Well, good Morning everyone. We are going to call our meeting to order and it is a going to be a windy day here in El Paso. But uh good morning El Paso and good morning city council. Miss Prime, we're ready to go to work. Yes sir. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, April 1st, 2025. Mayor Johnson is present in presiding along with Mayor Prom Chavez, Representative Asdo, Representative Maldonado Roachcha, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Prom Fiero, Representative Lemon, and Representative Canales, Representative Oat Tjo is caught up in traffic and will be here in a few minutes. It is 9:01 a.m. Will everyone please silence their electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police Senior Chaplain David Mayfield. Mayor Johnston Coun Council, thank you for having me and thank you for allowing me the privilege to pray for this body and for our city. And with that, I invite those present to join me as I pray. Heavenly Father, we gather here today as servants of our community, entrusted with the responsibility to lead with wisdom, compassion, and humility. May we always remember that leadership is not about power, but about service. lifting up those in need, advocating for the voiceless, and ensuring justice for all. In these times of change, as immigration continues to shape our neighborhoods, our schools, and our workplaces, give us hearts of understanding. May we see each individual not as a statistic, but as a person, a person with hopes, dreams, and dignity. Guide us to make decisions that foster unity, respect, and opportunity for all who call this city home. Grant us wisdom to navigate complex challenges, strength to stand for what is right, and grace to work together despite our differences. May we be ever mindful that our leadership is not for our own gain, but for the betterment of all who rely upon us. I ask your blessings on this meeting, our discussions, and the community we serve. May our words and actions reflect the love and justice you call us to uphold. We pray all of this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, chaplain. And this morning to lead us in the pledge of allegiance we have Noah Isaiah Aras from Hanks High School at the invitation of city representative Lily Lemore. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for One state under God and indivisible. [Applause] We out here again. Thank you. It's upstairs. We're going to go upstairs. All right. Before we go to the proclamations, uh, Representative Lemon, would you like to say a few words about Cesar Chavez uh, day? Sure, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much for the opportunity. And I couldn't have said it better than what was um said on NPR yesterday. The last day of March commemorates the labor activists and civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, whose fight to better the lives of the nation's farm workers help improve the inhumane working conditions of the vital but often overlooked industry. Cesar was born on March 31st in Yuma, Arizona, 1927 to Mexican-born farmers. When he was a child, his family lost their farm during the Great Depression, leading Cesar into what would become his longtime career of migrant field labor. Noticing the brutal conditions of the industry where families like his own were expected to work grueling hours in the hot sun for mere pennies, forcing them into living conditions that would be considered largely inhumane. Cesar began studying the work of nonvi nonviolent activities like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. After leaving the army in 1946, Cesar eventually adopted Lacausa, the cause to unionize largely largely immigrant workforce and push for fair wages and better conditions. In 1962, Cesar left the comfort of a salaried position at the community service organization and moved his family to Deleno, California, where he along with his wife and eight of eight children launched the National Farm Workers Association. Though he though he would voluntarily remain poor all his life, Cesar found success in uniting field workers, heading up nonviolent movements like boycotting the table great market, his famous 340 mile march from Delano to Sacramento and a 25-day fast in 1968 that left him too weak to even read a speech he had prepared. The speech read on his behalf said in part, "It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men today. It would be women as well. While while Cesar faced threats of violence from police and cruelty from farm workers as well as being spied on for years by the FBI under suspicions of being an extremist. His legacy has been embraced in popular culture. President Barack Obama proclaimed the day a holiday in 2014 and it is observed in a handful of states including California where CESAD first began his mission to challenge the way farmland hands were treated and it was President Barack Obama who borrowed his famous line yes we can seiv thank you represent Lemon Miss Prime the proclamations yes sir for those of you receiving a proclamation this morning. Your group will have up to six minutes collectively to accept the proclamation at the podium. The first proclamation this morning is sexually transmitted infection awareness month. Are there representatives here for this proclamation? Yes. Good morning. And the proclamation reads, "Whereas each year in April, the city of El Paso Department of Public Health observes sexually transmitted infection STI awareness month to raise awareness about what STI are and how they impact our sexual and reproductive health lives. And whereas more than 1 million sexually transmitted infections, STI are acquired every day worldwide, the majority of which are asymptomatic. And whereas over 2.4 4 million cases of STI were reported in the United States in 2023. And whereas in 2023, there were over 200,000 cases of syphilis, all stages, including congenital syphilis, reported in the US, an increase of 1% since 2022. And Texas syphilis cases rose about 22% from 2020 to 2022. And whereas pregnant women with untreated syphilis may pass the infection to their unborn fetus, resulting in stillborn or newborns dying soon after birth and four out of 10 babies infected. And whereas in 2023, there were 3,882 cases of congenital syphilis reported nationally, including 279 congenital syphilis related steel births and neonatal infant deaths. the largest number of cases of congenital syphilis since 1992. And whereas Texas accounted for 25% of total congenital syphilis cases in the US with 922 reported cases for 2022, an increase of almost 150% in congenital syphilis cases since 2018. And whereas a department of public health sexual health clinic providing free or lowcost sexual health services to residents of the city and county of El Paso to improve access to quality care service 3,510 individuals in 2024. Now therefore, Bria proclaimed by the mayor and council of city of El Paso that the month of April shall be known as STI awareness month signed by our honorable mayor Renard Johnson. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, city mayor, Renard Johnson, city council members, and esteemed guests. My name is Edith Gutierrez. I'm a nurse practitioner at the city of El Paso sexual health clinic, and this is our program manager, Miss An Gonzalez. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having us today as we kick off STI awareness month on this day, April 1st. Our mission is to raise awareness, reduce transmission rates, and ensure access to affordable health care for all res residents of El Paso and El Paso, Texas. Um, STI can lead to serious long-term health issues. But through education, regular testing, and compassionate care, we empower individuals to take control of their sexual health. In 2024, our sexual health clinic served over 3,400 patients, offering services like expedited partner therapy and referrals to medical, mental, and social support. We invite the community to visit us at 5115 El Paso Drive, Sweet B. And now, we would like to introduce our sexual health clinic staff who make all of this possible. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Susan Coral. from the office manager. Good morning. My name is Liliana Turner and I'm a PCT. Good morning. Uh, good morning. Alina Mitchen, patient care technician. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Alexis Baltier. I'm a registered nurse. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Claudia and I'm a registered nurse. Good morning. Good morning. Emma Kintana, patient care technician. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Jeannie Martinez and I'm also one of the registered nurses. Good morning. And good morning. Uh again, I'm Anette Gonzalez. I'm the nurse practitioner and program manager for the sexual health clinic. And thank you so much for having us here today. Good morning and congratulations to you guys. Welld deserved. Thank you. Keep up the good work. [Applause] Oh whatever. And the next proclamation is Earth Day celebration event. Represent Lima. Good morning everyone. This is a proclamation of the city of El Paso. Whereas since its inception in 1970, Earth Day is a day intended to raise awareness and appreciation of the earth's natural environment. And whereas the global community faces extraordinary challenges such as environmental degradation, climate change, food and water shortages, and global health issues. And whereas all people in our community, regardless of race, age, income, and gender, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment. And whereas the city of El Paso environmental services department annually host a celebration to promote sustainability and environmental change. And whereas a sustainable environment can be achieved on the community level through education and outreach efforts to help our communities and democracy thrive by working together for the common good. And whereas the city of El Paso's environmental services will host its annual Earth Day celebration at 5:00 p.m. on April 12th, 2025 at the City of El Paso Mu Municipal Services Center, 7968 S. Paul Pao Drive, proudly in District 7. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that the environmental service department staff be recognized and commended for their hard work, dedication, and commitment to the community. The month of April shall be known as Earth Month, signed by the honorable mayor, Renard Johnson. Congratulations, Nicholas with Environmental Services. Um, thank you very much for the proclamation. You know, as ESD, we're not only responsible for the collection and dispose of all trash and recycling for the city, but it's also our responsibility to be out there educating our residents on the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. You know, to save, uh, our resources for the future generations in El Paso. Uh, so I want to thank you for that. Um like uh Miss Leone mentioned, our event will be on April 12th from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. There'll be uh activities for the kids, educational booths, jumping balloons. It's all free uh to the community that want to come out and participate. There'll also be food trucks. In addition, we'll have entertainment out there with fire dancers, lucha league wrestling, mazo vibe DJ, and then DJ Johnny Cage will be out there performing also. And I just want to introduce my staff for this and my outreach staff. Without them, none of this would be possible. All the work that they do is the reason we could have events like this. Good morning. I'm a little short. Good morning. My name is Priscilla Lopez. I'm an outreach specialist. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Marisa Lavasquez, also an outreach specialist. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Philip Simpson. I'm a solid waste service lead worker. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Rosio Lilly and I'm an outreach uh supervisor. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Annie Baron and I am an outreach specialist. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Erin Kendana and I'm also an outreach specialist. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Sarah Harris. I'm also an outreach specialist. Good morning. Good morning. Jesus Muichi, assistant director. Good morning. I think Nicholas is coming up with something here. Oh, yes. We brought a couple of the items that we'll be handing out at the Earth Day when you participate in games and different activities at the site. So, we have one for each of the council members. So, we'll be handing those out. Nicholas, thank you. And, uh, congratulations to your department on the the proclamation. And where's it going to be at again? Uh, Ralph T. Cloud Park, formerly known as Yucka Park off of Carolina and Yarro. It's right next to our municipal service center on on S. Paulo. So, from 5 to 9, right? 5 to 9. Got it. Yeah. Thank you, Nicholas. Congratulations, you guys. [Applause] And for the record, Representative Boratjo has joined the meeting at 9:10 a.m. Thanks. You're the best. That looks great. Perfect. Big smiles. Ready? One, two, three. Can we do one of you guys holding up the bags? Oh, cute. Awesome. Ready? Don't cover your face. He went straight up. All right. Big smiles. Ready? One, two, three. Couple more. We'll do no bags on this one. Just a regular. All right. Ready? Just a regular. All right. Ready? One, two, three. He's giving me a hard time today. Thank you. [Applause] And the next proclamation is autism acceptance month. Represent Rocha. She left. Thank you so much. I know we have uh three of the four organizations that are here. If y'all would like to come up to the podium, that would be wonderful. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Let me read the proclamation for you all. then we'll give you a chance to speak. Okay. Okay. Okay. Whereas one in 36 Americans are affected with autism, a lifelong developmental disability which significantly impacts communication and social interactions which includes repetitive activities, resistance to changes in environment and daily routines and sensory hypers sensitivity. And whereas while there is no known single cause, it is well documented that if individuals with autism receive an early diagnosis, intervention, and appropriate education, it is often possible for those individuals to transition to greater independence. And whereas there are many organizations in El Paso who bring awareness to autism by providing support and edification to the community. And whereas Autism Hope El Paso, Inc. works to educate the public about autism and strength advocacy e efforts by spreading reliable information, understanding and accepting for all autistic individuals. And whereas Angel's mission works for integration through inclusion, providing resources and education that empowers the families of people with ID, autism, and other disabilities. And whereas Tumundo Esmeondo is dedicated to raising awareness, promoting solutions, and supporting families and people on the autism spectrum and related conditions. And whereas Autism Society of Texas El Paso proudly celebrates Autism Acceptance Month this April, promoting inclusion, understanding, and support for the autism community through education, advocacy, and resources. They empower individuals and families, ensuring access to the support they need. Autism is a spectrum of unique experiences, and every person's journey is valuable. Together they foster a world where acceptance means true inclusion. And whereas autism awareness tells us about autism as a condition, autism acceptance celebrates the strengths and contributions those on the autistic spectrum continue to contribute, excuse me, to society. Through understanding and advocacy, together we make our community one where those with autism are able to not only live as they are, but to flourish. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that the month of April, 2025 shall be known as Autism Acceptance Month, signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Kimberly Grigo and I'm the board president of Autism Society of Texas El Paso. On behalf of the Autism Society of Texas El Paso, I would like to thank the city of El Paso for their recognition of April as Autism Acceptance Month. As a local chapter of the oldest autism organization in the state, we understand the critical need for families of children with autism as well as autistic adults to feel welcomed in their own community and we appreciate this proclamation that helps to foster that sense of support and acceptance. The Autism Society of Texas El Paso is dedicated to assisting families and autistic adults through free support groups, educational events, and our NA navigating autism program, which helps guide families and autistic individuals through the complexities of diagnosis, resources, and support. Our mission is to create connections, empowering everyone in the autistic community with the resources needed to live fully. Our vision is to create a world where everyone in the autism community is connected to the support they need when they need it. We are deeply grateful to the city of El Paso for this proclamation and for making El Paso a more inclusive and accepting place for those with autism and their families. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Mayor uh representatives and honor guest. My name is Betty Casarena. I am first generation migrant woman. Um a mother to a son with autism and a grandmother to a grandson with autism. Today I stand before you with deep gratitude as we recognize a cause that is not only personal to me but to countless families in our community. For years, families like mine have worked worked uh tirelessly uh to open doors for proper services and support for individuals with autism. PDN Children's is a shining example of this effort. Thank you, Kilda, for your endwearing uh dedication and inspiration to mothers. Thank you, Alarde, for providing a space that has service as a second home to to so many families. I am here representing Angel's Mission, an organization funded by families who turn challenges into advocacy, who choose education, awareness, and acceptance as a foundation for a better future. This proclamation is more than just a recognition. is it is a statement for a commitment. This April as we celebrate autism acceptance month, we honor the resilience and achievements of individuals with autism and reaffirm our responsibility to break down the barriers that society has placed before them. On behalf of Angel's Mission and the families we serve, thank you for this proclamation. Your support is a powerful step toward a more inclusive and compassionate uh community. Thank you. [Applause] Good morning. Good morning. My name is Mia Les. I'm I'm the founder and executive director of Artism Hope, El Paso, Inc. Artism population is getting bigger every single year. Unfortunately, we don't have a much support system online now. Um, this is the reason I started um my um my nonprofit organization Artism Hope Elaso Inc. And this is the my reason to start my son been sent resolction for um he can have a better life in future. Um can you imagine where we will be 10 or 20 years from today? Our local artist community asked to the city of Elaso to start preparation for our future like um growing up and other like community independent living skills. um places or hay lingu and artistic individual for and um workplace every everywhere in the elas city. Um thank you for mayor Johnson district three miss loa and all representative for proclaiming April as autism acceptance month. God bless you all. Um, thank you. And u um we have a artis for each of you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Well, thank you guys. Al, you want to say anything? Good morning, Al. Good morning, mayor, and thank you uh for letting me have a just a second. Uh PDN Children's is the part that provides the intervention. We do provide support and then we work with all these great agencies to help children with autism achieve their greatest potential. We're very proud that we're able to deliver the ABA program here in El Paso and work with over 100 children annually to help them achieve those goals and work with the parents because they're the primary therapists who work with the children at all times. Uh working with autism is very challenging when when it comes to interventions. Uh the treatments are lengthy, they're long, they're years long in order for us to be able to achieve the outcomes that we've just heard. And again, at PDN Children's, we're just extremely proud that we're able to provide that service. We're also extremely proud that we've opened up a new facility out in East El Paso that's going to deliver ABA services as well. And that is delivering ABA services as we speak. We've already began our enrollment. We're delivering services. So, thank you so much for recognizing uh April as autism awareness month and for providing this proclamation. Congratulations, Representative Fiero. Thank you, Mayor. Al, before you leave, please. Yeah, don't run away too far. First, mayor, this what a what a great opportunity for all three organizations to share what they're doing for our community. It it's it's just wonderful. It's touching. Thank you for everything you do for all the families. Um Mayor, um this new facility that I Mr. Vardi was speaking about it happens to be in district 6. Very proud for Thank you, Al. Thank you. He chose district 6 over everywhere else by for the record. But but mayor, before we go any further, I need to share with you that um I went to high school with Al. He was much much older than I but but we went to high school together. I'm not touching that one. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Representative Furro. Uh thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, Alan. Thank you guys for all the great work that you're doing. All right, Miss Prime, we're going to continue with the next one. Yes, sir. The next proclamation is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Okay. Represent Nino. Thank you, Mayor. Can the honores come up? Are they here? There we go. Chiefs, good to see you, Deputy Chief. Proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas. Whereas the city of El Paso, Texas, recognizes the professionalism, excellence, and the dedication of public safety telecommunicators who answer and dispatch dispatch 911 calls daily. And whereas the public safety telecommunicators are the first first responders providing the initial and most critical contact our community has with emergency services. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are essential to the safety of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics by monitoring their activities via radio and providing them with critical information. And whereas public safety telecommunicators promote the swift response of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics to protect life, liberties, and the persuasion of property. And whereas the city of El Paso, Texas is committed to providing the highest level of emergency communication services to the citizens in our community. And whereas each public safety telecommunicator exhibits kindness, compassion, and understanding to the citizens seeking assistance. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and the council of the city of El Paso in honor of the men and women whose tireless efforts, professional demeanor, and concern keep our community and citizens safe. And that the week of April 13th through the 19th, 2025 shall be known as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, signed by the Honorable Mayor Bernard Johnson. Thank you, Mayor Council. Thank you, uh, Representative Nino for for those kind words. Um, I'm here on behalf of our 911 telecommunicators. They are watching remotely. As you know, it is always a challenge for us to get them here. They are the lifeblood of our 911 system, always working, always diligent behind the scenes, uh, taking those 911 calls, dispatching our fire and police, and making sure that the citizens of El Paso uh, remain safe. Uh we do have a lot of festivities planned to appreciate our 911 telecommunicators for the week of the 13th. All of you all are welcome to come out at any time to the 911 communication center, have some food, partake in some of the activities that we have planned. Um and just really uh just take a moment to thank the men and women that that are working tirelessly 24 hours a day to make sure that we're all safe. Uh and then then and then and then and then and then and then and then and then and then and then and then and to support our fire and police officers. Uh so thank you all very much. Mayor, thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Chief. Yes, deputy chief. You want to say anything? Good morning, Mayor Gav. Good morning. Just want to thank you guys for the proclamation. We do appreciate your your assistance with all of our communications and look forward to seeing you guys out there during this weeks. Thank you. Yeah. And thank you guys for all that you're doing. Thank you. It's [Applause] cheaper for you. You run off. There you go. Perfect. And the final proclamation this morning is transgender day of visibility. Representative Basto, please. Thank you, Mayor. I have the honor of reading this proclamation. I think there's a few people in the community coming up today. So, I'll read the proclamation and then you could say a few words. Whereas on March 31st, we observe International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day dedicated to celebrating the lives, identities, and and accomplishments of transgender, twospirit, non-binary, and interex individuals and raising awareness about the challenges they face in society. And whereas transgender, two-spirit, non-binary, and interex people, especially women of color, continue to experience discrimination, violence, and marginalization in many aspects of life, including in healthcare, education, employment, and legal protections. And whereas the transgender community has faced a particularly alarming rise in attacks on their rights and safety, including efforts to restrict access to healthcare, erase their identities in public policy, and harm their visibility in social and political spaces. And whereas despite these attacks, the transgender community in El Paso, the nation and the world, continues to embody the powerful spirit of resistance and transformation, continuously showing us what it means to live authentically, stand proudly in one's truth, and embrace love and solidarity with each other. And whereas the county of El Paso recognizes the profound power of community support and the importance of standing in solidarity with transgender sorry city um two spirit non-binary and interex individuals in their efforts to affirm their identities and create a more inclusive and equitable community. And whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the importance of community in creating spaces of love, safety, and support for transgender, twospirit, non-binary, and interex individuals, and remains committed to dismantling all forms of oppression, embracing diversity, and advancing equality for all. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that March 31st, 2025 shall be known as Transgender Day of Visibility, signed the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning. Good morning, council. Uh my name is Amber Bettis. I am the executive director of Borderland Rainbow Center. Many of you are friends and many of you now are new friends uh that we'll be working with in the community along with our organiz our partner organizations who are represented here today. Um I want to thank you for this uh amazing proclamation especially in these times. Uh today we are talking about a celebration of visibility of being true to who you are. Um and seeing the city of El Paso continue to be that beacon of light in these dark times is so incredibly important not just to the queer community and allies but to our entire community as a whole. Um we really are the example for other cities and states uh or other cities in red states. Um again I want to thank you so much for what you are doing with this because statistics and studies show that as uh the community is more embracing when you see public displays like these types of proclamations LGBT youth especially feel safer which is creates a reduction in suicidal ideiation which allows them to continue finishing school which allows them to live freely and to continue living. Um but today again it is about visibility and about the celebration. So with that I want to introduce the rest of my colleagues. Um in fact Michael from Texas Rising who actually wrote the proclamation that you've read. Good morning. Good morning council. Good morning. Uh my name is Michael Guutieres. I am the regional program coordinator for Texas Rising and I am super honored to be here celebrating the trans community. Today we come gathering to honor transgender day remembrance or visibility my bad. Um, and I want to express my gratitude first and foremost in acknowledging this important day. Visibility is not only a celebration, but it's a call for recognition, respect, and affirmation for our community. Um, unfortunately, like Amber said, our our community is facing increased attacks across the country. Um, attacks on our rights, our dignity, and our own very existence. Um, from harmful legislation to even discrimination that we face in in everyday life. It often feels like we're under constant threat, but we stand strong. We stand together and we stand united in love and love is what drives the drives us forward. It's the force that binds our community together and our resolve. It's the it reminds us uh that every person deserves to live authentically free from fear and full of support from their community. And as we gather here, like I said, we show the state and not only the nation that love in all forms will always prevail in the city of El Paso. So, I want to thank you for this recognition. Uh there's a lot of amazing individuals behind me that I want to give the time to. Um so I just again appreciate you guys recognizing Transgender Day visibility. Um and hopefully we can continue the work and see you more often. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michael. [Applause] Good morning, Mayor and Council. Good morning, Mr. Turner. I would like to point out to you all that we don't decide someday to say, "Oh, I want to be trans." We're born this way. Uh all you have to do is look at history and you'll see for thousands of years we've been in cultures across the world through multiple environments. You know, they didn't have social media 2,000 years ago, but we exist. We have through time. We exist. I'm a veteran. I was notified two weeks ago that I have lost certain care and those who are trans and leaving the military are not going to get care. Now, we put our lives on the line to protect folks like you all and then people turn against us and deny us medical care. Again, we didn't choose this round. We were born this way for what? For whatever reason, but respect us like we respect you. Good morning, Mayor Johnson. Good morning, city council. My name is Andy Rose Discarenho Samura. I am the intergenerational rainbow link specialist for the Borderline Rainbow Center and I am a proud transgender woman. I want to thank you for this um for this proclamation and I want to just speak a little bit about how important it is for our city to be able to see uh citizens like like myself and many others in this city for you know who we are and what we go through because transgender day of visibility isn't just um you know just saying that we're trans and saying that Um, you know, we're here. It's showing that this is our everyday life because like Miss Turner said, nobody chooses this. Nobody would choose this to be dehumanized by so many people and so many people in power that constantly attack our rights and our existence, trying to bury us. But we're not going to be buried and we're not going to go away. We're going to be here every single day showing up for every other transgender person out there and every other gender non-conforming person out there to show that we have that right to exist and we have that power to exist and by existing we are showing the utmost resistance. So thank you so much for for this and we hope to work with you more. Thank you. Congratulations and thank you. I have 17 seconds. Yeah. Go. Good morning. Uh, mayor and city council. My name is Christopher Freck, the president for El Paso Sun City Pride. I just wanted to say thank you all for this proclamation in a time when transgender, our transgender community is trying to be erased by this nation. Um, it's great to see our city representatives standing up for them. So, thank you very much. Pride. Uh, I'm a proud gay man and thank you. Thank you for supporting all of us in our community. and read our first issue of Pride 915 which featured um Representative Vaso and Nino. So, thank you very much for supporting our community. Congratulations you guys. Thank you. [Applause] We need the photo. Yeah. 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 while the meeting is in session. For those of you joining us virtually, please mute your microphones to reduce any background noise. All right, Miss Prime, we're ready to move on. Yes, sir. That brings us to the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote. Members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken if an item has not been called out for separate discussion. The item has been approved. Council may however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting. Mayor Pro Miss Bryan we have some Oh sorry Mayor Pro. Thank you, Miss Prime. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revision. Page 10, item 30, revised per office of management and budget. We're removing item number two, which states, transfer a total project savings of $170,159.73 from education discovery shaded concessions and support elements projects into endangered species breeding center project. Thank you. All right. Is there's a motion? Is there a second? Is there And we have some discussion. Representative Canales. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I wanted to uh move item number nine to the regular agenda please. Okay. Move item number nine to the regular agenda. Representative Oto. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to state for item number one, the approval of the of the minutes for the March 18th meeting. I forgot to disclose that I had received $500 from Douglas Shorts. I had done it in the first reading, but this was the second reading and it was item 42 on that agenda. So, I just wanted to put that in the minutes. Yes, sir. And we'll we'll include that make that notation on the minutes for the March 18th meeting. I appreciate it. Representative Lima. Yes, Mayor. Sorry. Yes, Mayor. I'd like to pull item number eight, please, for discussion. [Applause] Thank you. Okay. Representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. And uh to what Representative Asaveto said, I also received a donation from Douglas Schwarz. So, if we could add that to the minutes for the previous meeting on the 18th. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. We'll do. Okay, Mr. F, we've had a couple items moved to item number nine and item number eight. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further uh Representative Canales? I think the same thing I think multiple multiple of us uh made that uh disclosure during the first reading and then I think inadvertently didn't in the second reading. So, if I can note the same in the minutes, please that I also received a contribution from Doug Schwarz. Yes, sir. I believe it is noted in the uh in the item itself on the disclosure sheet that the applicant files. So that's available to the public, but I think the council just wants to make sure we're careful to note it for the public. We'll include those. And Miss Prime, I need to be noted as well. I'm the same. Representative Rocha, I I also need to be noted. Miss Prime, please. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And Representative Trey, I also need to be noted. Thank you. Yes ma'am. Okay. Represent Lima. Represent Lima. Any D. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on the consent agenda? Miss Prime, please call for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by Representative Maldonado Rocha to approve the consent agenda as revised. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Mayor, would you like to take the two items that were moved from the consent agenda? Yes, please. Thank you. Item number eight are solid waste lanes. Mayor, I I requested to pull this item because I am still trying to fully understand the process. Um I've had an opportunity to talk to um Nicholas Ibara. We've talked to different people in the environmental services and gone all the way through the process. So, um, just as an example, a constituent has a property and, um, they get a citation for weeds that are overgrown. And so, if they don't respond, I think there's a second notification and then there's possibly a third notification. Um, if there's no response, then the city will go in and clean up. Um, at that point, they will receive a bill for the services. Um, and I know that sometimes are contracted out. The city doesn't. No, the city doesn't do it. We might go that route at some point in time. Never. We will never go that route. So, my concern and what I wanted to know was specifically at what point is there a contact? And the direct contact really does not exist. There may be a certified letter that goes out, but there's no guarantee that there is ever a direct contact with a person. For example, uh on the last lean list, there were two properties. One was an empty lot, so there was no way to contact anybody personally as if it had been a home. On the second one, it was a business address. I believe my concern and not criticizing and not anything but I'm trying to figure out the best way that when a constituents um a constituent appears on this list what is the best process to reach out to them in just a sec. And so on the last two leans, I found specifically that I tried every possible way um to reach out to someone, to an owner, to a constituent. Tried everything um including the van uh the van service voter access network. Wasn't able to find any of them listed. I guess my question becomes then at what point, if ever, will this lean be removed from the property? and and the concern is that years and years and years from now, maybe not even the actual owner, but that is passed down by hand. Um, what happens if that particular person wants to sell the property or sell, you know, the land or whatever it is. That's my concern. It's not a criticism of the department in any shape or form. I'm simply thinking from a constituentbased mind. Nicholas. Yes. Nicholas with environmental services. is uh for your question. If the the property is ever sold at a later date with a lean on it, the lean gets paid through the property sale. So that's how it's covered through the property sale. It get paid through there. Okay. And then in getting touch with the the residents, all the information that ESD is allowed to obtain is through um the uh EPAD. So the central appraisal district, we get all their information through there and phone numbers are not part uh provided through there. Um, so that's why we're unable to provide phone numbers to any of the council members when they're looking to contact any of the members. And also through uh city IT training, we're not allowed to um give out phone numbers anyways because that's uh considered private information. So even if we were able to obtain them somehow, we're we're not allowed through our security training to provide uh those phone numbers out because it is considered private information. I see. And so, mayor um indicating that um EP CAD does not have phone numbers listed. I'm wondering if they keep the phone numbers but then don't provide them perhaps like to the city. I I don't know if they are or are not available, but that's a feature that I think would be really important if we want to reach the the constituents. So, that's a different story. Different. Yeah. Nicholas, once again, I think it might be difficult because it's considered private information. So, I don't think they could post that. Oh, sorry. Good morning, Representative Joseph Flores for the city attorney's office. The department follows the provisions set out in the city code. In order to contact the attorney, not the attorney, but the property owner as well as the state statute. So 9.04 04 of the city code. It's section 880 is the process that the uh staff follows and the notice is in writing. That's what the state statute requires as well as the city code. So there's no reference to a phone number. Phone numbers change. Um and the staff is correct that the um lean actually would go with the property in the event that the property is sold. And if you you did ask the question about at what point will the lean be released? The lean is released when that uh amount owed is actually paid off and and as I understood paid by the sale or included in the sale of the property. Yes. Thank you very much. Appreciate appreciate all the information. Thank you, Representative Fier. Thank you, mayor. U Mr. B, I want to thank you very much because we've had people call also and say we were never notified. uh nobody reached out to us and then when you look it up and it's all very well documented documented in your notes um the the first the first issue was on this date follow up on this date um attempt this time uh registered mail sent out I mean it's a long long process so I I want to thank you and your team for everything you're you're the outreach you're doing um to to help notify the individuals thank you thank you thank Thank you, Nicholas. So, on item number eight, is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Miss Prime, please call for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Lemon to approve item eight. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. The next item that was moved to the regular agenda is item nine. And this is a resolution authorizing the city manager or designate to enter a Department of the Army right ofway right of entry for environmental assessment and response with the United States of America to allow the government the right to enter city property located north of Castner Range in El Paso County, Texas for the purpose of identifying and removing munitions and explosives of concern and conducting a baseline ecological and human risk assessment. Okay. represent Canales. Thank you, Mayor. I pulled this one not because I have questions, just I think it's important for the public to realize this is happening. If if uh we'll allow Mary Lou to give just the briefest uh description of of this item, I think that would be beneficial to the public. Sure. Good morning. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Mary Lewis Pinoso with the real estate division. Basically what this is representative is a right of entry for the US government to be able to check the area for any munitions and explosives of concern to remove any identified MEC's and the term is not to exceed 60 months. Thank you. Yeah, it's been such a long process to uh get casting range dedicated as a national monument and um obviously there's a lot of work still ahead and so I think the public appreciates the the touch points like this one. This is a big step that's several decades in the making really. So, thank you. Thank you, Mary. Thank you so much. Any further questions? All right. Do we have a motion to approve item number nine? Move to approve. Second. We have a motion in a second. Hearing no further discussion. Miss Prime, please call for the vote. We do have public comment from Miss Turner on this item. Mayor. Okay. Good morning, Miss Turner. You have three minutes. Good morning, Mr. N. Thank you. Good morning, Mayor Council. The question is why? The easiest way to preserve Castner range is to leave it as is. The moment you go in and clear this out, there will be a movement to strip its status as a national monument. So the best way to prevent that from happening is to leave it as it is. Do not allow access and then it can't be developed. We've already seen it in this present administration trying to remove this the status of national parks and stuff. So if you want to protect Castner Range, don't touch it at all. Don't let anybody in to look for, you know, any unexloded ordinance. So that is to me the easiest, most effective way of protecting what's left of our mountains from development. So I would ask you to vote no on this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Turn. So we have a motion and a second hearing. No further discussion, Miss Prime, please call for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Canal, seconded by Representative Mimon, and this is to approve the resolution on item nine. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. And and Miss Prime, before we move on, I just want to recognize in council chambers uh county commissioner Butler is here with us this morning. Good to see you, Commissioner. Thank you, Mayor. May we um may council recess in order to conduct the Mass Transit Department board meeting at this time? Sure. Motion to second. Second. There's a motion and a second to recess the regular city council meeting. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? And the regular city council meeting is now in recess at 10:10 a.m. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso Mass Transit Department board for Tuesday, April 1st. It is now 10:10 a.m. Present in presiding is board chair Johnson. Also present in council chambers are board members Chavez ADO Maldonado Rocha Boyjo Nino Fiero Lemon and board member Canales. There's no public comment sir. Okay. And all matters listed 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 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. The only item on the consent agenda are the minutes. Is there a motion to approve? A motion to approve the agenda. The consent agenda is presented. Okay, we have a motion and a second from Rep. Represent Nino. Second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Let's call for the vote. And we do have a motion made by repres Lemon, seconded by board member Nino. And this is to approve item one, the consent agenda. The minutes voting session is open. Chair Johnson. Thank you, sir. And the item has been approved unanimously. Item three is the first item on the regular agenda. And this is discussion in discussion on a presentation to the El Paso Mass Transit Department board by El Paso Area Transportation Services, EPATS, regarding its development and current programs operated under the name El Paso Transportation Authority, ETA. Good morning. Good morning, mayor, city council. Anthony Daiser, uh director for mass transit for El Paso. to this morning. I'd like to um one is welcome Miss Jackie um Butler and Xavier Benales from from the county um um who's here today to talk to you about the ETA. Um I just like to give a a small introduction and say like like why why are they here today? Um because they're here to talk about transit and obviously that's why I'm here to talk to you first about transit, right? Um but but how do they intertwine with with with us? um they provide transit outside the city limits and so we're intertwined with them. Um we're intertwined with them because we have a a membership on their board on the ETA board, a non- voting um membership and we have for the last couple years. Um and we've been working very closely with them to make sure that we have smooth transitions between our two agencies and how transit works in in El Paso. We have an interlocal agreement with them um with our paratransit and how we um transport our passengers in and out of the county. We have a interlocal agreement with them for our transit centers and how we transfer passengers at at our at our transit centers. Um we also have an interlocal agreement um with um how we're going to move our into the future with um putting uh electronic um not electronic but EV charging stations um on the west side as we as we move um forward. Um in additional we have an an interlocal agreement with CNG how we fuel their their their fixed route operations. So, we're interlin. We're interlin and in the future, you know, we we hope to move forward together to continue to provide good transportation um to the El Paso community. So, I'm excited about them. I'm excited about us. I'm excited about what we're doing together and how we're going to move towards the future together. So, without further ado, Miss Jackie Butler, the commissioner and chairman of the LGC. Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning, mayor, council, city manager. Um, my name is Jackie Butler. I'm the county commissioner for precinct 1. Uh, but I'm also honored to serve as the chair of the El Paso Area Transportation Services Local Government Corporation. Um, we recently rebranded as ETA uh to help save that long name. Uh but the local government corporation was established several years ago by the county as an innovative tool to bring together all of the stakeholders that use the county's transit system um to to have a collective effort and and bring uh enhance services to to county residents. Um Mr. Vanales behind me is going to give you a presentation on uh ETA and the work that we've been doing and um those members who are comprised of the LGC. Um but it's it's the county who is responsible for providing transit services to all of the unincorporated areas of the county as well as the other municipalities uh within uh the county lines. Um Mr. Diser and Mr. Rimis have been involved with ETA and they've been very active on our board. They're an exopicio member. Um but they, you know, they they attend all of our of our meetings and we've been working really diligently towards um what I think is the ultimate goal of ETA uh which is to have a completely connected, equitable, efficient transit system from county line to county line and we can't do that without Sun Metro. Um and so Mr. Vanalis is going to give you uh an overview and more details about how we operate and what our goals are, but I just wanted to come here and thank you personally for your partnership. Um we're just getting started and we have a long way to go, but we look forward to working with you all. And I personally look forward to hearing any ideas or questions you might have about uh how we can work together better moving forward. So, thank you very much. I'll introduce Mr. Byan. Thank you, Commissioner. it. Can you Thank you. Good morning, Mayor Johnson, members of city council. My name is Javier Bales. I am the interim director of the El Paso Transportation Authority. Good morning. Good morning. Um this presentation has been presented to about seven of the municipalities within the county as well as to several different organizations for example the Metropolitan Planning Organization Committal uh mobility authority and so this is been presented to bring you up to date as to the work of the El Paso transportation authority. This is the mission of uh ETA and I'll refer to it as ETA. But this goes back uh this isn't something that was organized just within the last one or two years. This actually goes back a number of years. This is a report that was done in 19 published in 1994 30 years ago and it was done through the county and the MO uh jointly establishing a study that was done throughout the county. You're familiar with the way these are done. individuals from the communities from the various municipalities are brought together throughout the county. Feedback is obtained, interviews with uh policy makers within the city, within the county, business community members. And so this is uh goes back 30 years and is part of the uh background to the development of ETA. This is another uh report that was done. It's dated 2019 and it was it's titled El Paso County Regional Transit Institutional Options Fisibility Study also. And of course then this is also the West Texas Regional Transportation Coordinating Committee. Another regional study that was done addressing issues of transportation. Uh this is uh this uh planning committee is funded by Texon and it's been in existence since 2006. Right now I happen to be the chairperson of this uh of the El Paso Regional Transportation Coordinating Committee. This is our board of directors and as you can see we have uh individuals representing the various municipalities within the county. Not every municipality but uh all the municipalities that are members of the uh uh age of the organization in 2005 to 2015. During that 10-year period, there was a a need to increase services throughout the county. Um that the 1994 study that was uh commissioned had several recommendations that were made. Some of them actually did not uh were not uh uh implemented, but let me just share three of them very quickly. These were three possible options. This is 1994. And the first one says that El Paso County could develop its own program and purchase services from a private operator to provide fixed transit services just like Sun Metro does within the city. That was an option they said could be done. A second option was the El Paso County could purchase services from Sun Metro, the city of El Paso. The third option was that a countywide regional transit agency could be created to govern transit. Sun Metro could be expanded to provide services to the entire county. So again, this is in 1994. Uh at that point in time, there was even a recommendation that half of a percent of sales tax, local sales tax be used to pay for the services of Sun Metro extending services throughout the county. Ultimately, however, that did not um that did not pass. It was not implemented. There was also recommendations made during that time again 30 years ago that there was a need to provide paratransit services in the county. Now the city has been providing paratransit services through its lift program for more than 30 years but the county had not been uh providing them. There was also a need the study said to expand services in the county. So during the period of uh 2005 to 2016 uh there were increased routes established by the county. There was also uh the county was very proactive also in going after federal funding such as through the clean air act and also the uh the uh CMAC funding which has to do with um uh mobility excuse me um compressed mitigation air quality and there was a event pool program that was also established during that time there was a gold route as it's called this is a a bus that goes back and forth between El Paso and Los Cruus uh during during the day transporting individuals back and forth. Some work in Los Cruuses, live in El Paso and vice versa. Some students go to New Mexico State, some come to UTEP, etc. And so the uh the goal route was established also to expand transportation within uh the greater El Paso area. And at the same time in 2006, the regional planning committee was established here in El Paso County. And as I mentioned, this is funded through through text. During the next the last uh 10 years between 2015 and 2024 then the regional transit institute option option study this one was completed and um again it called again for the continuous uh interface between the city and the county such that transportation services could be expanded to reach more areas. there was a creation of the local government corporation which is what ETA is and uh this occurred in the 2020 to 2021. However, as you know CO hit in 2020. So things slowed down a little bit but nonetheless this goes back to the to its creation to 2020. At the county level there was a continuation of uh expanding fixed route services throughout the county. The fleet was converted to CNG. uh paratransit services have been introduced was introduced in 2024 and again this is services transportation services to persons with disability who do not have the ability to board regular uh buses. Uh there's a general public demand response also called a dialer ride program that's u planned for 2026 possibly 20 early 2027. Uh new bus shelters are being built within the county. There's 30 plus bus shelters that are being uh built and you'll see a a slide of that a little later. And then also an electric vehicle pilot project is underway. As was mentioned, we are building um several about six charging stations in the west side at the transfer center there on Rimcon Road. This will be available to use by electric buses that are being uh purchased through a grant from the um through the through the county of El Paso. And of course, the last item there is the El Paso transit facility. Land is purchase is underway and we hope to break ground in 2026 so that our fleet can be housed at this facility. This is some of the cooperation that uh was mentioned earlier as far as interlocal agreements between the city and the county. The county fleet is housed at city property Union Depot. uh transit licenses exist such that we use the county uses uh three or four of the uh Sun Metro transfer centers to have passengers board or deboard our buses as they transfer into city buses. Route 84, this was a bus route that was operated until December of this year. But for many years, about 20 25 years, it was operated by Sun Metro and and it fed into the county. It was one of those situations where that there was an agreement that um a city municipal bus would travel into the county to provide services that ended in December. Part of it is because the county's own uh rural uh system was also expanding and so some of the areas that were not going to be covered through route 84 were picked up then through the uh fixed routes that belong to the county. I mentioned the electric vehicle charging stations. There's a interlocal fair agreement paratransit services uh agreement also exists and the city and the city and the county are both members of the west Texas El Paso regional planning committee as I mentioned. This is just a very quick uh overview very quick overview of the growth within the county in in 2010 that's 15 years ago the county had eight buses. Today they have 20 we have 28 buses that uh uh operate throughout the county. In 2010 um there were only four routes. Today we have six routes. But even those four original routes don't look like they did 10-15 years ago. They've been expanded so that they reach a larger uh geographic area. You have to keep in mind that in 2010 for example, city of Horizon had a population very very small in comparison to what it is now in in excess of 30,000. In 2010, the county operated a transit system whereby it was a split schedule. Buses would transport individuals from the county into primarily the city of El Paso uh between 10 uh 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. in the morning, and then there was a a stop until about 3 in the afternoon, continuing until about 6:00 to 6:30. And that um as you can see, that wasn't the most efficient. But now the the county has a paratransit program as well as a fixed route program that operates pretty much all day. Of course on weekends it has a a slower schedule and um so that the amount of services that's been provided over the years has certainly expanded. This is just a quick overview of the wrership within the for the last fiscal year. As you can see, of course, if you look in comparison metro, obviously the figures are a lot different, but uh they do they are important because it gives you an opportunity to see the the population changes or differences within the county, within the municipalities. And I bring attention to the vanpool program. This is the very last item there. Notice that during that fiscal year that is being reported, there were almost 380,000 passenger trips that were done. This is the vanpool program whereby you got to have at least four individuals to qualify and have a van poolool. These are individuals that work in the same general area. They live in the same general area but they work someplace else and so they they coordinate and they have a vanpool program uh agreement such that they participate. So, think of the number of of vehicles that are not on the highways, on the freeways, on the city roads of individuals going to work because they're participating in this um in the Vanpool program. You also see the El Paso lasuses uh population. Um, as far as the the routes and the other routes for all the other uh county uh fixed routes that we have, this is a new paratransit program that we just started last year, very similar to to the lift. Um, fair is the same $2.50. It's curb to curb. Individuals have to make a reservation etc. their vehicles have to meet ADA requirements so that persons with a who use a wheelchair are able to board the the bus, you know, with ease. These are bus shelters that are being built in the county. We have about 30 plus that are being built throughout the whole county area. Uh they're equipped with uh solar light for evenings and you know provide a little bit of protection for the inclement weather. We have an excess advisory committee. This is a committee made up of individuals who either work with the agency that provide services to the persons with disability community or they have a family member who has a vis a disability and they participate in the EXIS uh advisory committee. They provide support. They also provide critical review because since they're close to working with the individuals uh who are persons with disabilities, you know, they can give us feedback as to the services that are being provided, the transportation services, the routes, the stoppages, etc. and the certification process because they have to go through a process to be certified as uh being eligible to receive uh paratransit services similar to uh the El Paso uh the lift program like any organization we have some challenges the paratransit program is brand new we're marketing we're promoting it um in the last six months since it's started it has grown such that we're providing about 60 to 70 uh trips uh per day um or passenger passgers, excuse me. And then, of course, um the challenge is that we have a new 5-year contract that's coming up for renewal. Uh revenue and expense projections of course are always very important as they are with the city to make sure that we have enough revenue to meet our expenses. Uh, of course, contract compliance, a new transit facility. It's uh building a new building for a fleet of 28 buses for drivers is is challenging and uh we're hope that we're able to be successful in this. Uh the Rio Grande Council of Governments is the fiscal agent and as you can see they partner with us. they provide uh a the financial management uh and uh the Rio Grande council of governments and is is a good strong partner partner with us because as we started we didn't we needed a fiscal agent and uh we contracted with council of government to provide this service. This is just a very quick overview uh in 2023 and 2024 the revenue that was provided by the different entities and again by city of El Paso's comparisons these are small but they're important and uh rep represent a good commitment from the communities that we represent from the municipalities that we represent. So here's a summary of the current projects. The fixed route program, the demand response program, uh shelter program that is being built, electric vehicles, the buses uh that are going to be uh rece uh received through the grant that are electric will be charging in that station on the west side. Uh again, we're going through an RFP process right now to select the uh contractor for the next five years starting uh in September of this year. the event pool program and we want to expand it and continue also with the gold route program. Uh we replace about three or four vehicles per year. I'm sure the city of El Paso does has similar replacement uh schedule. Uh and of course the transit facility that's been planned hopefully will be online by 2027. Now the next the last item is an item that I've I've shared before. This is a a plus for the county because we have 20 million 20 plus million dollars in grants that the county has received over the last several years and that's a good that's a good sign. But the challenge is also that we have $20 million worth of grants that we have to you know uh expand and meet and monitor and make sure that uh the monies are spent within the time frame so that uh the services are expanded and continued. this funding, the 20 plus million dollars are going towards things like the development of the facilities, expansion, new buses, staff. We're increasing the number of staff in El Paso transit uh from uh two staff persons to five individuals over the next uh several months. Currently, the El Paso Transportation Authority has had only uh well two persons actually. Um myself as interim, I came in in August. My term will end sometime after May because the director of the of the entity has been selected. His name is John Endow and he will be joining us in the end of May. He's he brings about 25 30 years of transit experience. He right now works for a transit facility in California. He lives in Austin. He commutes a lot as you can tell, but he'll be relocating uh to El Paso at the end of May and should be joining the the agency in uh the end of May. uh I'll stick around for about two to three weeks, four weeks maybe through a transition period. And uh you see also Annette uh is the CEO of the council of governments. He coordinates the whole fiscal agent responsibility. Um Chem Smith had been providing legal services until this month. Uh because now the county attorney's office is going to be providing that service. Cam Smith was providing it during the period where we were getting established because as I me as I mentioned even though we go back to 2020 when the formal u certification existed it took about two years going through co to be where we are now. So I'm available to answer any questions you might have. Javier thank you for the great presentation. Any questions for Javier? Javier I I do have one. On page six, you talked about a pilot program with the electric vehicle buses, and you're going to How long is the pilot program? Uh, we're scheduled, if if everything goes according to schedule, we're scheduled to complete the chargers at the end of this year, possibly even, uh, beginning of 2026. And this is being done at the Rimcon Station, uh, transfer center. Okay. And and how long will that program run before you know it's successful or Well, uh I'm sure that uh the once we get the charging stations in place, the buses are also have to be ordered. And of course, we know and we understand what's going on nationwide with uh uh cuts in in some of the funded programs. Right now, we're moving forward assuming that everything is is going to continue such that uh the electric buses are going to be a reality. Uh we have six electric buses that have been planned. Those will be serving the westside area because that route goes from the Donafan Mesa area up to Anthony. goes up on Donafan uh moves a little bit uh to Vinton uh and then goes up to Anthony and back pretty much all up and down Donafan again making a right turn to uh Vinton the city of Vinton and then uh coming back down to Mesa and the the station there at um Rimcon is where the passengers will board or deboard that's where the charging stations are being built through coordination communication with with the city of El Paso San Metro. Very good. Very good. Represent. Thank you, mayor. Um, thank you for the presentation. I think there was a lot of great information. One, one thing that was kind of sticking out to me was the 1994 plan that kind of went nowhere. Have there been any other conversations with the city since that time or Well, I think that on on an ongoing basis, there's discussions going back and forth about having a unified uh transit system. uh many communities have that throughout the nation. mainly the larger comm metropolitan areas have a unified system whereby say a whole county or even a region uh the greater Dallas Fort Worth uh area for example uh the Austin area uh so that has been discussed from time to time in 1994 and if you know anybody wants to read this you'll see that uh uh feedback from the community uh all around the county and within the the city of El Paso was that there should be a process where why we only have one transit system, you know, operating so that we don't have two uh dispatchers, two uh management, two sets of buses as opposed to having one. Since 1994, the population of El Paso has increased tremendously and so so have the population in some of the communities for example in Sakoro and Horizon have uh increased quite extensively. Interesting at this point in the in this report uh 94 Horizon City's population was about 2,300. today of course it exceeds 30,000 and so it's it's an area that has grown tremendously. Yeah. And I and I was going to say that you you had really mentioned the horizon population growth, right? And and then I look at what you provided on the slide with the writership from that one year from 23 to 24 and I feel like that's a significant amount of of wrership and it really does show that there's a lot of need in that area and getting to unified bus system would be a huge deal for our community, right? So I I feel like we need to continue chipping away at those conversations and see how we can make that a reality. For one, I I think it's a little insane that we don't have anything in front of the food bank on the far east side, right? There's no no bus that services the food bank and I feel like that would be a huge deal in that sense. So, I feel like there's some issues that we have with our our current system here in in the city and kind of fixing that and making it a little bit wider would be really helpful. And I see Commissioner Butler, I know Representative, I just wanted to to to comment on your question and I think you know uh describing this as a plan that went nowhere I think is is not entirely true. I think the LGC is a direct result of this strategic planning. It just takes a long time to create change unfortunately especially when it comes to um government and local government. Um the the long-term goal of the LGC is to have one unified transit system. Um that's going to require some you know investment and diligent steps towards that goal. Um, we've started with working with the municipalities, the small municipalities who rely on the county transit system and as you saw in the chart, everybody contributes a little bit into the LGC so that they have skin in the game and um u as a collective uh board, we have more resources to use on transit. And so the ultimate goal and and we have we're we're taking baby steps, but we are really really proud to be working handinhand with Sun Metro and I think you'll see over the next several years that we're really going to ramp up our efforts to partner. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you for your leadership. Yeah. And and thank you guys for the the the presentation on mass transit and and it's good to see the collaboration with Sun Metro and the county and and all the expanded services that we're going to have uh in the future. But thank you guys for the great work. And as a final comment, I would like to thank the uh management at Sun Metro because they're very supportive. Whenever we need uh support guidance information, we reach out to them and it's there. So, thank you very much. And Javier, thank you for your time as interim. We appreciate you. All right, Mr. Chair, we do have a member of the public signed up to speak. Sure. Lisa Turner. Sure. You have three minutes, ma'am. Good morning, Mayor Council. Good morning. My concern with anything connected with Sun Metro is they still cannot provide timely service for those who are in wheelchairs and not able to drive. You make an appointment and they show up an hour, two hours late. uh that's got to be fixed. You cannot even think of doing anything else until you finally fix that problem. If a person calls in, they've got an appointment to be picked up at 10:00 to get go from point A to point B, that that driver is there with that bus at 10:00 not 11:30. This happens way too often. It gets swept under the rug because people are disabled and they can't get down here to complain to you. This has to be fixed. It has to come to a screeching halt. You can't have Sun Metro, oh, we're going to branch out into the county. You can't even provide the services when the within the city to the people you're supposed to be providing. So, until such time as you can fix that problem, you can't be worried about anything else in the county. You got to fix what's happening within the city first. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Turner. There's no action for that item. Number four. Item number four is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2025-0250R repair and maintenance of overhead contact system rebid to Catery Power Line Solutions LLC for an initial term of 3 years for an estimated amount of 1,93,800. This contract will provide street car routine preventive inspection, maintenance as well as corrective maintenance functions and emergency repairs. Good morning. Good morning. Crystal Bus with purchasing and strategic sourcing. This is a new contract for repair and maintenance of overhead con contact system rebid for the Sun Metro Mass Transit Department. This is a request for proposals procurement. There were 48 views online. Two proposals were received, one being from a local supplier. No protests were received for this requirement. We are recommending to award Catery Online Powerline Solutions LLC the highest ranked offer based on the evaluation factors established in the evaluation criteria for this procurement. This contract will will provide street car routine preventative inspection maintenance as well as corrective maintenance functions and emergency repairs as needed of the overhead contact system to ensure safety, efficiency and availability of service. Okay, question represent Lima. Um the contract is awarded to is it a local company because I didn't hear that. Yes. Thank you. Uh glad to move to approve please. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve. Please call for the Any further discussion. Hearing none, please call for the vote. We do have a a motion made by board member Lemon, seconded by board member Nino. Yes. And the motion has been approved unanimously and board member Fiero not present for the vote. Item five is discussion and action on a resolution that the mayor be authorized to sign an interlocal agreement for service expansion with the South Central Regional Transit District to allow South Central Regional Transit District access to El Paso area urbanized 5307 funds. Is there a motion to approve this item? Move to approve. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. And we do have a motion made by board member Canales, seconded by board member Lemon. Is there any discussion on this item? Hearing none, please call for the vote. Voting session is open and the item has been approved unanimously with board member Fiero not present for the book. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Move to adjourn. Second. Motion. And this is to adjourn the mass transit department board meeting of April 1st at 10:44 a.m. All those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? And the meeting has been adjourned. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Prime. Is there a motion to reconvene the regular city council meeting? Second. There's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? And the regular city council meeting is back in session at 10:45 a.m. We're on page 6, item number 19. And this is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of district 6 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $1,000 for the purchase of a silver sponsor package for the Texas Spanish spelling be 2025. The sponsorship packages assistance supporting key event needs to include venue rental meals for attendees, trophies for the top three spellers, diploma, certificates and medals for participants and this is alternate mayor prom. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, this is just the second year that our district has participated in this spelling bee. It's coordinated by region 19 and last year it was just a very successful event. Many of the constituents in our district, their children attended the spelling bee and u we're very pleased and happy to be able to sponsor uh support it again this year. Outstanding. And with that, I move to approve. Mayor second. Represent Lemon, did you have some comments? Mayor, I just wanted to thank Representative Pierro for the leadership on taking on this um contribution. Um I I must u explain that um both um last year and the previous year at both the national and the local I have served as a judge on the national spelling be contest and will continue to do that for for several years I hope and so thank you very much. It's a Excellent excellent um project. I don't think we'll ever reach the the English Spanish spelling bee, but the numbers are certainly growing. So now we're going to have the regional and the state competitions here in Elbas. That explains why the winner was from district 7. Representative Canales. Nope. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on this item? All right. Hearing none, Miss Prime. Yes, sir. The motion was made by alternate mayor pro Tim Fiero, seconded by Representative Lemon, and this is to approve the resolution on item 19. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Item number 20 is discussion and action to authorize the amendment of a resolution that was approved by city council on January 22nd, 2025 to use discretionary funds to include the cost of commute in Austin. And this item was placed by representative represent trail. This was an item for travel using the shuttle and Uber that was not included in the original cost. So that was just an adjustment and I uh move to approve. Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, Miss Bryan. Mayor, we do have public comment from Miss Turner on this item. Sure. Good morning, Miss Turner. Test. All right, there we go. Uh, usually when you all do these authorizations for travel, this stuff is included. How come it wasn't included? Cuz you pass that ordinance. It's like when you all do your trip to Austin, those costs are covered. You go to somewhere else. Uh was that a government agency that works with all the cities in the state of Texas? Yeah, because I remember uh you went to one and everything was included. Well, remember you've been here for more than a year. So, I kind of remember all this stuff, especially when you spend money. Uh so, my question is why wasn't it included? Was it just an oversight, Representative Trol? Yes, it was an oversight. We actually started within the week. The first week that we started was when we had to uh enter all that information and it was our first week. Ver new so it was not included. Okay. I I was just curious because like I says this is something I've haven't seen for a long time. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Representative Canales. Thank you, Mayor. I think it's important to note as well the the expenditure is not exceeding the originally approved amount. Right. This was just a type of expenditure that was left off inadvertently. So the the ground transportation cost. Yeah. Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Okay. So we have a motion and a second to approve this item. Any further discussion hearing? None. Miss Pry. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Oriojo, seconded by Mayor Prom Chavez, and this is to approve item 20. on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. That brings us to item 21. This is discussion and action to direct the city manager and city attorney to prepare a resolution or ordinance as appropriate to establish the bond overview advisory committee boak as a permanent standing committee expanding its purview to include oversight functions related to city of El Paso bond funded projects. This item was placed by representatives Canales and Leon. Okay. Represent Canales. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'd like to just briefly introduce this item, uh, which I brought forward with my co-sponsor and neighbor here, uh, Representative Lemon. Uh, the the bond overview advisory committee or the BOAK as we call it here sometimes, was first established in 2012, um, to provide, uh, transparency from the city staff and city government side and and then public oversight on the implementation of bond projects from the voter-approved 2012 uh, quality of life bond. So the the committee it it's made up of citizens appointed by us the mayor and council um and and over the years it's done I think what it was intended to do which is track the progress of the the bond funded projects uh from 2012 uh and give the public some clear insight into how those projects uh were being managed and carried out by the city. So, uh, of course, the the bond funding, uh, of projects didn't stop in 2012. Uh, we've had other bond elections approved by the voters since then, um, and other subsequent bond issu issuances. Uh, and and many constituents have continued to let me know that they'd like the same level of engagement with those projects as well. So, uh, that's why, uh, we're proposing this change today. Uh the the proposal would expand the BOAC's role and make it a permanent standing committee, not one just tied to the 2012 quality of life bond. Um I I think a permanent BOAC would provide the public with reliable information about uh the the progress and the management and the financial status of of our bond projects. Um essentially ensuring that the public expectations of the projects are are aligned with the with the city's delivery of them. Um, right now the the BOAC is set to dissolve in January 2028, though of course we're nearing the end of the programmed projects. Uh, anyway, especially after the the recent completion of the Mexican-American Cultural Center, uh, and the opening very soon of the the main branch library. Those are two of the outstanding large projects that the city will be completing. Um, I I think by uh removing that that sunset clause and and uh expanding the the scope of of the Boax purview, we're we're signaling a long-term commitment to good governance and to robust public engagement. I I think those are values we all share on this council. Um, if it's approved today, the next step would be for the uh city manager and the city attorney to bring back uh what I think would be a resolution uh to to make a change to the uh the establishing uh the establishing ordinance. I think we do that by resolution uh within 30 days to to formalize the the committee's new role. So, a couple things I want to clarify. first that the BOAC doesn't have the authority to hold up projects and the committee doesn't have the ability to make changes to projects or how they're carried out. Uh the BOAC is just intended to be a forum for city staff to present the details and the status of of our bonded projects in one place uh where the public doesn't have to comb through documents which I'll note are always publicly available online and uh all the purchasing is done in public and city council meetings. Uh but the BOAK makes that process simpler for for the public to access. Um and I I think it's also the the place for the committee members and members of the public who attend to listen and to engage and ask questions uh in order to have a fuller understanding of of the city's processes and and progress on those projects. Uh so that's why uh we're bringing this item forward. uh the the BOAC has been active for more than a decade and this action would just extend the committee's existence uh and the volunteer service of its members uh into the future. So with that, I I move to direct the city manager and city attorney to prepare a resolution or ordinance as appropriate to establish the bond overview advisory committee, BOAC, as a permanent standing committee expanding its purview to include oversight functions related to city of El Paso bond funded projects beyond the 2012 quality of life program. Uh and to further direct that the work product related to this item be presented to the city council for consideration within 30 days. Okay, there there's a motion in a second. We we have some discussion. Yes, ma'am. Representative Fier. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Representative Canal, thank you so much for saying that there has been transparency and that these um meetings and the decisions that we've made as a council are online and and uh available to the public. M I have a couple of questions. Uh, first, can you explain to me the difference between what the bonds that Boak is is is um their oversightes on now and with the two these two other bonds. What what's the difference between them? Sure. So, the two other bonds that would be under consideration would be the 2019 public safety bond. Um, most of those funds are already committed to existing facilities. Um the new facilities that would be under consideration are um police. Um so those would not be a lot of detail in terms of what that those facilities would look like. Um the other one would be the 2022 bond. Um that was a progress bond. The majority of that funding was for street resurfacing. Uh we also had the um intersections and extensions of Montwood, Wrestler um airway um also included there. Um we also had the um um all abilities playground also included as well as shade covers which was already distributed. The only concern I would have with um the streets piece is ensuring that we continue to allocate those pro those streets and the way that we do it from a very scientific perspective. making sure that the conversation discussion does not veer from um allowing the staff to make sure we're making recommendations in a way that aligns to best practices that we've established as a council. We have seen in the past that we have had issues and concerns um that were um ad that were adverse to the processes that we had in place, ensuring that we had transparency around those with having council members very involved in how we chose streets. Um as you know right now we have committed to bringing that plan forward every two years. When we went out to the public we included the streets that were going to be included within that plan. And so, um, the BOAP would just be seeing the same type of information that you all see in our, um, quarterly update for all of our programs as well as the information that would be coming to council for approval for those cycles. Miss Mack, um, please don't. Um, would the BoA be able to go back and revisit the plans that this council and previous council in regards to this how the streets are being prioritized to be addressed and and and uh fixed, would they be able to go back and and revisit that plan? I would strongly suggest that if council moves forward on this item that we take some time really defining what the responsibilities are. um ensuring that we clearly define the roles of that advisory committee versus those of city council. Um ultimately as it comes with those programs, we've had actions that were already approved by council. Um ensuring that we have that type of transparency that I guess is required here, but ensuring that we change some of that language to make sure it aligns to the type of projects that they will be providing oversight on. A couple more questions, please. Matt, the BOAC meets how many times a year? Monthly, I'm assuming six times a year, but we've had some concerns with um quorum on ROAC. And so, we've had a lot of things that were stuck. So, I really want to make sure as we talk about this that we're aligning that meeting schedule to the work that's happening for the city and really making sure that we're not in a place where we can't hold meetings and we can't take action because we're unable to um get a quorum at those meetings. Mayor, I I can tell you that I for one would have a very difficult time um going in particular to the residents around uh Pebble Hills and telling them that that we're going to delay a project that's been in the books for years and for various reasons been delayed. Um but because the Boak didn't have quorum um let's see if I have any more questions. Um Miss Mack, last question. if these items are delayed um to meet with the MOAC or to accommodate the schedule of the BOAK which again there's already transparency on the decisions that we as a council have made now and past councils would I'm assuming that it could affect the cost of the project. Absolutely. because the way we're looking at our street plan right now and is I know we've had some concerns from um council members in terms of what's included with the contracts. And so our plan right now is to make sure that we're approving those um streets and then we're including those within the contract. And so once that contract is awarded, we already know that we have the labor in place to be able to get those done. So we're never in a place where we're talking about delays on those. M mayor, I just think that there's a lot of questions that need to be answered before we can we should vote on this item. So that's just my comment and the way it is right now and what I've heard from the city manager, I personally couldn't support at the moment. Okay. Thank you, M. Thank you, Represent Representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. So, I want to point out that on January 22nd, item number 29 on our agenda that day was a discussion and action to direct the city manager and city attorney to conduct a review of all city boards and commissions that we all voted unanimously to support. I would like to ask the city manager uh when do you sus uh think of coming back to us and giving us a review of those boards and commissions? We're getting into our final documents now. We have slated to come back to you on May 12th. That's going to allow us to get all the backup documents um prepared and also allow us to do briefings in advance of that meeting. And just to be clear, BoA would be one of the committees that you will be reviewing and coming back to us on a suggestion for that. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I did do some um investigation and I did realize that the BoA committee has not met quorum on at least three occasions from from my reviews and and that's a concern. I also know that for district 1 specifically, there was a vacancy unbeknownst to me of course because I was not here then between March 14th, 2023 and February 2025, which is when I appointed someone to to BOAK whom I um wholeheartedly believe is a is a great candidate to serve on this board. and I do believe in transparency um except that there's just a few issues that I see here in terms of the the committee not meeting quorum and more specifically going on speaking to that agenda item number 29 on on January 22nd which I really think that we've already given you a direction on what you should do next and so I I don't feel comfortable moving forward until we hear from the city manager and city attorney because that was the first direction we gave them. Um, in addition to that, uh, I also have a concern specifically for the Wrestler Connect project, which is part of the 2022 community progress bond. Um, I, um, ha have campaigned heavily and continue to be a part of that community that has a lot of connection issues. and I cannot go back to them and tell them there's going to be a delay in that connection project which is already um scheduled to be completed in summer of 2027. That community needs access to their neighborhood and it's a safety concern for them and for me as well. And so I don't I don't feel comfortable moving forward on anything that could possibly delay that project which is so critical to District 1. I would need to get more information to be sure that that project is not going to be delayed because it would be detrimental to them and their safety and that's very concerning to me. Thank you. Thank you represent Chavez. Represent Limon. Thank you mayor. 2013 2014 more or less around that time a subcommittee was formed of the BOAC and that subcommittee was charged with a very specific task. number one to identify the location for the Mexican-American well for the center the cultural center is what it was called at the time. It was also charged with coming up with a name for it and there was a lot of discussion. Ultimately the committee decided that the Abraham Chavis Theater was the best location because it would afford us the opportunity to make it an ADA compliant facility. Additionally, Mexican-American Cultural Center was adopted and that became the name of the present MAC. I add this because at the time the chair of the BOAC and I um were on News Extra and had that discussion where he was claiming or he was saying that there was no need for a secondary committee. there was no need for a subcommittee and because they were the ones that were overseeing the projects and they would take necessary action. I went back and looked at their minutes for several months and found that the BOAC has absolutely no authority to make any changes to make any decisions but they are simply a board that accepts. Their only action is to approve the minutes as presented. That's it. That's all that has been. Maybe it has changed. Joe said, I'm not sure if there's been changes in the BOAC since then. The reason for doing this is not to overstep the authority. The reason for the BOAC is to do a review and to bring back and make it public. We have a second quite potentially a second cheering squad that would certainly share the transparency accountability of the services that we provide to the city. I think it's a very I believe it's important and I can fully understand how because of co quorums have been so difficult to meet. I served on the fair housing board for two years and had two meetings because there was never enough people to form a quorum. I sat on the housing finance corporation and at the last minute really there's a there's a rush to see if we are going to have quorum or not. One of the things just as a suggestion one of the things that makes for board participation is to always know specifically if you have quarterly meetings you lose track of time. If you have monthly meetings and you know it's going to be the second, third, Wednesday of the month or something like that, then it always comes up on your calendar. Just a suggestion that when the BOAC renews, reactivates, and continues her work that they do something like that. I for one am very satisfied right now with my board representative that was selected by the previous representative and I think that she'll do an outstanding job continuing on on this. But I obviously am in very much in support of this and I just bring you a little bit of history, a little bit of oversight on BOAC. Thank you, Representative Lemon. Represent Canalis. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, a few clarifications I want to make. Um, there seems to be an idea that the BOAK can somehow hold up city projects that they have some authority to uh cause us to have to delay a project. I want to read direct this is directly from the establishing ordinance for the BOAC. Uh this was passed by resolution on December 13th, 2012. Uh or at least that's the date it was stamped by the clerk. Uh the bo under section three duties, the BOA shall perform the following duties and there's only three of them. The BOAC shall meet at least quarterly to review in to review information from applicable city departments regarding the voter approved 2012 bond issue projects for the purpose of reporting periodically in conjunction with city staff but not less than twice a year to the mayor and council on the status of projects of the 2012 bond projects. So again, review information and present it out at a city council meeting so the public can understand it. Uh number two, the mayor or city council may request the BOAC to make reports to the general public on the 2012 bond projects on a one-time or regular basis. And the third duty, the BOAC will perform such other duties related to the 2012 bond projects as may be requested from time to time by the mayor. So those are the only three duties. They have no authority or ability to stop a project. There's no requirement that a project has to be presented to the BOAC before something can move forward in that project. These are the only three duties and the only proposed change really would be to remove the the the language that makes this only applicable to the 2012 quality of life bond projects. So I just want to be absolutely clear the BOAC has no authority to hold anything up and staff can proceed uh w with projects uh regardless of uh what the the BOAC uh says they decide to do or you know they're an advisory committee. They can they can give advice to the council. um but they can in no way hold up any kind of capital improvement project that the city is is carrying out according to the duties that are granted to them in their in their establishing ordinance. So I just wanted to make that clear. Um you know that they are uh they're purely there to review the information that's presented to them by city staff and to from time to time present that to the council and to the public. Thanks mayor. Thank you represent. Thank you mayor. I I guess Miss Miss Mack on the work that you're doing from the January direction, are you going to bring something back that is going to allow us to understand how many people are missing meetings? So, yes. Yeah, because I I think that's the biggest thing, right? that that information piece on communicating with us on saying you know what your your person has not shown up to three meetings and they are part of the reason that we cannot have quorum. So is that part of what you're going to be doing? Yes sir. Um our analysis is looking at um not only whether we're looking at quorum but as representative canal just described there were duties and responsibilities that are included for these advisory committees that are not being met. Boak obviously hasn't come, you know, twice a year to present to you. My staff does. And so if we have duties and responsibilities that are included and they're not being met and so we're looking at that in terms of is this an efficient way of being able to use staff time are the items coming to council on a regular basis because we have a resolution. For example, we talked about the capital program. You asked us to come back, you know, twice a year with a full program. And so if the information is coming forward, what is the best way to get that to you? Um also looking at are there opportunities for us to merge? In some cases, we have a duplication of effort um across a couple of you know the various boards and commissions. Is there an opportunity to have those merge to be able to have broader oversight? I think it reduces um the uh challenge we have with quorum. It reduces the amount of appointees that you have. You know, we have 50 some odd boards and commissions that are active. And so those are the things the team have been looking at closely. And in that presentation, is that just going to be a presentation or are we going to be posted for discussion and action on it to be able to do various motions on it? It's going to be posted for discussion and action. Okay. Um I think that's that's really helpful. And and one more question. Um, just to kind of clarify cuz I'm hearing what Representative Canales is saying. I'm hearing what you're saying about um I I feel like I understood that you said that the Boak might delay projects and then Representative Canal has read that it won't. So I I kind of want to get a a direct answer. We we we try to ensure that if we have an advisory committee and you've provided them oversight over work, we go to the parks board and we there's processes that we go through for parks, for OSAP, for others, you know, that are not necessarily in ordinances like I MCAT and we do those presentations before we come to council because that's the reason why you have advisory board set. I'm not saying that we can't skip those if we have a pressing item, but we respect that if you're setting a board that we're providing them that information in advance of bringing that information to council whether it is explicit in the description or not. So, you're kind of saying like maybe you would be treating this kind of when we want to rename a park, it has to go through the parks committee first before it comes to council or renaming a street goes to the CPC before it comes to council. Something similar. Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, I'm saying that that's typically our process. If it's related to quality of life, our process has been to take those projects or any changes to those projects to the BOAC in advance of bringing those to full council for consideration. And and I guess I don't know who this question is for, but why weren't the 2019 and 2022 bonds included in the BOAC duties? Was that a council decision? Cuz I I look at that and I'm thinking, well, why wouldn't these be already included? And we're talking about this years later. 2019 was brought forward for consideration for council and council declined to include public safety as a part of that oversight. Okay. And not 2022. We did not have consideration for 22. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Represent Fier. Thank you, Mayor. Just for clarification, Miss Mack, I'm not sure if this is for you or for staff. So did because I'm hearing a couple different things. There has been no delay from coming from uh BOAK to approve a an item on council. It did I hear that right? Or there absolutely has. I can ask um Mr. Hernandez to come up and speak who's been staffer to that. Good morning. Good morning, city manager's office. Um yes, Representative Fiero, we've um worked really diligently in developing that rapport with BOE. As you know, they have been sitting members for quite a quite a while. Um we do appreciate their time as you made mention, Representative Canales, they are volunteering their time. Some of our meetings have run late and they stick with us. Um, but there's a lot of times that I have projects that have been impacted because they want us to come back again, there's not quorum, then we come back again, they want to postpone. By the time we take to council, there has been a few projects. Um, one of the easiest examples would be the trails project. Um, there's been quite a bit of concern about what was the intent of the trails. And if you'll notice, those are the last projects to be completed um from the quality of life. So there have been delays with our projects. Now, thank you so much, Mayor. Um I just want to leave the my last comment's going to be, you know, the these these were voted in by the citizens of El Paso. Absolutely. But it's our responsibility as a council to approve them, ask for transparency, but even more important than that is make sure that these streets are addressed and there's a public safety issue. I I dare say let um I know Miss M has, but Mr. Hernandez or some of the people on that team drive up and down Pebble Hills, they'll see the priority of of that street and and the citizens from there. And what I've heard, Representative Fo Fiero, from some of the comments is of the roles is really finding that transparency, having the public information accessible, those can be accomplished here at city council with the backup of all the information that will be provided. If it's that staff needs to be in front of you more often to describe the project the progress of all the projects that can be accommodated and we can come at a greater frequency than we are for the byanual and end of year. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We have just a few more comments. Representative Roachcha, she's gone. She'll be back. She'll be back. Okay. We'll come back to her. Representative Nino. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I I too I have a couple of questions. I'm just trying to get clarification of the authority, right? Um, district 5 had a massive growth from 2010 to 2020. We had a 47% growth. And I know that I always mention that every morning I look at the map. How am I going to get to city hall? This morning, Mundana was closed. It took me an hour and 5 minutes to get here to city hall. So, where I'm getting to is I am concerned in regards of the Monwood extension because that was part of the 2022 community progress bond. And I know we've had many conversations for the past few years even in my previous capacity. And I think really, you know, we've heard different things and really having that transparency is going to be extremely important of me understanding what would be the delay if there is a delay on the Mwood extension project just cuz again I know that we have a contract with the CRMA to start acquiring properties. What does that mean? Right? Because that was part of the 2022 community progress bond as well. So I think um maybe I don't know if Rep. Canales and Rep. Lemon could make a friendly amendment of possibly postponing this so that we could get more transparency of what the authority would look like, where it's going, where it's headed. Um, and also waiting for the item that Rep. Chavez, um, Maldonado and Trejo have put so that we could really combine and and collaborate of what that means. Uh, just cuz again, in general, I don't have enough information of what it means in regards of, you know, Mwood is a public safety concern to me. You know, in district 5, we have one fire station. I know we have a second fire station that's being built, but it takes about 14 minutes to travel from that fire station to the other side of my district and when there's live that's on the line, we need to ensure that we have connectivity. So, I do want to ensure that Monga does not get delayed at all and those would be, you know, my my input and comments on this. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Rocha. Thank you so much for answering and thank you to Rep. Canales and Rep. Leone for bringing this uh forward. It is valuable, I do believe, to to definitely look at extending BOAK. I'm I'm I believe that that oversight is very important. However, in light of the the the um the issue that we brought forth in January, I just want to get that uh information first and then make recommendations regarding that afterwards. Um, I've been in touch with the with the individual that rep that that sits on the Boat committee and they feel that it should be as needed. I think it should be extended. That that's my belief. However, I I am interested in finding out. um we have that work that's already been started and so I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what um what the city manager Mack and and staff have um have investigated and found before I'm able to to fully uh put myself behind this this particular um item. So, I just wanted to make sure that I let you all know why I'm not able to support it. It's not that I don't support it overall. It's just simply that I'd like to see what um what findings Miss Mack has and then move forward from there. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on this item? We have a motion and a second. Miss Prime, please call for the vote. Mayor, we also have public comment on this item. We have uh Mr. Rick Bonard followed by Lisa Turner. Okay. Good morning, Dr. Bon. You have Good morning, Mayor and Council. Good morning, Miss Mack. Um I'm here today to support this item. I think it's valuable to have uh citizen input. This is the link between the citizens and yourselves. Um a lot of times these projects are conceived in such a manner that they might not be as clear to you as the subject matter experts are as to the issues as to quorum. I never missed a meeting while I was the chairman of the BOAC and uh I don't think I ever missed a meeting while I was on the open space advisory board or the public service board. My point is is that the quality of people that you choose to serve on these is what's most important as to being able to get your quorums and have meetings function on time. As to the purview, I support this with this caveat that you do listen to your adviserss that you choose people that you want to be subject matter experts and are able to best guide you. You can't know everything about everything. No one can, not even Elon Musk. So, you know, I think it's important that you listen to your adviserss and you get their opinions on what what is important. I I also want to use some of my time here to defend something that was said. There's been no delay on these trails or trail head projects um because of BOAK. And in fact, it's just the opposite. BOAC and members of BOAK were most helpful in trying to establish where the money would best be spent. And since getting off Boak, I was shocked to see that the trail head that was supposed to be built at Bear Ridge and my attempts to coordinate the efforts to have the trail head built there with the public service board, what happened? The public service board did their project, then they fenced off where is supposed to be the trail head. And in fact, that open space that was purchased, there's no trespassing signs that were erected. That's completely an antithetical to what was supposed to happen and a waste of time and money. And when I was on BOAK, I brought this attention to the city engineer at the time and I said, "Why don't you do a change order with the public service board and let them do the dirt work while they're doing their project and that will save you time and money? We can actually So, it's very disappointing to see what the actual result was and it's because of a failure to listen to the recommendations. So, if you have a board, you should be willing to listen to their advice. And I spoke to you, mayor, before you were elected about this very issue that there are good resolutions that are coming out of these boards, but they're not making it to you or you're not listening or you're or we're being maligned when it's not true. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, Rick. Next speaker is Miss Lisa Turner. again mayor council morning. Good morning. I would not be in favor of this making it a standing committee because once you make it a standing committee the bureaucratic monster comes out and it wants to grab more power. And as I was sitting here listening to the discussion, I saw the bureaucratic monster's nose peek out from behind the door. Uh, but I do want to give you some insight. But before I give you that insight, I also want to mention when if you do do this, I want citizens on this board. I don't want a concentration of developers and real estate agents on this board. I want your regular everyday El Paso citizen get some real insight from your citizens. Now, let's talk about the boards. I've sat on the public utility regulation board, PSP selection committee, city manager selection committee, city charter rewrite, and most recently the women's rights commission. First off, if there's a problem with quorum, you have to start looking at yourselves because council members may wait 3 months, four months, 6 months, 8 months before even putting anybody on. That's your job. You've got to get those people out and get them involved in our government because it's the only way our government works. The other thing is to avoid some of the work delays with committees is the creation of subcommittees. If you creation create a twoerson or threeperson subcommittee, they can keep doing the work even though there's no quorum and then they can bring and report to whatever board they're working on and then they can make those decisions and go from there. The meeting schedules are another thing. A lot of these people are working everyday citizens. So they have to fit that meeting into their work schedule. So you'll have to look at that. How the meetings are constructed within state law and within ordinance. If you want to have an in-person meeting, you have to have, if I'm not mistaken five people. You have to have a quorum and then others can join in via computer. given everybody's busy day schedule, you know, the Zoom meetings or the team meetings are almost a more effective manner at getting so if I'm stuck somewhere in Los Cruus or Deming or out at the gun range, I can attend my meeting. So you know these are the things you have to look at and how it's again how the these meetings are conducted. So thank you Miss Turner. Oh thank you. Thank you Miss Turner. All right Miss Bryan seeing no further discussion uh please call for the vote. Was there was there amendment accepted and not accepted? No. Make a motion. Yep. So, we have a motion from uh represent Canal is seconded by represent Lemon. Yes, mayor. That's correct. And this is to direct the city manager and city attorney to prepare a resolution or ordinance as appropriate to establish the bond overview advisory committee boak as a permanent standing committee expanding his purview to include oversight functions related to city of El Paso bond funded projects beyond the 2012 quality of life bond program and to further direct that the work product related to this item be presented to the city council for consideration within 30 days. On that motion, call for the vote. and the voting session. And that motion fails. 2 to six. Representatives Lemon Canal is voting I. The remainder of council voting A. The motion fails. Yeah. I just want to thank council for the the the the great discussion around this item. And just a couple things from the public that stood out uh to me is um you know and I know during the the pandemic there was struggle sometimes getting quorum but you know most of us became experts at whether it was zoom whether it was that go to meeting or or what other uh uh teams you know we we became uh creatures at our home hopping on from one zoom call to another. I I think it's important you know and and I heard Dr. Bonard, you know, it's it's important to select individuals that are are truly wanting to serve and make the commitment to to attend these meetings because they're very important. And I also, you know, heard the conversation about, you know, we had asked for um the city uh staff to come back with a recommendation that we'll be coming back to uh this body on May 12th uh streamlining and looking at the various different uh um committees that we do have. And the ultimate goal is to improve uh our services here at the city. So, I'm looking forward to uh what uh the city manager's uh office brings back, but I I I I enjoyed the conversation. I enjoyed uh uh the the the uh the thoroughess of of what we talked about here today and um I want to thank council for participating on this one. Thank you, Mr. Bry. Yes, sir. That brings us to item 22 and this is discussion and action on a resolution that the city of El Paso hereby appoints the following board members to the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority Board for the positions identified below. And that's Matthew Maroy for position six, Lena Ortega position two, Robert Palasio position 4, and Monica Perez position one. Okay. Represent Lima. Thank you mayor. Thank you, mayor, very much. In looking back at several agendas, this particular item was posted before. Now, we've had an addition of a third member and a continuation of a fourth member, Monica Perez. Have no discussion. I think this is a continuation. She was serving an unexpired term because of a resignation, but for two council meetings, for whatever reason, those items did not go forth. I have a huge problem with this and I brought it up from the beginning. I have a huge concern first and foremost that we are appointing a county employee to serve as our representative. the to the CRRMA board. I have a problem with that and I'll share it in just a second. When Javier Bales was here earlier, he mentioned that there was a city representative, but he very clearly stated with no voting rights. I look at the other positions and I'm concerned. I figured I'd have an opportunity to vote no and that's what may come out as a result of this. But as of yesterday around 2:00 in the afternoon, I was made aware that two of the board members that are presently serving were not even aware that they were being replaced. They never received any kind of communication. They never got a letter saying, "Thank you for your services." It's simply appearing here. One of the board members is Colonel Jim Smith. I've had an opportunity to work with Colonel Smith for many, many years. Um, he's a 30-year military career man, highly decorated. Decided to retire in El Paso. He served on numerous boards like the El Paso Chamber, Hospice of El Paso, and on the UTIP Minor Foundation. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Jim Smith. The second person happens to be former Congressman Sylvester Reyes and he too was not notified either. Congressman Reyes served 16 years as a congressman and served on numerous national committees. I think it's best stated by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee when she praised Congressman Reyes by saying he was one of the wisest, most experienced leaders on national security and the particular issues that affect Americans living along the border and throughout the Southwest. He is recognized as a great friend of the army and was highly instrumental in crediting the success of Fort Bliss and White Sands in the most recent base realignment and closure decisions by the Department of Defense. I am extremely extremely disappointed that this is the way a board would operate and that we as a council would simply appoint other people to serve on this board. Every once in a while I get this conspiracy theory in my mind and I can only say that in my mind I can only look at the names that are being presented with the exception of Monica Perez and come to realize what is the definitive factor that they all share and all three of these people are staunch supporters of the deck park. It is for that reason, mayor, that I am going to ask that we vote on each one of these individuals separately rather than voting on all four of them. If we may, please. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Lemon. Represent Fier. Thank you, mayor. Mayor, I I need to bring a point that um when I look at these names in particular, former representative Ortega, impeccable record, impeccable background. She fought for us for eight years at in the state capital. She championed bills like the the the founding or the starting of the the the law uh clinic or the law courses here in or starting a law college here in El Paso. Monica Perez, a young, ambitious, great attorney who I think brings a lot to the board. Um m we we know Mr. Palasio from um coming before council, entrepreneur. He he's doing he you know he does a great job. I I think this mix is a good mix for this board. Um I and I need to ask Miss Mack. Um all we're doing is we're approving these names but isn't it the mayor's Yeah. So I I can take that one Mr. Mack. So what what's happening here is first of all we followed all the guidelines that uh we were supposed to follow and I worked with the chair of the C CRM to to um to do this and and he approved it and the folks that representative Lemon is talking about have termed out. So um um and we're just not reappointing them. So, and I and I agree with Representative Fiero that these are some uh uh very wellqualified candidates to to be on this board and uh or else I wouldn't be bringing them forward and and I think the the mix and the amount of service that they've given to this community is stellar. So, um I'd like to hear the other comments before we may just one last comment. I do agree with Representative Lemon in the fact that if ad the the CRMA did not think it was important enough to send a letter of of congratulations and thank you for the years of service to some their outgoing members. I think that's something that should be addressed, but that's not our responsibility. That's a that's a house cleaning issue on their part. I agree. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, sir. Representative Asetto. Thank you, Mayor. I I just wanted to clarify something maybe for I don't know. I'm I'm not trying to throw out some more work for this May 12th presentation, but from my understanding and I the mayor just confirmed the the terms have been over for these people that were on on this um board. So, I guess if we could kind of figure out when somebody's term is over, if we give them a thank you for serving on this board letter or something like that, cuz I mean, if if I knew that my term was over, I would step off the board knowing that my term is over at that point, right? And so, I I think it's it's a little stretch to say that none of these people were were notified. I think they fully knew that their terms were going to be over at at that point. But I do think it could be a good suggestion to say thank you for serving on this board and this this is for the CRM under their perview. They could have done it, but maybe thinking about that for all our boards. So not trying to throw throw more work on you on that. But then also, you know, when we have our our boards, it it is up to the the county employees that may be serving on many of our boards. It's not just this board. I know there's county employees on other boards. They figure that out on their own with their employer and their employer says yes, you can participate on this board or no, you cannot. Right? And so I I don't see how um we can ban county employees from being on this on any of our boards. May I just clarify that Michael Maroy works for the county, not Matthew. Oh, okay. So, okay. So, the that's a different person completely. and Matthew Mroy has no affiliation with the county of El Paso. But but either way, I think it's still okay for county employees to be on here and that's what I was trying to get to the greater extent. So, thank you for clarifying that. And um I I do make a motion to approve all four. Second. There's a motion in a second. We have some further discussion. Uh Representative uh Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. and and I agree with Representative Lemon that um there are many valuable people in our community that have stepped up to serve in different boards and we appreciate their service, but at the same time um we have been selected by the voters of El Paso to be on this DAS and people that serve on our committees and board serve at at our pleasure and I for one am very grateful for the people of District 1 that have stepped up to serve on on the boards that I have already assigned and others that I'm about to assign and I'm sure that many other people on this dis feel the same way. Um, you know, it's just a blessing to have a lot of people in our community that are knowledgeable, willing, and able and have a heart for serving our community. We're not the only ones and we're not alone. And so I I also um just a agree with with other people, you know, Fiero and and Asaveto that we should um really appreciate the level of service that we are getting from our constituents and there are many many valuable people in our community and and I and I think that I'm very grateful for them and so thank you. Thank you, Representative Lemon. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I I guess I guess when you have two really outstanding members, outstanding with long ties to our community serving. It isn't like it's um that they didn't provide service to the community. But I go back to my theory and belief that all of them with the exception of Monica Perez are deeply tied in to the deck part. I'm disappointed that my colleague would not allow me to vote on these individually, but I will go on record to state that for me, I would vote no number one, two, three, and would vote yes for Monica Perez only. And again, I'm disappointed in that. Thank you, mayor. You're welcome. Represent. Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to also I I forgot to mention that I I wanted to thank your office for the outreach that they did to my office. I assume it was to all the council offices on recommendations for names to be submitted to your office on on um for for consideration for this board. So I I do feel that you really ran a great process kind of going through um once um from January to here. Uh I I really appreciated the fact that I could suggest names to you. And and then you know um just going back to Robert's rules, Miss Prime, um anybody could make any motion at any time, right? So uh at the time that I made my motion, there was no motion on the floor. That's correct. There was you your motion was the first motion made. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, Miss Bryan, we see no further discussion or hearing none. Please call for the vote. We do have Miss Turner signed up for this item. Mayor and to clarify your motion, Repa Sea was the only one that got a second. And the only motion on the floor, too. That's correct. Thank you. Again, good morning, Mayor and Council. I cannot say I support this. Hearing that there's a county employee being appointed to represent the city, I find objectable. That's what I heard. Is it true? No, ma'am. Michael Maroy is the employee for the county. Matthew is a relative, but he's he's not a county. All right. That aside, I object to its posting. Uh, I don't know what members of city council are for this. Their name should be on this posting. Members of city council, I don't even know if it's the members of the El Paso, Texas city council, might be Horizon, it might be Los Cusus. There are no names associated here. I'd like to see names. So, I'm challenging you this on your posting. probably won't succeed. But I need to know what members of city council have agreed to this. What members of city council are doing this? I want transparency like this word everybody likes to throw around and then when it gets uncomfortable there's this opaque barrier that nobody can see into. And this is where I think we're going. Uh I I don't know what to say. I do say this. If somebody is serving and you don't have a common decency to let them know, okay, your term's coming up, whoever appointed them or whatever council member or whoever from legal or city manager's office responsibility, you know, I got questions. So, who are the members of city council who signed on to this agenda? I'm assuming it wasn't Miss Leone. Crickets. I don't even hear a cricket. This is telling. If a member of city council doesn't have enough integrity to stand and say up, yes, I was for this, there's not much else to say. Represent. Yeah. Mayor, may I explain? Yeah, sure. Um, Mr. Turner, where it says members of the city council, it says that if you'll see on item 19, 20, 21, and 22, that's the name of the section of the agenda. And then after that, it says Mayor Renard Johnson. So, the CRMA appointments are made. All I know is, if I may finish, please. Okay. There the CRMA appointments are made by the mayor and confirmed approved by the council in this manner. And so the mayor conducted a process whereby he asked the council for submission of of potential candidates. Um and then uh they went through a selection process to end up here on the agenda and they were posted by the mayor uh which is why he's listed as the uh the contact on this agenda item. But the where it says members of the city council, it says that on on all of the items before the name of the uh of the poster. That's just the name of the section. Yeah. 21 I see that but when I look at 23 I see office of the controller and then I see a name and a phone number and I see yes. So if you look between the manager's office and a phone number which is usually what I have seen for the last three days. So if you look between items 22 and 23 there's a section header that's the operational focus updates section of the agenda. And so those are presented by the comp the the office of the controller and the city manager's office. Let me put it to you this way. In all the agendas that I've looked at, this is the first time I've ever seen members of city council and a mayor's name. That's the department name, ma'am. That we post on on the agenda whenever uh people post items on the agenda. We always post post the department that they're from and then their name. Yeah. But there are no names. It just says members of city council and it says Mayor Renard Johnson. Mr. Mayor Johnson posted the Mayor Johnson and but it says members of city council. That's the department. That's the department elected members and there's not there's no name. But that's the department that that it falls under. It's it's always the department and then the sponsor's name. I would have said city council but not members. When you say members, you open it up that it's unanimous and apparently it is not because we just heard Miss Leone and Miss Lemon's partner. I'm sorry. I'm tired. I mispronounce names when I get tired. There's at least one objection. So, I know it's not unanimous. Okay. So, that's why I'm asking. Thank you. Miss Miss Prime, we have Is there any further discussion hearing? None. Miss Prime, please call for the vote. Yes, mayor. The motion was made by Representative Asseo, seconded by alternate mayor Prom Fiero, and this is to approve the appointment of the four members listed to the Camino Rail Regional Mobility Authority Board. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And the motion passes 6 to1. Representative Lemon voting nay. The remainder of council voting I and representative Maldonado Rocha had an emergency and has left the meeting. So she's not present. Yeah. And and and I think it's important to note here that um first of all we followed the process. Okay. So if the process needs to be improved that's a whole another uh discussion. Second of all second uh comment is these are very very qualified individuals to be on on this board. I'm very pleased to bring their names forward for the consideration and I thank council for for voting them on this board and the outgoing members that that are leaving you know we have to figure out a better way of thanking them for for their service but their terms did end. I also want to recognize that the word conspiracy that I haven't reached out to any of them and I don't believe there's a conspiracy to do anything uh uh here in El Paso or against El Paso. super proud of the individuals. They have done a a tremendous amount of public service in our community and they will continue to do and I want to thank them and congratulate them on their selection to the CRMA board. Thank you, M. Brian. Would you like to continue with item 23? Yes. Item 23 is a presentation and discussion on a report by Forvis Mazers LLP on the financial and grants audit of the city of El Paso. The report to city council will include the audit opinion regarding the city financial statements and a brief overview of the financial results for the city for the fiscal year ended August 31st, 2024. Good morning. Good morning, mayor and council. Margarita Maren, deputy CFO and controller. So here with me is Rachel Orsby. She represents she's a partner at the forbism massars LLP our external auditors and she will be uh walking through walking you through the presentation of the results of the audit for fiscal year 2024. We did this presentation already to FAK in March 13. So I'm going to welcome and I Rachel and I hope that you enjoy the presentation. All right, thank you Margarita. All right, let me get my technology working. Good morning, mayor, city council. Happy to be here this morning. All right. Uh, as Margarita mentioned, I am Rachel Msby and I serve as your audit partner on the fiscal year 2024 engagement. Uh, here's a little bit about our firm. Uh, we are new to the city. Uh, this was our first year under contract and I'm excited to share the audit results that we've already had the privilege of sharing with FOAC a few weeks ago. Okay, so here on the screen are all of the deliverables that we were engaged to complete for the city. As you can see, the annual comprehensive financial report, that is the thick 200 plus page book that I'm sure you all have had the privilege of reading at this point, as well as a couple of others. the single audit in accordance with the uniform guidance and the Texas grant management standards as well as the PFC report for the airport and a couple of other agreed upon procedures um to be in compliance with state statutes. All right. So pleased to share with you all that the city did receive clean unmodified opinion. So that is the highest level of assurance and what every governmental entity strives to achieve. Um, as I mentioned on that previous screen, there were a lot of deliverables that we were engaged to report on, but you're getting a clean, unmodified opinion on your financial statements as a whole. So, reasonable assurance on those financial statements, as well as anytime an organization spends more than 750,000 in grants, you're required to have a separate compliance audit. So, you're getting a clean, unmodified opinion on the compliance piece as well as over internal controls. Okay. And then kind of along those same lines with the grants, uh there were five major programs that were required to go under um audit and review for fiscal year 2024. Uh two being federal grants and three being state as you can see here on the screen. I'm not going to read them to you, but those all uh also went under audit and we did not identify any compliance issues and we did not identify any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. So, every one of these grants um they were in compliance and had really good internal controls over compliance. Um I thought this was a really important slide. I had the privilege to to present this to FAK a few weeks ago. um achievements. You know, I think it's important to step back and note that this is a very big undertaking for the office of the comproller. You know, fiscal year end is 831 and it is 6 months of very long hard work to get to this point. Um and I did some research on this. So, the city has received the prestigious certificate of excellence in financial reporting for 26 consecutive years. So, I do a lot of presentations across the state uh for cities and this is one of the longest standing histories that I have seen. And in addition to that, the city is also a triple crown winner. So, you're only one of 25 cities in the state of Texas that have been uh deemed with this highest honor. And so, it's something to really be proud of. I think a lot of times people don't acknowledge that. I was in an Uber ride earlier uh telling your my Uber driver how great uh the city is with their finances. So just something to really really be proud of. Um again we did not have any audit adjustments. So as part of our audit process we did not come in and identify any material audit adjustments that were required to be made to the financial statements. So again a great job there. Um I'm not going to go through all these slides. There's a lot and we went into great detail with FOA. But this is just every set of financial statements. They contain estimates and so this is a list that we believe are uh important to you all and then we walked through what we do from an audit standpoint with these estimates. And again along those same lines, every set of financial statements contains very important footnote disclosures pensions other post-employment benefits. Those are things that we deem as your auditor important. And if you have a chance to to read the ACT for you will see those. Um, and I do want to point before I move really quick to future announcements, um, the MDNA. So, it's 20 maybe 20 pages, 15 to 20 pages in the Afford, uh, that is the best place for you all to go. It's, um, like I said, a very high level summary and the office of the comproller worked really hard to put that together that really talks about the es and flows of what happened in fiscal year 24. So, it's a it's a really good read if you get a chance to. Okay. So, it's not an audit presentation if we don't talk about where Gazsby's headed. Um, there's a couple of standards coming down the pipeline, none of which I believe should be material. In years past, Gazsby's been very busy. Uh, Gazsby 101 will work with the city to get this implemented in fiscal year 25 that we're in. I don't foresee this having a material impact on the city's financials. Gazsby 102, again, applicable to this fiscal year 25 that we're in, but we're talking about 24. Um, again should not have a a material impact. It's really a footnote disclosure standard. Gazsby 103, the financial reporting model, they have made some changes that that is one year out fiscal year's 26. So again, we'll work with the city management team there to ensure this is properly updated. And then Gazsby 104, it's also not applicable till fiscal year 26, but we'll also work with city staff on this. And again, this is a footnote disclosure. So, so no significant changes to your financial statements. Um, and then on this same vein, uh, the city is in compliance with all Gazsby standards that have been issued so far. So, we are up to Gazsby 100 for those of you that have been around a while. Um, uh, Gazsby, you know, started out and now we're in triple digits. Uh, but the city is in compliance with all standards through fiscal year 24. So with that, I am happy to answer any questions that anybody has at this time. Rachel, great great report and and I just want to read one line. You started off by saying we had a very clean report and then one of the achievements says the city of El Paso, Texas has received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from government finance officers associations of the United States and Canada for 26 consecutive years. That is correct. And we are one of 27. We're a triple crown winner. That is correct. And something that I don't think a lot of people may realize and you know that is just kudos and a testament to the office of the comproller. They do great work. Um and it's something that should be you know recognized. I think we should pause there at least for an applause on that one. [Applause] Represent Canales. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. um you were contracted to to conduct this audit. So I can't say thank you for doing the work you were contracted for to to do but I can say thank you for the the quality of the work and and particularly I think the quality of the presentation. So um you know we we appreciate the the clear communication. I'm not a member of the FOAC uh but I did uh watch the meeting back and you gave a wonderful presentation there. I think any member of the public who wants to dive into this further uh that video is online. Yeah. uh and and they can go watch uh that or or read the backup documentation. But uh thank you again for the clarity of the the presentation and uh yeah, thank you very much, Rachel. Thank you. Any further questions? Hearing that, Rachel. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, we do have public comment from Miss Turner on this item. She's waving. She's waving. Okay. So that brings us to items 24 to 28. This is the first reading of ordinances. Mayor, I move to approve the introduction of the first reading of ordinances on our agenda. Second. There's a motion in a second. Is there any discussion hearing? None. Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. There was a motion made by Representative Lemon, seconded by alternate mayor promp. And this is to approve items 24 to 28, the introduction of ordinances. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Malonado Rocha and ADO not present. Can we take 29? Yes sir. Item 29 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024-0387 on call plumbing services to BA Bella Luna Engineering and building maintenance for an initial term of 3 years an estimated amount of $360,000. This contract will allow the repairs and maintenance for all plumbing at city-owned facilities. Okay. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion a motion to approve item number 29. Very pleased that it is a local firm. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion, Miss Bryan? Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Lemon, seconded by Mayor Prom Chavez, and this is to approve the solicitation on item 29 on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Malonado Roachcha not present. Miss Brown, can we take 30? Yes, sir. Item number 30 is discussion and action that the city manager or designate be authorized to effectuate the listed budget transfer to number one setup county P25 digital radio system reimbursement revenue of $320,788.36 to use for IT infrastructure 2025 project equipment needs. And item three, to transfer $195,338.65 from unprogrammed project balances into the Penguin exhibit project. Number four, transfer $285,98063 from unprogrammed project balances to complete Donafan and West Green traffic signal project. and number five to transfer $172,9043 from neighborhood improvement projects master to set up East Cape hard project. I think we have a a live mic. Please make sure if you're in teams that you're muted. All right, Miss Bryan, we have a motion in a second. Is there any discussion on item number 30? Hearing none, Miss Fry. Yes, sir. The motion was made by alternate mayor prompo, seconded by representative lemon. And this is to approve the four listed project transfers as read into the record. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Maldonado Rocha not present. Mayor, may we go to call public straight up 12 o'clock. The El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge. The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council. All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane, threatening, or abusive language. Public comment will not be used for personal attacks, nor may any member of the public use this forum for political statements or campaigning. Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda. However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda. This afternoon we have 11 members of the public that signed up to speak. The first person is Darnell Johnson III. His topic is transgender and equality. He will be followed by Elizabeth Crawford and Claudia Contreas. Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson. You have three minutes. Good afternoon. Afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon, city council. Uh my name is Private First Class Johnson. Um, I came here to discuss transgender inequality, starting with the topic of whether transgender males should be allowed to compete in women's sports. And the right thing would be no. Why? Because it's not fair to all the other great athletes that did things the right way and had to work a little bit harder in order for them to accomplish what they accomplished. So, the answer will be no. But that doesn't mean that they can't compete. It just means that they require something that we haven't done before. So what I propose is this. I propose the National Transgender Olympics. Um a sporting competition where members of the LGBTQ community, aka transgenders, compete with other transgenders from all countries worldwide. Why Olympics? because I doubt that they are only interested in one sport. So, you may as well just give them every sport at once. The competition would have to be separated into two categories. Transgenders that were born as males will compete with other transgenders that were born as males. And transgenders that were born as females will have to compete with other transgenders that were born as females. And that's how they will compete. Why should we do any of this in the first place? because it allows them to be who they are. Why should they be allowed to be who they are? Because if you don't, it's going to lead to depression and ultimately suicide. And second, because it's nothing wrong with who they are. I feel as though they are treated the way they're treated in the first place because they're not what you want them to be. But just because they're not what you want them to be, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing something wrong. The only way their true potential can show itself is if they are allowed to be who they are. Just like Elen John, just like Prince and whoever else in the the world looked at as if they were different, but because they were allowed to be who they are. That's the only reason why they turned out to be as big as they were. A and the same thing should be done for transgenders pretty much. Um, a reality that we have to come to terms with when we have kids is that there's a good chance that that kid will either be gay or trans when they get older. And regardless of what they are, it's our responsibility as the parent to support them as best as we can regardless of who they are, as long as it's not dangerous to theirel and or others. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford. Miss Crawford's topic is the massacre on Mount Calvary. Good afternoon, Miss Crawford. Star six, please to unmute your microphone. Miss Crawford, you're on mute. Star six, please. Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Good afternoon. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. the eyes of El Paso and and to some degree of the nation and even other nations of the world um have been on the situation with Patrick Crusio on the court decisions regarding the sentencing of this young man. What strikes me in all the pictures I see is a look of stunned horror on the faces of all those who are in vicinity of this young man as he enters a courtroom. Horror over the crime scene, over the events at the Walmart, the memories of of those events. This month, many of us take time to focus on another horrific beyond words crime scene. One even more horrific than Walmart, though that is hard to imagine. Mount Golatha, Mount Calvary, that is called the place of the skull. It's no accident that it happened during Passover, for indeed Jesus is the ultimate Passover, the lamb. We are told in Isaiah 52 and 53, written centuries before the death of Christ. Isaiah, "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, the king shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and what that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" speaking of the suffering of Christ. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And farther down, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he has poured out his soul unto death and he is numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. In Spanish um you have it right. It's pasqua is one word the it's the same word for Passover and for resurrection Sunday. He is the ultimate Passover sacrifice. Praise God for a sacrifice for sin. Hope you all have a very good day. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Claudia Contas. Miss Contra's topic is animal cruelty against cats. She will be followed by Sarah Brown. Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I want to give thanks to Jesus Christ because he created the heaven and earth and he gave us the animals. And I am very happy I can display this beautiful flag that is the El Paso Police Department. I'm sorry. I want to I want to talk of what happened this week. This weekend Saturday, I picked up three kittens that they were removed from their mom. Three kittens died on me on Saturday. Sunday morning, someone called me to tell me that someone was stomping a cat to death in an apartment complex. The police was called during the night. They they didn't show up because they're short staff. And I just asked for the public records and it's very hard that this is going on in our city. This was Sunday, right? And then in the afternoon, I went to help more animals. I helped I went to go help an elderly person to buy cat food. And yesterday, a friend called me that someone mur murdered two cats and they're they're appearing dead. So, this is three days of animal cruelty. So, I think we need to fight animal cruelty now. And it's not just any war. It's a war against evil. And not a lot of people understand what the cats go through. And as a Mexican, I can tell you that the culture hates the cats. The three kittens I picked up, it was obvious that they removed them from the mom. They left them to freeze and of hunger. And that's why I think uh the animal cruelty unit and animal services need to be answering these animal cruelty calls during the night. And if you all approve a third shift, you even can hire me and I can bring reports because I I consider myself to be an expert. I've been feeding strays for eight years. I've been seeing everything. I I forgot to add that Sunday when I was uh in the fork of the 601 uh I was going to enter the 54. I picked up a dead black kitten of two months that his leg was ripped. I have moved more than 300 dead animals from the streets and I know when it's a car whatever. So I posted a live video and also I want to mention another animal cruelty case. This was months ago that someone was releasing dogs for three months, killing the cats from Marty Robbins all the way to Ascarat Park. And I was the one that found out the address, got the news. It was on teleundo univision. I was after those dogs. Two weeks people were attacking me. People do not understand what the cats go through. Please is your chance to do something memorable for the city just as Chief Allen did with the animal cruelty unit. Thank you. The next speaker is Sarah Brown. Miss Brown's topic is experience at El Paso Animal Services as a volunteer. Good afternoon, Miss Brown. You have three minutes. Um good afternoon everyone and thank you for your time. I don't think I'll take all three minutes. I just really wanted to take um a moment to recognize the staff at animal services. I understand that they have been getting a bad rap. Um, and I don't think that the public understands that they take in almost 600 animals daily. Um, I often volunteer there weekly with rescue runners as well as um, going and helping with any events they have and I just really want to recognize them for their professionalism and for the amount of work they have, the care that they take for these animals and the amount of work they're doing. it's not going unnoticed. And I just wanted to take some time to let you all know that um I know there's been some negative feedback, but from what I've experienced, I've experienced nothing but professionalism and care for all of the animals. Um all I think 600 in their care. So that was all I wanted to do was just take time to recognize the city staff that work there and um the amazing work of the volunteers. Thank you. Thank Thank you. The next speaker is Barbara Valencia. Her topic is animal services, ghost animals. She will be followed by Ron Ko, Karen Washington, Rick Bonard, Joshua Simmons, Arno Ernnandez, and Abel Rodriguez Jr. Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue Ghost Animals. At the last city council meeting, I introduced AnnBth, one of the many animals animal services that have ignored and abandoned in foster homes. A week ago, this dog was found wandering the streets. This dog is currently listed at animal services as a six-month old puppy in foster care for 172 days. Um, on the day she was found and is not spayed for 171 days, there was no follow-up done to check the status of this dog. how she was doing in a foster home, if she was even still in the foster home. Had she escaped, if she was given to someone else, or was a foster home no longer able to care for this puppy, and with no followup or assistance being done by animal services, did the foster home have no other alternative but to put the puppy out on the streets. Just like Annth and thousand of thousands of others, this dog is a ghost animal. Ghost animals are those that have been put in the foster homes with no follow-up being done. basically abandoned by the shelter as if they didn't exist in hopes of never being seen again, literally becoming ghosts. The ghost animals and animal services foster care system has been a known problem since 2023. Thousands of animals missing and never seen again. and the current council members for districts 2, 6, and 8 were made aware of the missing animals in 2023 and have chosen to ignore the failed foster care system and the innocent ghost animals, thus allowing this practice to continue. Once an animal is taken in and housed at the shelter or in a designated foster home, the director of animal services is responsible for the basic care and welfare of the animal. and the city is legally obligated to ensure the care and welfare for the animal is being provided. We have been witnessing firsthand the tragedy that is inevitable for these ghost animals, ending up abandoned on the streets where their survival is bleak, if not deadly, or being passed around or abandoned and left in unregulated environments where their basic care and welfare is far from being adequate or not being provided at all. In some instances, mayor, city council members, and city manager, while the director is the one responsible, you are the ones legally obligated to these ghost animals, and you are legally and morally accountable as well. With the fiscal year 2026 budget planning already underway, now is the time to have a complete and thorough independent audit of animal services to see what the issues are, how to fix and improve animal services, and the estimated cost to implement the muchneeded changes. It's time for you as elected officials to end our local government's mentality of celebrating and rewarding failure, as is the case with animal services. Instead, you need to fulfill your obligations to both the animals in our community and to the taxpayers. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Ron Kuo. Mr. Ko's topic is exercising his constitutional rights to the rescue 1984. Good after Good afternoon, Mr. Ko. Thank you. You have three minutes, sir. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Let me just start out with something. El Paso Animal Services Shelter Report. for two of of 25. Total live intake for the entire month is 1659 pets. Not sure where 600 came into play, but and that's verifiable on your thing. Um, I would like to start out by saying I think a common courtesy would be for the person that invited a bunch of rescues together to talk would explain why the change in thought process since been put in place. Um, I would also like to say a staff member asked me if I could give them give her a list of shelters that did a good job and kind of threw me because we spend all our time fighting the hos shelter plan because it's the worst sheltering plan in US history. And I I could have pointed directly at the city of El Paso because the city of El Paso was doing tremendous and people were pointing at us and going look how good they're doing since we implemented our shelter plan in 16 17 18 and 19. Come 2021 22 23 everybody's pointing at us and going what happened? Now the other thing I'd like to bring up is policies and procedures. At the last meeting, policies and procedures were brought up. And I got to say, if we're going to follow policies and procedures, then we need to start by replacing the HOS sheltering plan with back to our original nokill plan that we put in in 2015 because the HOS sheltering plan was never approved by following policies and procedures by the city of El Paso. Fact. If you need copies of the original plan, Barbara and I both have them. You know, you you you guys keep telling us policies and procedures, policies. Well, you guys don't. Policies and procedures, rules and regulations. On the ASAC committee on the book, it tells you that we follow the Robert's rules. Well, I was told in Oscar's offices, well, we kind of pick and choose. Do we follow rules? Do we follow policies and procedures? No. Barbara Valencia was called and said she didn't follow policy and procedures at the last meeting. I'm sorry, but she did. She was also accused of being banned by the city at another time. She was wrongfully when I pointed it out to Oscar. It got fixed. So, somebody owes Barbara an apology for saying that she violated policy and procedures. And I find that extremely funny because the city is the worst at following policies and procedures. And I highly recommend that we put our original plan back in place because it was the only one that was ever put in properly. We are following the HOS program. I can prove it. We are not following the no kill equation. I can prove it. We are not following our plan and I can prove that also. So what are we going to do folks? Thank you Mr. Ko. Thank you Ron. Thank you. The next speaker is Karen Washington. Miss Washington's topic is animal services. Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, city council. El Paso strong, they say. Are we really? Are we really El Paso strong? Four days ago from El Paso County Judge Sango. Today we held the first city county meeting with Mayor Renard Johnson, city manager Dion Mack, and county chief administrator Betsy Keller. A strong partnership between the city and county is essential. By aligning our goals, we can identify gaps, maximize resources, and implement effective solutions that benefit all El Paso residents. So, El Paso Animal Services used to allow the intake of dogs from the county animal welfare for a fee per dog. Today, this is not the case. And the number of dogs that are on the county streets and roads is unacceptable. Animal services allows the county one dog per day. One dog per day. And that dog must be sick, injured, or aggressive. This has to change. And it has to change now. The county has plans to build a shelter for county animal welfare, but this will take an estimated four to five years. Why can't our city, our city-f funded shelter be more help than hindrance? I am here as a rescuer who sees on a daily basis the number of dogs and puppies that are in our county areas. Just yesterday, a man found a litter of five puppies. Let me see your poster. Five puppies right here out in the desert abandoned. They were dehydrated and with time they would have died a long excruciating death. This, my friends, is animal cruelty. And speaking of animal cruelty, this month El Paso Animal Services will launch its annual prevention of cruelty to animals month campaign to raise awareness of animal cruelty and human violence. I am here strongly suggesting that animal services do the right thing and allow the intake of dogs from the county areas at least temporarily or we continue this path of seeing dogs and puppies abandoned packs of dogs roaming and endangering the residents of El Paso. This poster I made here is from two weeks ago when I met you all. Um, this is one I put together today. And until you see you, you can't acknowledge what you don't see. And this is a crisis, y'all. We have dogs everywhere. Okay? We have people abandoning their dogs because our city is our city shelter is not transparent. They're making it hard for people to surrender their dogs. I had a lady call me yesterday, "My house has been foreclosed on. I have two cats. I don't have anywhere for them to go." Yesterday, uh, a lady moved two days prior. a single mom of two kids left her two dogs abandoned. Our city shelter has got to start accommodating the people that um need help. So, um I just ask for your for your help maybe getting this uh El Paso Animal Services to start allowing the dogs from the county areas to come back in. Um otherwise, we're going to stay in this big black hole, y'all. It's pretty bad. So, okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next speaker is Rick Bonard. Mr. Bonart's topic is mountain to river trail. He will be followed by Joshua Simmons. If we can turn on the Elmo, please. It will need the Elmo for Dr. Bonard, please. Uh good morning everybody. Still morning. Uh I um am here today and I can speak uniquely about the mountain to river trail because in 2009 it was myself, Chuck Cushian and Kevin vonfinger who came up with the idea of a mountain to river trail. Now, this precedes the 2012 quality of life bond. This precedes the formation of BOAK or even the formation of the open space advisory board. So, this has been a longstanding project and one that has always been supposed to be a natural trails project. It's never been thought of as being along sidewalks or streets or bike lanes. It's always been envisioned as an open space project. and it appears in fact in the green plan, the open space plan for El Paso that was formulated after we originally conceived of the trail. Now, what's happened in the meantime is that for some strange reason, it's become morphed into a project that's been designed around sidewalks and that's not a good idea. It's again anthetical to what the original purpose and proposal was. The also there have been multiple opportunities to address this and get this going in the right direction. And I can show you some instances of when this occurred and why it's so important to refocus our efforts. And so um in July of 2021, um this is from the bond oversight committee. There was a motion made and the motion is basically to recommend the mountain to river trail follow a natural path through a vispa canyon and the same thing happened in 2021 at OSAP. Also, this is a route that was proposed by the public service board to allow for an open space route and it's proposed in 2020. And I know that they're working on this now. I don't know if that's going to come up and it's very hard for you to see which is again why it would be handy to allow people to make presentations on PowerPoint, but that strip of land and at the bottom of it if you can show the date that would be really handy. It's five years ago. So the notion that this has not been well understood is a fallacy. Also, here's a listing of the the meetings that have occurred as to when people wanted to to um public meetings about the Mountain to River Trail. And I want you to notice that in one column, all the zeros. And what those are is the number of persons from the public that were allowed to attend. Most of this vetting that occurred regarding this trail has been done on a staff level. In other words, without the public, but at the public meetings, you'll see that there are very small number of people that attended. Thank you, Dr. Broner. The reason and I can attest that I was some of those members and we've always asked for the same thing. So, this may be a great item for you guys to bring back to city council so I could give you a full presentation from all the years that this has been proposed. Thank you, Dr. Bonard. The next speaker is Joshua Simmons. Mr. Simmons, topic is the Texas 89th Legislature SE session in opposition to House Bill 912 and Senate Bill 103. Good afternoon, city council, distinguished city staff. My name is Joshua Simmons. I'm a resident of district 5. I wanted to bring um a statement of concern that hopefully within your uh elected power you can uh assist in addressing this locally as it does address uh affect our county and specifically our city. Um so I'll have a prepared statement. I'll read the proposed HB uh 912 authored by Representative Moody, District 78, and SB103 authored by Senator Blanco, SD uh 29, currently under consideration in the 89th Texas Legislature. Uh this these bills are relating to the compensation of distributed renewable generation for owners in certain areas outside of Urkott, which is pretty much the entirety of El Paso County as El Paso Electric is part of the western interconnect and not part of OT um which is the unregulated market in Texas. Uh these bills introduce policies that could further undermine the financial viability of rooftop solar for homeowners. At a time when El Paso Electric is seeking a rate increase uh affecting all residential uh consumers, it is critical to ensure that access to affordable and resilient energy solutions like rooftop solar is not further restricted. El Paso Electric already imposes a uh $3025 uh monthly minimum bill on solar adopting customers regardless uh regardless of how much energy they generate. HB 912 and SB10003 provides uh no protections for fair solar uh compensation further disadvantages the homeowners who have already invested in the renewable energy future. These policies discourage from solar adoption and limit energy independence. Uh these proposals uh place a burden on residents seeking relief from rising utility costs now and into this foreseeable future. This current Texas legislation aligns with the ongoing federal efforts to curtail renewable energy investments prioritizing fossil fuel special interest over distributive renewable energy resources. If a demand-based billing model is implemented alongside widespread deployment of existing smart meters, El Paso homeowners could face high uh peak demand charges and scheduled rates that increase energy costs while reducing their control over energy use. Such a system would absolutely benefit a monopoly utility like El Paso Electric and by maximizing profits at the expense of residential rateayers ability for clean energy affordability and resilience. Net metering remains a key policy for energy afford um for energy affordability and resilience. Um enabling fair credits for our solar energy generation by homeowners with systems installed um making solar more accessible to homeowners who wish to adopt it. And uh one of the misconceptions is that uh it is expensive. The technology itself is very affordable and modular. Um but the part that is most expensive and unattainable for many residents and homeowners is the financial packages and then the long-term uh periods of repayment and return on their investment. So thank you very much. The next speaker is Arnold Ernnandez followed by Abel Rodriguez Jr. Mr. Nandez topic is a Mexican-American cultural center. Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon Mayor Johnson, members of the city council. Last week we had the grand opening of the Mexican-American Cultural Center here in El Paso. We heard u mariachi bis florico plays and much more. But there was nothing about veterans. Today I want to address the absence of our veterans being included acknowledged in mech. You know, it's ironic that we call ourselves the capital, the United States capital for veterans. The blueprint for MAC contain a veterans hall of fame, although I think a veterans hall of honor would be more appropriate in the context of what we're trying to do with MAC. So, what happened? What changed? Well, we should honor and display our pride for our veterans that served our country with honor. Marcelino Cernna from El Paso was the most highly decorated Texan soldier in World War I. Ambrosio Guen, a student from Buie High School from which I graduated many years later, received postumously the Medal of Honor in the Korean War. our very own Company E, the only all Mexican-American enlisted unit in the entire United States Army in World War II, mostly from El Paso. They were federalized and incorporated into the fifth army and spent their entire life in the service in the Korean in the U um Italian campaign. A monument to the men of company sits right outside the mag. It rises to the dignity of the sacrifice they made for their country and for you and for me. There are many more veterans to be honored than that I have time to mention. So what happened here? Why no Hall of Honor for our veterans? Why were they ignored, not acknowledged, not even mentioned? So I'm asking Mr. Fiero, my representative on the city council. Mr. Chris Canales, where the MAC sits in your district and Miss Lemon, you are the most familiar member of the present city council of MAC while you were working with MSI. You folks need to place an item on the agenda for our next meeting that covers um the Maxame Council Center for discussion and action. Bring the director of the um MAC and Mr. FY to come and explain what happened here, why they were omitted. There's a whole bunch of veterans that would like to visit with you and help you create a wall of honor for the men of company for veterans. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your service, sir. Thank you. And the final speaker is Abel Rodriguez Jr. also speaking regarding the Mexican-American Cultural Center Historical Archive. Good morning, Mayor and Council. My name is Abel Rodriguez. I'm a a central guy and I too attended the uh MAC uh uh opening ceremonies and uh beautiful facility for you know the level that it's at. I wish it could have been bigger but that's okay. But one of the things that uh I believe should be a uh a diamond uh responsibility of this center would be a historical archive and the many uh historical people that have been through this city. Um you know Rudy Teas, do you know who Rudy Teas was? Rudy Teas was the one of the original producers of the Johnny uh Carson Show. a uh a graduate of UTEP. Uh John Cados, another Southside uh uh very interesting uh gentleman taught at UTEP. I was there when he was teaching. He was in New York radio when it when minorities and nothing didn't even matter. He was just good at what he did. and uh you know even politically uh Alisa Chaakon with all her accolades and everything the responsibility of historical archive is more important because a lot of these people are are gone they're no longer with us and uh we just can't afford to not be able to archive how they got to where they got how were they how were they brought up what were their family like things like that where, you know, it's the Mexican-American Cultural Center. I can say it where our children can go and watch these stories. I know there is a Digi Board. I saw it and you can go and touch a face and something pops up and that's great. So, that's already there, but I'm talking about the responsibility of going out into the community and recording historical archive and development, developing it any way uh you want and you can. Uh, you have Home Jomero Galias who has interviewed every major uh, business uh, Latino business, Hispanic, Mexican-American businessman talking about their families and everything that should be part of an archive that could be available through the Mexican-American Cultural Center. Um, you know, it's the reason that I think it's so important right now is because of the current state of affairs in the great country of America where things are being erased. Um, I don't think we're even going to get to see the uh the Latino uh museum even go up because of what's going on right now. So, why not us become our own historical archive in that beautiful place we just opened up where people could go do research, could record. I mean, there's there's already a uh a recording studio there you have for uh for podcast and it's just a beautiful place, but I really believe the responsibility of historical archive should be one of their top priorities. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you, Represent Lemon. Thank you, mayor. Just for clarification Abel um, the honorable judge Alicia Chakon is still alive. Spoke to her this morning before council meeting. Right. Thank you. You want to report her before she goes? Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you guys for those comments. Mayor, that concludes call to the public. Thank you, Miss Ry. If we may continue on page number 10, the next item is 31. Okay. And this is discussion and action to approve the FY2024 2025 audit plan second quarter updates. Good afternoon. Good afternoon everybody. Luna Calderon, chief internal auditor for the city of El Paso. With me I have uh bless you uh Liz Elizabeth de Lao. She's my uh deputy she's the deputy chief internal auditor. we came together. Uh so at this point I do not know exactly what I I think if Okay, good. I was better. Yeah, thank you mayor. I'm sorry for not waiting. Um if anybody wants to see the presentation, we could look at the presentation. Um if anybody has any questions or answers because they reviewed the presentation part, we could answer that. But if not, um th this item we don't need to take action on it. It's just a an update. So, um, we already saw this through the FOC. FOAC. We met on March 13th. Yes. And just so everybody kind of understands, this was the first time that we have PowerPoint presentations at the FOAC meeting and that really helped us get through a nice flow of um, our FOAC meeting. So, we're going to continue to do that. We're going to meet the ADA standards and this was uh, a good update. And you could also see in the backup that the full update is there um in addition to the PowerPoint. Thank you, Miss Brian. There's no action on this item. Okay. It was posted for action that discussion action. Yeah. So, um I I talked to um Joseette and she said that even if it's posted for discussion and action, since this is just an update presentation, we don't need to take action. So, the action would be no action. That's pretty cool. The action is not. Thank you. Hi, Joseph Flotus from legal. These were previously posted as for notation. Okay. This one just happened to be posted for discussion and action, but you don't have to take action on an update. Okay. Thank you, Amundo. Thank you guys. Okay. The next item is number three. Oh, I'm sorry. Representative Canales, we got some more discussion. Thank you. Um, will these be posted for just as notation only as they have been in the past going forward? Is that the case for all? No, I the way I understand it, we'll be posting them in this format going forward. So, we're not going to do the notation only anymore. So, the this could be posted as a notation only, but the rest will be taken as action because um one one thing that we realized is that we hadn't brought a lot of audits to the council for final approval. And once the council has final approval, then they become extra official and Miss Mack is able to do what is needed out of these audits. So that's why we wanted them to be individual. I think this was more of an oversight that this should have been either a notation or just an update on this, but the rest are posted correctly for discussion and action. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Seo. All right. Amun. Go ahead. Item 32 is discussion and action to accept the results of the Department of Public Health Internal Control Review P2024-03. Okay, you're back up. Back up. Uh, it could you please call up the PowerPoint? I mean, we have a PowerPoint presentation on this. Uh, Repos, shall we present the PowerPoint? I I think if if um any member of council would like to see the presentation, we could do that, but if not, we could just take a motion. I'm happy to um move to approve and accept this. We have a motion and a second by uh represent Nino. Any further discussion on this item? Represent Canales. Thank you, Mayor. If this is going to be the procedure for each of the Let me see. It's items 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36. Uh 36 is something different. Um unless we want to include that as well. Can we can we take all of those together? I I think that's a good idea. Um minus 36 because I do have something to say about 36. So happy to resend my motion and move to approve items 32 through 35. Okay. Second. So, we have a motion in a second, Miss Bryan, to approve items 32 through 35. Yes, sir. I'll read the rest of the items into the record. Item 33 is discussion and action to accept the results of the Sun Metro money room internal control review, P2024-01. Item 34 is discussion and action to accept the results of the Division of Military Affairs Travel and Accounts Payable Audit Report, A2024-02. And item 35 is discussion and action to accept the results of the vehicle allowance program analysis. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Malonado Rocha and Fiero not present. That brings us to the last item which is item 36. And this is discussion and action to approve the proposed amendments to the FY2024 2025 audit plan. Repres. Thank you, mayor. So on on this, we um were looking at the audit plan and we realized a few things. So we approved the audit plan back in November with the past FOAC, but that audit plan was not brought forth to council. Um you know, there was change of leadership and new council coming in. that never came through. And so when I took over as chair in February, we were looking at the plan and we said we we need to move on this as soon as possible and and move it to council to accept the audit plan for 2024 2025, which is the current year that we're in. And at that point we had realized that the executive vacation request and sick leaf project and the pecard review had been something that had been going on year over year and the pecard got a little bit awkward because Mr. Calledon has been under the purview of council now for the past almost two years and so as weaver is looking at different recommendations for better practices with our audit department we have asked them to look at how we can handle the pecard reviews which we could look at them maybe every other year every two years put them on a different timeline but at the same time Mr. Calon reports to council now. So maybe we need to get an external auditor to continue doing these audits because he has that conflict of us being his boss. And the same thing with the executive vacation request and sick leave. That was something that um we are as also asking Weaver to look at to see if we need to be doing this on a yearly basis or if we transition it out to something else. And so um that was the reason for deleting these. The the other thing that we had deleted was the audit for the El Paso Zoo. I had a conversation with Miss Neman last week because there was a lot of community members coming to me saying that we should be able to do the zoo audit and I asked Miss Neman and she said that we can the reason that we were not allowed to do the zoo audit um Edmundo had started the the audit but there was legal issues with the society. Those issues have been dropped as of January. So now we could move forward with this um with this audit. And so I I want to be very clear on this. These three audits were already part of the audit plan. And so I asked Miss Neman if um I could make a motion today that states the following. I I move to accept the deletions, the proposed amendments to the audit plan of executive vacation requests and sick leave project MP card review to be removed from the current audit plan and wait on recommendations from Weaver and keep the El Paso Zoo audit in this year's audit plan. Okay, we have a a motion from Representative Asabetto. Is there a second? Second. So there's a motion second. Is there discussion? Representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. And I would like to add a few things regarding the PECARD audit. I just want to state for the record that there is a monthly publication of all city council members, city manager, staff, and city attorney's office PECARD transactions on the city council agenda, which are also available on the city's website. This provides an extra level of transparency without the need for a separate audit at this time. There's also a mandatory training for all council members and city employees before they can receive a PCR. Cards are not issued until training is completed. And third, routine desk reviews to monitor compliance with city policies and if there's any irregularities that are found, they can be they can lead to further investigation to request for a full audit and potential consequences including PECARD revocation and reimbursement requirements. So there is a level of transparency already in place regarding pecards. Thank you. Represgot to add something. Mayor, I'm sorry. And I just wanted to also let the the council know that um if we do keep the zoo audit that was 500 hours. Yes sir. Okay. So that means that we're going to have 500 hours that are free at this point to replace those 500 hours with another audit or two depending on that. But what we have also seen is that there's been um direction to kind of go and do an audit randomly and we didn't want to do that. So what we asked the FOAC members including Miss Mack who is part of the FOAC was to send recommendations over to myself to Edmundo to say you know what I'm seeing a few of these areas that might need an audit and Edmund Mundo has taken all of those suggestions and he is putting them on a risk assessment to make to measure the risk of each one. So, what is the high risk, the medium risk, the low risk? And he's going to be presenting that at our our FOAC next week to see how we replace these hours on our um agenda for this year. And then after that um in the coming months, he's going to start working on his next uh audit plan for the following year. And so that'll be in in concert with FOAC members and he's also going to have a risk assessment for that. I think it's just really important that we start looking at our audits with a risk assessment to make sure that we are going after the ones that are most high risk and then we have direction from the fog. I don't know if you have anything to add on that. Yeah, let me add a little bit. You said a little something that wasn't all the all correct. All our audits that we've ever done, all the audit plans we've ever scheduled for the city of El Paso in the 20 years I've been the city auditor, they're all based on risk. They're all inserted into my risk model and they are all graded at a risk level. And then of course the ones with a higher risk are the ones that are selected for audit. They are not selected randomly. That that's that's not the way I work. I they're all based on some level of risk. And at the next FO act, I'm going to bring a a a risk assessment model to present to the FO act that will uh allow us to replace the audit. We'll have capacity for one audit. I've gotten 16 different audits requested to I've risked them out and they've all come out low, low, medium, high and I w I welcome to see the next FOAC meeting because the FOAC members are going to kind of experience my experience. Okay, you got six high ones. Which one's the highest? You know, you look at red, yellow, green. Which is the brighter red? And that's going to be the challenge that with that the full wife's gonna have to uh uh go through the next meeting. But I think I think we'll do fine. I think we'll come up with a a real bright red to uh put into the audit plan and conduct an audit of it. All right. Thank you. You're welcome, sir. Uh Miss Bryan, can you read back that motion, please? Yes, sir. The motion was to approve the proposed amendments to the FY2024 2025 audit plan. The amendments are to remove the pecard review and executive vacation request and sick leaf project and keep the El Paso zoo audit. Is that correct, Representative? Yeah, keep the the the zoo audit in the current audit plan. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on this item hearing? None. Miss Prime. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative ADO, seconded by Representative Nino. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Malonado Rocha not present. Mayor, that brings us to the end of the agenda. Okay, we need a motion to to retire into executive session. Yes, sir. Motion to retire into executive. Second. There's a motion and a second to return to executive session. All in favor? Anyone opposed? And the city council of the city of El Paso may return to executive session pursuant to section 3.5A the El Paso City Charter and the Texas Government Code Chapter 551 subchapter D to discuss any of the following. Executive session item one, Ricardo Rubio at all versus City of El Paso Department of Public Health at all. Cause number 2018 DCB0735 under 551.071. 071 Executive session item two, application of El Paso Electric Company to implement fuel refund PU number 57838 HQ number utility-64 under 551.071 executive session item three application of El Paso Electric Company to update its generation cost recovery writer related to Newman unit 6 PU number 56225 under HQ number utility-31 under 551.071 071. Executive session item four, application of El Paso Electric Company to change rates. PUC number 57568, HQ utility-60 under 551.071. Executive session item 5, temporary restraining order regarding Sunmetro Facility Fire of February 11th, 2025. Cause number 2025- CPR 00364 under 551.071. Executive session item six, discussion on purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property and east side extr territorial jurisdiction HQ 24-2691 under 551.071 and 551.072 and executive session item 7 discussion on economic development opportunities in northeast El Paso, Texas HQ number 24-2438 under 551.072 and 551.087. These matters are taken into executive session under under 551.071 consultation with attorney 551.072 deliberation regarding real property and 551.087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. It is 12:52 p.m. Okay, Miss Brian, I think we're ready. Council, is there a motion to come out of executive session? Second. There's a motion and a second to come out of executive session. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? And the meeting is back in session at 2:24 p.m. And we're on EX1. Mayor Poten, thank you. No action. Thank you. Ex2. Motion made, seconded, and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to fi file an intervention in the application of El Paso Electric Company to implement an interim fuel refund under the Texas Public Utility Commission docket number 57838. in matter number high Q utility-64 and to take all steps necessary including the execution of any required documents in order to affectuate this authority. Second, there's a motion and a second represent. Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to say two things. one, I I'm happy to support this and just for the public's knowledge. I I think I see this as a check and balance is a good oversight to make sure that the refunds that are going to happen in the coming months um have some accountability on them and that they are are done correctly. So, that's why I'm going to support this today. And then the second thing is that I have received $1,750 from the El Paso Electric employee pack for this item, EX3, EX4. So, that's it. Thank you. represent Nino. Uh, thank you, mayor. I also would like for notation that I have also received a contribution from the El Paso Electric employees pack for EX2, three, and four. Thank you. I'd like the record to show that I also received that donation from the pack, too, Miss Prime. Yes sir. Represent Lemon. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. We have a motion and a second on this item. Any further discussion, Miss Pry? Yes, sir. The motion was made and read into the record by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by Representative Lemon, and this is on EX2, and this is to file an intervention to implement the fuel refund. On that motion, call for the vote. I alternate mayor prompier. I thank you in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Rochan not present. EX3, no action. Thank you. EX4, no action. Thank you. EX5, no action. Thank you. EX6, no action. Thank you. EX7, no action. Thank you. Brings us to the end of the agenda. Motion to adjurnn. Oh, we have a motion and a second to adjurnn. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? council. I want to thank you guys for plowing through this one and pushing through and we're going to get out of here before the wind gets here. There was a reason behind my madness, but thank you guys. Thank you. On that motion, the regular city council meeting for Tuesday, April 1st, 2025 is adjourned at 2:27 p.m.