We cannot thank you enough for all that you've done for our community and we'll continue to to be behind you and listening to you and and we're we're your biggest fan. So Mike, thank you so much and congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] I'm They're number three. I'm completely different now cuz Thank you so much. I know, right? All right. So, we're going to do some finessing. We'll do another row of peoples. If you're a little shorter, I'll have you come to the front for me, please. There you go. And then on this end, can I get you guys actually all to just come this way for me, please? Perfect. That looks good. And the next proclamation is the Rio Grand Branch of National Association of Social Workers, NASSW. Represent Canales. Thank you, Mayor. Proclamation, City of El Paso, Texas. Whereas the Rio Grande branch of National Association of Social Workers, NASW, has exemplified extraordinary dedication and service in their advocacy for social justice, equality, and the fair treatment of all individuals regardless of background or circumstance. And whereas social workers are vital in promoting the well-being and dignity of individuals, families, and communities, tirelessly working to address social injustices and empowering people to lead better lives. And whereas the social workers of this branch have made a profound and lasting impact in the lives of countless individuals and families throughout the Rio Grande region by offering support, guidance, and a commitment to systemic change. And whereas their unwavering commitment to the core values of social work, service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationship, integrity, and competence reflects the highest standards of professionalism and compassion in their practice. And whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the Rio Grande branch of NASW for its profound and lasting impact on the lives of countless individuals and families throughout the Rio Grande region, offering support, guidance, and commitment to systemic change. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso, honoring the impact of the Rio Grande branch of NASW that the month of April 2025 shall be known as the Rio Grande branch of National Association of Social Workers Month. Signed by our honorable mayor, Renard Johnson. [Applause] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Well, sorry. Go ahead. No, it's you. Okay. This is this is your day. Good morning, Mayor and Council. I am Anelica Rodriguez, the chair of the Rio Grande branch of the National Association of Social Workers, and it is a true honor to stand before you all today. I want to start off by thanking you for this proclamation and for the recognition of the work we do across El Paso and the five other counties we serve. Your acknowledgement tells every social worker in the city that our efforts matter and that our community stands with us. I want to give a special recognition to Representative Canales for his outstanding advocacy and dedication to the people of his district. I had the privilege of working alongside Representative Canales during our university-driven hope fair where he generously volunteered his time to support an event focused on meeting people where they are and connecting them to vital local resources. His hands-on involvement and commitment to community engagement truly reflects his passion for public service. Thank you, Representative Ganales, for being a champion for the people. on be our branch is made up of professional social workers serving in hospitals, schools, nonprofits, government office, and beyond. Each guided by our core values of our profession. We don't do this for the recognition, but having our efforts acknowledged by its own city means more than anything. It affirms that El Paso sees us, values the role of social worker, and shares our commitment to justice and care for all, regardless of the background, income, language, or immigration status. To the people of El Paso, thank you for your trust, for opening your homes, schools, and lives to us. We serve with you and for you. To the fellow social workers, thank you for showing up day after day. Even when the work is difficult and the path is unclear, your influence goes beyond numbers. It changes lives, shifts systems, and shapes futures. This proclamation is not a finish line. It is fuel. Fuel to keep fighting for equity, mental health access, child welfare, immigrant families or elders, and every individual who deserves to live with dignity. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, El Paso and Council. We're so proud to serve you. I also want to encourage all of you to thank a social worker near you. Thank you. Wow. Thank you. And Ela, who do you have with you? There we go. Don't be bashful. Hi, mayor. My name is Ethan Johnson. I'm a fellow student and friend of uh Angel I mean Miss Rodriguez. And uh yeah, I'm just uh proud of her and I wanted to support show support for her. Well, thank you. Thank you. Represent Fiero. Thank you, mayor. I want to take the opportunity to embarrass Mr. Rodriguez. We No, seriously, you have u we've seen you grow up. We've seen you become this dynamic, articulate leader, and thank you for taking this on and being just such a great beacon for our community. Thank you again. Thank you so much. Yeah. And Helica, congratulations. And this is great. the work that you guys do for this community, the amount of hours that you put in, the tireless work, and for all the social workers that are working with you to to keep our community moving forward. We can't thank you enough. So, congratulations on today. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Thank you guys. [Applause] Awesome. [Music] [Music] And the next proclamation is Amigo Kidney Foundation, Representative Tjo. Where's my Representative Tjo. Thank you, Mayor. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I uh Dr. Chavez, I just want to say thank you for for all that you do. My uh my mother uh was a diabetic and was on dialysis and it was uh her of course the diialysis is life-saving and and allowed her to be with us for for many years. So, thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Uh I'm going to go ahead and start the the proclamation. Whereas the Amigo Kidney Foundation organization was founded in 1988 by Dr. Alonso Chavez with a mission of supporting individuals living with kidney disease and endstage renal failure by improving their access to care and quality of life. And whereas over the years the foundation has helped thousands of patients across the El Paso region, offering hope and critical support to those battling chronic and life-threatening illnesses. And whereas the foundation has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical assistance including funding for life-saving medications, diialysis treatments, and kidney transplants across the te across Texas. And where it has also it had also donated vital medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, and canes giving patients greater independence and dignity. And whereas a foundation has assisted with transportation for diialysis patients, ensuring that lack of mobility does not become a barrier for essential care. And whereas through active fundraising efforts, including charitable events like community golf tournaments and participation in health focused community outreach, the foundation has raised both awareness and resources to support kidney health. And whereas the Amigo Kidney Foundation continues to be a pillar of service and compassion in our region region providing vital assistance to vulnerable populations and upholding a legacy of charitable care. Now therefore, it be it proclaimed by the mayor and city council of the city of El Paso that May 28th, 2025 shall be known as Amigle Kidney Day signed by the honorable mayor Renard Johnson. [Applause] Good morning, Dr. Chavez. Surprisation was for somebody else and I was invited. Fortunately, I came. Yeah, because I wasn't aware that I had to come. But anyway, u I'm very grateful. Just a brief story actually. I came to El Paso in 1979 from Houston, Texas Bay College of Medicine and I initiated the dialysis services. I was proud to open the first freestanding dialysis facility in El Paso. When I came there was no dialysis facilities. The only one existing was at Hotel Du. with my efforts uh there was the free freestanding dialysis facility created uh in El Paso for the assistance of the patients to your knowledge there was no dialysis in any institution at all the only dialysis facility was in hotel du uh I was um able to initiate the creation of the first mobile dialysis machine that with a lot of efforts we did it we transported that machine on a small truck to provide services to all the hospitals where they needed dialysis. When the patients got sick in different institutions, they had to be transferred in any conditions medically speaking to hotel due because was the only institution that then was able to provide the treatment for the patients who without dialysis would have expired. So we were able then to create the first mobile dialysis facility and we were very successful and thereafter we opened through the government approval the first freestanding dialysis facility. Uh that was the initiation the dialysis history in El Paso. By now of course since then now we have about 35 dialysis facilities in El Paso and I was the third nefologist that came to El Paso. Now we are about 30 nephrologists in El Paso. And thereafter I was able to open the first skin transplant center at Sierra Medical Center with my efforts um bringing physicians to do the surgery from Houston, Texas, a surgeon and a urologist and we initiated then the transplant program at Sierra in 1986. I with their hard work um I felt the necessity for the patients to have assistance and I created the Amigo kidney foundation thinking the patient needed some assistance and since then began tirelessly to work doing anything that I could do cookouts and raffles and donations and things like that. Since then, of course, the Amigo Kidney Foundation has survived and every single penny goes to the dial's patients. We don't have any expenses. My office serves as a vehicle for secretarial work through Sylvia who is the manager of my office and the the motor of the foundation and everybody contributed u with the patients help the families neighbors u different things. So the foundation assists patients uh on El Paso with medication, transportation to and from dialysis um transportation to the transplant centers when they needed to catch a flight very quickly to be transplanted otherwise they lose the transplant and of course we provide um medications and food sometimes clothing whatever is in the need for the patient. So uh we are very glad to mention to you that president are everybody surrounding me their patients family members uh and individuals who tiredly have worked in order to support the foundation for since 1986 well 1982 but yet u I'm very grateful this surprise u fills my heart of joy thinking that uh there is a room for improvement and yet the room for more service provided. The dialysis patients of El Paso, they unfortunately do not subsist without diialysis and few of them are candidates for transplantation. Therefore, the assistant the needies every single day in different areas of the needs and thanks to the Mik Foundation, we are able to give some support as much as we possibly can. From the bottom of my heart, uh this surprise is extremely extremely joyful for me thinking that you have a conscious for us and encouragement for me to continue working for for the benefit of the patients. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, [Applause] Dr. Representative Rocha. Thank you, Mayor. And and I just want to give a little personal note, Dr. Chavez, that you know, back when we were campaigning and uh I I met you for the very first time, I didn't know what an impact you would have on my life and you bought me a cup of coffee and that was the sweetest thing that any person, any stranger could have done for anyone. So having the word amigo in your foundation name is so appropriate to me because you are also such a great friend to my Theo Martin. Well, everybody knows him as as Dr. Maldonado, but thank you so much for being such a wonderful friend to him all the way up until the the last days. We are so grateful as a family to have had you care for him. So I just wanted to publicly thank you, Dr. Chavez, for that. Thank you. Thank you. I take the chance um the opportunity to thank my family. My wife do not exist anymore. She died um uh almost 10 years ago. She had been a failure and she had a kidney transplant. I was her physician by her choice. We lost her after she lost the kidney transplant 10 years later after the kidney transplant was given. The donor was one of her sisters. So uh and my family has been extremely supportive you know of my ty u work absentees of my house absentes of my family needs but um but the job is a job and my needs are and the patient needs come first in my judgment but I'm very grateful for my family present my daughter Alejandra Esther my grandchildren and all the people behind me who are remarkably is part of my family. All of them are my my family. Thank you very much for your support. Thank you very much. Thank you, Representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. Um that I love you. Um I said many times when I was running for office, I don't come from a family of politics. I come from a family of service. And it doesn't matter how much I can do in my position as a representative for the city, it will never be enough as what you've done for our community. And I love you and I thank you for teaching me what it is to serve others with a humble heart. Thank you very much. I think if if we could let everybody just briefly introduce themselves, Mr. Mayor, would that be okay? Absolutely. If everybody would like to introduce themselves. There's a microphone over there. [Music] Hello, my name is I bet Lasserine and I've been a patient of Dr. Chavez for 41 years. Wow. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Erinones. I recently retired from being a diialysis nurse. I've been with Dr. Travis since um back at Hotel since 1982. Wow. [Applause] My name is Stephen Jagger. Uh I'm a This is my wife Louisa. I'm a U transplant patient. Thanks to Dr. Chavez, I'm still here. [Applause] My name is Rose Billingsley. I'm a social worker. Well, I was a social worker. Uh I retired about a couple of months ago. I was in diialysis for about 30 years and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Dr. Chavez and his great organization. He helped patients a lot. Helped the social workers a lot too. Thank you. [Applause] I'm Sylvia Morales and I'm Dr. Chavez's office manager and I also been providing help with Amigo Kidney for 42 years. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Jose Carlos. I'm one of the volunteers for the past 20 plus years with the doctor in the foundation. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Melissa Arisu and I'm a dialysis nurse and I've also been with Dr. Chavez since way at the beginning at hotel do. Uh we were very privileged also he was able to treat some of my family members and and he has the best bedside manner and great doctor that we could have here in El Paso. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Grace Hernandez. I worked in diialysis way back then when they started. My girl's going to be 40 and she was a newborn back then. But anyway, Dr. Chavez has always given every single patient all his time. He is this wonderful doctor. I mean, he made me come back to life. Other issues anyway, but I love Dr. Chavez. And who knows, maybe the mayor will ask me for some coffee. Hi, I'm Jessica Valdez. That lady, that crazy lady is my mom. Um, I've known Dr. Chavez since I was born. Um, this is my aunt. So, she's been working his office for the last 42 years. And since Amigo Kidney Foundation started, I was 11. and I've been able to volunteer there um since I was very young. And their family is like my family. So, I'm just very proud to call him my uncle. Thank you. [Applause] Was that everybody? All right. Well, Dr. Travis, thank you so much for everything that you you do for this community. And what's coming loud and clear from everyone that's standing with you and behind you is the compassionate care that you have for your patients. And that is uh something that this community doesn't take lightly. And you have touched so many lives in so many ways that a lot of people, you know, wish they could be here to thank you. And I know it wasn't easy getting you here today. We had to trick you. I mean, um, we were, we were telling you it was going to be your daughter's, uh, recognition today, but it's truly your day, and I'm going to lighten it up a little bit. Um, but I understand and I've seen you. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you, but I' i've seen the name, and I've seen you at all of the UTEP basketball games, and I know you are an avid sports basketball fan. And I think one thing me and you have in common is I think we agree that LeBron James may not be your your favorite player. Huh. Thank you for your kind words. It's an encouragement. Yeah. But but again, thank you for all that you've done for the the community. Thank you for the foundation. Thank you for your philanthropic uh giving because you have truly truly left El Paso in a much better place and we'll continue to do that. But we couldn't do it without you and always and and I know you will. Uh the compassion and care that you give each patient is something we we are very grateful for and we thank you. And now I have to go have coffee. Thank you, Dr. Chavez. [Applause] Get some [Laughter] All right, Miss Prime. I'm not sure where we go from there, but uh yes, sir. We have one more proclamation. Okay, let's do it. And the final proclamation is mental health awareness month. Representative Fier. Thank you, Mayor. As our friends are walking up, um I'd like to read a quote from one of my favorite poets, uh Maya Angelo, and it's it's okay not to be okay. And it was her acknowledging that it's normal to experience difficult emotions. I'm sorry, mayor. Am I interrupting? No, just reathering myself here. You know, you you can't pay for this entertainment. Welcome, friends. Um I have the honor and pleasure to read this proclamation today and it reads whereas mental health is an essential part of overall health and whereas one in five US adults experience a mental health condition in any given year. Whereas approximately 1/ half of all chronic mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 3/4 by age 24. And whereas on an average day there is a delay of 11 years and sometimes decades between the first appearance of symptoms and when an individual receives treatment. Whereas early identification and appropriate treatment can significantly improve outcomes and support long-term recovery. And whereas it is vital to maintain mental health and recognize the symptoms of mental health conditions in order to seek help when needed. Whereas suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause of death among young adults. And whereas re research indicates that most individuals who die by suicide have experienced symptoms of mental health conditions even when it's not formally diagnosed. Whereas increasing public awareness about mental health can positively shift attitudes, reduce stigma, and make it easier for individuals to access the support they need. Whereas it is critical to eliminate disparity in mental health care by promoting well-being for all regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, place of residence or age and ensuring inequitable access culturally, linguistically and for appropriate services and improved community engagement. Whereas El Paso could text N A M I or NAMI to 74741741741. I saw Cedri's face. Uh to access the free 247 confidential crisis text line. Whereas El Pasoans who are experiencing mental health crisis are are concerned about loved ones can call or text 988, the National Suicide Crisis Lifeline, or contact local crisis line at 9157791800. Both lines are free, confidential, and available 247 and answered by Emergence Health Network mental health professionals. Now therefore be be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of El Paso city of El Paso that the month of May 2025 shall be known as mental health awareness month signed by the honorable Renard Johnson mayor. Thank you mayor. Good morning. Good morning mayor and good morning council executive director of NAMI El Paso your local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Thank you representative for the wonderful reading of the proclamation. Uh our staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to bring our mission and to the community through programs like NAMI basics, NAMI family to family, NAMI peer-to-peer, and NAMI family and friends. Over the past year, more than 280 individuals completed what can be a life-changing educational course, one that offers tools, support, and community when families need it most. Through presentations like NAMI ending the silence, NAMI and Our Voice, navigating a mental health crisis, and mental health in the workplace, we've reached over 4,400 in El Pasoans from middle school and high school students to professionals across the workplace. We know that education, early support, and connection can change lives. In addition, we've reached thousands through our awareness efforts. While our path continues to evolve with challenges and changing times, our vision our vision remains steadfast that all individuals prioritize their mental health, get help early when they need it, and receive the best care possible. We remain deeply committed to reaching those who need us the most. from individuals living with serious mental health conditions, youth, marginalized communities, LGBTQ plus individuals, veterans, service members, and anyone facing systematic barriers to care. When we say mental health for all, we mean it. To honor mental health awareness month, we were thrilled last week to join the El Paso Chihuahua uh for our first ever mental health night at the ballpark. It was a powerful and inspiring evening with over 700 tickets sold uh where our community came together to celebrate hope and reinforce that mental health matters. We are so grateful for all of our sponsors who joined us. Looking ahead, we're looking to the summer where we will host our 12th annual minority mental health community forum where we're gathering to for have important community conversations centered on resilience, hope, and healing in the face of inequality. And in the fall, NAMI El Paso is proud to continue to host the region's largest mental health awareness event, NAMI Walks El Paso, a free 5K walk open to all at Escarat Park that continues to be a celebration of community hope and support. Individuals can stay engaged with us on social media to follow us at NAMI El Paso. We're incredibly grateful to our partners, Emer Health Network, local school districts, healthc care providers, and countless community organizations who make our work possible. NAMI National CEO Dan Gillison reminds us of a pro proverb that deeply resonates us with us here locally. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And we're going far together. Thank you so much for recognizing me as mental health awareness month. Good morning. Hi, good morning. Christy Dardy. I'm the CEO for Emergence Health Network, your local lo your local mental health and developmental disability authority. First of all, thank you Rep. Fiero for reading the proclamation. Mayor and council for recognizing May's mental health awareness month and really elevating the importance of behavioral health in our region. This month, not only is it's important for us to talk about reducing the stigma as everybody has already talked about this morning, but also we really need to promote early intervention and then support people regardless of where they are on their mental health journey. This year's theme is turn awareness into action. What that does is challenge all of us to take the next steps on what are we going to do. As part of our community outreach for this month, we were proud to host the fourth annual children's mental health awareness day at the El Paso Zoo where we had um we were able to provide free entry to the zoo for 200 children and 150 adults and maxed out those those tickets and everybody had a great time that day. Uh we also uh as some of you guys attended uh last week we were able to unveil the rebranding of our children's uh mental health clinic as well as our children's mental health mobile unit. And it's pretty exciting that we have that mobile unit now that has responded to schools uh alongside our school-based crisis intervention team. And we also have school-based uh services at most of the school districts here in the region including including our rural partners. Uh we are um happy to say that we also have a mobile unit for adults. We have one that is on the way. I saw a picture of it already ready to go that is going to be doing street outreach for the unhoused. And there is potential um not going to jinx us that uh there is some there's some uh uh legislation heading to the governor's office right now to even possibly put more of those units on the streets. So we'll keep you posted. Um you know, however, it doesn't stop there. You know, we are so proud of our partnership with uh with NAMI. They do amazing work in the community. Um we are happy that they are housed with us. And so most of what we do we share with them. Uh you know whether it's laughter or or if we're trying to figure out a way to solve a problem, we're fortunate to have partners like NAMI uh in our corner. So we want to just thank you for your continued leadership, your support. I appreciate those of uh you I I think I've met with everybody so all the the new members and and returning members and I just I can't tell you how appreciative I am of you mayor and your commitment to mental health and what we're doing for our community because it is not as common as you think it is. I have colleagues throughout the state of Texas. There's 39 centers just like EHN and they don't have the same support. So, uh I I also applaud you for what you do every day. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Representative Feral. Thank you, Mayor. Before you leave, Christie, what a great um unveiling it was when we got to visit your clinic. Myself and Representative Valdonado were there. It was a great experience. You have a dynamic team. Everybody we met in that building has a passion and really wants to do what's best for our community. So, thank you very much. Thank you. And Mr. Doris, was that you on the big scoreboard at the Chihuahua game? He threw out the first pitch and got it over the place. I thought I thought they were going to put a mural up. We practiced at the office. There we go. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor. And I also just wanted to thank Emergency Health Network for the contributions you make to our community. you were at uh District 1 community meeting last week and it was just great to bring awareness to the need that we have and and and you know remove the stigma I guess from from whatever people might say about mental health. So thank you for everything that you're doing. We appreciate the support as well. Represent Rocha. Thank you mayor and I'm just going to echo R. Fiero's uh statement. Christy, it was a great event last week. That mobile unit that's going to be deployed out to schools, I I urge I encourage all districts to get on board and have this service available to um to all their students. It is so important even when things are going good, you still need to to have that that outreach and talk to someone. It's the easiest way to diffuse a situation that can go another another way. And Nami, thank you so much for the partnership. You all have done such an amazing job really trying to quote unquote normalize how we feel about talking to others about what's going on within ourselves. So, thank you for the work that you do. It is absolutely important to the community of El Paso. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to echo the words of my fellow council members and say thank you guys for all that you're doing. Thank you for being with our first responders and and having that that crisis team that goes out with them and thank you guys for partnering and and doing all the great work that you are doing for the community. I just want to make sure that we give the numbers out one more time. Was it 988 and for the national? Yes. So we answer 988 and actually it's a partnership with the 911 center here in El Paso. Our uh call takers are there 247. uh answering 988. But the great part uh about El Paso is we're truly integrated into our 911 center. So even if someone calls 911, um our 911 operators have now added um it's it's u police, fire, EMS or mental health. So we added that to our 911 to where they can quickly get that over to a 988 operator. Vice versa, 988. If something actually is a medical emergency, we can get it quickly over to 911. There's that warm integrated handoff. So again, that's something else El Paso needs to be very very proud of because it's not happening everywhere. Wow, that's great. So we're we're sitting there, we're partnered and truly integrated. We're able to communicate through the CAD system with the officers and so it really is saving lives every day. Fantastic. And the the local number uh 915799-1800 mean it 77979. Sorry, everybody just call 988. That's what I'm saying. I have I have replaced that in my rolodex with 988. So, I it's so much easier to remember. It's answered by the same people at the same place. Well, I'm I'm going to be reaching out to you guys because this is very important. I've got a uh a mental health project in October that I'm going to be reaching out to you guys that's going to bring more awareness to this. But thank you guys so much for what you do. Thank you. [Applause] Miss Prime, before we call the meeting to order, Representative Fiero. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. You know, it's um it's an honor and a pleasure to greet and welcome some students from America's high school that are here to observe and and be part of the process. And and I want to uh recognize you publicly. Thank you for being here and and um Mr. Burnham, I just want to say thank you for having the vision. Would you mind introducing yourself and telling us about your class just real quick? Do you mind here? Absolutely. I guess I should ask Miss Prime. Do you mind, Mr. Prime? Not at all. Good morning, Mr. Berden. Good morning. Good morning, council. Thank you uh so much for allowing us to come here and be able to uh show these students how government works. I'm a dual credit government teacher at Sakura ISD at the America's High School Early College. And so I just wanted the opportunity, especially before the end of the year, just to be able to show them this is how it actually works and this is what goes on. You know, we think about everything in the city just kind of happens magically and no, you know, nobody really thinks about it, but it takes work and you guys put in the effort for that and we're so grateful for you all uh representing us and uh Representative Fto for representing our district and where our school is. And so, thank you all so much for allowing us to come out here. Truly. Well, thank you. And thank you for bringing the the kids out to see us. No, absolutely. Thank you. And mayor, I I have to say this is one of the the best high schools in District 6. So, thank you for being here. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I appreciate you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Miss Prime. Yes, sir. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Wednesday, May 28th, 2025. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding along with Mayor Prom Chavez, Representative Maldonado Rocha, Representative Boyer Trejo, Representative Nino, alternate mayor Prom Fero, and Representative Canales, Representative Lemon has requested to be excused. Also on the Deas is Representative Asdo. It is 10:01 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 Chaplain Robert Hemhill Jr. Good morning to the honorable mayor Johnson, Mayor Proen uh Chaveis and also council members uh department heads and members and friends. Let's prepare for the invocation. Gracious God, as the honorable Mayor Johnson and the members of the El Paso City Council come before you today to discuss important matters of the city of El Paso. We ask for your guidance and wisdom. We seek your presence and your blessings as the mayor and council members deliberate on various agenda items. Lord bless this meeting and everyone present. Grant the members of this body the ability to provide input in the discussions and we pray that the results of our discussion bear good fruit. May we ask that this be blessed in the name of the father, son and the holy spirit. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Miss pry we have call to the public. Yes sir. That brings us to the public comment portion of the meeting. We did not have anyone sign up for any of the agenda items. So that brings us to call to the public. The El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge. The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council. All persons in attendance are expected to display civility 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 form for political statements or campaigning. Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda. However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda. This morning, we have five members of the public that signed up to speak. The first person is Elizabeth Crawford followed by Claudia Contreras Siller, Ron Ko, Barbara Valencia, and Mallaloy Kalendine. Miss Crawford's topic is when is abortion medically necessary? Good morning, Miss Crawford. You have three minutes. Good morning. Morning. Thank you. Good morning. Um, in light of um, a lot of the conversation in the news regarding Texas abortion issues and what's going on in New Mexico, um, I'd like to speak briefly on the topic of when is abortion medically necessary. Um, we're told in in God's word in the Psalms, King David, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him. And the the beauty is that the God who made the the heavens is the same God who is forming life in the womb. Um, in 2012, on September 8th, 2012, um, a group of medical professionals in Dublin, Ireland, got together to issue what's called the Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health Care. It's been signed on to by over a thousand people. Um, please before you form opinions, just hear out um, what's going to be said. Um, and I quote from the Dublin declaration. As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynecology, we affirm that direct abortion, the purposeful destruction of the unborn child, is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman. We uphold that there's a fundamental difference between abortion and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother even if such treatment results in the loss of life of the unborn child. Anthony Levatino, former abortionist in Albany New York. Quote, "During my time at Albany Medical Center, I managed hundreds of such cases by quote terminating pregnancies to save mother's lives. In all these hundreds of cases, the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill was zero. Please let me explain um giving one example and there are many many examples in the news that um have been just taken apart piece by piece to understand. An example, a woman is six months pregnant. She's experiencing toxmia in her pregnancy and she's told that abortion is medically necessary to save her life. That's not true. And the wording is where the problem lies. Medical intervention is necessary. Yes. Early delivery in many cases is necessary. Yes. C-section for to get that baby out. Yes. But to recommend a DNA procedure, literally dismembering a baby is not necessary. Both surgical abortion and child birth are significant strains on the woman's body. If a woman if I'm sorry, if a baby dies from a medical intervention to save the mother's life or an early delivery or C-section, that's in God's hands. That's not abortion. But that is vastly different from the intentional dismemberment of that baby. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Claudia Contra Siller. Claudia Contra Siller. I don't see her coming forward. We move on to Mr. Ron Ko. Mr. Ko's topic is constitutional rights to the rescue 1983 animal services. Good morning, sir. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, Ron. Good morning. So, we all know we had a a meeting a week ago and I'd like to discuss some facts and fictions. There was a comment made in 2016. We euthanized 100 to 300 daily. Uh worst month was 33. Um I sent you guys to shelter reports. I don't know if you read them. Um we had a conversation about vets from Warz. The original comment that was made at an ASAC meeting was three years to get them certified. The way we understand it, those three quit and went to North Carolina. So, we had to get new ones. So, instead of admitting we had a problem, we just changed the 3 years to four years. Um, the thing with vets, the conversation was brought up between Oscar and uh, another gentleman and I went home and I looked up online and found that the head hunters had vets looking for work. They actually sent me emails back going, "Give us, you know, what you need and we'll send you resumes." So, I don't understand why we're still all these years later having issues with getting vets. Um there was a convers a comment made about in 2016 the the city decided that they weren't going to euthanize because they wanted to be no kill. Well in 2016 it's actually when we did the no kill plan. You know the one that worked. Um sorry I get ahead of myself. Okay. And when Morehead was purchased for his part, Oscar stated that it would be specifically used for certain I certain things. He did not say it was going to be an adoption center, which was repeated again at this meeting, which I was told I didn't know what I was talking about. No, I was mistaken. That seems to be a popular term. You all heard what he said in this room. He said three times it would be a shelter three times. He also said three times in another meeting he told them that they needed to intake at Morehead which has never been done. Um, we also proved that it's against the law to do uh managed intake and they were told by Colonel Weston do intake. They didn't. We have an issue with doing what we're told. And just for the record, 20,730 less strays went out the door to return to owner, adoption, and rescue. We need to get the city back on board and the community back caring. Thank you, Mr. Ko. Thank you, Ron. The next speaker is Barbara Valencia. Her topic is animal services. I want to go home. Good morning, ma'am. You have three minutes. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you everybody. I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue. According to the last audit for the microchipping program, it states, and here it is, in order for the chip to work, the microchip needs to be registered with the manufacturer or chip database registry. Animal services does not have a comprehensive set of policies and procedures for the microchip program, including microchip accountability. This has been an ongoing problem that has escalated in the last couple of years where animal services has failed to register the chips. Okay. The chips they have implanted at their free microchip clinics throughout the city. Just last week, I received calls asking for assistance in getting pets found on the streets back home by the finders. The breakdown is as follows. 19 dogs microchipped by animal services. 18 of those dogs chipped through animal services have not been registered, which means no owner information on file, and I couldn't help them. 16 of these dogs were chipped in 2024 and two in 2023. One of those dogs was registered by animal services by the finder but was not allowed contact information to get the dog back home per animal services registration. And that brings us to the actual registr registering of chips. Here is the form. It asks for basic contact information and description of the pet. At the bottom of the registration, it automatically defaults to yes. Give my contact information to anyone who finds my pet. Animal Services purposely changes the default yes to a no, thus preventing a finder of a lost pet to get the muchneeded owner contact information so the pet can be reunited with their owner. I contacted 24 petwatch IT department and spoke to one of the IT managers about why that portion of the registration has a yes no option and he told me that it's just the way the program is set up but it automatically defaults to yes because and I quote no one is dumb enough to change it to no that would defeat the whole purpose of the microchip. Well, someone in El Paso was dumb enough. Our city manager has known about the troubles with the micro microchip program. Yet, she has done absolutely nothing to fix it. That's her name on the documents that outlines the issues and needed changes. It takes less than 2 minutes to enter a microchip into the database. It's so simple, volunteers can do it. Our local government and animal services are purposely preventing these pets from getting back home. The very ones in our city in charge of registering these pets have abandoned their duties to these animals and their owners. They need to be held accountable and this needs to be rectified immediately. These pets want to go home. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Malloy Kalandine. Miss Kalendine's topic is love for others and pride month. Good morning. Good morning. Um, my name is Mallaloy Kalandine. Um, I tried to solicitate the translation, but uh, they told me I have to do it with 44 48 hours before. So bear with me. I'm going to try to express myself. Uh, English is my second language. Um however um June is the the the month that they designate to be a pride month. Um I'm a Christian and it's very offensive for me and I think uh for the city to use the tax payer money to um pay for pride flags and for lights that symbolize the rainbow. I think it's very offensive for me personally, for my kids and my grandkids and for many Christian families. Um, we know that right and wrong is always the case. And who decides right and wrong? And my answer is God. God is the one that decides what's wrong and what's right. and homosexual, transvestized and transsexuals and all this nonsense. I think it's sinful and it's sin against God. And I really think that um we need to have a little bit of fear of God and rule this country, this nation, this whole paso with fear of God. And I think when we um show the flags and all these um agendas, we teaching our kids that it's okay to go against God. And I really think that we need to have a little bit of fear. And um especially please don't use the money that we pay with our our taxes to promote this agenda because it's against our belief and it I think we need a little bit of respect and fear of God. Um I'm personally affected. Um my son is um my youngest son. It's a I don't know how he was raised as a Cathol as a Christian, but he's claiming to be bisexual and um it's something that is very hurtful to me because I know it's wrong and the loving thing to tell him is please repent and believe in Christ because Christ can change anybody homosexual, bisexual, trans bestite or anybody In Christ, we have forgiveness of sins and we can be a new person. And I plead with you that don't use our money to promote this. Thank you. You're the three agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. All right. Thank you. The final speaker is Claudia Contra Siller. Miss Siller, star six, please to unmute your telephone. Claudia Contra Star 6. Miss Siller's topic is animal cruelty against cats. Good morning. and you have three minutes. Thank you very much. Um, right now it's kitten season. Animal services needs a lot of help to raise the newborn cats that are removed from the mom. So, I want to uh motivate the city to volunteer with animal services and also with the El Paso Police Department and Humane Society. also to help the communities by trapping the cats and taking them to animal services. And also I want to motivate everybody to report animal cruelty. 311 is the number to call from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. And also 911 if you see animal cruelty taking place. And the animal cruelty unit number is 915212800. And I want to motivate everybody to stand up for the animals. And also I want to repeat that a cat is the same as a dogs because they have souls and sadly and also poison the poison the cat they dump them in the in the freeway. and a drone. It's a perfect way to get evidence and to help out the police department. Also, this is the eighth time I speak. This is the first time I speak over the phone, but I've been there seven times and I don't see any changes. And I would like for the leaders of the city to start stepping up for the cats because it's not fair that we live like if it's a third third world country, you know, and that God gave us animals and we're supposed to take care of them. Also, uh, in the apartment where where everything is taking place, I sent an email. A cat was being stumped to death. I just picked up more poison. And I want to thank the animal cruelty unit for being there and animal services, but like the people the manager of the apartment is the one responsible. He needs to start making pressure and I think the city council and the leaders of the city have all the resources to help the cats. Also, a documentary is being prepared by the citizens because we are very tired and desperate for a change. We do understand that animal services is not absolult. It's the citizens that do not take care of their animals absolved. And with all my heart, I want to ask you all to do something for the cats. And everything I'm saying here is for the entire city. Thank you so much everybody. Thank you. Thank you mayor. That concludes call to the public. All right. Let's move on to the consent. Yes sir. Council, per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices nor personal communication should take place on the deis. While the meeting is in session once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you will have 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per item. Uh please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the day as well while the meeting is in session. For those of you joining us virtually, please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any background noise. That brings us to the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be 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. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. And is there any discussion hearing? None. Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. There is a motion made by Mayor Pro Tim Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor pro Tim Federal to approve the consent agenda. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. That brings us to page number eight to the first reading of ordinances. These are items 21 to 26. Let's take item number 21. Miss Bryan, these are the first reading of ordinances 21 to 26. Sure. Okay. Is there move to approve the first? Oh, there's a motion to approve. Any discussion on any of these items? Hearing none, Miss Bryan? Yes, sir. There's a motion made by Representative Ganal, seconded by Representative Nino to approve the introduction of ordinances. These are items 21 to 26. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. We're now on page number 10, item number 27. And this is a public hearing of an ordinance amending title 20 zoning, table of permissible uses and table of parking requirements and standards of the El Paso city code to support the goals and priorities of downtown redevelopment. Add definitions disallow incompatible uses within the C5 commercial zoning district and allow uses supportive of highdensity development. All right. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. We'll let you go first. All right. Presentation. Uh good morning Karina Brazgala with economic and international development. Um as I said at city plan commission as a former planner I begged Philip for the liberty to do this presentation myself and he kindly allowed it. Um but this was a collaborative effort between the economic development department planning and inspections um the urban design and long-range planning sections uh all working together on this project. So we're looking at proposed amendments to title 20 the zoning code. Um, this only affects the C5 commercial district, which is a commercial district applied to the center of downtown El Paso, uh, limited area, and we've got maps in here. So, really what we're looking at, the purpose of these amendments is to support the vision for downtown El Paso. Um, these are not uses, the incompatible uses don't exist today. We're not making anything illegal or stopping any activity that's happening. We just want to be consistent with what we want to see downtown, what we allow, what we don't allow, and then also helps start moving some of those pieces towards the implementation of the downtown, uptown, and surrounding neighborhoods plan. Um, and then of course, as always, when we touch these parts of the code, minimize confusion with regulations, increase transparency, readability, that sort of thing. Um, so doing a little bit of a cleanup here. Little bit of background. Um the approach for these we're looking at C5 specifically and we're doing uses that are supportive of our housing goals. Uh the downtown uptown plan set a unit goal of 10,000 new units in the downtown uptown plan area by 2040 which is incredibly aggressive when you think about the schedule of getting all those projects constructed. Um this builds upon work that we've done with the development grant pilot program used in the popular building and then you all will see in the coming weeks um hopefully the adoption of a public facility corporation which is a state tool that allows us to use different types of financing for housing projects specifically and those with an affordability component. Um, and then also tying this into um, council's been briefed and I know they'll be coming forward in the coming months, but the work with the future land use map as part of envision El Paso, which is our comprehensive plan rewrite and the larger code rewrite initiatives that again were part of that implementation matrix in the downtown uptown plan. So things also affecting the zoning code, easing those development regulations, making sure that we're being clear, consistent, and then really treating the code as a little bit more of a living document. Um, as much as we'd love to be able to do full rewrites, those can be two or three year operations. The market is moving much more quickly like than that and you have sections of our zoning code that have not been touched since 2007. Um, so we would expect to be able to touch a little bit of these sections as things shift in market and development standards, address those issues and bring them forward. So what we're talking about today is again the C5 district area. So, this is a little bit of the yellow area is kind of the larger downtown boundary, you might say. Um, the red area is the section with that commercial zoning. So, we're just talking about a very, very specific zoning code. And a lot of this land is publicly held. So, you can see the baseball park, the convention center, city hall is included. Um, doesn't restrict any use for from government entities. Um, but making sure that we're being consistent in our highest density. This is the zoning district with it has no setback restrictions, no height restrictions. So it is our most permissive zone. Um and so being very clear about what we do and do not allow there. So the first thing we're touching is cleaning up those incompatible uses. Um these are things that just based on the intensity um the kind of side effects or the scale of the use don't fit with what you see in a urban core. Um, so large and small recycling collection facilities, um, gas and oil drilling, um, shaft mining, and then outdoor shooting ranges, indoor ones are totally fine. And then touching things like drive-through facilities, warehouse clubs, and large scale laundromats. And so those are just based on scale, things like grocery stores already permitted. We're not touching them. Um, smaller laundromats, uh, that would be supportive of kind of neighborhood or residential uses, already allowed. We're not touching that. We're talking about um commercial scale operations. Um you know, if we ever get to the point with downtown Zensity that we can do a two or three story Costco, happy to go back in here and touch it. But right now, warehouse club uses are designed for very large flatlay um facilities. And so we don't want somebody, again, I don't think the market's there, but you know, clearing out two blocks of downtown um to put in a Sam's Club be great to have it. I just don't think that's something that uh fits with what you're looking for in your highest density zoning district. The other element of this cleanup is easing some of these barriers to complete neighborhood uses. Um all of these uses are permitted in the district. They have an additional section of supplemental regulations. So when somebody comes in uh to the one-stop shop, usually they say, "I'd like to open a bakery. um we were looking at installing a laundromat, you know, near this housing development, that sort of thing. Instead of just saying, "Yep, go for it. Submit your permits. Let's get going." Um you have to go, there's these extra regulations and some of these are again outdated. Um or not enforceable. So things like a maximum number of employees on site. Um we already have certain occupancy limits. We don't know how we would enforce this. We don't enforce it. Um there's no real easy way of of capturing those. So making it again super clear that these are uses that we think are appropriate for the area that we want to encourage and making sure that there's no confusion about what we would like to see downtown and making sure it's as easy as possible and simple to understand that you are a use that's permitted in this area. And then some of this is supporting those cooperative uses that come along with residential development. Um, so we are allowing child care facility type three. All of the other child care types are already permitted in C5. Um, workforce borderlex solutions through the Texas Workforce Commission recently was given a grant to scope out daycare facilities. Um, two of the locations they were looking at were downtown. The other one was at the airport. So we very much through partners are aware of the need for daycare facilities and childcare facilities downtown. That that is a growing need across the city. Um, these are things that are already handled through state licensing boards, that sort of thing. We think this one was just left out. So, we want to again be very, very explicitly clear that we are looking for childcare facilities. All of them would be permitted downtown. And then this is a new one. We are adding a corner store definition. Um, so this is kind of your bodega style use. Things that kind of have a mix of uses again support those residential um, density needs. And it's just again a growing category in here. something that's not in our zoning code can kind of be a flex commercial space. Um, so creating that definition, allowing those permissive uses, um, and making it really clear what kind of development we're going for. And then the other residential cooperative use. Um, so those of you who've been paying attention to the real estate market, self-s storage warehouse is a really huge growing real estate um, sector. Lots of investment happening there. When you get residential density, you do typically get self storage. People want a place to keep their stuff. Um, you also see a lot of kind of in the newer self- storage warehouse markets, they do a lot of you can use them as kind of flex office space. Some of them are more occupiable. We see people running kind of side stores out of them. Um, you know, your Etsy shops, what have you. And so allowing that in um what we we do know that this comes along with residential density. And so we wanted to be very careful about how you would allow that. There's not a huge market now. Um we'd prefer a building to be active and occupied than not. And so making sure that it's limited to 80% of the area. So it needs to exist within a mixeduse context. Uh the first floor needs to be a different use. So you still got that, you know, sidewalk activity. And then permitting it only in existing structures or meeting infill design requirements so that you're not getting those kind of long row style self- storage warehouses. you're getting something that is at a building at a density that matches scale. Um there's a picture on the slide here, but this is something you'll see as a conversion for industrial buildings in, you know, San Antonio Austin Denver Chicago Boston, um Kansas City, all of those kinds of areas. There's a ton of those. Um so we were very careful with this definition. We know there's a market and a need and so we wanted to make sure it was done in a way that was thoughtful and considerate. Um, and then the other benefit of the self- storage warehouse uses going in is they require often structural um, reinforcement and fire suppression systems, which means it's very easy to reconvert these buildings um, should the need go away. That's kind of it. Uh, just a quick one of these. Um, we do recommend approval of the proposed amendments and on March 27th, city plan commission also recommended approval. Then just as a heads up for everyone, um some of these have come before council before, but I think it's been a minute. So this is kind of phase zero if you want to think about it of those code amendments. Um throughout the rest of the year, you will see these coming up. Uh they're kind of progressive in terms of how much uh input and public outreach there will be. Some of them are very easy cleanups. Um some of them are touching much smaller areas of effect and increasing there. So you all will be involved in this process. again spearheaded by Alex Hoffman and Daniela Cassada um and Casey Schnel who's our comp plan manager working through these phases again in partnership with many other city department. So you'll kind of see phase one, phase two, phase three tackling those ideas of increasing density um limiting restrictions on adding in housing uses um and then just kind of some clean up on the development regulations. And so with that if there are any questions I'd be happy to take them. Before we have discussion, represent Canales, you want to make a motion to approve? Yeah, move to approve. Is there a second? All right, discussion. Represent canales. Thank you mayor. Um, thank you, Karina. Really comprehensive presentation. Uh, I want to express my strong support for these amendments to title 20. Uh, they have, as as you explained, they align directly with our our push for uh more residential units in downtown as as outlined in our strategic plan and the comprehensive plan that we're working to update as well. Um the the changes uh work in tandem with many of the tools that we are already using. Uh and as you presented on the last couple of slides, the many of the tools that will be coming uh forward and and in front of the council for consideration over the next few months. Uh so I want to make clear for anybody watching C5 district is incredibly limited. Uh the presentation showed the maps. It's it's exclusively located within just one portion of downtown within my district and district 8. Uh these changes won't impact uh residential areas outside of of the very limited C5 zoning within downtown. Um and and it's not meant to. This item is is really just creating a a path for the kind of complete neighborhoods that we want to see in the downtown area in El Paso. Um, and there are in the code and and have been for a long time, uh, barriers to developing multif family housing in in downtown where we want it. Um, allowing child care and corner stores and urban scale self- storage uh, for apartment dwellers. Uh, and then cleaning up the code to eliminate things like shaft mining and oil and gas wells that are, I think, very clearly incompatible with downtown living. Uh, we're we're really creating the conditions to allow for the kind of development that we want to see. And of course, it's something that downtown residents, uh, both existing downtown residents and prospective ones have told us time and again that they they need in order to be able to live comfortably, uh, in in the city center. So, thank you uh Karina and to Phillip uh at planning and inspections and the whole team, Kevin and Raul and everybody else and all of the city staff who had a hand in this and also uh to the interested community members uh Mr. Gayar who I saw in here at some point but I think maybe he he's hiding from us today. Um th this is just the first step of many to to create the conditions that we need in order to spur the kind of uh residential unit construction that that we want to see in the urban court. So I urge my colleagues to approve and yeah happy to be supportive today. Thank you represent FO. Thank you mayor. I I have a request um through the city manager. Please, can we have an update on the housing where we are in the housing and and to meet the goal of I forgot what the number you you had mentioned earlier and what other tools council could could give to your department to u make it easier to reach those goals. So, we've added um the housing study component to our comp plan. Um it was one of the things you talked about in your strategic plan and so we wanted to take the opportunity as we were developing the comp plan to have a special focus on that. we will start to have some results um in terms of that work in early fall to be able to share with you and then it will be adopted with the complete comp plan. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for I think this makes represent Canelis. Well, just to add to that, the uh Casey Schnell and the team working on the comp plan has also convened a working group of of citizens working toward that housing uh component. And so I know they had their first meeting recently and they're going to continue to meet over the next few months, but they're helping to inform that that housing component of the comprehensive plan. Thank you, Represent Karine. I think this makes a lot of sense and and thank you for bringing this this to us and 10,000 new units by 2040. Yes, do it. We're working on it. Yeah, it's good though. But uh this makes a lot of sense. We have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Mayor Pro Tim Chavez to adopt the ordinance on item 27. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. That brings us to item 28. And this is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of a portion at 9649 Dyer Street from R4 residential to C1 commercial. Representative Trey, would you like to make the motion to Okay. Is there there's a motion? Is there a second? Second. All right. Discussion. Is there a presentation or anything? All right. Any discussion on this item? Thank you. Do you have a presentation you want to show? If you want to see it, we can we can show it. Uh it uh by the way, good morning. Luis Amor with planning and inspections. It can you bring up the presentation, please? Thank you. Uh so this is item 28. This is a request for a resoning for property located at 9649 Dire. Um there we go. Uh so the property is located on on Dyer uh close to um I forgot the the street uh mountain. Uh this is kind of an odd shaped lot. Uh so what they're requesting is to resone from currently R4 which is residential to C1. And this will be kind of a a clean up to consolidate the property with the kind of same sun district at the nearby properties to the to the left and right on dyer. Uh we have residential properties to the back. Future languages map designates this area as G3 plus which is kind of uh in line with the request. Here is we kind of have a conceptual plan. This is non-binding. is more or less like uh what they're requesting the the applicant is requesting to build uh proposed uses for an office uh kind of to uh go along with what whatever is built in here. We have some uses of restaurants next door. So this kind of matches with the zoning again uh parking lot. There's a parking lot in the front. So they're going to obviously use those parking spaces that they have. Uh this is the subject property. It's currently vacant at the back. Again in the front we have a parking spaces which is used by the next door property. Uh this is what it looks like the surrounding properties you have retail uh restaurant again to the back we have single family homes across the street we have more retail. So with this notices during the city plan commission to property owners were in 300 ft as required per per city code. Uh we did receive one email in the opposition to the request. Um it was mostly due to uh not wanting more traffic. Um but obviously this is a small property. We're not expecting too much traffic. Uh with this staff and the city plan commission recommend approval of the resing request. Uh and that concludes my presentation. Okay. Very good. Any further discussion on this item? All right. Hearing none, Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Boretjo, seconded by Representative Canales to adopt the ordinance on item 28. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Great. That brings us to item 29. And this is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of a portion at Gateway Boulevard East and Americas from C3SC commercial special contract to C4SC commercial special contract. Okay. Is there a motion to approve? Second. There's a motion and a second discussion. Do you always want to see the presentation? All right. Motion in a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. The motion was made by mayor prom Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor prom to adopt the ordinance on item 29. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. And the voting session and that motion passes unanimously. Item 30 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning at of a portion at 422 South Yarro Drive from RF Ranch and Farm to C1 commercial and imposing conditions. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, Miss Prime call for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by alternate mayor pro Tim Fiero, seconded by Mayor Pro Tim Chavez to adopt the ordinance on item 30. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Item 31 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending title 12 vehicles and traffic loading zones, bus and taxi stands to add right share zones. Amend section 12.48.030 030 loading zone pickup and discharge of passengers to replace passenger with right share or taxi and to add for a maximum of 5 minutes. Add right share zones and right share zone and add right share vehicles to delete other than and to add or other than a right share vehicle in a right share zone. Okay, good morning. Good morning and council. Steve Alvarado, code enforcement director. Um today we were here with our crossf functional team which includes our streets and maintenance department El Paso police department will be giving a presentation on ordinance amendment to title 12.48. This aligns with goals 2.4 and also 7. So 12.48 amendments to establish a ride share zone and existing taxi and loading zones, bus loading zones. that's adding the language to ride share. It was one of the items identified in the sociable city assessment which was presented last May to city council last in 2024. Excuse my voice. In December, some of the action items brought forward were amendments to title five and title 9 at that time with 18 amendments made to the noise amend noise ordinance amendment. Uh this item was identified many years ago by the Westside Regional Command to include a ride share zone. This is one of the action items that were brought forward. Part of this ride share zone study and associable city assessment was inclusive of over 135 participants uh downtown management district, Texas restaurant association, also Texas alcohol beverage control for bliss and multiple law enforcement and city departments inclusive of neighborhood associations and property managers. Now I'm going to turn it over to our westside regional command to continue the presentation. Mayor, Council, good morning. Good morning. Steve Lopez, commander out of the Westside Regional Command Center. What we're doing is we're trying to create a transportation hub, a rid share hub in the Western District of El Paso. It's going to be adjacent to UTEP. It's at the 200 block of Baltimore, next to one of our social venue areas, which is Cincinnati. And perfect timing. We have a major concert coming on June 13th and 14th where we're going to have tens of thousands of vid visitors from outside of El Paso. So, it's the perfect opportunity to have a ride share hub in this area to reduce traffic congestion, parking issues, but ultimately our goal is public safety. We want to reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities. That's one of our major goals as Arthur mentioned and I want to thank him for being the lead on this cross functional team. He's done a phenomenal job. It's going to be the first of many citywide so that we bring El Paso into what other municipalities are doing statewide, nationwide. It's going to improve uh mobility, improve upon economic growth in this area. We have feedback because we listen to the voice of our customers. uh the residents, business owners, um UTEP students, commuters, and this is the perfect location that we feel for the first ride h rid ride share hub outside of the airport. And hopefully it's the first of many to increase mobility for, you know, not only El Pasoans, but visitors who are coming in for special events or city co-sponsored events. We want to improve upon enforcement and I want to thank again Arthur Aluralo for his work with the code enforcement department. We now at the west side have code enforcement officers stationed at the west side along with parking enforcement personnel who are going to monitor this area. We want to clarify the requirements for parking zones, improve standards for residential parking districts, ride share zones, loading zones, and valet parking. So, this is a all-in-one inclusive project that we've been working on and working with bridges and Mr. Stresso. We're going to update parking meter policies. Next slide, please. Title 12.48, proposed ordinance amendments. The purpose of the ride share, facilitate high standards for quality of life, which includes public safety, enhance safe mobility options, and promote safe rides home. And we'll get into that a little bit with the uh presentation for an organization that came from outside of the city. The proposed ordinance amendments, the ride share hub. Next slide, please. This is a sample of the signage that will be placed. And if you look at the map, that's the 200 block of Baltimore, right next to the intersection of North Mesa, which is across the street from the University of Texas at El Paso. I believe this is a perfect location. And what complements our enforcement efforts here is we have visibility through our city network camera system. So, we're able to view this particular area 247 through our fusion center to enhance safety and security in this area. The ride share hub establishes passenger loading zone for rid share services and we have been in contact with some of the uh companies that provide this service. There is a 5m minute maximum for loading unloading of passengers and it's available 24 hours a day. The proposed ordinance amendment also includes what we call Sammy. Next slide please. which it's an awareness initiative of available safety measures within the ride share application. We ask the driver what's my name? Basically, when you book a ride, the person providing that service should know who the fair is. And Sammy stands for stop, ask what's my name, match the license plate displayed, and inform the share details. So, it's what's my name? There's a there's a backstory to this where a young lady leaving a social venue called for a a service, but unfortunately someone else pulled up next to her, said that he was the Uber or Lift driver. I'm not going to mention names. I apologize. She got in the vehicle. She was kidnapped and ultimately murdered because she did not ask for the driver's name. So, this is another component of our safety feature when it comes to ride shares. We're going to post these signs also with within the ride share zone of Sammy stop, ask, match, and inform. And we will be letting everyone know through PSA's public service announcements. A reminder of the importance of verifying the make, model, and license plate of the vehicle it's supposed to pick you up. And then again, we ask the driver, "What's my name?" name. They should know who your name is because you're the one who booked that ride. Next slide, please. Thank you, sir. Thank you again, Steve Alvarado. Um, so these are some of the amendments that were moving forward. Basic language adding ride share to the existing loading, unloading, taxi, bus lane, loading zones. Um they're highlighted in green also emphasizing five minute maximum so people aren't just standing there taking up the spots we keep it rotating motion going forward. Further language um it's including ride sharing. It doesn't prohibit taxi cabs from using these spaces. I want to make that clear. So it's available for taxis and designated ride share um users. With that I'll open up to any questions that council may have. All right. Before we have uh questions, is there a motion to approve this one? Move to approve. There's there's a motion and a second. Represent Canales. Thank you, mayor. Um, overall, I'm super happy with this. I think uh it's an important step for us in both uh controlling some of the traffic in in certain areas, but also avoiding people getting intoxicated and getting behind the wheel. Uh it's a makes an simple solution for people to uh you know go out and enjoy themselves and get home safely. I think that's an important step for this. I do have a few questions. Um you said that this is also eligible for uh taxi cabs. Do they have to have a pre-arranged fair or are they allowed to sit there and wait the five minutes? Well, they're going to have to wait five minutes otherwise they were subject to a citation and potentially towing. If a vehicle is left abandoned there, we would look at possibly towing the vehicles. And these are going to be specifically individually marked stalls in this area. Okay. Yeah, I think this is a it's it'll be a prime location for some uh pretty direct monitoring for at least a little while. I can easily see situations where that fivem minute time limit will be abused. Um again, the idea is that vehicles will cycle through here doing active pickups and drop offs. And I understand we have to give them some time because people aren't always on time for their uh ride share pickup. But uh you know I I'm I worry about uh taxi companies using this like a taxi rank and just waiting for uh waiting for fairs there. Um and then I had a question about uh the I guess obligation for the the companies to use this zone this location. Um are we exploring with Uber or Lyft or any of the other uh companies uh the option of geof fencing? So, a certain area, you know, within within a certain defined area, all of the the drop offs and pickups originating from or or uh terminating in in the zone will have to default to this location. So, we recently started the conversation with Uber. We're going to reach out to Lyft as well um to get that geo fence. We're we're promoting this area since it is highly visible. At slide five, you can see what what the cameras are seeing at nighttime, right? Super clear. great cameras. Um it's well illuminated, um highly marked. Um they can be picked up elsewhere, but we we want people to use this location. We'll continue to work with the right share um apps to get that geo fenced. Yeah. Again, I've I've been doing some reading about it and actually spoke with someone from another city. I I understand like they're usually pretty good to work with as long as the city has a good rationale for why we want a geoence around a certain area, you know, diverting the trips to to a specific pickup zone. Um I I think it would be worthwhile in our case. So uh for what it's worth, I'm happy to be helpful in whatever way I can if you need another uh you maybe a voice from the council speaking to the ride share companies. Um but uh I I I think that will be an important step for us in making this viable. If if the drivers don't have to use this, then you know that it will only be so effective. I think uh we want to make sure that this is being pushed as the the only location that's available for people looking to go to or from uh the area that it serves. Uh but again, otherwise very hap happy that that we're doing this. I know this is just the the code portion and it's the first step. So uh as this gets implemented, I'm happy to be involved. Thanks. Thank you. And we'll we will continue working on the geo fencing with the ride shares council member. Appreciate that. Thank you. This uh go this also aligns perfectly with the restructuring of code enforcement as parking enforcement is coming under my control as well. So we'll get them citywide so we continue monitoring those areas. Representative Chavez. Thank you mayor. Uh thank you Mr. Alvarado. I know you briefed me in my office regarding this agenda item and I appreciate that. I do have a question that I didn't think of then so that's why I'm going to ask it now. Uh the mayor and I just yesterday met with uh a local chapter of ADAPT which is a group of disabled Americans and just because it's not in your presentation and I would like for it to you know for you to answer the question if if there's going to be um accessibility in this area for people that that do require it in order to um you know be go in and out of of the ride share in the in the hub area that you've designated. Excellent question. Um Randy, can you assist me with that question? We have looked into uh putting in a a ramp there at the cost. Okay. Randy Garcia with streets of minutes. So good uh good morning uh mayor council. Representative we are looking at it. We can look at it through our IDA program and some other means that we have but initially um right now we were just trying to get the ordinance through to make sure we can go forward with this. Okay. But we will look into it and then update you. I would appreciate it. I do think it's important that that there is accessibility in that area. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Representative. Y represent Rocha. Thank you, mayor. And thank you. You sound much better. Thank you. Feel better. I just I I'm I'm really excited to have something like this available. um and it you know if you know when it approves or if it's approved today to have it working or implemented how soon will it be implemented because I think there was mention of the concert that's coming in June how quickly are you all expecting to have this signage and everything up sure so on once it approved that there's not a waiting period we could have the signs installed within a twoe period I've spoke with street maintenance on that topic we would have to get the the existing meters removed and then the poles installed within that twoe period. Okay. Thank you so much, Steve. I appreciate it. Thank you, Representative Tjo. Okay, miss my mic here. Thank you, Steve, and uh EPD code street maintenance for taking the lead to do this. Uh this uh verify your public awareness is so important. Uh you know, we've had two people come into our cars thinking that we were just parked and we had people just sitting get in the back seat, not even realize that they're in the wrong the wrong car. My my question is is there a public awareness campaign that will be shared on uh somehow to let the public know especially this Sammy uh to verify where you know the car that you're getting in. Sure. We're going to look at that as the next steps as well. PSA will work with our PIO officers to look into that and streets and maintenance as well and as well as our public information officer for code enforcement. Very good. Thank you. Thank you repres. Thank you mayor. I just had a few questions, I guess. Um, will these parking spaces be numbered? You know, they have current meters. They'll have individual signs in front of each space. Uh, once the meters are removed, the signage will be installed, uh, designating them. Um, yeah, we haven't thought about numbering them. I I'm I'm just thinking about, you know, big airports and obviously this is not an airport, but they kind of have a number and kind of seeing what you wrote on the Sammy and saying, "What's my name?" Maybe adding numbered spaces could also give more um verification to the passenger coming in saying, "Well, what's your name and what's your number?" And that might add a little bit more safety. Sure. So, um I I wanted to suggest that one one thing that I've also seen on Cincinnati is there's especially probably after 1:00 in the morning, a bottleneck of ride shares ensues all around Cincinnati. So with these, it looks like four spaces. Three spaces. Three spaces. What's going to happen with that bottleneck when when people are really requesting a ton of cars when they're leaving the bars? That that kind of worries me because it might cause some safety issues on Mesa as well. Sure. That's a excellent question. Uh Commander Lopez, can you or Randy? Yes. Steve Lopez again. Excellent question. What we're planning to do with our enforcement efforts at the west side, we have personnel out there on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, just monitoring the area for safety reasons. We want to plan if there's a flood of these drivers showing up to use Baltimore as a staging area before they pull into the parking spaces. And the reason we want to keep it on Baltimore is other proposed sites were on the other side of Mesa, but we don't want pedestrians walking across a state highway in order to get to an Uber. Yeah. Another proposed site was Cincinnati itself at Stanton where there's a commercial loading and unloading zone. But because of the amount of people on weekends, especially during the summer, we at times close Cincinnati from Stanton to Mesa to allow people to exit the businesses while making their way to their rides. So, we found that this location was ideal. The alleyway that leads to the right share hub is now lighted and we have cameras in that area where we can monitor. And then there's another set of cameras through city watch where we can actually watch the three spaces in question from either the parking garage at UTIP or from near uh the Walgreens which is right across from the hub. So there is a plan in place if there's multiple Uber or Lift drivers showing up that we will use Baltimore and we'll stage them on that street. Okay. And so I'm assuming the the net that we're trying to cast over this um location is going to be if you are in the Cincinnati area, just Cincinnati Street in Baltimore, this is where you come and and get your ride share. If you're on Robinson or any other street, you could still get one on Robinson. Yes, they can still request one any in any other area outside of the right share. What we're trying to concentrate is UTEP special events like the concert that's coming or the social venues that are there on Cincinnati where we just want to get we want to have person we want to have our our citizens and provide them with an opportunity to get a safe ride home. That's our goal. Okay. And I I just kind of want to see how this goes, right? You're going to have 50,000 people at the Sun Bowl for two days in a row in two weeks, right? And so I think that's a perfect example of when we could kind of measure on kind of fixing things, seeing how we can improve the test of this program. Absolutely. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. No, thank you. I think this is a great start. You know, most uh venues um you know, special event venues outside of El Paso have ride share central locations and I think this is a really really good start of doing that. The the only thing I would like to add though is again now that it's it's it's top of- mind adapt the people that we met with yesterday with special needs and mobility issues that we strongly consider to make it easy for them to access this area and and have the ability to get on a ride share there. But uh I I think to represent's point, I think it's going to be widely popular and I think it's going to expand beyond that area that you're you're currently doing. But I think it's good to keep people together and and and have a central location that they can go to. So I applaud you guys for doing this and taking the first step. Thank you. All right. Any further discussion on this item? All right. Hearing none, Miss Bryan. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Borjo. This is to adopt the ordinance on item 31. There is no public comment on that motion. call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. That brings us to item 32. And this is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of district 2 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $3,000 for the purpose of hiring a part-time graduate intern for a period of 15 weeks. This is representative. Repres, you want to make a motion to approve? Yeah, I I move to approve. Is there a second? Um, thank you, mayor. I, um, just wanted to for the public to know I, it's a pretty straightforward item. We want to hire an intern for the summer months in my office to help us for about 12 hours a week. So, we are um, designating discretionary funds for the purpose of this. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item hearing? None. Seeing none, Miss Bry. Yes, sir. The motion was made by representative Azo, seconded by I didn't representative Maldonado Rocha to approve item 32. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Item 33 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the expenditure of district 2 and district 4 discretionary funds in an amount not to of $700 each for a total not to exceed $1,400 for the purchase of meals at a public event in honor of Father's Day at the Wellington Chu Senior Center on June 12th, 2025. This item is sponsored by representatives aso and Boratjo. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion on this item? I think it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. All right. Seeing none, Miss Bryant, call for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Boretjo, seconded by Representative Aso to approve item 33. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Item 34 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2025-0342 EPIA iron dust off bypass to Dan Williams company for a total estimated amount of 3,658,121.92. This project will consist of the construction of a vehicle bypass for non-secure traffic access to the William Bulmont Army Medical Center located on Constitution Avenue within the El Paso International Airport property limits. Representative Rocha, you want to make Yes. Make move to approve. Second. We have a motion second. Seeing no discussion, Miss Prime for the vote. Yes, sir. The motion was made by representative Malonado Rocha, seconded by alternate mayor prom to approve item 34. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative ADO not present. Item 35 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign a chapter 380 economic development program agreement between the city of El Paso and Paddle Paso Properties LLC. The project includes a paddle court entertainment district and a full service restaurant. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this item? You want to see the presentation? Let's see the presentation. Very good. Good morning, mayor, council. Bill Allen with economic and international development. So, this is a chapter 380 agreement with Paddle Paso Properties LLC. In terms of policy alignment, it does align with our policy uh both from a capital investment and quality job creation. It also hits our one of our target industries. And although it says tourism, I'd really t talk to it like sports tourism. And we'll get into that in a little bit. Uh after the incentive, the cost of government services, a project expansion will provide a net benefit to the city. We'd recommend going forward with this agreement. So, a little bit on the project overview. This is a local business owner who has several restaurants throughout the city. He's expanding his portfolio to include more entertainment projects, also a local development uh operation that's going to be putting this thing together for him. You will see eight paddle ball courts and a fullervice restaurant as part of this project. The project itself is located near the corner of North Wrestler and Helen of Troy. You can see that indicated. Uh the uh the project owner has acquired two parcels at the end of a little culde-sac that is yet to be completed. And this is not a great rendering, but you can see um the six six of the eight paddle ball courts up in front. Two of them will be located alongside the restaurant itself. As far as the description of the project, the capital investments $3,685,000 broken down by land 1,375,000, the new building construction of 1,500,000 and then personal property of 810,000. He plans to create three full-time jobs and 20 probably 20 plus part-time jobs. Um, as far as the full-time jobs are concerned, the average salary is $58,000. So that far exceeds the median county wage of almost $38,000. So our proposed local incentive, the total is $45,425. The property tax rebate is for five years at 50% that would generate $27,925. And then from a sales tax rebate on materials, one-time number of $7,500, that's a cap number. And also permanent free rebate of $10,000, also a cap number. And that represents about just a little bit less than 2% of this gentleman's investment. And then from a community tax benefit, uh in total, this would drive $258,000 uh of after benefit after incentive uh coming back in property taxes. The city will show $91,829. It's a short presentation. We we'd like to move forward with this agreement. Um, gentleman is hoping that this will go in his favor today. He is trying to be open by mid December. Any questions for Bill on this represent Rocha? No. So, just showing my age here. What's the difference between paddle ball and pickle ball? I have a video if you guys want to see one. Let's see it. Mayor, this isn't even paddle ball. Can you bring this one up? Let's see this. Oh, with the same scoring as tennis, 15, 30, 40, all that jazz and a similar ball, so you won't be caught off guard. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the amazing world of [Music] paddle. So, what sets paddle apart? Well, it's the court themselves. See these fancy walls around us? They're not just for show. Oh, no. These magical walls let you rebound the ball off the wall to continue the point. You'll be spinning, diving, and chasing after that ball like you're in an action movie, making every point an adventure. And the best part, paddle is so easy to learn, you can jump right in. It doesn't matter if you're a grand slam winner or just starting out on the court, you'll be hooked in no time. And it's way more fun than pickle ball. I mean, who even came up with that name? So, grab a racket, find a partner, and have a smashing time. Happy paddling. Wow, that was a softball question. Represent John. Very much appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mayor. This is District One, mayor. So, are you up for it? Well, I was just trying to figure out how to play pickle ball, and now I've got to learn paddling and how to jump off of a fence. So, yeah. So, we'll have to check it out. We'll do it. All right. Sounds good. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Representative Canales, you have anything? Only to say you mentioned uh LeBron earlier. The the world number one in paddle ball is also named LeBron. So really maybe you'll like that LeBron better. Probably we better transition. All right. No further discussion. Call for the vote. Miss Fry. Yes, sir. The motion was made by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by Representative Nino to approve item 35. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Aso not present. And just for the record, I like all LeBron. Okay. I like all LeBron. Yes. Let's see what other sports we can bring here with that name. There you go. Thank you, Miss Prime. Item 36 is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize implementation of intersection safety improvements surrounding priority parks and recreation facilities in a manner consistent with the language of the 2022 community progress bond totaling 5.8 million. Motion to approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. Art, you want to thank the students for Okay, there's a motion and a second. Do we have or are you want to vote first or you good? Okay. Any further discussion on this particular uh representalis? Sorry, mayor. I would like to see the presentation. Okay, let's do it if that's okay. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Wim Rodriguez with the capital improvement departments. Couldn't let me get away with it, could you? Representative Canales. Um it do you mind bringing up the presentation, please? So today on the agenda, uh the capital improvement department is requesting uh authority to reprogram some of our 2022 community progress bond funds to a program that we're uh naming safe routes to parks. Next slide, please. The proposed action would program 5.8 million of intersection safety bond funds for the safe routes to parks intersection improvement uh program. The sort of impetus behind this, there were a number of uh intersections originally slated for traffic signals. Can you all hear me? This is sounded weird to me. Um it please go back one more slide. Sorry. So, what's listed here are traffic signals that are already programmed with either community progress bond funds, uh highway safety improvement program bond funds, economic development funds, um and other funding sources. But essentially this list is you know what we had um shared with the public during the development of the bond itself. And through finding these alternative funding sources we've been able to execute all of these projects um or have them programmed to be executed in the short term. That leaves us with some unprogrammed funds um that we feel would be uh better utilized through the safe routes to parks program. Next slide please. Just for some context, um, in analyzing our data as part of our vision zero process, uh, we know that 21% of all killed or seriously, uh, injured crashes involve people walking. So that's pedestrians. Um, part of our vision zero, uh, pledge. As a city, we know that all populations deserve safe and equal access to these community amenities like our parks and recreation facilities. Um and finally, the data shows pretty clearly that children, seniors, and disadvantaged populations are more likely to be walking and biking to parks and other recreation facilities and subsequently more likely to be involved in uh fatal and and serious injuries. Next slide, please. Some more context here. These were images shared um with me by some of our staff that kind of got us thinking um what we could do to really prioritize safe connections to our park facilities. Um so these are residents crossing at uh Tiara Cafe and Pebble Hills to access Salvador Rivas Park. Um you can see here uh and it's something that we see all across the city is people will cross uh where they feel is more convenient for them regardless of what safety improvements may or may not be in place there. um you know traI traditional traffic engineering mindset in the past was to create a safe crossing somewhere um that our manuals and our engineering books say makes sense. We know now that people will ignore that and they will cross where they feel is more convenient. So we really want to take these improvements to where we know people are making those crossings. Um even then uh with this park specifically the closest interse intersection you can see here uh a rollover that did result in a serious injury. So even what what we feel as you know safe connections are not necessarily what people are wanting uh the route people are wanting to take to get there. So this program is you know recognizes that. Next slide please. The analysis that we did is entirely data driven um with coordination between different departments as well. Um but we know that 62% of our parks are located within a half mile of our bicycle and pedestrian high injury network. Um you all probably have heard me talk about the high injury network in the past. That's our network of streets where there are the most severe injury and fatal crashes occurring. Um half mile is something we use as urban planners. It's essentially the distance that people are more comfortable walking or biking to. So having 62% of our facilities within that half mile of the higher injury network is a pretty significant statistic. Um 92 of those facilities uh parks or other recreation facilities are located directly on that high injury network. Next slide please. Um, additionally looking at those parks and wreck facilities, we know that 70% of them are located within half mile of a recent traffic fatality. Um, and that's looking at crash data from 2014 to 2024. Next slide, please. In prioritizing which parks are at higher risk, we looked at three main uh criteria. The first being safety. That was based on crash data. Um, we looked at demand for those facilities. So which facilities are more highly utilized? And then finally we look at demographic data uh primarily socioeconomic status and uh census data that is specific to vehicle ownership. Next slide please. So looking at those three uh looking at them spatially on a map you can see that there is a heavy overlap between those. Um so our final priority analysis on the left side there is with that uh demographic data. Uh we also work closely with our mobility advisory committee to recommend projects and problem areas that they see in their uh communities and their districts. Um and then finally that data from parks as far as uh high usage. We want to make sure that we're making the most of these investments. Next slide please. So this is the list of priority parks. So these are the parks where we see the most uh the most serious injury and fatal crashes based on crash history, but also looking at uh facility usage, looking at pedestrian volumes, um we see these as a high risk for more future crashes and that's why we've prioritized them. Next slide please. the possible improvements that you'll see here. Again, this is sort of getting away from that traditional traffic engineering ideology of putting traffic signals um at anywhere we see an issue. We we'll be looking at uh closing sidewalk gaps, things like pedestrian refuge islands, improving lighting, um traffic signals are still an option here, but we'll be looking more closely at things like uh hawk signals, midblock crossings, rapid rectangular flashing beacons, which are another type um of traffic signal to make drivers aware of pedestrians. Um, also looking at curb extensions, ADA improvements, midblock crossings, and improving striping in these areas. Next slide, please. So, we wanted to give you just some examples of what type of of improvements you would see. Sorry, this is at the Pat Oorc uh rec center. Um, there are some curb extensions in on the Montana side of that facility, but we'd be proposing to duplicate those curb extensions on all four corners of um of the facility. Again, ensuring that we're creating safe, comfortable access and connectivity to the facility. Next slide, please. Um, looking at district two, there are there is a series of parks. Um, we really looked at these as sort of corridor-wide improvements connecting these three facilities to each other. So, looking specifically, um, at filling in those sidewalk gaps, uh, increasing accessibility through additional curb ramps, um, and then again looking potentially at some midblock crossings where they make sense. Next slide, please. So, as far as the process, you know, we started with that priority analysis. We moved on to coordinating with uh streets and maintenance, parks and wreck um to and as well as the mobility advisory committee for projects. Um we've sort of been toying around with different designs and concepts for these different areas. Um with today's approval, we'll move on to uh procurement of formal construction uh documents for the entire uh suite of prioritized parks and then move on to construction. uh hopefully by January of 20 uh 26 we'll be starting some of this construction. Next slide please. So the requested action for today is to again program 5.8 million of currently unprogrammed funds from the 2022 community progress bond intersection safety program to implement a safe routes to parks improvement plan uh for intersection and traffic safety improvements. Thank you representative Chavez. Thank you, Mayor and Hain. Thank you so much for your presentation and for briefing me on this item. Um, again, as I mentioned earlier, just because we met with ADAPT yesterday, uh, disabled Americans, they requested something, um, and I just wanted to bring it to your attention. And I don't know if it's something you've considered, but they did say that on on sidewalks where there are ramps for um wheel wheelchair accessibility that they would like to see um those curbs colored in some way. I guess to make it more recognizable for them. Um I don't know if that's an option or if that's something that's been considered or not. I just we can look into that with our streets and maintenance team as long as it doesn't uh you know violate any of their um standards as far as traffic signals and markings. Um we can definitely explore that. Okay. Thank you. And that's a message straight from them yesterday. So awesome. Thank you. Something to consider. I appreciate it. Thank you, Representative Chavez. Any further discussions for walking or miss? We have a motion in a second. Yes, sir. The motion was made by representative Orejo, seconded by Representative Nino to approve item 36 on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Aso not present. That we've reached the end of the regular items. Mayor, is there a motion to return to executive session? So moved. 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 of the El Paso city charter in the Texas government code chapter 551 subchapter D to discuss any of the following. Executive session item one, Texas Gas Service Test Year 2024 gas reliability infrastructure program interimm rate adjustment for the incorporated areas of the West North Service Area. HQ number utility-62 under 551.071. Executive session item two, discussion on potential economic development opportunities in northwest El Paso, HQ number 25-4748 under 551.087. Executive session item three, discussion on potential economic development opportunities in East El Paso, HQ number 25-4979 under 551.087. And executive session item four, real estate division update HQ number 25-5035 under 551.072. These matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney. 551.072 deliberation regarding real property and 551.087. Deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. It is 11:24 a.m. Thank you, staff. Thank you, council. 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? Nay. And we're back in open session at 1:10 p.m. Mayor Prom EX1. Thank you, Miss Prine. Motion made, seconded and carried that the city of El Paso, after review of the test year 2024 gas reliability infrastructure program interim rate adjustment west north service area interim rate adjustment filed by the Texas Gas Service Company. A division of One Gas Inc. TGS on Friday 11th, 2025 finds that the requested interim rate adjustment is hereby denied. This motion is intended to grant authority to the city attorney's office to take all action necessary to address these matters, including but not limited to the initiation and response to any litigation complaints appeals administrative or judicial proceedings or process regarding this matter. Second. All right. Motion second. Miss Prime. Yes, Mayor. The motion was made and read into the record by Mayor Pro Tim Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor prom Fiero, and this is to deny the request on EX1. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Ex2, no action. Thank you. EX3, no action. Thank you. EX4, no action. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Second, no action. There's a motion and a second to adjurnn the regular city council meeting. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? And the regular city council meeting for Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 is adjourned at 1:11 p.m. Thank you, council. Thank you guys.