of residents living in close proximity to the bridge and supported by allies that live in every single one of your districts like me the GSA has identified alternative number four as the most costeffective option which is also the most most environmentally friendly option as stated in the environmental impact statement other ports of Entry can handle the semi- trffic from the Boda this is especially true because the city has invested and plans to continue investing as we've heard in the islet of Port of Entry as has the county in torneo and as you know Congressman Escobar supports this act action by supporting this alternative the city will affirm that no well Paso neighborhood has to be a sacrifice zone so That Others May Prosper this is especially true for the affected areas in zip code 79901 primarily the bario shamal one of the poorest areas in the United States with a median household income of just $13,500 Community First looks forward to your affirmation of alternative number four thank you sir mayor and councel thank you thank you the next speaker is Javier Miranda followed by Hilda Vias s Gil Maria Rodriguez good morning you have three minutes good morning sir good morning Council um okay so forgive me for reading here uh families of the chamisal community face an array of um daunting challenges whether it be displacement through the uh exorbitant increase of rents to the U high levels of toxicity of their air quality uh to the denial of educational opportunity we've been here uh collectively and individually for many many years um and so that's why we're here again yet the women and children of the Chamisa community endur and continue to call for Equity at the federal state Municipal and even School District levels as Mr ASO can uh attest current leadership must not succumb to historical Amnesia that dismisses the violent and traumatic tactics used to justify the economic development of our city we've long been considered Expendable by a class of people who engage in ethnic cleansing appropriated our lands exploited our youth for war purposes and even denied our children the right to attend school so it's no surprise to learn that our local billionaire class has exerted pressure to oppose the gsa's decision to remove commercial traffic from the bridge of the Americas as they have to no intention of risking their privilege and their power uh the mayor and Council I take a bit of umbrage when you say that you have not been privy to some of the studies that have been provided to you folks from quite a while uh but I'm I'm there's no doubt that the hunt Institute as Miss hernandz had claimed uh has been briefing you folks as well as some of the studies that have been provided by the communities uh regarding the U health and environmental rationals for removing the commercial traffic yet profet continues to be prioritized over human life I wish Mr Riva would be here to listen to that because he hails from the same community of Jefferson Washington Val area um to this intentional blunder it is appropriate to assert that it is uh political misconduct so consider the families of the chamisal consider the the children with cognitive and respiratory issues consider the health of the abas uh many who are not that different from the women that are featured in car commercials three sitting members of this Council who are running for mayor on the record of supporting the gsa's ruling to remove commercial traffic from the bridge of the Americas it is now time to uphold your word and do right by our community thank you thank you the next speaker is Hilda vas good morning' um thank you for giving us a space here to speak my name Isa Vias and I'm part of Famas chamisal I also grew up in the vario and I live in thear my kids go to schools there um 7,000 residents 3,000 children that's that's those are the demographics of our community very extremely lowincome um already subjected to environmental stressors we are surrounded by different sources of pollution um the same argument is this gentleman used of creating more um pollution in other areas they the school district used it to put a bus hub in our in our high school 150 school buses that we don't use um we've been subjected to these um issues for many years we've gone to the no on numerous occasions trying to get the tras off the Banu and eventually they did but then they placed them right next to Savala Elementary right and so we've seen in in numerous uh situations Reckless decisions being made um unfounded there's a GSC study um the draft it's a viable they say that it's a viable alternative so I feel that um right now this is a once--in a-lifetime opportunity to make a change right I'm I'm not going to see it my kids I don't think my kids are ever going to see this type of investment and we have the opportunity to do something about it families in thear should not be subjected to high levels of particular matter that's what we've been subjected to it's detrimental to the health of children that are already experiencing daily stressors from not being able to pay their rent uh having inadequate schools not knowing where they're going to live because they're experiencing gentrification and to top it off they have to be subjected to high level a particular matter every other day in the vario we have an alarm day of from tcq saying that the air quality is not right to go outside we have no choice people have to work our kids have to go to school we have no choice that to stay in the house we have to go outside and experience this high levels of particular matter and there's numerous studies uh Professor Vera did numerous studies of the butin and showing how horrible the air quality is there and um to tell you the truth like if you move if you do something about it it doesn't really necessarily mean that it's going to create a lot more hazards in other areas there are studies that say otherwise and we're not closing the pente the point is not being closed for other people it's going to alleviate other point other the other Pointes and it's going to make it a lot more a facility that flow and says right now we're asking the city to put the health the public health of the people in the vario that really can't accommodate the private sector thank you Miss vas the makas can accommodate three years thank you thank you ma'am the next speaker is Saia [Applause] ail good morning miss haad you have three minutes welcome back good morning good morning so I'm here in support of city council sending a letter to JSA supporting their decision this is an opport Unity for the city of El Paso to make history that will leave a lasting Legacy in favor of Public Health and the community's well-being it's an opportunity to create a cleaner and safer environment for our children and for future Generations we know that the pollution caused by the diesel trucks on the Boda causes serious and long- lasting effects to the heart lungs and brain Beyond respiratory issues the pollution is linked to cancer atherosclerosis depression Alzheimer's and also cognitive behaviors residents in the surrounding neighborhoods experience cancer clusters entire families have been dying of cancer we're seeing babies in and out of the hospital due to respiratory issues we know diesel particulate matter can even lead to premature death so this is a matter of life and death for the most vulnerable communities who experience disproportionate levels of exposure the chamisal community is in the 99th percentile of diesel particulate matter and this is an opportunity for the city to help reduce this staggering number this is a public health crisis and the city is responsible for overseeing public health yesterday the task force assigned to address public health and environmental concerns in the chamisal made it clear that the idling trucks on the bodha are an environmental and public health issue I have taken a look at the draft Eis published by the GSA and it says that getting the trucks out of the Bodo will result in a long-term moderate to significant beneficial impact to Public Health it also talks about air quality and in terms of KNX and voc's there would be a negligible to minor um what's the word beneficial impact so we wouldn't see any worsening of the air quality in the region the federal government believes that this is the best option and we believe the local government should support this decision there are other ports of Entry that have the capacity to absorb the truck traffic when they are rerouted we know that torneo has the ability to process a thousand trucks a day and we have been assured by Congress woman escco that the Commerce will not be affected the bridge will have to be shut down so it's only logical to make this elimination of the trucks permanent and the ultimate benefit that we see is giving the residents in the area of Fighting Chance by addressing the Public Health crisis caused by the trucks contamination if the city does not support this decision that benefits and is overwhelmingly supported by the community then who is it working for thank you thank you ma'am the next speaker is Maria Rodriguez Maria Rodriguez followed by Maria Louisa the good morning I come here as um as a human being to speak on behalf of Familia unidas I've been living in that area for like 27 years and a year and a half ago my son was diagnosed with cancer specialist the Specialists do not know the reason for this cancer diagnosis he does not smoke he does not use drugs he's a good student he has completed his University degree and I personally attribute this to the pollution that we've been breathing and this problem is something that affects not only my family and I who suffer from allergies continually but it affects the whole Community if somebody would be able to take a walk and walk through this community and you'll see that there are schools there and there are children there that constantly also suffer allergies and there are a lot of testimonies from different families from people that are elderly that are suffering this there are children in fact there's a child here with Familia unidas who's tired of constantly having to suffer allergies daily because of this so I come as a representative of familias unidas to uh request a Humane solution for our community cont I come to appeal before you uh to request that you render a decision that is favorable to our health I have noticed that 24 hours a day there are trucks commercial trucks that are crossing over to Mexico crossing back into the US and the smoke the smoke that they're producing is black it's completely black it is contaminated and this is what we're breathing [Music] to I understand that you all are very concerned about the economy but something that is even more important would be the health the health of the community around this bridge and it's not only the community in the chamisal area but also on the other side there are more people that are suffering from different diseases there are people that suffer from asthma people that suffer from allergies from daily coughs lastly I ask you please to think about us in a human humane way and if you're are able to to put yourselves in our shoes and think for a moment the quality of life that we are experiencing in our lives there thank you thank you the next speaker is Maria Luisa Maya you know before we the next speaker I do want to assure uh Mrs Rodriguez and everyone else that this Council and myself believe that health and safety before profit all day long so thank you for that ma'am thank you mayor first of all good morning my name is mar visaya and I am here to collaborate with my with my other uh Partners or colleagues said and uh I am Al I'm a resident in the chamisal neighborhood and in addition to that I am part of Familia sunas so I come here to ask you to think of us in a humane way because it's too much what uh the losses that we have suffered there are too many diseases there and I myself H have a daughter who lost the baby and the doctor said that this was because of the pollution that is there in the neighborhood so this is something that is critical this is something Beyond simply respiratory conditions for so I'm coming here thinking of this to ask you all to really think through this I'm not asking that you send the pollution elsewhere but what I'm saying is that here in our area we have no more capacity for more pollution we already have a lot of sources of pollution we have the recycling plant we have the buses and we can't take anymore so I will ask you to please think of this and realize that the need at the chamisal area is urgent that is why I'm saying that there are a lot a lot of stories it's not only my story well for me My Own Story would be the more critical ones but for my friends and neighbors they have their own stories about what's happening and for them their stories are more the most critical but we do have a lot of need and this is an urgent need that we have and also through that area you have the trucks driving by the Savala school and there are a lot of children there and I think it's not fair I think it's not fair for us to have all the pollution that those trucks are producing there and as I was saying we do have also other sources of pollution we have the train we have the recycling plants we have the cardboard business that is H is constantly burning the cardboard so we can't do it anymore we can't take more so I will ask you to consider this and to do something about it graci and for there to be no more deaths because of this thank you gracious the next speaker is Josina LMA Josina LMA good morning ma'am good morning for good morning my name is Josephina LMA and I also live in the chamisal neighborhood I have been there for 38 years and I feel like we have been abandoned I feel like we are surrounded by a lot of things that are causing pollution and that are affecting our health because of that I have a 2-year-old granddaughter the doctor has told us that she will possibly grow up with asthma because of all the pollution that surrounds us we are having to constantly take her to the doctors because she suffers from allergies often all of my family suffer from allergies and and the doctor says that this is because of the pollution [Music] no right now she is uh sick and there is a school there the school that is near the the free bridge and we feel compassion we feel sad for the children there we think that the mothers they don't they don't realize the pollution that their children are being exposed to that when they grow up they're going to grow up and have health issues and we don't understand what that school is doing there we feel like we've been abandoned like nobody pays any attention to us and we continue in our fight for the sake of our health today I myself could be feeling good feeling well but tomorrow I wake up with uh hor with uh um hor throat and I'm not able to talk or speak clearly and the doctor says that this is because of the pollution sometimes we are the the the odor of the polluted uh smoke wakes us up uh perhaps some of our lungs already have problems or have suffered um some kind of damage because of that we are surrounded by these sources of pollution and there are schools that are around that bridge there are people there that are elderly people that are suffering different illnesses or diseases probably in their lungs because of this pollution [Music] Sol some people come here advocating on behalf of financial gain or the economy we ourselves come here to fight for the sake of our families health for our health our families and the community's health and we know that there are trucks that are passing through there and that's not the only Bridge through which they can cross now that this whenever that is closed down we know that you will look for solutions that you and that you will find Solutions and we hope that you keep these solutions for the sake of the health of our families gracias the next speaker is Britney me good morning ma'am good morning um my name is Britney I'm part of and I will be reading a letter on behalf of famia Cham that we have sent out to um the mayor and all the representatives as you are aware the GSA has published a draft environmental impact statement declaring that their preferred option for the Boda modernization project is viable option alternative four elimination of commercial cargo operations this is a historic opportunity to remedy Decades of environmental Injustice this is a public health issue there is no other land Port of Entry along the US Mex Mexico border that is situated directly in a residential area and overburdened by heavy semi trucks the daily Crossings of this commercial trucks produces some of the worst pollutants that cause irreparable damage the ultrafine particles emitted by diesel engines are small enough to enter the bloodstream and have potential to cause a long list of health effects including atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease respiratory diseases cancer Alzheimer's and premature death health effects that our residents are living and that my compas have shared with you all today what is worse is that the communities with the highest rates of exposure are also more sensitive to contamination due to their socioeconomic status Studies have shown that individuals who experience chronic stress such as worrying about paying rent and bills lack of housing security like the housing crisis that we are going through in the chamisal caring for a loved one are at higher risk for developing or aggravating health conditions associated with air pollution these communities have reported cancer clusters respiratory issues constant hospitalizations making this a public health crisis as the city is responsible for overseeing the public health of El Paso we believe it is your duty to support gsa's preferred alternative to remove the commercial trucks from Boda according to the NEPA deis not only is it the best option that supports the mission of the project but it is the only option that will have a long-term beneficial impact on public health and air quality for all further both GSA and CBP have verified that the other ports of Entry can absorb the commercial truck traffic in fact dorneo has the capacity to process a thousand commercial truck vehicles per day right now they are not processing nearly as much as that this transition is the future and would not result in a negative impact on Commerce as stated in the NEPA statement and that exactly is what needs to happen a smooth transition the bridge will shut down for up to for up to 3 years for construction during which adjustments will have to be made anyways making the removal of the commercial trucks permanent would be a logical choice this is a once in a-lifetime opportunity and we implore you to support the option that would benefit the public health of our residents and the city of El Paso as a whole sincerely I would also like to add that the chamisal has already suffered the burden of multiple impacts of sources of pollution um so it is your duty and your responsibility and it is just the beginning of addressing that historical neglect and impact next speaker is [Applause] samla good morning ma'am you have three minutes good morning good morning ma'am is there a possibility for me to use this thing yes ma'am okay yes it will need the Elmo please thank you uh good after good morning good afternoon um this is why we organize um to get the the needs that we have met right um I had sent uh you all a video of the children it was a video that they created um actually in the beginning of the year when they wanted to let you know that they wanted the trucks out um it's a video of them throughout the past two years um you know organizing health fairs with their neighbors um meeting uh doing Theos to share what's happening in their lives this painting behind me the kids painted it um you'll see that in the video we took that to Washington DC to New York we um we come to you today to ask for this letter of support but we know that it's going to take a lot more work going forward but uh we really need your support to move forward I did bring um this map um it does show it's from the EPA environmental justice screen and um can we turn the Elmo on please I don't know how to turn it on there it is I don't know how to make it it will focus um okay well I'm going to point this out to you all so I don't waste more time this is the environmental justice index for what we're exposed to as far as air toxic cancer risk all of this in red this is our neighborhood Rio Chamis the rest is the city of imp Paso here we have the proximity of traffic with the diesel trucks and you see we're all in red and this is this is the proxim traffic and this is the diesel particulate matter so as you've heard we've been bearing the brunt for years and there is not another neighborhood like ours El Paso as a whole hasn't had clean air for decades but when we talk about Li the bridge of the Americas I think there's a few things that you all should have handy to know when those who are against this question your decision today to support us you let them know that there's no other community like ours from San Diego to Brownsville on the US Mexico border there is not another Port of Entry smack directly in the middle of a neighborhood taking this much truck traffic as the second busiest port of entry with these trucks you're not only um it's not only exposing the most poorest residents in the city of El Paso but the most Spanish-speaking the most immigrant and with have the least access to health care we're over 7,000 residents that are suffering this this has always been a public health issue you could see the cancer clusters kids in hospitals Elders who can't breathe when we brought the EPA here to El Paso for a toxic tour in December of 2023 they were shocked that our residents in vario chamisal have been living in this condition through the federal government's draft Eis you will see outline the benefits to environment health and economy this will not hurt the economy in in fact our local economy will Thrive because of it please refer to this environmental impact statement so that we know what we have moving forward it's always been difficult for us to get access to Justice it took a lot of work to get where we're at today this is a historic moment that will benefit all and this is the future not only because our children will benefit from this and their children but this is the the future of the world we have to start thinking about reduction of emissions and it took those who could least afford it and those who are most affected to bring us to this point thank you Miss asan thank you ma' I do want to repeat one thing you said that I think it's really important this is a great step forward but we can't stop there that is so important that's what I've been trying to emphasize that this is a great step moving forward but let's not stop there thank you ma'am get the trucks out thank you the next speaker is Veronica kaval followed by Angel uoa Harry white Samuel schy Kenneth Bell Joshua Simmons Alisia Vias Fred Borgo good morning good morning good morning good morning mayor and Council I amona kajal um I come before you as a climate Justice and civil rights um organizer with Houston in action in Al Paso um I'm also still Council on uh with trla um and we submitted those comments back in February we have been a part of this fight um from the very beginning and uh I am asking that you support that you vote Yes on item 31 um and the GSA has called This Not only alternative 4 but viable action alternative for this is a viable and necessary solution this is a decision that was two years in the making um in August of 2022 I joined joined residents from San Javier San Javier is directly across from the bridge of the Americas they now because of it 10 connect face all of the semis behind their homes directly across from Savala Elementary which you've heard about today um the tamis um Lin Park Corbin s brano Washington Valverde um Washington Delta Valverde and all of our Southside neighborhoods have been dealing with hundreds of years of pollution and the bridge of the Americas after and after has become a huge problem we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that are dealing with um environmental racism environmental justice now the industry has had also two years to make its case it has failed to do so because it can't the Boda has been a problem and has been the subject of millions of dollars of studies primarily at UTP my first job after college in 1998 was working on ozone action days I'm very familiar with the joint advisory committee and their quarterly air quality reports and their recommendations and Boda has been the subject of so many studies because of a number of reasons first and foremost it sits in an air Basin that traps air pollution we are talking about the mountain range from hotest some one from Al Paso and the river it is a quena it is an air Basin secondly it is um the bridge um along the US Mexico border that is the closest to people it is extremely close to homes schools our Zoo many cultural and Community assets and it is as you have heard close to way too many sources of pollution including um our highways our other Transportation projects and the refinery and now because of the advocacy of Tam and many others we have even more stringent particulate matter standards if um El Paso continues to be a non-attainment we are jeopardizing future Federal funding in terms of viability we know that the city has spent um and can spend up to $32 million in state funding and intelligent technology Addis SLA we know that you are hopefully going to approve the application for another $20 million for the same port of entry and mayor you signed a an mou back in January of 2023 um supporting um better technology at the bridge this is viable and must be done thank you for your time thank you ma'am the next speaker is Angel luor followed by Harry white Samuel schy Kenneth Bell good morning you have three minutes good morning I'm hello I'm Ajo y I'm speaking here today alongside chamisal I don't live in the chamisal and I know many of those who are making highle decisions about this don't either because if they did there would have never been so much contention around getting the trucks out of the bridge of the Americas they would have never prioritized polluters and economics and consumer convenience over the literal lives of your own constituents and I'm glad to see that there's some support across the panel here for alternative 4 and I really hope that you all do the job of successfully implementing that because the Chamis Salu is already overburdened and they're overwhelmed and they listed the multiple points of pollution for you all here today and they should have never carried the brunt of losing family members and sacrificing their health and their lives and their opportunity to breathe clean air and it's been listed here or stated here already by our Representatives El Paso does have the funds and you have the the strategies that you can Implement to make sure that alternative 4 is successful and these residents they don't have that they don't have the flexibility to move their lives or to further sacrifice their health and not breathe clean air and Oscar liser mayor liser sorry you said it here today our neighbors deserve to clean air no deserve to breathe clean air no matter the implications and I'm so sorry about rep R R I wish you would have looked up to see the people speaking from the neighborhoods that you say you came from but yeah but thank you all please vote um in fav and I know you are not going to make the decision but you have a lot of influence to the GSA and support of alternative for so thank you very much thank you the next speaker is Harry White Harry white Samuel schy good morning you have three minutes uh good morning uh good morning mayor Representatives uh my name is uh Sam schy I'm a father small business partner and a member of a moner people's projects research team uh so I'm here today to speak in favor of council offering support for viable action alternative 4 so no trucks on the bridge of the Americas uh removing this heavy traffic from the heart of our city represents a major step forward for El Paso I want to live in a prosperous healthy City and supporting the removal of the trucks is a clear Way Forward in that goal by making cleaner the air cleaner for Al pass ons living in the heart of our city culturally economically historically and for that reason it makes sense to uh tell a ghost story in this case that that story is about oaro and one of because one of the most powerful places I think in our city is the asaro graveyard where if you look out and you you see the absence of those Towers you see a ghost that probably lives in my lungs probably lives in the lungs of so many people in this room in terms of the air impact and 20 years ago we as a community made a powerful decision that we would not allow a sargo to reopen we made a decision in favor of Economic Development we made a a decision to grow our city to find prosperity to find flourishing in being able to deliver economic Justice to our community so today especially with a unanimous vote in support of option four Council can send a message that you care deeply and passionately about growing El Paso in a way that's positive in a way that grows for everybody in a way that provides that flourishing Citywide now the other folks speaking today here are much more eloquent than me and much more powerful in the words they're saying but we have to understand that as a city as a whole we can support that and we can become something more we can become continue to grow and we can find the resources that we do have to make sure we can continue Building Together uh and there's clearly resources available for us to do the building that we need at the other ports in uh Toro there's examples like the Port of Los Angeles doing uh major elect electrification by 2035 all of this possibility and growth is here for us to take advantage of and I urge Council to vote unanimous unanimously in support of this effort uh thank you very much for your time uh the problems are can be manifold but uh the choice is clear that we need to get the trucks out of the heart of our city thank you thank you the next speaker is Kenneth Bell Mr Bell I don't see him in the queue we'll move on to Joshua Simmons Joshua Simmons I don't see him in the queue either Alicia via Miss via is in the queue Miss V Star 6 please to unmute your telephone Alisia via star six please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes okay I just wanted to say that uh thank you so much uh Dro and Mr um I would like to thank you for supporting this this uh number four uh I've South Central El Paso is the original uh neighborhoods of El Paso and and with your support and we will have this community free of pollution and we will go forward and and give a better future for our future uh children and and and to support this will be very beneficial for all of us in South Central and and thank you so much for supporting it thank you all thank you thank you the final speaker is Fred Borgo coming up good morning Mr Borgo you have three minutes good morning sir good morning Mr mayor council and Fred Borgo I'm the president of the San Juan neighborhood Improvement Association I also have my business here in alamaa in South Central and I'm a central El Paso residents I'm here to ask you to support the item on the agenda I think it'll go far but after hearing uh some of your comments from Council I was astounded um where were these concerns when you guys first came on board I mean we've been having these issues at the bridge we've been having these issues with the madora industry crossing over the from the 1980s 1990s 2000 20110 to the present uh they've always wanted a um a Crossing strictly for commercial you know and it it never got done um so I'm questioning where was this council at the beginning half of you won't be here in January where was the previous Council uh where were those light bulbs turning on hey we need to address the madora industry because it's so powerful it's so good for our community it's so good for our region we have New Mexico they thought about it they took the trains out there they took a lot out there to Santa Teresa where were where were we we dropped the ball we've been dropping the ball for a long time we hear about the brain drain I lost two daughters to the brain drink because there's no opportunity there's no forward thinking there's no vision for alpass so in the future uh you guys brought it up right now I hope it keeps going I mean some of you running for mayor I hope this really uh wakes us up and uh we can address these issues because these issues should have been addressed many years ago and I'll leave you with this um when um the free bridge of Americas was dedicated the free bridge of Americas that was by Lady Bird Johnson I mean some of you might not remember because you're too young but if you read upon it and it was dedicated the free bridge of America was dedicated to the people of whattis for the henes to the people of El Paso for the El pasoans and she talked to her husband do not charge somewhere along the line the madas and the commercial people hijack that into what it is now let's restore it I want to restore it to back for us the people of Waterson Al Paso thank you thank you thank you mayor that concludes public comment on this item and I want to thank Mr Frank Gonzalez for assisting with a Spanish we have a motion in a second yes sir there is a motion made by representative ASO seconded by representative salido to approve item 31 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously thank you Council thank you for everyone that came to talk CH and everyone that came to talk very impactful and we want to thank you all for being here and as I said earlier let's not stop there thank [Applause] you mayor would you like to take mass transit is there a motion to recess second there's a motion in a second to recess a city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 11:39 a.m. in order to conduct the mass transit Department board meeting thank you good morning this is the meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board for Tuesday October the 8th 2024 it is 11:40 a.m. present and presiding is board chair liser and also present in council chambers our board members Kennedy ernandez salido Rivera and Canales board members Molin and Fierro have requested to be excused and we do not have any public comment all matters listed on the cons under the consent agenda 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 ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved the mass transit Department board May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting for the consent agenda we do have items one and two item two has been revised to include uh the excusal of board member art Fier is there a motion to approve the consent agenda and we have a motion made by board member Riva seconded by board member salido and this is to approve the consent agenda again as revised item one and two voting session is open I didn't sign all right Mr chairman thank you and the item has been approved with board members aedo and Canal is not present for the vote moving on to item number three it's an operational update on the mass transit Department board Department Sun Metro good morning Colonel good morning mayor city council Anthony deiser director for mass transit can I get the presentation there it can you please today I'm going to give a presentation on the update for um Sun Metro this is our mission statement uh again we we want to connect the El Paso Community through high colge Transit uh we strive to do whatever we have to do to make this possible um this is my second time that I've I've done an update and um I'm pretty excited about this uh we're going to talk about again some of the things that we do uh to make public transit the best that we can here in El Paso the main things that we're going to cover today is finance fix route the lift street car and some of the things that we're looking at in in our future so future Focus over the last year we've worked hard to reverse our financial trajectory as we are projected to be at a zero fund balance by 2033 that was when we when I first took over about about a year and five months ago but now we're projected to be healthy for years to come we've done this by improving Effectiveness in operations by revising our bus buy plan based upon new Revenue that we've gotten so we can reallocate sources we've also done this by revising stock plans uh and and replacing so and in the warehouse and replacing software and accounting for lead times we've also done this in contract management by um doing an internal audit over 262 contracts by consolidating some of our contracts and by taking some of those contracts inhouse and doing them ourselves for example our track management over at this the street car we took that in house and that saves us $250,000 a year so the contract over three years saves us $750,000 so year after year after year we'll save that money again and again we also developed a smart a a in-house smart sheet that PeopleSoft feeds that smart sheet and the warehouse software feeds that smart sheet and we did that so it tracks all of our contracts it tracks our POS and it tracks the funding so our our managers at management level um is now responsible for those contracts right so everybody's keeping an eye on those contracts and we make sure the right amount of funding goes into into those contracts so the right amount of money is go going there in addition over the last two years we've had success capturing discretionary grants up to $44 million this year alone it was 32 m353 th000 that's money that we can reallocate other other funding sources so we don't have to spend spend that on on for instance buying buses by using formula grants versus Capital funds to buy buses we save about 5% or $1 million every two years based upon the bus buy plan that we have we also use Transportation development credits this is a grant match um to buy buses it's a federal program executed by Tech stops which saves us about a million and a half dollars per year buying buses all of this um allows Sun Metro to have no budget increase in 2025 and so we're working hard to make sure that we're being good stewards of the taxpayers dollar so vehicle replacement is FTA requirements they give give us guidelines for when we have to replace vehicle and when the life cycle of a vehicle is over not to mention it's important for the safety of getting our citizens to and from their destination in fact it's six million Riders a year right now between 2024 and 2026 we replace 74 buses 74 CNG buses clean um uh CG buses clean natural gas thank thank you and so that that's 34 with discuss discussionary grants and 30 with reoccurring grants we just talked about the money that was saved by using those grants and being able to reallocate funds in in other areas the good news is all these buses will be in the life cycle the 14-year life cycle so now we have a a a complement of 154 buses in in what we have there at Sun Metro and so this would be the first time in 20 years that all of our buses will be in the in the 14-year life cycle um that is in within the guidelines of of FTA for Paratransit we'll finish um updating our Fleet in 2026 and that's with the last 17 cutaways and the 45 electric vehicles and those 45 electric vehicles also came from a discretionary grant that was $1 million that we got um and more good news that will put all of our pair Transit vehicles in the tenear life cycle which is different than the buses because they're a a medium van so that would be the first time in a long time that all our pair Transit Vehicles come within that that life cycle also and I I just want to make one point it's critical to remember that the these grants aren't guaranteed so our grants team with Omar and and our grants team down at Sun Metro with riod doal um is doing a great job making sure that we we again change the trajectory of of how how we're we're doing business and and supplementing our our uh our Revenue um to make sure that we continue to stay on the Glide path and and be good stewards of the the taxpayer dollar so so another way we're being um financially responsible is by effectively monitoring um overtime and fill in FTE vacant FTE it's evident here as you can see see on the the screen that we have um done that because we've reduced overtime hours since preco by 82,000 hours 82,000 hours since preco um we've that's how many hours we've reduced over time in fact that's that equals $1.2 million annually $1.2 million annually despite the $5 raise that's that's that we've given thanks to you Council and mayor that we've given to the employees of Sun Metro and to the employees of the city because the the rate was $23 an hour in 2019 and by 2024 it was um $28 um I attributed this to reducing the timeline from the time we have an application come in oh excuse me we've also and we've done this by um strict oversight and review of overtime and we do this at director level so every every um week all the divisions have to submit a report of how much overtime they had and if they go over a certain amount then they have the division managers have to come and explain why so we we watched this um very care carefully and we've also reduce the FTE vacancies by 36% and so overtime is time and a half straight time is time right so it reduces the amount of money that we have to to put out for to to pay our our employees so I attribute this to to reducing the the overtime to our application process so now we do a orientation for the drivers and at that orientation we have an application process and an interview process so we've reduced the time from application process to hiring process by 45 days because what we found is we'd have people apply and by the time we could get them in the door and hire them so much time had gone by that that they went elsewhere to to get employment and so I'm pretty proud of of of that process so as we move on to fix route um to talk about fix route the on Time Performance standard here is 90% um as it is for most Transit agencies um FTA requires an explanation to how you're going to increase your OTP if you go to 80% but 80% is really unacceptable if we weren't at 80% like so many people would be late getting to their doctor's appointment to work to school Etc 90% is is is pretty good and our monthly average OTP is 91% it's 91% so and that's what the monthly average uh ridership of 508 um th000 Riders monthly which equals about 6 million Riders a year and as a reminder when I talk about ogp that's 100 buses moving across the city within a 10-minute window getting to eight Terminals and 2,348 stops covering 258 square miles that starts at 4:10 p.m. and ends at 10:30 at night 10:30 at night and so we do that um in that 10-minute window every day of the week 365 days a year so I'm pretty proud pretty proud of of that too um as we moveed on to talk about lift operations the OTP standard for Lift is also 90% right and that's within the MV contract the FTA standard here is the same as it is for fixed route um the 80% where you have to explain to them or come up with a plan of how you're going to get back up to eight uh 80% if you go below that but we know that 80% cannot be the standard and that's why we're at 90% there'll be so many people late to to where they need to go if we're at 80% and we know that historically because when we get below 90% the complaints Skyrocket and so we we we shoot for for at least 90% And On Time Performance for the lift is picking up or dropping off a passenger within within a 30 minute window within within a 30- minute window and that's depending on how they book their ride whether they want that that Mark to be at the beginning or the the end end of their ride so since the last report we're we've been at 91.33 um% ontime performance this is an increase of 8.29% since the last time I stood up here and gave you the the uh the update and this is even while the average ridership has increased 1,733 trips per month so even though the the trips have increased we still have increased the ontime performance now if if you look at how pair Transit works right now there's about 7,000 individuals that qualify to ride um pair Transit but the normal amount of people who actually use it is somewhere around 2,000 so at any given time that number could Spike from the normal amount of people that use it 2,000 up to at least 7,000 so you have to have the right amount of drivers you have to have the right amount of of vehicles and you have to use the software to make this work to get everybody where they need to go at the right time so you have to balance your your resources is is what I'm saying so maintaining this 91 1.33% was possible over the last eight months because Sun Metro fixed route assisted in doing these routes these trips right we assisted and amnat and I see our partners over here amistat also subcontracted with MV and in total Sun Metro and amistat did 10% of the trips which helped to stay above the 80% in fact again all the way up to 91.33 so appreciate it for Lift customer service the average complaints decreased by 74.4% from the last time I was up here giving this brief going from an average of 48 to um complaints a month to 12 um so that's a a pretty good good uh decrease at 35 a month right we even had positive commodation calls positive calls right 13 on an average a month so we have more positive calls for pair Transit than negative calls each month so I'm pretty proud that that that's that's turned around um I attribute this to the OTP increasing because most of the complaints are because someone didn't get to or from a a place of their destination and I contributed to the um complaint review board now this complaint review board is done by myself um the director or my assistant director Dwayne Arnold could you raise your hand at the lift at every Friday with the MV leadership and they we go over every complaint that came in and we address the complaint we make sure that the individual was called back within 48 hours we make sure the complaint was addressed we make sure if someone needs to be retrained that they were retrained and any process or procedure that need to be changed are changed and and addressed we do that every every Friday with the intent that the same issue will not arise again and that's part of the reason why the complaints have have gone down so drastically so looking at street car um operations um street car continues to ridership continues to increase and the majority of the the ridership is does not come from um special events anymore the the majority of the ridership just comes from um Norm the everyday commuters going to work going to shopping going to the doctor or or whatnot um and the writers ship has in increased um on an average 12,568 and so that's 168% so um again you know the council asked Sun Metro to go back and and look at look at the hours and and optimize the street car operations and we did that and so now we've we've left that and the hours how they were for about a year a little over a year now and it's increased and and you see here on the chart the in August it was over 23,000 but this last month in September it actually moved another thousand and so now we're at 24,000 Riders a month and increasing and now now the nonevent days sometimes are higher than the event days for ridership so I'm I'm I'm pretty proud that that has turned in in that direction um also something else to note is our street car projected optimization cost was $2.7 million and the actual cost turned out to be $2.7 million so we work very hard at being very Vigilant at what we're spending how were spending it the hours that we extended cuz the the council also asked us hey can you extend hours when requested for special events and we we we did that um and we we hit the the nail on the head with with that um and then just as a reminder you know the street car funding from the street car comes from the same budget that the rest of the budget for Sun Metro comes from you know and that's from FTA grants the half penny sales tax and the fairs for the the bulk of of the the budget that Sun Metro has so Sun Metro buses travel about 5.6 million miles a year 5.6 million miles a year and so we have to put a great focus on safety and preventing accidents um and our accident rate has continued to go down uh over the last two years and even over the last 6 months and so over the last 6 months it's decreased about 13.6% % going from 12.5 to 10.8 um accidents now to the FDA we have to report that in um per 100 miles and so it's going down 13.5% over over the over the per 100 miles but for every accident our safety team does an investigation right they do this investigation and they work with plan the planning Division and they adjust routes if necessary they retrain drivers for every accident and and this is what I attribute to the accident rate going down the good news one of pieces of the good news though is that 61% of the accident are not Sun Metro's fault meaning they are not the ones getting ticketed and it is a non-preventable accident meaning the bus driver was not at fault so ye yes there's going to be accidents because we're driving 5.6 million miles um a year but like again we do the investigation we retrain we change routes if if necessary because the buses don't always fit in every street um um the most safe um conditions change after we plan the routes so we we stay vigil Vigilant of that and again 61% of the accidents are are not you know the driver's fault so as we look into the future operations we have to be cognizant of the the finances and the fund balance um because the cost of doing business is going to increase for sure it's going to increase you know we had the Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill that was was passed and it opened up the discretionary grant opportunities for us in fact in 2024 it got us $32 million plus because we also got um a uh microtransit grant for $1 million that is going to be part of Sun Metro Sun Metro Rising which is going to get us um four electric um um medium Vans and two Chargers and and so that was a great opportunity but discretionary grants are are not guaranteed like we don't know when something like that is going to O open up again and so we have to make sure that our our fund balance stays strong um be because right now we use our fund balance every year um in our expenditure so so we have to make again we have to make sure that that stays strong some examples of that Sun Metro Rising when we put that into play like that's going to increase increase our our our budget by by a few million dollars like but we're going to increase the frequencies which will increase the hours the amount of buses that are on the street at at any given time right we'll also add the microtransit that I just talked about um and eventually after about a year we're going to try to add more Sunday service which all will increase our budget and as we look to 2008 and Beyond when we have to start replacing Vehicles because we can not have a vehicle on the road more than 20 years because of FTA regulations but they don't they recommend the guideline is not having a bus more than 500 miles in 14 years um we're going to have to start buying buses again after this money that we got for these last 32 um buses um but new flyer bus that we have a contract to buy buses they're not making 32 excuse me 35 foot buses any anymore and so now the the next bus we can get is 40 foot bus right and that's $250,000 a bus more than a 35 foot bus so the cost of buying one bus goes up and if we have to buy 10 at a time you can do the math right so again I'm I'm talking to the fund balance and what we have to do and keep money in the fund balance based upon the discretionary grants are not guaranteed right so we have to have a strong fund balance because we have to look out into the future and see where we're going to have to be in the future right the Strategic the Strategic plan and then just looking at the the par Transit contract like it's almost a tenth of our budget like I got a $110 million budget and the par Transit contract is a is a tenth of that right and it's going to increase it's going to increase at least 30% if I put that out to bid right if I put that out to bid it's going to increase 30% if we continue to put that out to contract meaning if we still have a contract to doing do that for us right and it's already a N9 or10 million contract so it's it it's going to increase it's going to increase 9 or 10 million more e each time I I put that contract out if that's what we we decide to do so we have to look at those things again as a reminder we have three basic places where we we get our our revenue from the half penny sales tax right and we can't control that because we we don't know what the Market's going to do we get FTA uh reoccurring grants we're we're going to get the the reoccurring grants but the amount we don't we can't guarantee what that is in fact in 2024 it went down a million dollars because they do it off the census and the population went down so the the dollar am amount went down and then we get money from the fair boox now our ridership is going up but pre-co we had 12 million Riders a year and right now we have 6 million Riders a year it is going up but if we get money from the fair boox and that's one of our main sources of of Revenue and we have half the ridership that means half the money again I I say these things to to say we have to be careful about what we have in our fund balance and have a strategic plan because we're required to do some things by FTA but we must be a good Transit Agency and be able to in the future get our citizens tuned from um where where they need to go and so that's the report I have for you subject to your questions thank you representative Canalis followed by represent Salo thank you mayor um thank you mrisa uh great very comprehensive update um and as I say to you all the time time uh it makes me happy to see people utilizing our public transit services um it makes me extra happy to see the continual increase of ridership on the street car um you know again looking at when you started the optimization in September of 23 14,000 Riders to close to you know we're approaching 24,000 Riders now and that's incredible um and I've heard a lot of feedback from uh constituents particularly a lot of students uh from UTP who are very happy with their ability to now use the street car as a primary Transit option um you know it's made a big made a big impact in their ability to go get food come downtown uh you know go to the pharmacy anything that they need to do um it's now up primary route that they're able to use so makes me incredibly happy to see that um the lift uh as well I personally in my office have had what seems to you know it's anecdotal but a reduction in the number of calls that we've gotten in terms of uh complaints about the lift service uh and that has been an issue that I think had persisted for quite a long time so I'm incredibly glad to see uh the the eduction of complaints um and also the the steps that you all have implemented in terms of of uh addressing the complaints that do come in like you said uh you know getting together with the with the contractor with uh your leadership staff to address those complaints it's been at least from what I can see in in the the calls that I get to my office uh a great success so thank you for taking those steps um I did want to address uh some of the uh some of my questions about the longer term replacement um I know in this next round of replacement we're replacing with CNG clean natural gas buses um looking into future rounds of bus replacement are we planning to continue purchasing clean natural gas buses or do we have a different outlook on what what types of vehicles we might purchase so for right now we're we're still continuing on with purchasing uh CG buses um when we got the the this grant this last Grant um there were some questions about like why why didn't we go electric and you know going electric um when you go electric it there's other cost to it yes like if you set up the the infrastructure like that might cost somewhere around 10 million and right now the infrastructure set up for CG and so is is like low no to get the low no Grant it has to be low emissions and and so I'm really proud that we're we're low emissions and I'm really proud that our grant team got the got the grants and our infrastructure is already set up for that in fact we get CG pumped right into Fred Wilson where the the lift um compound is and we get it pumped into um Montana where the the fixed route route is and so we already have those those set up there not not to mention if we change right then we have to change like drivers have to be retrained which which cost a lot of money uh mechanics have to be re retrained which cost a a lot of money and and again the infrastructure has to change and so focusing in on the the future strategic Financial plans and the fact that we right now use fund balance to to every year right to to meet our expenditures like it is not financially respons responsible to move from CG to electric or anything else right now and so that's why we're staying um with clean natural gas at this time but we are going electric over at least 50% electric over at par Transit and in our microtransit in Sun Metro Rising plan we have we're going to put in two Chargers on the the Far East Side um terminal and start with um four or five electric vehicles in a microtransit in fact we're going to take a a trip out to um Austin to see see their operation there and how they do microtransit um there to make sure that when we set the Sun Metro rising up we've seen another operation and see how that works physically on the ground to make sure that we've got our crossed our te's and dotted our eyes a way out be before we start this up yeah I'm very excited about the work that you'll be doing in the Paratransit and and the microtransit uh with with electric vehicles I think it'll be a great way to it's not exactly a pilot but to see how that operation goes um and and it can inform decisions we make in the future about potential use of of uh other electric vehicles you know obviously further into the future as we need to do a next round of of replacement um I know uh you're sorry to continue asking questions further into the future I'm happy to see no budget increase for 25 uh that that that won't be needed um and that you anticipate you won't have to increase fairs um do you anticipate that you'll be able to maintain a a flat budget into future years or would might you need more support as we Implement Sun Metro rising and some other initiatives I think that well I I don't see us um trying to increase any fairs as we move into the future but I have to look at the the budget again and see see how we're doing um for next year um there might be um some increase but I I don't see a huge increase in the budget but again um there are some things on the horizon that's going to cost more money and and our grants team we got we have a great grants team like we've got a lot of money coming in in in in Grants and we got some things on the horizon that we're putting in for Grants and in the future grants is going to be a big piece of how we try to bring extra Revenue in again like when we can bring a grant in then we don't have to use other forms of Revenue to pay for operations and so I'm focused on that heavily okay yeah I ask just uh as we move you know we just passed the budget recently but as we move into the next uh budget season it sneaks up on us quickly uh please continue to offer us uh a realistic picture of what the needs are so that you know we don't want you to feel like you're operating in a way that's that's incredibly constrained um if if if there are needs in order to keep the system going then uh I'd appreciate that we know about those and we can help you with uh addressing what it is that you need to address I will and and I appreciate your support all right thank you mayor thank you sir represento thank you mayor thank you so much for the presentation just had a quick question um what is the percentage that uh the Departments funded by disg granted if you know that by the top of your head so grants are right now grants were um 19% of our revenues this year okay great that's that's good to know I thought it was a bigger number so just want to make sure that we're sustainable like you mentioned there's going to be a lot of need and that you said the bus is um you know there's going to be a certain amount that's going to need to be replaced yes so so we we again the the guidelines from FTA is to replace the bus in 14 years are 500 miles right at at 20 years you have to replace the bus because you cannot no longer drive the bus because of the gas stick you have to drill holes in it and put it put it to pasture at 500 miles you can replace an engine or you can place a transmission and extend the life the problem with that is other other parts of the bus start to wear out whether it be the suspension whether it be the AC whether it be the seals whatever so then the price of doing maintenance increases on that bus so if you're buying buses 10 at a time the problem starts to be you replace a engine or a transmission for 60,000 double engine and transmission 120,000 potentially and then you start replacing a bunch of other parts like now becomes more lucrative just to buy the bus and if you take that times 10 then it starts to become problematic and that's why the reason why the guidelines are set up that way so that's why why we have to look to the future of when we're going to buy the buses or not and not try to extend the life got it no no it's good that you're looking into the future I like your proactiveness and including that opportunity cost in there where it's more beneficial to just buy a new bus at the end of the day because it's a lot more conducive um and I had a a consultant just reached out to me uh wanted to know if we're doing anything about the Brio um going to the Amigo Air Show just what was one question that was just asked from one of my constituents that emailed me yeah I I don't have any plans on sending a Brio to the Amigo air show but I can look into doing that right after this and get back to you because I know it's coming up right away so let me do a quick turn on the request and see what we can do my assistant director Claudia Garcia of Planning Development is here so she's going to take that and get a quick Spin and give you an answer right back no that's great you know I I you know I I grew up also loving the Amigo Airfield right so I I you know we forget that uh the my constituent he's a veteran Elder and so some don't can get there so I'm now thinking you're right it's good that we maybe we could figure maybe one route that can go there's two days I believe right that we have the immig show it's an event that we all grew up with maybe and people are excited but I I know that you all will will uh uh figure something out and I'm looking forward to hearing what that is and then that way I can let let my consitent know um probably very sure that he he'll love to participate as well thank you you you have it by tomorrow morning thank you much thank you sir thank you for your presentation very detailed and I can see the lot of work went into it and we appreciate it thank you sir thank you and there's no action on this item the next item is item number four discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024 d36 2 lubricants for Transit Fleet to MJ Mater Enterprises Incorporated to business as biodine chemical company for an initial term of 3 years for an estimated amount of 941,618 voting session is open Mr chair yes ma'am thank you and the item has been approved unanimously item number five is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the ma the mayor to sign an interlocal agreement with the AL Paso area transportation services in the county of El Paso to provide parro Transit service users with their jurisdiction the opportunity to travel to and from the service areas with minimal interruptions and we have a motion made by board member Riva seconded by board member Canales and this is to approve item number five voting session is open Mr chair yes ma'am thank you sir and the item has been approved unanimously is there a motion to adjourn all those in favor all those opposed and the mass transit Department board meeting of October the 8th 2024 is adjourned at 12:18 p.m thank you there a motion to reconvene so move second there's a motion in a second to Recon the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 12:19 p.m. can we go to public comment please 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 of Al Paso 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 cility and decor that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public use this for 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 13 members of the public that sign sign up to speak the first person is Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford's topic is October 24th un day and abortion good afternoon Miss Crawford you have three minutes good afternoon thank you so much good afternoon thank you good afternoon um really briefly briefly first of all I served in pro-life in many cities acoss our nation um good afternoon I I've served in pro-life in many cities across our nation and I just want to say that Al Paso has an awesome transportation system um I just deeply appreciate um the the efficiency of it and the courtesy of your driver so I just want to start with that um I want to talk about un day October 24th um we're told in God's word in Jeremiah chapter 6 um God rebuked the false teachers um in in the land of Israel and Judah and he he said quote they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people superficially saying peace peace when there is no peace um October 24th United Nations Day founded with the stated goals of maintaining International Peace and security developing friendly relations among nations now almost 80 years old there's been a very evident shift in un rhetoric what was want of Cooperative is now steering for regulatory mandatory with its close ties to the world World economic forum and its related World so-called World Health Organization there's things that are very dangerous the US is the UN is a Peril to two groups that are dear to the heart of God to babies in the womb and to the people of Israel is pushing for abortion access worldwide the UN has condemned Israel more than they've condemn condemned any other Nation on Earth of late its dangerous International pandemic treaties could move Nations including the us into the position where they surrender National sovereignty to the mandates of a worldwide governing body the United Nations human attempts at World Peace will will ultimately fail because none of them address the root cause of strife and War the selfishness the wickedness of the human heart True World Peace will one day be absolute reality but not through the UN through the one who is indeed the prince of peace and looking forward to both the first and second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ the prophet Isaiah by inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote these words Isaiah 96 For unto us child is born unto us the son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name Shall be Called wonderful counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting father the Prince of Peace the Lord Jesus is the true Prince of Peace thank you so much thank you thank you the next speaker is Isaac edmundo Avila Isaac edmundo Aila Ron KO followed by eug Darden Jesse Romero Julio Alan Theodora via Mr kom's topic is constitutional rights to the rescue 1983 Animal Services good afternoon sir good afternoon sir good afternoon everyone um this morning it was brought to my attention El Paso Animal Services is still under the Pets Alive tier one shelter for hos which means they are operating the hos program Stu um I gotta be honest I don't think it can spell no kill equation and you know we've discussed this several times we've actually thought we needed to change back to the no kill plan um you want to get this County City back on your side let's fix it um I also want to tell you because I'm I'm understanding you haven't been told is the three original vets that came over from morz to become vets and El Paso left so we had to get new ones so that explains why the conversation at the asack meeting where they were told three years the next conversation was four years because they had to start over um but we're back to transparency honesty ethics I I don't see it I mean we're constantly kept in the dark things are happening we don't fix it we cruise on on and all we're doing is pissing off more people pardon my French I'm sorry that was the nicest word I could come up with at the time um sorry brain goes away the other thing I want to say is this policy of animal services deciding if somebody did something wrong or not when there's been a complaint filed needs to end we've had several complaints over the years about acos assaulting and causing cruelty and abused animals that they're picking up they always go to the shelter director who always says that there was nothing wrong however I did go to the police department and talk to an internal affairs Sergeant who I told him I had written reports which I've given to Mr liser and I had pictures I had comments from the the vet and I had everything all together and what I was told after a couple of weeks is while he talked Paula and she said nothing happened so I closed the case and then when I kind of got a little upset because he never even asked for information he threatened me so we've got a a shelter that's violating Texas law in several ways which we all know and yet nothing has been done about it we have instances where the shelter covers up for PD and PD covers up for the shelter I can't say this loud enough you want want to talk about it let me know and as you all know I don't say anything unless I can prove it unlike the shelter so let's please let's change some things some more things and let's continue to get this problem resolved it's time it's past time thank you sir thank you the next speaker is Eugene Darden she will be followed by Jesse Romeo Miss darden's topic is green areas conservation good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes good afternoon ma'am uh good good morning good afternoon good afternoon ladies and gentlemen my name is Eugenia deran I live here in El Paso I have seen it grow and expand and I have seen the work of other people putting green areas all over the city City and the county you should know trees shopes grass and other plants give us food they also give us water lately in their misunderstanding to preserve water a group of individuals have thrown rocks on top of grasses trees shrubs plants and flowers and they have been cutting trees by the millions at an alarming rate it has taken 50 years to plant these trees and grasses and Parks throughout the city and somebody is killing it our food depend on the green we eat green every day all day the trees don't eat rocks they eat water and soil I was called by the city to solve this problem I have met with three different different people my quote is $5,000 a mile a day with my crew thank you Ma thank you for being here so I was going to ask you mayor uh who should I talk to who should I go to uh because I have already talked to the city they called me to solve this problem she's okay thank you ma'am the next speaker is J Romeo thank thank you mayor thank you thank you thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen Jesse Romero Julio Alan followed by Theodora via El Ortega Olivia in noos Martha robali and Sylvia agir Mr Alan's topic is senior nutrition program at parks and Rick good afternoon sir you have three minutes thank you good afternoon sir good afternoon my name is Kul lean I'm a part senior participant uh with the uh with the senior parks and recreation centers at the senior centers and I've been involved for for 10 years already in four different centers right now I'm at at South El Paso uh recre Senior Center participating there and going to eat and speaking about eating one of the things that this the program uh is concerned with is having a a meal for our seniors to come over every every day to to participate in the programs uh apparently there's a crisis right now with a county that says that there's no monies they're turning away people and we don't have any more people coming to the centers and the objective of of the centers is to provide food so that the people can come over and enjoy other activities also which is playing bingo Billiards activities physical activities and entertainment and all that so there there that's the main objective and it's it's the main if it's the main objective that means we cannot attract any more people to come over and keep them there because there if the if the program is being turned down because there's a lack of funding or whatever all right but the biggest one of the biggest situations that we we want to make the city council members aware that we can we can yeah contract us services with the county for nutrition but this causes a lot of situations with with the citizens if they're not coming to the centers anymore so we want to make you aware that that's that's what that that's a PR prevalent Pro situation going on right now yes we're going to address it with the county also but we want you to be aware we want the city council members to be aware that our citizens are not there just to enjoy to to enjoy activities that there because they go to eat and then after they eat everything else they participate in but again the the administration for Parks and Recreation especially the the ones for the senior centers don't seem to be very much in in uh contention with the with the program about nutrition and the and the secret that they they're more into their private agendas or whatever else activities that that concerns them and we need people to stay in the center and they're going to stay the only way they're going to stay having a good meal every con constant day Monday through Friday and and and being provided by there of course most of the times that we talk to city city council members is when they come over and talk to us about give us a cake and bring a bring some kind of a a party item for us thinking that all seniors all senior citizens need is that no we need more than just uh that we need to be concerned about the health of our citizens and and resolve this crisis with our with with the people and let them let everybody be aware of that of course we are voting we're voting citizens too thank you much appreciate it thank the next speaker is Theodora via her topic is also the senior nutrition program at parks and rec okay uh good afternoon mayor ladies and gentlemen of the afternoon ma'am I'm here to ask you to please look into our problem that we have at this time with the uh seniors we attend the Parks and Recreation senior centers we have a hot meal every single day from Monday to Friday and lately some of the people who have been there five years or more have not been eating for 2 months and I asked them how come you're not getting your meals they said uh I've been told that there's no funds there's no food for us so they start staying at home the reason we're here is because people that stay at home they go into depression they go into more being over medicated and we want that to not be what the seniors are going through on a daily basis we want them to come to the senior center exercise play Bingo play leria and be somebody else try to live a little bit longer but then we when we have all these problems there's people there who have been joining the centers for two months and have not been able to eat they've been told there's no funds for the food so I directed myself to the uh city employees I went through the chain of command haven't gotten all the way to the top but I've been told the same thing and they keep telling me it's not our problem it's the counties okay I went to the county and they told me the same thing there's no funds we cannot feed the people I said what do you mean you can't find out why there's no funds and let us know let the people know and ATO de Plata we used to be 120 people at this time we only have 60 and a lot of them are staying home because they're not getting a meal and I don't think that's fair because you know already the amount has gone down the amount of people attending the center why is this happening to us okay we just want to bring it up to you all so that maybe you all can get together with the county like they tell us and you can let us know you know come and talk to the uh elderly this is the reason why or is there anything we can do about it we we notice that before they would tell us that the um federal government is the one that gives the money for the food now they're telling us no it's not federal we get grants I said okay what is the truth you know we're old we know that but we do understand when some people come and tell us you know what we're going to get some money from the federal government or where somewhere and we're going to feed you because remember the elderlies are not like when they were young they cannot cook themselves that's the reason we have the C okay thank you I only bring this problem to you to be looked into okay thank you very much the next speaker is El Orga followed by Olivia in noos Martha robali Sylvia agir they're all speaking on the same topic of senior nutrition program at parks and Rick good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon ma'am good afternoon my name is El Ortega I am an active participant of Squan Senor Center and I am here to help raise the red flag about our County meals first of all uh rosalva ernandez which is head of the nutrition program was there last week and informed us that we cannot take anything to eat at the center between the hours of 11:30 to 12:30 because that's when the meal are served and on top of that our director said that for him starting from 10:30 we should not be eating anything we take or we make or we buy that should be we have to wait till 12:30 if we want to enjoy that one time uh we get a list of what's going to be served on a day-to-day basis so one time on the on the meal it was going to be a hot dog with pinto beans and carrots okay I don't like my hot dog with with pinto beans okay I eat them like everybody else with chili beans and cheese so I did the next thing that I could do is I went and I bought a can of chili beans I had cheese sliced cheese and when I when we got our meals at my table I shared with my my friends you know because that's what I do I go and enjoy a meal so I can share it with my friends okay so I I did made the mistake it was a mistake I guess because I gave everybody a slice of cheese which was packaged and then I opened the canab beans I put them in a container so I could put it in the microwave and then when I came back everybody say hey those look good let me have some which I gave them some well the director saw me that I was sharing what I had and he says next time you do that I'm going to suspend you because you're not supposed to bring food in to share with anybody so that's another thing I would like for for people to look into the food that they're serving us because I don't think any of you would eat what we are being served okay just cuz we're old doesn't say that our taste but have changed it all you know we have taste buts you know and U that's all I have for you thank you for your time thank you ma'am the next speaker is Olivia in noos followed by Martha robali and Sylvia agir good afternoon Miss robali you have three minutes yes good afternoon afternoon my name is Mara rali and I'm from the memorial Senior Center so I'm going to talk about uh the quality of the food so I think that the people that serve the food forgot about we the seniors that we are still being people with a lot of taste we like to taste the food we like to enjoy the soups that they be warm they they be hot because most of the time they are cold when they serve to us are very cold or a little bit warm so when they serve Mexican food like discadas sometimes chil regenos they are very greasy a lot of greasy on the food and we really don't enjoy it the salads also uh they gave us the corn the lettuce Frozen so really we don't enjoy them that way and they forgot that that a lot of the people are our age they have problem with the dentor so the fruit that they gave us is very hard they are not ripe so the purs the apples are very very hard and sometime they have problems to buy them because of the dang the people and [Music] also uh I think and and most of the people on my table or on other tables the friends they think that the food that they gave us is not the adequate for us it's not a nutritious as it should be so I think that they need to reink that we need to eat nutrition uh food um I don't know they gave us sometimes uh cakes with a lot of frosting is too sweet a lot of people have diabetes or and other type of um problems scal problems that they cannot eat them so another thing that that I notice is that sometimes they have more than the food and it's less the people that is going there and the people and there are people that cannot eat because they are not registered because they cannot be there or they I don't know really what they do with that food they I think that they were going to share it with the people they don't allow them to bring people to it in there thank you so much for your time thank you ma'am the next speaker is Sylvia agir not here not here thank you we move on to miss Wally Sheek followed by Jesus Flores she back Miss she's topic is anniversary of public comment good afternoon Miss Sheek welcome back you have three minutes your please put this on and keep it on okay I'm sorry this is my last day all right thank you on behalf of Wall-E uh my name is Louise Ross and I will speak in the first person uh for Wally Sheek as um she asked me to do for her I Wall-E want to put my house and all it in it as collateral to be auctioned off for a free press the Liberty press for El Paso the house will be a museum as a World War I Memorial The Originals will be at Fort Bliss to be on display in their World War II museum we are in the building here in City Hall where the El Paso Times was located today our city doesn't own the El Paso Times anymore so a new press will be started and it will be called The Liberty press so my Wall's suggestion and hope in honor of my husband Johnny Sheek who died of a broken and upset heart over the way Al pasoans did not get a chance or an opportunity to vote on the baseball stadium that we have today it was passed not by the people but five yay yay yay yay and yay by City representatives in 2012 they voted on 911 2012 and this caused Johnny my husband to get very upset and sick because the city didn't have a vote by the people in his sadness and anger he said quote soldiers didn't fight for a baseball stadiums and an already paid for and perfectly good existing City Hall to be blown up by Dynamite by a vote and passed by only five yay five people and not the people of Al pas to even get their vote I had been work I had been working behind his back on the book alfida s the first book in 1952 and when halfway through writing it for proof reading purposes had him give me the money that is how he became a publisher on see you again Alida in 1964 before he died I asked asked him to let me sell them for a legal fund raising money for the people he said not while I'm alive and if I go before you do you can publish and sell all you want and have it your way if it makes you happy Wally has her presentation and she says also that this is a Hail to the incoming city council and a farewell to the outgoing mayor and Council I've loved so well mayor Wall-E also says I remember when your mother said my oscar is such a good boy thank you Miss Ross you've reached the three minute limit thank you Miss she I say mayor Lisa is such a good man and this is for her three minutes okay thank you Miss sh you've reached the three minutes ma'am thank you I did ask this morning H Mrs hernandz your secretary told me and I said this is my last time here and there's no time limits on it and I mean it with the sincerity of my heart because six of you is going to leave two of you going to be the mayor and this is for the news City manager thank you Miss she thank you Miss she the next speaker is Jesus Flores I want to say one thing I was in Germany in 1994 okay and I went over there for the 50th anniversary of the day and here is the that's and here is the picture of the church is Basilica and I said I come all the way from America and I want you to ring the bells of St ulri and if you can thing is this is the church I asked the priest and he says we cannot ring the bell we have to ask the bishop and I say I came all the way from Al Paso Texas he says who is Al Paso Texas I said New York is here and El Paso is by the border and I did not come for nothing I want you to ring the bell for the D day because if it wasn't for you D day you would not be a priest now so ring the bell and then explain it to the bishop and and he looked at me and he said Mrs Shea please go in the church at the alar and I not only will ring the bell but I say a holy mess for the whole city of El Paso and this was an 1994 June the 6th and ringed the bell for 3 minutes so I didn't mind for you saying 3 minutes your time is up okay thank you Miss sh you were giving additional minutes already ma'am thank you God bless you the next speaker is Jesus Flores Jesus Flores I don't see Mr Flores um approaching the the podium so that concludes call to the public this afternoon second got the three minutes I love you mayor Pro works for me item 32 yeah let's do item 32 thank you sir item 3 2 is discussion and action that the city of Al Paso supports the application by project amista to the US Environmental Protection Agency EPA fiscal year 2024 Community change grant program requesting funds in the amount of $20 million for the pollution reduction strategy mobility and transportation options for preventing air pollution and improving public health and climate resilience track one and authorizing the city manager or designate to provide a letter of support this is representative canalysis item mayor may I how are you ma'am hi good afternoon good afternoon mayor and um our Council can I go first mayor may I yes sir um you all signed to speak up on this item or how did we do m p they did not say okay let's U if you don't mind we'll let representative Canales uh read his letter his item go ahead sir no no letter but uh I do uh want to just give a quick preface I guess and and then I'd love to have project Amistad speak about what what it is that they uh plan to apply for here and how we can help them um but the um they're presenting a great uh proposal I think a great project uh that they've envisioned as we heard earlier during this on Metro presentation uh they also run a very significant uh Transportation operation that supplements uh Sun Metro and the County Transit and everybody else who's providing Transit um and you I'm sure uh Mr armz will be happy to tell you they they also travel more than 1 million miles with their vehicles every year um so I I'll leave the proposal to them I do uh want to point out that in the time since uh I submitted the agenda item and this moment now um we've discovered that this the city uh would potentially also be required to submit in addition to the letter of support um a statutory partner worksheet uh that the EPA includes in their Grant application um and I I will I can make the Motions at the end but I just want people to be aware that I I intend to make a small Amendment at the end to add that in addition to the letter of support that we'll submit a statutory partner worksheet provided by the EPA so with that can we have uh absolutely present about what it is they're asking yes good afternoon again and I know you've been a a great partner of the city and and we've worked together for many years and and I thank you for your leadership but as what you've done so thank you for being here thank you very much mayor and of course um representative Canalis and um all of you thank you so much for your time my name is Andrew Dez I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Amistad Amistad is a Social Service Agency Community Based organization that's been around about 50 years providing Social Services and today I'm here to advocate for the city to provide a letter of support or agree to a statutory partnership and the reason being is because yes we do travel 1 million miles a year and we do provide transportation to the most underserved population in fact we spend about $700,000 in fuel every year and about $500,000 in maintenance fees and so by keeping 35 of our Fleet um in the field all day long providing 10 routes um with Sun Metro of course and then helping about 75 trips a day for the Paratransit lift um along with other contracts one thing that has really been my dream as a CEO is to become more efficient and to lower the emissions and to help Mother Earth to just provide a better environment for our constituents and I'm sure a lot of you heard that today and so I want to speak to that um there is funding opportunity from the Environmental Protection Agency and it is called the environmental and climate Justice Community chains grant program and through track one they are allowing us to ask for up to $20 million but what I'm asking for you all to do today is to consider that um through track one the objective would be to Implement comprehensive climate action strategies and infrastructure that build the resilience and adaptive capacities of communities reducing of course emissions and prepare um our community and of course reduce the impacts of climate change but we also want to execute a strategy of Mobility Transportation options for preventing air pollution and improving public health and climate resilience so as the COO of Ami St a nonprofit my main role is stability but of course doing it with customer service and providing so much more than just the actual service itself it's it's a main operation and it is very litigious but it's important people need to get to work people need to get to dialysis people need to have those services available but as you all heard earlier it is not um it's very expensive and so in doing that Amistad is going to be applying hopefully with the EPA asking for at least 15 buses per year up to three years so that would be 45 electric buses along with 15 hybrid vehicles and so with that we're looking at possibly a 10 million doll ask but they are mandating that we ask um our local leadership it could be the city or the county of course but we came to this the city first and asking if you all would consider being our statutory partner in this concept of course where amiad would take all the liabilities would take all the responsibility we just need your support in saying that you know Amistad has been an amazing partner of the city we will continue to do so but this would allow us to apply for $10 million of funding and would be able to change our Fleet into electric buses and so that is the information that I have so far um I just want to to remind everyone that we travel about um of course a million miles a year with our 35 vehicles um but also that's about 25,000 trips a year an average vehicle is going to um it's about 22 miles per gallon and drives about 11,000 miles per year but Amistad we get about 9 to 11 miles per gallon and so if we can save all of those fuel costs of $700,000 then I can retain more drivers and I can put that money into other programs and be able to sustain Amistad for hopefully another few years so I just wanted to ask for your consideration and hopefully I'll be able to um answer any questions because this does align with your strategic plan under goal 8.4 comprehensive climate action plan which would be Transportation economy and Equity so thank you very much thank you very much much that do you have a motion uh yes uh first i' first I move to amend the language to uh append at the end uh the words uh and complete uh the statutory partner worksheet provided by the EPA second okay we have Motion in a second yes there's a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative salido and this is to amend the action requested to include and complete statutory uh complete the statutory partner worksheet provided by the EPA thank you as mentioned on the amendment call for the vote yes ma'am no I I did I did request to speak um I just I'm I'm very thrilled that the city has an opportunity to collaborate um but I just want to make sure that there's no conflict within our own departments I haven't I didn't hear if there was anything om more good afternoon Council Omar Martinez with strategic and legislative affairs this uh statement of support from city council would be the fourth uh statement that city council has approved the three previous ones were for for example the medical center of the Americas the Paso nor Community Foundation and home EP home also requested similar statements for this one what makes it unique is that we the city would be the statutory partner whereas the other resolutions did not require that the statutory partnership language uh I do refer to city attorney's office uh when it comes to at a practical operational level the city would have some oversight but um um she is correct in that the liability can can be moved on to the applicant in this case project amist and project amist also has the option to replace the statutary partner so like let's say that the the deal let's say EP approves the funding and the deal is not beneficial to the city because of confence and things like that then that that can be swapped out so there's a lot of options this is just barely an a Grant application and should they receive funding we have an opportunity to make amend amendments as needed to clarify the language and bring to you an agreement that then you can approve um the last thing I'll say is the city cannot be an applicant in this application it is designed for nonprofits hence why the city has supported now the fourth application in this item oh okay great thank you for all that additional context so uh definitely U makes more sense um in my mind so and thank you project Aria for entrusting uh the city to excuse me project Amistad thank you for entrusting the city to partner with you and and and we're really appreciative of all the work that you're doing for our most vulnerable Take Care thank you very much ma'am thank you and with that we have Motion in a second the Voting is session is open on the amendment Council and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously is there another motion move to approve second as a motion in a second there is a motion by representative Canales seconded by representative salido to approve as amended on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you congratulations I appreciate your support thank you thank you and with that do we have a motion to recess till two motion to recess till two 205 sorry 205 205 second no I say be 215 to recess a city council meeting until 20:5 all in favor anyone opposed and the city council meeting is in recess at 1:04 p.m. and will reconvene at 2:05 p.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Miss Prim it's 205 do we have a quum by any chance no sir we're missing four [Laughter] more just checking I thought maybe my M was off I think we'll do the rule of 15 if not can we call the meeting that's what they did at UTP Chief pus is here can we count him I'm just trying to do everything I can to get a Corum Chief thank you sir e e e thank you quum coming up motion yes we do representative um hernandes so do we have a motion to return second there's a motion in a second to reconvene the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 2:8 p.m. we are on page number 10 item 33 and this is an update to Council on the international Bridges crossb survey good afternoon Council mayor good afternoon so today I'm going to give you a uh an update on the international crossb survey ibcs for short um we'll uh start with uh some background and methodology and then just jump into some findings really quick so context uh when we first started this about 5 years ago 19 uh 2019 uh what we noticed is that data or information research on crossb activities was very limited very scaned anecdotal at best sometimes qualitative and for the quantitative studies that we found uh they were you know had a lot of assumptions and the surveys that were conducted across the border you know from San Diego all the way to Brownsville they were very limited uh you know snapshots in time uh convenience sampling which means you can't generalize results uh so that's when we started thinking about we need to create our own data to get uh better information you know low margin of error so that's when we reached out to uh K La frona uh which is a northern Mexico uh graduate uh system they all they do is Masters and phds uh so they've been doing this type well not this type of work but they've been tracking migration flows in the southern part of Mexico you know for about 20 25 years um and then they reach they did they started doing that in the northern part of of of of the border with us so you know we we know people over there so it was natural for us to like okay well you're studying this flow why don't we do it on the bridges so we amended their methodology so that we can construct this ibcs International uh B International uh crossb survey uh I should note that this is a first of its kind nobody has ever done this created their own daa from scratch so when we started I I think it was uh in um October of 2019 but then we had to pause it in 2020 due to covid at the time we had 24 weeks of finding which we did present to council stakeholders so forth uh that's the study right there which can be found in in our website uh International I should have said I'm not sure if I said my name Carlos Alo with the international Bridges sorry project manager but in there's a a website that we have PDN uno.com uh data uh ibcs so those findings have been used by other departments just I want to clarify that um across the city you know for business uh recruitment expansion efforts uh we use it for our grant applications including the ones that we've already received uh I know that the mo borrowed our methodology to conduct their origin destination study uh hunt Institute have has used our data to uh uh for their tex. deliverables and so forth so what are the objectives uh so we after we paused it we we came back with golf and got approval from from Council to restart the project um this was back in I I believe we got approval in summer of last uh last year uh key objectives to qu to quantify crossborder activities who's Crossing why are they Crossing uh what are they buying uh so we can quantify how how much we Al pasin mainly are spending in quatis and conversely how much uh uh are Mexican residents spending over here so we could answer those questions that you all and other stakeholders have had how much of the retail impact uh do they have what's the what's the impact across the economy and so forth another key objective was repeated data collection and all that means is that we're doing this in a longitudal fashion so throughout the entire year we got permission to to conduct the study for two years with an option to uh uh exercise uh two more years after that with kif and the repeated data collection just allows us to uh capture seasonality right we know that people spend differently or cross for different reasons in April than they do in June than they do in December um and with the more we we we in uh implement this survey uh we'll also be able to capture those externalities you know violence in Mexico migration crisis uh closure at Boda does that shift uh any any of the activities by crossb Travelers and uh lastly an objective just want to say uh we we have a high focus on data quality at golf we have a a a a person who who's dedicated strictly for the data data quality control okay and then they send it over to us and then we do our own internal round of data quality control you know translations categorization and so forth so that's very critical uh to our data collection uh quickly on methodology we are covering PDN Bas North and downtown Bridge of the Americas and dleta uh pedestrian and vehicles this is strictly a personal Crossings survey you know we're not we're not uh looking for uh information from cargo traffic and we have two shifts morning and afternoon shifts um they are conducted on the Mexican side as people are crossing into the United States um and there's two types of surveys there's an exit survey and an entry survey entry is for people from Mexico that are entering into the United States so they're asking them what do you project what's your best estimate on what you're spending where are you going to spend and so forth versus the exit survey is US citizens or uh that are returning from Mexico that's why the exit so they have a better understanding of what they actually spent and where they went and it has to be a person 16 years and older that's That's the Law over there in Mexico uh just quickly on limitations if you notice we we are not including Stanton and that's because the the the flow of of car of cars is too fast Stanton on the North northward Direction into El Paso is only a DCL dedicated commuter lane or Sentry right it's too fast for for the interviewers to to get information but we do have a a potential solution to include Stanton and hopefully we might Institute that uh Institute that for this upcoming year of data collection um and uh the other limitation is shift we don't have from 11: to 6:00 in the morning 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 in the morning for obvious reason security we don't want somebody you know in the middle of the morning trying to capture surveys uh it's unfortunate because especially let's say during the weekend we know that some people go for social and entertainment reasons and we're not capturing that kind of information the the good thing is that those flows or cross scenes only constitute about less than 5% so we're not missing too much okay so in in this in this uh uh presentation I'm giving you the findings from November 1 when we started restarted the survey all the way to June 30th um and we have a sample size of 68 6,900 surveys and to be included in this they needed to answer a question that dealt with what is your primary reason for crossing once they answered that they're they're included in the in the sample and that uh constitutes a population size of two 10.8 million personal Crossings the reason we can do that is because we applied a stratified random sampling technique um and then we apply sampling weights to get that 10.8 million in short we have low margin of error we have high confidence that that sample size of 6900 is representative of uh close to 11 million pedestrian and vehicle Crossings again from November to June okay so that's the context and Method uh so here we go with the findings uh the the bar chart you can see that PDN handles most of the pedestrian Crossings and Isleta uh 28% handles most of the vehicle Crossings so these are representative of actual Crossings okay from CBP that we that we collect that's part of our stratification strategy 56 of the surveys are conducted in the morning shifts and 44 are conducted in the afternoon shift uh demographics if you look at the pie chart first we asked them what is your uh country of primary residence we don't ask them what country are you from because sometimes people have houses in multiple locations or have dual nationality so where's your primary residence 71% said Mexico 29% set the United States and then there's less than 1% from other countries and if you look at the bar chart we see that 69% uh are from the Hest municipio the municipio simply you know you have sades and then all the other little towns around suades constitute thees municipio similar to City of Al Paso and then F Tor so forth constitutes the county so 69% from hes municipio and another 27 28% from Al Paso County so the the takeaway Point here is that 98% are Regional Crossings okay that that's who that and that yeah the unit of analysis right here is Crossings uh note that people can take multiple Crossings so that's why we don't say crossers we say Crossings gender the the the breakdown between us and Mexican residents is pretty much the same 56% women uh 44 45% are men age groups for Mexican residents And to clarify when I say residents I'm talking about people who said their primary residence is Mex meico Mexico residents uh we see that it's a younger population between the ages of 20 to 39 those are the ones that constitute the greatest Crossings versus the us we have our largest group at 60 years and older so that's that's a definite uh uh difference in age groups between uh resident types when we asked them what is your work in school status we see that uh 34s of the Mexican residents that are crossing uh uh are employed and then if you look at the middle part of the histogram we see that 23 24% are us residents so that coincides with that 60 and over age group so that that's that's a good marketing point right there's a lot of one in four of the people that of The Crossings into into htis are very retired and and older uh um mainly Alp Pas ones and then we just see in that last uh hist bar uh 10% uh from Mexico said that they they were a student remember that these are people 16 years and older so the majority of these either they're like late high school or college that said that they were a student okay so then we asked them uh what is your occupation we asked occupation where they work rather than uh not not I'm sorry we asked them where what they do which is an occupation versus where they work which is industry uh occupations capture more of their skill sets so for occupations we see that uh for Mexico the the top ones they said they were in the food uh business uh transportation and warehousing and sales and then you also have production which includes mailas uh doesn't necessarily mean that they're all in mailas but uh we can assume that most of them are the US it's it's somewhat similar except that you see that we also have about one in 10 that are in construction of the crossings are uh in that occupational category uh we also asked them about their household income uh we give you the mean right there but as we know the mean can be uh uh skewed or biased by high uh income so we we'll look at the median uh for for Mexico residents we see a median of 13,000 versus 24,000 for us residents uh 13,000 relative to the entire hus municipio is much higher so the crossings are telling us that people from that are crossing have higher incomes which makes sense because some of them work in in El Paso so they're gaining uh higher income higher wages and also for them to cross and spend they do have to have those monetary resources conversely on the US resident side of 24 that's much lower than the El Paso County median okay that's just interesting Factor right there in terms of Crossings uh so then we went on to okay what's so those were your demographics you know a uh age gender uh occupations and so forth so now we go into trip characteristics uh for Mexico residents uh the majority said we're coming over here for shopping uh social uh activities with family and friends and work um note that these are not mutually exclusive we asked them for primary reason so they could come here uh to visit family but at the same time they can then go eat go to the movies Etc okay but this is the primary reason for Crossing also note that we separated work which is at 27% for from work related the reason we did that is because in the past we've been asked well how many people or what percent cross strictly for their jobs uh so that's why we did that work and then work related work rated you know come for a conference to to purchase something etc for us residents we see that 60% are telling us that they're doing it for social reasons uh with family and friends and another 15% I believe that's like one in seven for health and related reasons uh that's that's an interesting finding I know for our colleagues in golf because as we all know people go and and and and take advantage of the cost differential in uh Pharmaceuticals and uh Services related to health um we also ask this question strictly to pedestrians uh once you cross how do you get over to your final destination and uh I the one interesting that uh uh percentage that you can look at is public transportation at about 21% uh for our friends in Sun Metro so we're saying that 21% of The Crossings are saying after we Cross by foot we are using the bus and remember that this is only an eight-month data capture once we have the full year uh let's see how these percentages change we asked them how long do you plan on staying during this trip uh and the takeaway is that almost 60% almost three and five are say are six hours or less so so these are short-term trips um from Mexican residents into El Paso we asked them how much do you do you plan on spending while you're while you're in Al Paso orades 54 of Mexican residents said yes we plan on spending something whether it's a dollar or $100 or $1,000 uh versus 2third of us Crossings said that they they had already spent something in quatis so for these 54 and 67% then we asked them okay where did you spend or where do you plan on spending and we broke these down by N's North American industry classification system codes uh for Mexican residents the takeaway here is that 71% said they plan to spend in some sort of retail activity meaning meaning 29% are spending a in a service activity versus the US half and half are spending in both retail and services if we look at the uh breakdown of of uh retail activity we see that the highest concentration are in clothing and Accessory stores food and beverage stores groceries and General Merchandise general merchandise includes your Sams your Walmarts your malls and so forth uh for the US Food it's grocer iies and General Merchandise about 31% 32% said that that's what they were spending on when we look at Services breakdown we see that uh for both us and Mexico residents uh food and drinking places restaurants and bars were the main reason uh oneth of Mexican Crossings were related to that and one in four of the US Crossings were related to that and also again look at that healthc care 15% of us Crossings said we're going to or we did spend in some sort of Health Care Service okay not not a good so this is strictly you know going to the dentist going going to get a shot whatever and uh I believe that is it uh um as I mentioned these are results from November to June we will once we get a full year of data capture we will return and give you that full perspective of what's going on in the border and also start giving you monetary more monetary numbers uh in terms of you know retail activity uh how they how that influences or trickles down across the entire economy and a little bit more detail in terms of for example uh uh by Bridge you know what are the characteristics by bridge and so forth uh and with that and just um we do have these findings again in our website pdan uno.com as well as methodology and I'm open to any questions thank you representative ad nandes thank you for the present um super fan of of all the data points I wanted to ask if there was room for additional data points and I'll just share with you when I'm interested in looking at um Mexican Nationals and their electric chart the the type of vehicles that they drive I want to understand the progression of the electrification from our sister city and because we need to have infrastructure prepared for both sides um now I think we can just identify that by looking cuz I'm I'm sure you're at the bridge right asking questions are you going they have tablets the Mexican interviewers and then you know some questions they already like okay man woman whatever and so forth and um in the previous survey that was paused due to covid we were capturing vehicle type but those findings didn't give us a lot of information or or what what we felt was valuable information which is why we stopped asking that or asking the interviewers to stop collecting those data but we we weren't thinking about for example electric vehicles that that's we weren't thinking about that the only thing I that I have experienced and that I've heard about is sometimes they're not fully charged and they get stuck on the bridge and so I'm just trying to understand I I think it's just important to create those baselines that way we understand better the traffic flows and the the type of vehicles because it's going to play into our overall infrastructure needs for the future so I understand you already have your data points and you want to look at long-term yearly outputs but if there is room for additional data points that something I hope that you can explore yeah I mean that's that's only one data point but so it's something we could look at I don't I don't know if they they'll be able to like visually say okay these are this is an electric or not uh but uh let us discuss that internally but okay point taken and access to the data um do you have a dashboard or how are you providing this as of now we just have the the the findings which is a PDF uh with additional findings um typically we've G we've given out data from uh you know as a not the raw data but a uh non-disclosure data I guess you can say that's uh not confidential um but we don't have dashboards on that okay that that's something I think we should start considering looking at um cuz as you have your let's say you update it every 6 months or a year and the year that you have the data available if we can put that on the website that you have the what is it called the PDN Uno PDN Uno yeah I mean and it could be just the key points right like primary reason of Crossing where are they spending yeah it could be a couple of of dashboards yeah again um can and that's and the reason why is because so many students and researchers are always looking for this information and I really do think that we can lead on providing the access to the information but having real time data as a surveys are prepared than having a dashboard with all of the different characteristics in your data um so just things to consider because I think we do so well at presenting these presentations but we don't make it as accessible for researchers who are trying to even consider bringing their businesses here this is these are important uh metrics for them to consider as they're investing on the Borderland yeah and I think you know this again we we've only collected eight months of data we've been worried about cleaning it up and and making sure that we can combine quarters because of the stratification strategy we can't just report every month it has to be quarterly but it's these are things that we were going to be discussing anyway but you're you're bringing it up now yeah that's I think that's something that we we're already going to consider well I want to just lend my support to have the IT department working handon with you so you do have the website and the data points available because it does take some coordination with the IT department because these reports they're great but they're not accessible to someone who's looking for quick facts and so that's why I'm a fan of the dashboards yeah and I know we have some uh internal uh uh skill sets with it related so I don't know we'll talk about it we might be able to do it internally but if not it you know we'll definitely use them thank you for the presentation very informative thank you representative thank you mayor so one one of the things that I was noticing with some of the occupations let me see it was slide slide 11 uh yes I I was trying to understand just cuz I'm thinking about El pasoans most people in El Paso work for the government right and and out of these people out of these professions that are here I didn't know where government kind of fit that that that's that's an industry that's where they work right so we we we given that it's it's got to be a short survey right you know because people are walking and they try try to capture the key questions uh we prefer to ask them what they do so if they work in government you know we prefer that okay well are you an accountant are you an administrative assistant Etc that's what these data are capturing not where they work so government is pro is a you know office and administrative support for example management because they could say I'm a supervisor so that falls under that category yeah and I I guess for for me I I understand like I I'm not saying like make government an actual option on here but I'm just trying to think about how how do we break it down cuz office and administrator support I guess that's where we would fall under like if Council were to do this or on management you know what I mean yeah kind of there is cuz if you add all that up that that's not 100% so these are only the top ones okay there's probably an additional 10 or so and from what I recall there is a very small percentage that we classified under uh a public uh service category or something like that yeah public service but it was very very small because I think the majority are tell telling us well I'm an accountant I'm a lawyer and so forth in which case we we we put it in these and note that these are very broad categories we have detailed categories we have hundreds and hundreds of occupations uh maybe in the in the annual report we'll give you a more detailed breakdown of this uh but these are more broad categories honestly we'd have to ask specifically that question well do you work in public government uh because this is mainly asking well what do you do MH no and that makes sense and so I I think I'd love to see that detail report at at the end of the year okay um so Public Service kind of captures a lot of that um or do we still have a partnership with CBP on overtime hours and stuff like that oh the P3 program yeah uh we do um I think it's at 1.4 1.5 million uh annually that we're allowed to spend in in the the P3 program where we provide overtime pay to uh for during peak hours and so forth and and the reason I'm asking is because I feel like a lot of this data can be used to inform that program and how we're using that money if you had something to say I'm sorry yeah no uh the uh Roberto tinero again with the international Bridges Department uh the P3 uh program as we call it it's separated from from these type of uh projects that we have um as Carlos mentioned uh we by cons uh we are allowed to spend around 1.6 uh million uh a year uh for CVP overtime uh that's mainly to stabilize the waiting times Northbound and and so that they can open uh additional Lanes uh at the bridges uh so this project specifically it's in actually included on our Capital Improvement program that you you will see it later on uh today so we we are foreseeing this uh for the next to have this project for the next next at least for the next four years so again uh I'm I'm not sure that answers your your question yeah no I I'm just I'm looking at all this data and it's it's pretty good data that that's captured right so I'm I'm thinking what's the next step to operationalize the data that we have to well in reference to wait times CU that you kind of because that's what the P3 is for there is a question that that's in the report but put it in the findings here that ask them uh uh do weight times influence your decision to cross right and you know they'll say never sometimes always and so forth we we have that in the in the in the report the PDF report and just note that in the previous study uh before covid hit we had more detailed questions about that like how long is an acceptable wait time for you to cross do you substitute Bridges you know if vehicle weight time times are too long and so forth so we had a bunch of different questions but we what we started noticing is that people answer the validity of the answers are questionable because somebody could say well 15 minutes five minutes yet they're willing to spend an hour and a half on online so we realize that in order to truly understand those type of of questions and answers we need to literally conduct a separate survey just on wait times right on sub stitution effects and okay tell and so forth so for this case we just realized okay well anecdotally we know that weight times do influence Crossings so we just said well just tell us briefly do they do they or not no yes sometimes uh most of the times and always and that's we do capture that we also capture like does the exchange rate influence it do and we separate it into do weit times coming into Al Paso as well as weight times going into Hest because in the last couple of years we've seen long cues right just to get in quades and some people are already uh or discouraged by that as well and I guess with that kind of includes something by vehicle and if they Cross by foot well we while we the separate survey that you're talking about like let's which one's going to dissuade you like maybe one person is going to be like okay the the line is too long by car but maybe I'll cross by foot now well if we were to Institute such a study uh yeah we we we'd have to create the survey instrument and internally discuss okay what exactly do we want to capture but this survey we're not capturing that we're just you know do they discourage you yes no maybe so uh because to us I mean anecdotally we know it's it's a fact you know and people will continue Crossing um if they have to go to school if they have to go to their job it's only you know in some cases where they say no I'm not going to visit you and so forth yeah and and then the the last thing that I had was I understand the the thought behind the morning and afternoon shifts and safety and stuff but I really want to get data on what's happening at 4 in the morning at the bridges because that's when the students are lining up to come to buoy or to come to Jefferson and so how can we capture that data um I mean we would love to capture that data but you know we we have to remember that these interviewers from KF from from hes they they get there at six actually 7 in the morning um when the sun sun is barely coming up and then they start their job we it's really a safety issue we we can't ask them to go at dark and we also have to remember you know some of the interviewers uh transportation is an issue so they they get there through public transportation and so forth so uh I think to be frank we would be uncomfortable we've already discussed this just it's that time period that we cannot um capture with surveys alone I mean when we start thinking about uh the DCL Crossings at Stanton and so forth we might you know review how may maybe through different types of surveys we can capture those morning hours but that would be a different methodology not not generalizable uh we would probably report that separately but you know as of now with this survey we can't we can't capture that uh shift unfortunately okay thank you I think it's important also to note that the P3 program is funded through user and when we did it back at the 2015 the fees went up to cover the user U part of it so it didn't come out of the general fund from U the bridges that actually we increased the cost of Crossing to make sure that we gave people quality of life and make sure that they weren't out there on 110 120 temperatures and um it's worked out pretty well but again it didn't go into our Reserve funds or any of the funds from the bridge yeah that's correct I think it was 50 cents in vehicles and a dollar in cargo that that they were per ax 50 50 cents per axle so yeah 50 cents vehicles and 50 cents per axle on the cargo side and that's what paid for the P3 program correct I just want to make sure we we noted that thank you you're welcome and with that we thank you very um good information for us thank you that brings us to item number 34 and this is the introduction of an ordinance there is a motion made by representative Riva second it by representative celo to approve the introduction of the ordinance on item number 34 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes with four affirmative votes representative ernandez voted n representative zaso salido Rivera Canales voting I representative Kennedy not present item number 35 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024-the testing is necessary to maintain the skid resistance of runways as per Federal administra Aviation Administration guidelines there is a motion made by representative ernandez seconded by representative Riva to approve item it 35 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Kennedy not present item number 36 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024 0076 Security Guard Services Zoo to Tri cor security this contract will allow the zoo to maintain its facility safe for the public and employees I have a question on this and know just looking at uh how many local bids did we have it uh seems like we give it to an out of town company out of Oklahoma and then they're going to use local um citizens how many Lo local companies U had the opportunity or did bid on it good afternoon Paula Salis with purchasing a strategic sourcing there were four from local suppliers that we received and we ended up uh going with an out of town company U because of the best value procurement method that was used uh they didn't rank um they weren't the highest ranked vendor they were or they were not they were not H just kind of it's very concerning that uh an out of town company would bid it and then they're going to use local talent to staff it and yet they're the lowest or the best bid it's a little concerning to me to see that representative um Sal thank you mayor U that just brings a question to me um they they um for you said the best value what what is it that they lacked the local uh according to and it's in your backup the committee score sheet also uh if you would like to see that um their price was higher um and also they lacked on the references so some of the evaluation factors that we use are mostly basic for best values and I'm just generalizing but in this one particularly of course we take in consideration price we also do experience comparable contracts which is a form that the vendors need to submit and that's where we we do see a lot of issues then we debrief with them you know we offer debriefings um as well so we explain to them the situation what they need to sub submit and make sure that everything is complete um and then of course references and the employee medical benefits what medic what benefits are they providing to the employees okay um on on this I think it lends an opportunity maybe um you and I can meet on separate I would love to go over just kind of to understand you followed all the processes which I clearly do see here so um just want to understand a little further like you said kind of debrief me like if I was a vendor just to understand you know kind of what we need to help these small businesses get to so that they can get these contracts right um so of course you know I'll I'll reach out to your to to your email and then and set up something just so I can better understand but I know you followed the process that's not been discounted here but um would love to just get these small businesses now what what type of hourly wages are their team members being paid not what are we paying them per hour but based on what we pay them how much of that are they paying to their team members we haven't asked that question that's really important because uh you know are they getting wages or they paying you know at the city we talk about that repr Canal has brought this up that we want to pay $15 an hour and then we're going to go outad and lose a local bid and then they're going to pay a lot less than that that would be a big issue okay we we can look into that uh of course uh when we present these items uh we we can we I can get that information for you for this one in particular yeah I mean I don't I don't like the item I don't like that uh the local um U providers that lost the bid but then I don't know what the actual team member that they're going to hire actually is going to get paid and if someone wanted because they're going to pay them a lot less that's a problem that's a big problem yes ma'am I have a quick question um turn it on last oh there you go is this one on any timeline or is this something we can kind of just look at a little further do we have a deadline or yes currently they're um we need to have a contract in place they are piggybacking off another awarded contract um so this this will replace that situation or not replace but replace the current contct what so uh the piggy back what what does that mean it's already expired the contract or can you walk me a little yes so um usually what happens in in the situ situations when there's a a department that a contract has expired we one of our options is of course to add it to and use another contract that the city has in order to to for the services to be to continue so in this case they were using another contract from another department that we made made ass sure that the services were still rendered under the that contract and when does that contract expire the pre the one it was just awarded it was just awarded so maybe about I want to say last year it was awarded last year does it have like a timeline where it expires that one the piggyback one yes when does that one do you it it's about it's the threeyear it has a threeyear and a two-year option so it's good for the next five years oh okay so basically like if we were to kind of not vote on this we could take a look and there's still a contract in place is that what what what's happening is that it's pulling down the capacity of the other contract that we're piggybacking on so it means that we would then need to bring that back um more quickly so we do need to move forward with if this has followed the process move forward on this particular contract happy to answer any questions about the process ma this is a problem if they bring us and if we turn it down then it becomes an issue to the city we've asked and we've asked many of times and that we have plenty of time that if we do reject a contract that we have time to analyze it so it can be brought back and for us not to you know why bring it to vote if our vote if we turn it down it becomes an issue that that's a big problem and we've talked about this numerous times and I'd like to make sure that the council's not put in that predicament I understand sorry I guess I'm just a bit confused on we didn't have we did we did not have anybody protest this one no correct and so I I'm just asking for clarification thank you yes sir go ahead sir thank you on that contract that uh contract that you have now how many employees do they have and and what are they getting paid right now we don't have that information but we can definitely obtain that for you all it's not one of the questions we asked or part of the process yeah but we've been on here long enough to to know we'll ask you these kind of questions okay okay well definitely be prepared for that thank you this vendor also has the Sun Metro contract that was recently awarded to and Parks I I did motion to to approve this but I'd actually motion to postpone if we just kep to next council meeting just so I can take a look at everything and I feel a little bit more comfortable to getting that those questions answered um if I have a second so second okay we have a motion in a second to postpone the item Mr Prime yes sir the motion was made by representative salido seconded by representative Riva and this is to postpone item 36 for 2 weeks on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 4 to2 Representatives Kennedy ACO Salo Riva voting I Representatives Hernandez Canales voting nay the motion does carry thank you that brings us to item number 37 and this is discussion and action on the award of solicitation number 20240 605 police ordered a non-con consent Towing rebit to ad Record Service Inc DBA ad Towing and Recovery to check on business Group Inc DBA Chon toing to Raul Fernandez Jr DBA Al Paso Dependable toing LLC to Camel Towing ink and to so Express Towing on a rotation and as needed basis this contract will allow the police department to receive services in response to accidents and to transport vehicles to the AL Paso police department Municipal vehicle storage facility second Motion in a second there is a motion made by representative ernandez second it by representative Canales to approve item 37 pardon me do you do yes go ahead sir on this contract that just to renew it has there been uh amended to to include the fact they pick up the uh debris after as as soon as they pick up the vehicle or no yes sir they they it it is part of the contract but if you like more information here if if it's there that's what I want to hear yes okay thank you thank you mayor thank you sir M PR there is a motion in a second to award the solicitation on that motion call for the vote mayor proam Kennedy I thank you sir and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item number 38 is discussion and action on the request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue a purchase order for solicitation 2025 -51 arcgis Enterprise to Environmental Services Research Institute in DBA SRI the soul Source provider for geographic information systems licensing software maintenance and online service this contract will provide the city with additional needed software licenses and additional Professional Services and training to approve second there is a motion made by representative Riva seconded by representative Canales and this is to approve item 38 on that motion call call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item number 39 is discussion and action on the request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue purchase orders for solicitation 20259 2 newspaper legal notices to ganet Media Corp DBA ganet Texas New Mexico local IQ the soul Source provider for the newspaper legal notices this service will allow the city to publish legal notices persono to the state of Texas local government code is there a motion move to approve second there is a motion made by representative Canal second it by representative Riva to approve item 39 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item number 40 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024-the Drive extension and Bridge construction to Jordan Foster Construction LLC the project will consist of construction of a four new Lane for a of a new four lane bridge roadway approaches pedest pedestrian bicycle accommodations aesthetic lightning illumination a canopy Bridge structure and drainage structures there is a motion made by representative ernandez seconded by representative Riva to award the solicitation on item 40 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 41 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024413044 me and expedite trade motion to approve there is a motion made by representative Riva seconded by representative salido to award the solicitation on item 41 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 42 is discussion and action that the El Paso city council hereby approves a list of projects on exhibit a of the resolution totaling 67,341 the comprehensive International Bridges Capital Improvement program for FY 2025 through FY 2029 and number two the use of identified funding sources second the motion is made here's a motion in a second motion made by representative Dera second by representative salido to approve item 42 what happened on that motion call for the vote you need to say I and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 43 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the office of the governor Texas Military preparedness commissional fiscal year 2025 defense economic adjustment assistance grant program in the amount of $3 million with a $6 milon 51452 match from the city for the fire station 12 reconstruction project approve second there is a motion made by representative salido seconded by representative Canales to approve item number 43 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 44 is discussion and action on a resolution that the city reviewed and approves the issuance of the unlimited tax bonds series 2024 by P deista Municipal Utility District 1 with the acknowledgement that the issuance of such bonds does not constitute debt issuance by the city of Al Paso second there's a motion made by representative ernandez second by representative salido to approve item 44 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously the last item is number 45 and this is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the US Department of Transportation fiscal year 2025 rebuilding American infrastructure with sustainability and Equity race grant program requesting funds in the amount of $20 million with a $5 million match required from the city for the sled Port of Entry southbound commercial facilities Expansion Project phase oneand very briefly um could you describe what the purpose of the grant request will be the purpose of the grant is to improve the roads that connect to and from the port the east at the Port of Entry so this is um panamerican drive and the roads that connect all the way into Mexico and so this is not an expansion of the bridge just the roads we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative Rea seconded by representative salido to approve item 45 on that motion call for the vote thank you the do you have something sir okay and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously we've reached the end of the agenda there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed I and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday October 8th 2024 is adjourned at 3:01 p.m. thank you Council