e e e e e e good morning mayor you're for e e it's 9:00 a.m. good morning everyone Miss PR yes sir good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday November 12 2024 mayor liser is present and presiding in council chambers along with mayor protim Kennedy representative ACO alternate mayor protim molinard and representative Canales it is 9:00 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 Rabbi Levi Greenberg i' would like to begin by doing an act of Charity Sovereign of the world look favorably upon the mayor and the members of the city council of our great city of El Paso and all of us gathered here this morning and bestow upon them and all of us the joy of life good health and prosperity bless these people who have been chosen to make laws and decisions for the citizens of our city with wisdom and understanding in the noble pursuit of justice and equality the Jewish world is currently studying the chapters of the Bible focused on the story of Abraham an individual who had the courage to discover the truth and share his new found awareness of God with everyone with Grace and generosity shunned and mocked at first by even his closest Associates he did not have it easy called upon to sacrifice his life for his beliefs he did not hesitate to affirm his Devotion to God and ultimately gained the respect and admiration of all Humanity he introduced to the world such Noble values as hospitality and sharing and his legacy continues to this day as God declared I cherish Abraham because he instructs his children and his household after him to keep God's Ways by acting with righteousness and Justice Abraham's life of service and Leadership paved the way for the emergence of a better and more ethical world the Timeless lessons of Abraham's fascinating life beckon to us all today stand up for what is right and be confident that A Better Tomorrow is on the horizon Sovereign of the world grant us all the wisdom and courage to apply the powerful lessons of Abraham so that we be able agents of goodness and peace to ourselves our families our communities and the entire world give strength to our elected officials to be cognizant of your presence and conduct their deliberations accordingly grant them the ability to turn adversity into opportunity and to transform the hard challenges we face today into the seeds from which will Sprout the growth of tomorrow may our Borderland region serve as a beacon of light strength and moral courage as we do our part in preparing the world for an era of Global Peace and Tranquility may this occur speedily in our times and let us say Amen thank you Rabbi would you like to lead us in the pledge Rabbi ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty andice justice for all thank you good morning everyone and um I do want to to uh wish all the veterans in our community we have about I know over 55,000 veterans that call Al pasal home and uh in the United States we have over 18 million veterans and I do want to wish everyone a a happy U Veterans Day I know we have uh two veterans that sit up here with us uh representative mullinar I know you sered the US Marines and representative M protim Kennedy served the US Army thank you thank you for your service and um we did have a lunch in last week for all the veterans in the city and there was uh 800 75 veterans that uh currently are employed after they did their service with the city of Al Paso and so I do want to thank all the Veterans for giving us the freedom and their service for us to be able to be here so thank you and happy veterans I know it's belated I know it was yesterday but we were not here yesterday but uh again I do want to thank you all for the freedom you've given us and for Ser the service to our community and to our country thank you Miss PR thank you mayor for the record Representatives Fierro and rera join the meeting at 904 that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is Veterans recognition date representative mulard good morning thank you very much yes yes I am proud United States Marine Corps veteran gives me honor and privilege to read this Proclamation Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas November 11th has long held a cherished place in the heart of every American who recognizes the sacrifices made by our military from the inauguration of this treasured holiday in 1918 known originally as Armistice Day Day of Peace after World War I President Wilson declared November 11th to be a day of reflection and whereas President Eisenhower on October the 8th 19 19 53 issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation encompassing all military conflicts and acknowledging every military member who has served and officially recognizing November 11th as Veterans Day he wrote quote let us Solly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly uh the Seas and the air and the foreign Shores to preserve our heritage of Freedom end quote and whereas we recognize the sacrifice of the men and women of Paso who have served in defense of this nation and the loved ones who stand beside them memorializing the heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice and all those who have not returned home whereas the op Paso Texas Flags Across America also known as Old Glory Memorial is dedicated to enriching public respect and appreciation for the United States flag and instilling patriotism since June 14th 2003 and concluded the 32nd Northeast Veterans Day parade and whereas the Northeast Veterans Day Parade honored and celebrated America's Veterans for their patriotism love of their country and willingness to to serve and sacrifice for the common good raising aware awareness of those who have served and saluting members of our military currently serving and whereas the city of El Paso has among its citizens volunteers and employees individuals who have served the United States armed forces we are reminded of Our obligation to them to serve our veterans as they have gallantly served us and As We Gather here today let us not forget that freedom is never free and our nation and Community is ever more indebted for their courageous service now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and counsel of the city of Al Paso November 12th 2024 shall be known veterans recognition day signed the honorable mayor Oscar liser city of Al [Applause] Paso okay well thank you and one one last thing I I do want to say and um on uh Sunday I did have the honor of presenting the key to the city to Kayla thoron who represented the city of El Paso and won the WNBA championship and so we gave her the key to the city on behalf of the council in the city and also proclaimed um that Kayla Thorton day was November 10th 2024 on in her honor of the great representation of our city and how and then they retired her Jersey after that for the great representation of of EP so I did want to mention that since uh we did do it on on Sunday night thank you mayor for the record representative ernandez joined the meeting at 9:06 a.m. that brings us to the next Proclamation and this is Winterfest days May proam yes uh Sher legate come on up whereas Winterfest featuring The sheer legate Lights Parade is one of El Paso's most cherished festivals bringing our community together in holiday celebration and whereas San hento Plaza and surrounding area will once again Sparkle with more than 1 million lights oversiz decorations and a 55- ft holiday tree and whereas this year's Winter Fest led by the parks recreation department will expand to include Cleveland Square Park offering even more festive lighting displays for visitors and whereas the winter f season features a variety of family friend friendly attractions downtown including an outdoor ice rink holiday displays and the illuminated Paso de los lucus and whereas Winterfest has become a beloved TR tradition with the city of El Paso and its Partners working to enhance this experience for residents and visitors and whereas the sheer liate Lights Parade attracts nearly 655,000 attendees on opening day filling the air with holiday magic and whereas last year more than 440,000 people enjoyed Winterfest in a free festive and safe environment and whereas Winterfest enriches the lives of El Paso celebrating our cultural heritage with holiday events across the city including the El Paso Street Car public libraries City museums El Paso Zoo and Parks and Recreation and whereas this celebration brings joyful memories from skating on the ice to sipping hot cocoa at San hento Plaza and whereas Winterfest unites over City departments destination El Paso more than 160 local businesses including the sheer legate Law Firm to support the events Mission now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that November 23rd through January 5th shall be known as Winterfest days signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser thank you mayor proam and I I do want to thank uh Sam Leed and Jim sherff for sponsoring and always being part of the community making sure that uh continue to be able to bring programs like this so I do want to thank you all and uh congratulations on all the achievements you all have done over the the many years that been in office you guys have been a good partner to our community and I thank you for that good morning mayor good morning to the council members good morning city manager uh Pablo cavayero Parks and Recreation director well this time of the year it's back again so Winterfest as representative Kenny mentioned Kennedy mentioned uh more than 440,000 visitors came last year we're expecting higher numbers this year for our six weeks of programming with family uh Gathering and multiple entertainment that we will have that afternoon uh starting with our Cher thegate celebration of lights parade this upcoming November 23rd at 6 pm. and we're hoping to see you all there uh I would like to share this microphone with the people that make this happen they're on on on my back so let me start with Miss Diana sepa uh Winterfest lead coordinator thank you Pablo so I would like to take uh this moment to thank our city manager Dion Mack leadership mayor and Council and the and Recreation director Pablo cavayero for his continued support over the past years we also want to thank all the park staff as well as all the the city departments such as PD museums uh El Pasa sou strear um Land Management Street and mainin and of course destinational Paro for over 10 months of planning uh for us to be able to bring this signature event back to our community we also would like to thank Channel 9 for being our media sponsor and broadcasting the parade and of course uh the parade sponsor sherley gate for their continuous partnership over the past six years and commitment to a Paso Community to the AL Pasa Community Mr Sam good morning mayor great to see you members of city council friends Sher leate is our Law Firm is a nationally recognized Law Firm with our home right here in El Paso we've been here for almost 50 years and we are so proud of our community and we're so proud to be a part of Winterfest and the pray to lives Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday many years ago I'm going to take you back to November 1977 I sat right there where you sit today no actually I was on number five it was just became a new position next to Polly Harris on one side of me who pinched me but we my my family put together a Thanksgiving celebration at the old city county building before it got demolished and that was the impetus for a lot of events that culminate today so we at sherle gate have greatest Pride to continue continue to sponsor parade of lives thank you for giving us that opportunity and thank you for what you do for the city Bill Paso thank you Mr Sheriff hey Jim I think you still hold the record you were the youngest elected official at the time that's true thank you you good good memory 50 years later congratulations and of course this event will be possible without the partnership of destinational Paso Jose Garcia here president and CEO good morning mayor and Council city manager City staff um it is absolutely Pride to uh serve alongside the city to to bring this event to fruition uh Dianna sepa her team Pablo his team uh as they said 10 months of work um and then it's going to be an amazing six weeks uh please accept on behalf of destination Paso these humble uh gifts it's probably your first Christmas gift and uh mayor we have yours coming uh uh Amigo man was going to do the presentation but he's a man of few words so uh uh so he'll be present uh your Christmas gift uh Mr Mayor so thanks again and uh we're very proud to serve alongside the city to bring this great event to fruition uh happy holidays to everybody thank you thank you Jose and we want to invite everyone to the holiday a sneak peek of the holiday food Village happening at s San jinto Plaza today we have our holiday food truck sponsors that are going to be uh during the six weeks at Winterfest so we're going to have a voucher for H of you as well as uh the folder that you have in your um in your desk we have all the uh spring tickets and all the information about the parade we have the map so we uh we hope to see you there on the opening day thank thank you are we having pickle ball okay maybe and to wrap it up uh I just got an excellent news by Ricky sayas so I'm G to share the microphone with him so he can let you know this great news us so I just want to announce real quick that uh Winterfest was chosen as one of the top uh winter Mark Winterfest markets for Winterfest activities for the in across the country by USA today so I think that's really big uh recognition for our community and there's there's actually a voting system too so if you guys can go uh we have our link on our Facebook page it's at the very top of our Facebook page the city of El Paso if you guys can vote uh I'd appreciate everyone to vote and we can come out on top and show the rest of the nation what a wonderful Community we have and what an awesome event Winterfest will be this year thank you thank you good morning representative nandz thank you good morning mayor good morning to all of the Dream Team here um I'm a little biased Diana but I wanted to give you a special shout out that I think since your involvement into the Winterfest you've left really big shoes to fill you should be very proud I think you are now officially a chaos coordinator okay that's other duties as assigned um but this is a really great achievement and I really wanted to stress the thanks to the Cher leate Law Firm this has been so much of a memorial experience for my family for my children they look forward to it and within a six-hour radius people are coming to our city and you are helping us get there and so immense thank you for believing in our community and believing in this effort because it does create long lasting memories for our families and so many thanks to you and all of the city staff who have to go through hours and hours of overtime to make these events possible um now I'm also going to encourage Dion to do something special for you all at the end because it is a labor a love for you all and you deserve all the thanks for creating so many memories and I'm putting her on this spot I'm just like hey maybe we should do something special you matter um and uh thank you and for I just have qu quick question Diana are you all still accepting folks to the parade or everything's you're ready to go nobody no we're ready to go we have 60 entries already and that's about 100 uh it can include cars and as well as walking groups oh okay yeah that's a big that's a big number so so we closed the registration back in September but we still adding them into the waiting list okay sounds good thank you and good job all appreciate thank you yall want to come on up and we'll take a picture together please for e e e M PR and for those of you receiving proclamations this morning your group will have up to six minutes collectively to speak at the podium the next Proclamation is National diabetes Awareness Month representative F good morning sir thank you mayor good morning it's an honor do I okay thank you are youall going to make your way up good thank you welcome and let me start whereas diabetes is a silent epidemic affecting over 38 million Americans and November is National diabetes Awareness Month a time to reflect on the serious impact and di of the disease whereas our community it's prevalent of diabetes is alarmingly high with 15% of the residents affected well above the national average placing our community at greater risk for complications such as heart disease vision loss kidney loss foot problems and life-threatening conditions whereas while diabetes can be devastating it is a largely preventable and manageable condition early detection Lifestyle Changes Pro Active Health Management such as regular screenings healthy healthy eating physical activity weight management Med medication and Stress Management can drastically reduce the risk of the outcome whereas a city of El Paso alongside with Department of Health diabetes Alliance Coalition and our uh dedicated Community Partners is committed to tackling this Health crisis together we will rise raise awareness provide education eff effect essential resources screenings support to prevent manage and reduce the impact of diabetes on our community whereas we urge all our citizens to join in the fight against Diabetes by embracing prevention promoting Healthy Living supporting efforts to eliminate the devastating effects of this disease let us act together together we can make a difference now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor council the city of El Paso that the month of November shall be known as National diabetes awareness month thank you second no no I'm sorry I need a moment please signed by the very honorable and handsome mayor Oscar liser that to got too excited good morning good morning thank you all so much for the opportunity uh to the mayor to the council we uh have worked so hard in the community I'm Leslie Gilly with the city of Paso Department of Public health and we have worked so hard in our community to raise awareness along with my colleagues our leadership our um diabetes Alliance Our Community Partners who have just been tirelessly working El Paso of course our border region has suffered a lot we see this every day in our daytoday uh walk and lives of being out there in our community as a health educator we simply we we vow to encourage all of the individuals that are in a community um to you know get screened get tested and to you know ensure that they are living a good lifestyle so that this epidemic of in our community can be reduced Andor prevented and then I'll pass it over to our alliance partner this is Audrey good morning thank you so much we are so grateful for this recognition um I know many of you support this and I'm with the posal nte Health foundation and within our diabetes initiative the diabetes Alliance brings many organizations like the City Health like project Amistad that's here um different groups Al Paso Center for diabetes all doing different work for Education information to help lower individuals A1C so we're excited for you all to hopefully visit our website diabetes noww what.org and take a free risk test because it starts with a simple risk test and knowing what what your numbers are thank you so much for having us thank you thank you thank you all and you know I think it's so important right now as a holiday season approaches we um you know I think I started yesterday already but um it's really we need to be aware of diabetes and our sugar levels and all as uh you know Halloween just came and Thanksgiving Christmas I always tell people my problem is we got Halloween then we have Thanksgiving then we have Christmas then we have new year years then we have Monday then we have Tuesday so it becomes yeah so we got to make sure we're we thank you all for what you do I think it's really important my mom and dad both suffered you know from diabetes and and at the end my mom really suffered a lot so it's very important to be aware and take the proper medication no doubt thank you y'all want to come up thank you e e the next who has the next one miss PR and for the record representativ Sala join the meeting at 9:27 a.m. the next Proclamation is Sao Vista Mall's 50th Anniversary representative nandes hi good morning I have the honor of reading um the proclamation for the city of El Paso and it reads whereas on November 25th 1974 the largest mall in the El Paso are metro area open its doors featuring over 140 specialty stores and 17 eies in a 1.2 million square foot property and it was named celiv Vista mall and whereas celista mall has attracted and retained hundreds of new retailers supporting local businesses in El Paso and making an economic impact on our community and whereas over 2,700 job opportunities have been produced in the celo Vista Mall every year as it Fosters professionals professional development and addresses challenges Youth and seniors May encounter in the workforce and cvista ma invest in our community by supporting local nonprofit organizations school districts and numerous Charities by fundraising and collaborating with local partners and whereas the national nonprofit organization known as the Simon Youth Foundation is part of the salista mall and its main goal is to provide educational and career development opportunities for Youth and acknowledge the local students by offering scholarships to support their academic Endeavors of promising youth in the city of El Paso and whereas it is an honor to recogniz the commitment the dedication leadership of the management team of cista M who have taken the initiative to support the community of El Paso for the past 50 years now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that November 25th 2024 shall be known as celista Mall 50th Anniversary signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations good morning you know and as representative nundus was reading that I was 16 years old when you all opened up and I was like wow it's way out there there's nothing out there now 50 years later you're probably in the middle of town now and there's so much surrounding and out you know so um congratulations but I do remember that day when it opened and uh it was out there thank you thank you thank you all um and good morning my name is Jonathan Valen I'm the general manager for Vista Mall the SE Vista Mall team and I are incredibly honored and appreciative of the opportunity to stand before you this morning and receive this Proclamation I'd like to take a moment to introduce our very talented and dedicated team in a particular order our uh security director Adrien Rivas good morning our operations director dirt kungle good morning our senior specialty leasing representative Elizabeth marks good morning our office administrator Sonia haetta good morning our director of marketing and Business Development Cindy fol good morning and our office I'm sorry excuse me our marketing coordinator um Martha Bond good morning these uh these amazing amazing people make the mall what it is um and we are we are members of the community and as members of the El Paso Community we recognize the level of impact that Sil Vistal has had on the lives of the people that live here it's incredibly important to us that we consistently deliver an environment of elevated aesthetic for all to engage in Commerce fashion and uh timeless style and community and Beyond the countless memories of fun shopping experiences the people of El Paso have had with friends and family Civ Vistal has also had a significant economic impact thousands of jobs have been created our Center we've made and fostered significant Capital Investments and annually we create one of the largest local sales tax revenues for El Paso 50 years bring such a storied history and yet this has only been the beginning we look forward to continuing the journey and impacting the people of our great community in an enjoyable and meaningful way we'd like to thank you again for this recognition of our Center and we cannot wait to show the people Paso what the next chapter will be thank you thank [Applause] you thank you very much mayor uh to your team thank you very much I can tell you I remember sha M opening up it was something very different uh just it was nice I mean still nice still very nice I lot couple of points I'd like to make it's I really think that you maintain the exterior uh picking up the trash the the debris that's in the parking lot I I really that sets a big thing for me the inside the Interiors you know the floors are always polished the stores are bright colorful they're you know encourage people to come into their stores then during the holidays everything that you do to decorate everything it's really good but also the variety of the different uh stores that you have the merchants there and I've never really seen too many problems there and so I know my family shops there a lot and will continue to shopping there thank you for everything you've done for our community thank you thank you sir the the only thing that wasn't referenced Mr Valen and in the proclamation that I really do feel that we need to recognize is um Simon Maul and syab Vista Maul's efforts during the um auguster tragedy it was very difficult to navigate through that experience but you all let us use that space um on your property for longer period of time than necessary but it really meant a lot to the community that you all you know took the initiative to allow for our community to grieve collectively and I know that in any other community that would have not been the case um because we have so much unity and so much love for each other I did want to formally thank you for that experience I know I had been on the call with your predecessor um for some time and um I hope that uh my successor in January will have that um strong relationship with you um celiv Vista is District in District 3 and so it has been just a wonderful you all have been a wonderful partner to work with when there's any issues so thank you for your commitment to our community and thank you for continuing to employe Al passons and as a side note you all gave my grandfather his first job opportunity when he came to the United States and so now he's employed at EPCC he started at Sal Vista um in J in janitorial now he's one of the head maintenance at EPCC and it started at syiva so you all are making a difference in family and so thank you for your commitment thank you thank you and you know to that when I was 16 years old I was a janitor at sista mall at one of the stores there and that was the first job I had so I you know so 50 years ago he guys were great Partners to our community and you continue to do that but uh as you were talking it brought back memories of um being a janitor there at one time thank you you thank you Mary might as well say it that's where I got my first job at Kenny Sho stories I want to thank you I had never seen so many feed in my life so like I did that day but uh representative Hernandez touched on the spot that really warmed our heart that uh you know we kept it clean our office with a lot of volunteers kept that area clean uh during that uh Satur Day in El Paso uh and it was you made it all possible for us to keep it there and that was a real honor to do so and both on on you know the city's behalf and on your behalf for stepping up and so you know thank you very much for everything shista is still there I still go there and it's great and I again you do maintain your grounds and you're building the best in El Paso thank you [Applause] on she's not tall enough okay and the next Proclamation is Art Center and science Appreciation Day represent thank you mayor thank you so I have the honor of reading this Proclamation whereas the art center and signs business has been an integral part of Al Paso's history beginning in 1949 in a garage and expanding to a beautiful storefront in central El Paso and whereas for 75 years this family run business by Daniel and Dena Amika strives to be a One-Stop destination for El Paso's art needs and supplies forming long- lasting relationships with customers and businesses and whereas the El Paso destination offers customers premium quality and Specialty Supplies for all art needs including great great brand names for watercolors oil and acrylic paints as well as the best drawing pens papers brushes colored pencils pastels spray cans canvas tables and easel and whereas among the many services the art center and science provides residents can always look to have their needs met for signs framing restoration work airbrush and artwork Printing and where as the Arts Center and science has worked with arrangeable peso residents and institutions including the cityel El Paso the county of El Paso El Paso ISD El Paso Community College UTEP Fort Bliss the Ruben Center The Plaza Hotel Sil Vistal and artists H Marcus Patrick galdon and Noel Espinosa and whereas the mission of the art center signs is to provide the highest quality products and services to customers through Innovation creativity and dedication and whereas the owners and their staff are thankful for all the community support during the past seven decades and will continue to build strong ties with the El Paso Community as they care and consider each customer as part of their extended family and now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that November 12th 2024 shall be known as art center and signs Appreciation Day signed the honorable mayor Oscar liser and happy 75th Anniversary good morning good morning good morning everybody well good morning mayor good morning every every member of the city council H we want to tell everybody thank you for support our store we are part of this community we are the the third family that continue the business of El Paso uh we are going to continue to support everybody to give the best service for our students because our students are a very important member of our business and thank you for everybody to continue to support us and thank you for this honor that to give it to us thank you thank you congratulations thank [Applause] you are you congratulations congratulations congratulations thank you and the final Proclamation is official Tamal season in El Paso come on folks I see a cooler I like this I like the look of that cooler good morning Proclamation city of Al Paso Texas whereas for centuries tamales have marked important Gatherings around celebrations and holidays throughout Latin culture and whereas October and the onset of fall rekindle cravings for warm and Delicious Tamales and they are the perfect food pairing for watching football or as a supplement to the traditional Thanksgiving feast and whereas tamales are a hearty meal during the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12th for the matachin dancers and the faithful to enjoy and whereas the holidays are the peak season in the Borderland when no matter the flavor red Pork Green chicken green chili cheese or sweet tamales people rush to the stores to buy them and gather at home to make uh and gather at home to make celebration and whereas for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day tamales have become a traditional and convenient party meal and whereas tradition holds that the person who is lucky enough to find the baby toy in their slice of Rosa cake on Three Kings Day on January 6th is responsible to host a party featuring tamalis on February 2nd during candle and whereas in the early 1980s Dominican nuns from Mexico started making tamales at Food City supermarkets as a fundraiser to build their chapel and as a result Food City was blessed with the iconic tamalis for which it is now famous in the region and whereas the Food City family has been proudly making tamales for decades by hand and is committed to continue promoting the love and traditions of all tamale makers and purveyors throughout the Borderland now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that October 31st of this year through February 2nd 2025 shall be known as official tamalis season in El Paso signed by our honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning Council I'm Carlos Lowry a proud member of the third generation of the family ownership group that my grandfather Joe Santos founded he grew up here he was from Segundo vario that's where he had his very first grocery store on South Stanton and here we are 60 years later three generations in and we wanted to come before you all today to make it official that now we are in tamali season and that you can find the best ones at our stores so we are very very proud of the over 150,000 individual tamales that we hand make all year long and we wanted to bring some of our crew here to share in the celebration so we've got some store managers with us and we've got some veteran talas with us and we just wanted to express our gratitude to you all and also give you all some of our tamales so thank you all so much thank you and I do want to when I first ran for office back in 2013 I had the honor of meeting the family and everyone and so that's one of the things I really remember the day I got to meet yall but the biggest thing I Remember by going over there when I went to meet yall was the line around the building from manoodle that was the longest line I'd ever seen and you guys would always run out but uh thank you all for for being part of our community and for giving back I know you all have given back a lot and like I said I had the honor of meeting you all and it's been almost 12 years ago so thank you thank you all oh representative Federal thank you mayor you get Tamal anyway so I get tomal I don't have to say anything nice thank you thank you very much for everything you do for our community I remember your grandpa being in the store daily um now I know why Stanley's been going to the gym in the morning because he had to put that jacket on today but it's it's it's the exended family it's not only the Lowes the Santos but it's also all your employees whenever you walk into one of your stores they treat everybody with respect and and they're so helpful and I want to thank you that's a reflection on you all so thank you all very much thank you would you mayor would you mind if they introduce their their team do you mind if they introduce their team yes please come on up uh Rosa Tango is our human resources manager and she'll be able to introduce all of our team good morning good morning to all of you good morning we have our um our team our tamale team um we have our cook it's Sena Vanos and we have um ninfa farfan we have Rosa Flores Norma Pacho and Mar Osa okay they're the ones that every day and a lot of you don't know that Food City we have tamales every day 364 days a year a lot of people think that it's only for the tamale season but no we sell tamales every day that you can enjoy and we also have our shampur that you can enjoy with your tamales okay we also have H Victor he's a a store man assistant store manager for Food City 2 the one on Hunter by count and we have Ley Garcia our store manager for our food city um alamea and esta location okay thank you very much thank you I know it's a Lowry family and the Santos family so yes thank you all you want to come up for a picture you can always tell who makes the best of M they have the softer hands thank you who El say I told softest hands makes the best my [Music] no you were just getting ready to go away to college back then I oh my goodness you were going to go well I graduated in 2011 okay remember the thanks again thank you congratulations yes thank you so much you guys are amazing you need no he's missing you won't have to break for lunch today it's speak to look like Christmas e all right oops that brings us to the mayor's distinguish award thank you uh and this morning's recipient is Macio iar de Leon Cil general of Mexico in Al [Applause] Paso this a great honor to to be able to give you this you've been an incredible partner to the city and I remember the first day I I met you when you first arrived and you've uh hit the ground running and you haven't slowed down you haven't stopped it's a you know it's a great honor for to have you representing El Paso in ofo but um you um there is no boundaries there's no borders when it comes to you you have been an incredible partner incredible friend and um if uh there was more words in the English dictionary there wouldn't be enough to describe the great work and the great friendship you become to all of us so I'd like to read this uh mayor's distinguished award Macio IA Pon Leon Council general of Mexico in El Paso for your dedicated leadership as Council general of Mexico in El Paso and your commitment to our Borderland region thank you on behalf of the city of Al Paso and its citizens for always working closely with us to Foster relations between our countries and our cities and for your committed continued extraordinary friendship Amigo gracias foro [Applause] can I address well first of all I'm honored thank you very much I really appreciate this uh this this distinguished award uh I believe this is a great recognition of the B nationality of this community uh we are in more or less 68% of pasoans have a family in harez and the other way around and I think these highlights this share Heritage share culture share values that we have so I want to thank you all mayor everything that you have done uh for the city from the pandemic to managing the migratory flows all of you uh City Council Members the hard work that you do on a daily basis to support the community and just to say that everything that you do on this side benefits um sud SES is strengthening the relationship between these two border cities I think it's key and it's so important that I know that in in other cities at the border they always talk about how you do things here in El Paso I think the collaboration that you have established at the three levels of government it has been great and letting us show the community all the good things that we share we are u in in this uh Border City I think this is amazing so thank you very much I really appreciate it's an hor for me to receive this this this award and I'm really looking forward to keep working for you to highlight the best of El Paso everywhere both in the US and in Mexico someone here we'd like to introduce to us yes and today um I'm joined by Kathy tol she's my wife and she does in supporting the city as well she teaches at JP and also here with me it's uh the deputy counil General Felix herera and these are the people that allow me to to be everywhere and to and to work hard and Kathy my wife she has been going around the world with me all the time and she's a she's my me suain every day so thank you very much for everything that you do thank you thank you and um you know that sooner or later you're going to get transferred somewhere else and I I can tell you that it will be a big loss to our our community uh you and Kathy have been incredible incredible partners and again I'm um I'm very blessed that the four years I was here this last four years you were here because I prior years I've had others that have been good but you've been more than good you've been incredible thank you may God bless both of you thank you we take a picture with you s been over there few two than got Council per The Rules of Order no use of personal cellular devices nor personal communication should take place on the day as while the meeting is in session once you obtain the floor from the mayor you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per item please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the day while the meeting is in session and for those of you joining virtually please mute your microphones to reduce any background noise that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routined and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor protm page 12 item 32 postpone one a week per mayor protm Kennedy page 18 item 48 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Rivera page 18 item 49 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Rivera page 19 item 50 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Rivera page 19 item 52 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Rivera I thought uh hold on one second uh Miss Mack was all the ones that were coming off the agenda I thought those were the ones you told us item 50 what are the ones coming off no hold on let me pardon me those aren't the ones no mayor Christen Kum for the city attorney's office uh that was a different item that will be postponed those are the ones no those the ones postponed okay I just want to make sure thank you um page 19 item 52 did I do that one miss pran yes move to the Forefront of the regular agenda item 51 is to revise per planning and inspection to add the words and imposing conditions and move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Riva item 53 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Rivera and Page 20 item 54 delete per planning and inspections there is a motion made by mayor protm Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor protim molinard to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote representative salido thank you in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously we now turn to page 18 to the items that were moved to the Forefront these These are items 48 to 53 they are related would you like to take them together please ma'am thank you item 48 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending the future land use map contained in plan El Paso for the properties legally described as tracks 208 282 20b 21 and 22A block two East Le Grant City of Al Paso from 03 AR agriculture to G7 industrial this is at 300 Nevadas and 546 Englewood item 49 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of tracks 28 282 20b 2122 2 a block 2 Isleta Grant at 300 Nevadas and 546 Englewood from RF Ranch and farm to C4 commercial and imposing conditions item 50 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending the future land use map contained in plan El Paso for the properties legally described as track 16a block two is letter Grant from a03 agriculture to G7 industrial at 445 Englewood item 51 is an ordinance changing the zoning of track 6 a block 2 East Le a grant at 445 Englewood from RF French and farm to C4 Comm commercial and imposing conditions item 52 is an ordinance amending condition one and releasing conditions three and four placed on the property by ordinance number 01 19219 which changed the zoning at 551 Englewood item 53 is a public hearing of an ordinance releasing all conditions placed on the property by ordinance number 01 9343 which changed the zoning of tracks 2 2B and 3D block two pleas l a grant at 1,000 Englewood go ahead sir good morning good morning mayor council rul Garcia planning inspections I do need to read uh one additional condition into the record for item number 51 so for item number 51 we are adding an additional condition condition number six which shall read that all loading and unloading areas shall be located a minimum of 250 feet away from the Western Property Line abing residential Zone properties that is all sir thank thank you representa thank you mayor thank you as uh Council I se your support on this uh do we have anybody is going to speak any of the business owners are going to speak no okay um ask for your support on this this is a magnificent uh magn magnificent U progress that was made by four different companies working together to build this area expand it and make make it make traffic a lot better for the people that reside there at that area and uh it is it's it's really a fantastic project that have been worked for many years prior to this and I seek your support on this I make a motion to approve second M Prime there a motion in a second yes sir there's a motion made by representative Retta seconded by mayor protim Kennedy and this is to approve items 48 to 53 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously thank you Council thank you sir we now return to page number 12 to item 33 and this is discussion and action to accept a grant in the amount of $22,000 from Marathon petroleum company for two fall F festivals in District 2 this item was placed by representative asto there a motion a move to approve second there's a motion made by representative ASO second by representative subal to approve item 33 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 34 is discussion and action on a resolution determining the city of Al Paso's voting allocation for candidates to the AL Central Appraisal District Board of Directors this item was placed by mayor liser thank you the we've already approved the names now the cad has changed the way the has to go in so you have to give them points and then rate them so a couple weeks ago we went ahead and approved the two uh two names that we're moving forward so do we have a motion motion approve second there's a motion made by representative celo second by alternate mayor protim to approve item 34 go ahead sir I I just had a quick question on that so we're we're still keeping the two yeah the points right everything's the same but uh the way uh they're doing now it's they're appointed based on Points each entity which a city gets so many points and episd gets so many points and the county and and so these are the amount of points we receive and we can only appoint two people so we're split in the the votes the same way so because of how big we are we ended up with the same amount of point and we didn't end up getting any other points or losing one will be a one year and one will be a threee okay and that's Jackie and tny ber yes sir okay thank you we have a motion in a second yes sir on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 35 is discussion an action to ensure compliance by Al Paso Electric with State disconnection policies and to explore enhanced Municipal safeguards for Al Paso customer protection and return to City Council in 30 days with recommended safeguards this item was placed by representative ernandez representative ernandez hi um thank you mayor good morning everyone um I discussed um just briefly with OP Pas electric some of my concerns related to disconnections that are happening so in essence what I'm hearing from constituents including every single one of my family members um we've had personal experience where if you're late um what happens with the new AMS system which is an automized meter system it'll automatically shut off your electricity and so now what El Paso Electric is doing is they're asking our customers to pay a deposit my concern is that I've been hearing several several people comp complain about these deposits that just in my sense I'm I feel like we have to do our due diligence to Ure that they're being compliant because there's a high number of constituents who are complaining that they can't afford to pay their deposits coupled with their past due balances so they're putting them in this Perpetual state of not being able to pay their bills so in doing a couple uh reviews I I work with my team in my office to look at well what are other cities doing to protect their um rate payers and so granted there's not a clear comparative analysis because there's different factors we're not on OT we also um some cities have their own legislative bracketed bills including op Paso and it just really depends however we do have a unique Opportunity by way of our franchise agreement where we do we are the original jurisdiction for op Pas electric and we can work with them by way of an you or through our franchise agreement so that we can one investigate what's happening two making sure that the AMS system is not really impacting us and um what their processes are for disconnections and and reconnections and what are they telling their customers and then I'd like to know how many people are actually on a deposit plan right now in order to get their money back they have to wait 10 12 months in order to get their money back if they did not have any other disconnections so I'm not sure if you're hearing these concerns but I'm hearing them at alarming rates and I'm hearing them specifically from several members of my family as well I I found it unusual that every single one of my family members have experienced this and so now I feel a strong duty to to to make sure that we are understanding all of what we can do within our laws within our franchise agreement within our parameters but I'd like to share with you just a quick couple notes I passed to you all members of city council um our team passed you a presentation here and so what we did is we looked at well what are other cities doing and I'm happy to share this with the public um granted it was a little busy last week so I'll share this to whoever would like to see it um the protection measures and Texas forus um CPS Energy who is by San Antonio they have an affordability discount program this program offers a monthly discount on electric and natural gas charges and um it if you can please bring up presentation 35 I'm sorry I forgot to ask first slide next slide here thank you um they have the affordability discount program this program offers a monthly discount in electric and natur natural gas charges for qualifying lowincome customers they also have a senior citizen billing program so CPS Energy provides additional time for for senior customers to pay their bills without late fees that's important because if you miss your if you miss your bill you have to pay not only connection service but late fees and it just becomes incredibly difficult to pay Critical Care programs so customers who rely on electricity electric electrically operated medical equipment can register to receive additional notifications and protections against disconnections so someone showing up to your door leaving a door hanger giving them advanced notice things of that nature is how families who have their loved ones and home health care who are depending on this medical equipment that is I think a really great protection that the city of op pasa should also explore Austin Energy um also municipally owned they provide options for customers to spread out their payments over time easing Financial burdens so they have deferred payment arrangements leic Power and Light they have budget billing they offer a budget billing program that averages the customer bill over 12-month period providing predictable monthly payments that's something that the city of the the El Paso Electric also provides Denton Municipal electric also also municipally owned they maintain a registry of customers who require uninterrupted electric service due to medical conditions offering them priority during outages again when there are folks who have medical conditions they have these Protections in place um would like to learn more about what op Paso Electric does for their customers Garland Power and Light um senior citizen discount the Garland Power and Light offers a discount on electric bills for senior citizens age 65 and older they have levelized billing which is to avoid seasonal spikes in their bills and to average their payments throughout the year they have an energy saving Savers program they provide rebates and incentives for customers to implement energy efficient measures reducing overall energy cost and these are just a couple examples and so we have a wonderful legislative team they have a wonderful relationship with El Paso Electric it is my intention to work closely with a pass electric they are a partner here so that we can all brainstorm U utilizing our franchise agreement utilizing other tools government tools that other cities have used likeus they go into directus with their electric company so that they can put these programs forth come you know put them forward if it requires legislative action then this Council needs to know that if it requires any amendments to franchise agreements then this Council needs to know that if the city is not allowed to in to do any other programs well then be clear that the city council does not have any jurisdiction to allow any other discount programs or support to our rape pairs so that we can notify them we've exhausted all efforts we've done our due diligence we've done an analysis this is what we can and cannot do and here's what we're committed to doing I think that right now given the high rates and the rates that are continuing to increase there's no you know light at the end of tunnel here it's it's a clear increase um year-over-year that we have a duty to make sure that we've explored all options this the next slide please my requested action is to ask the city manager and City attorney to engage with opas electric making sure that we are all compliant with um the disconnections there is a there is a ordinance I excuse me there is a um under the Texas uh Public Utility Commission they have a document on disconnection fees and in that document on disconnection fees and processes there's some things that I've read in that that give me concern like the amount of the like the amount of the deposit required it's very clear in these um different uh writings from the puct that there are limits on how much you can charge and there are and it's very clear in the backup that I've provided that a municipal city has discretion to add more to add another level of requirements scrutiny programs that are allowed by municipal government so in the findings that I've reviewed from puct it gives us that Latitude so now I'm trying to understand well what is the process to actually put that forward I also would like to conduct an assessment of potential enhanced Municipal safeguards that could be implemented to protect El Paso's residents from disconnection due to financial hardship or health and safety reasons concerns and prepare recommendations on any necessary local ordinances or agreements with opas electric to strengthen customer protections and I felt it was just necessary to start the conversation and if there are concerns from management love to hear what concerns you have I asked for 30 days because what's my concern is is that disconnections could start happening um on a Friday night and let's say they happen on a Friday night you get home Saturday you don't have electricity um and I am very concerned about families who have lost groceries because they they came home from vacation and their electricity was off they have loss of there's losses that they experience and there is a way that we can educate them on that um on how to request uh claims so that they can get their money back if they lost electricity and they weren't able to get it um but there's very clear safeguards that I'm questioning whether or not we have in place and if we do then El Paso Electric needs to do a better job at communicating that to the public um and so that is my pitch that is my concern I wanted to share with you as a result of listening to my constituents and sharing those voices and I would make a request um and a plea to Council to allow for that exploration and I would move to approve you know um this are all great items that we need to look at but one of the good things about the new system is it's automated and if somebody does get their lights turned off they can call and make a payment but then get their lights back it's not happening through I mean immediately it's not happening yeah yeah sorry mayor I just want I want to be clear well no no I saw it happened yesterday sure yeah anyway but it that that's how you do it if something happens unfortunately but a lot of the things you put on here I think are very very very important that we look at but uh you know if it's after hours they are automated and you can't you know give a credit card over the phone and then they'll turn your light on as soon as the processes um representative FAL thank you mayor um you know this issue on deposits when I had uh our apartment in Austin I was I was charge a deposit and to be honest with you I'm not sure whether it was returned or not returned but but that's that's a pretty I thought it's pretty standard uh the the second thing is prior to getting disconnected my understanding is you can call the electric company and make um ask for extra time to catch up with your payments or extended time to ask for for for payments payment plan so you don't get disconnected my understanding is that there's a lack of communication with the company and when there's the lack of communication that's when the disconnection comes but I understand the same way mayor with these smart meters you call up and and it's um it's turned on immediately and and for Miss Hamilton some of these um requests aren't these pu issues I mean don't they have guidelines on on what we can ask from a municipality point and what we can't and what we shouldn't be asking for a lot lot of these um are things that we have similar things in our franchise agreement that that we can uh look to those I think that this is the Step One is a research project to determine what is in place so what information is available to the public the franchise agreement does have language in there governing um and requiring them as the original jurisdiction here in El Paso for El Paso Electric we do have the ability to um I look into some of those things so um through the franchise agreement we we did require some low-income assistance uh already so we can look into that and see what they already are providing and I've seen it mayor over the summer I don't remember if was this summer or last summer um there was an option to extend my payments for 12 months try and make them even or because of the high rate of of the air conditioner so I I just I I hope that we make sure that El Paso Electric is at the table and and able to work forward on these items the mayor's right there's some here and thank you representative Hernandez there's some here that I think could be helpful but then there I believe there's some that are already in place that that we're not taking advantage of as rate hold as rate payers thank you mayor thank you representative oo followed by representative thank you mayor um so I I think that there's some good stuff here in this item one one thing that I wanted to kind of touch on was this deposit I know that this is what makes it really difficult somebody might owe $200 and they got disconnected because they owe those $200 so once they call to reconnect they say Okay pay us the $200 and then now you'll have to do the $150 deposit so if somebody is struggling at that point to get to $200 now you're asking them to almost double what they need and where are people going to turn to do that so I think that's the reality of the issue with the deposit and I know that I know several people that have been there I've been there myself and that has come as as a real shock where it's kind of like well if you don't pay this gets disconnected or it's disconnected or I I think that there's also one one thing with the push of a button to disconnect there is also the issue of pushing that button to turn it back on has taken several hours even though it's just a push of a button right and so um I'm happy to talk to El Paso Electric about this I've brought up some customer service issues that have happened and I want to continue this conversation to kind of figure this out and I think when we share what constituents are kind of saying to us um it it's imperative on us to kind of have those stor go to the person or the institution that is um in charge of whatever it is right and I think this is no different so I I think that um we need to continue to have those conversations I'm going to meet with a Paso Electric in the coming weeks and happy to kind of share a lot of what what's happening there and see how we could get to a better place to kind of address the issues that constituents have brought forth and the last thing that I wanted to say is that I've received $750 from the El Pas Electric employee pack just in case since elast electric is mentioned here thank you thank you um and I think you know things we have here they may have a lot of them in place already and but it's always good to kind of have a dialogue and review the things and kind of look and see how we could enhance and work together so you know they may be repetitious they may tell us what's on there and how they're doing it but it never hurts to open and have a dialogue to see how we can improve the experience r s better thank you mayor and and you know customer service was a is a big issue and both the rep hernandis and rep as touched on that and I've had the calls you said that DET turn it on right away sir uh I don't believe that's that's happened uh to some of the calls that I get and uh if it's taking place now well good for them it's about time but I think that we as Council or any Council that is going to follow us has to stay on top of the the the uh the uh customer service uh etiquette that the the electric company will provide provide for this community because of that issue that somebody somebody might have a home healthcare and depend on that electricity and if it goes out they're in trouble but but uh I think that we should make sure that the electric company is keeping their end of the bargain as far as it's concerned you know being able to turn on the electricity flick with the switch then let's make sure they're doing it and not just say oh they're doing it when you're getting calls in fact saying they're not doing it and and and God forbid if it's a a Friday as was mentioned before do they have people during the weekend I don't think so sir they haven't been able to to to justify that yet uh we've had a couple of calls on that one they have to wait till their business day the next business day and the next business day you know what I'm saying and and from Friday to to Monday that's a long time for the people to be out with without electricity uh loss of food lot of you know everything that that you keeps the the refrigerator going or you know they they their stock fresh but uh I think that we as the future counil we and the future councils coming in should stay on top of that because that's the main source that's the main complaint of calls that I'm getting as well that they're not quick to respond and then they don't have the uh they don't have the capabilities to respond on a weekend if that's the case that's right that's all I have thank you mayor thank you sir representative M thank you very much mayor um thank you representative for bringing this item onto the agenda I know I'm at my experience but first of all is there anyone here from op Pas electric company no anyone on the call for El Pas electric compy okay well I noticed on my personal bill um I receive it and then it's given a very short due date I'm not saying that's the cause for other people being disconnected because I just don't know but I can tell you if you receive your bill and through the mail or even elect ically and then all of a sudden it has a short due dat turnaround uh some people may forget some people may not realize oh my God I forgot to pay that bill hence you get disconnected so I don't know if that's an issue or one of the problems that's involved in that but um is Hamilton is there do we I know used we have the jurisdiction part for electric company but can we as a city government tell them um what how much to charge as far as uh you know your deposit or reconnection fees or anything like that that we would have to look into that representative M I believe that the um the franchise agreement doesn't go that far into regulating their specific fees and they're required you know how much they're allowed to charge it's a business um you know they have to continue to operate as a business and so uh there are limitations on our ability to to govern their their detailed charges at that you know at that degree all right thank you and I can tell you I know uh I still get my bill through the mail and I still pay my bills but electronically but um I wanted to set up automatic payments that I have other utilities and you really can't do it unless you download the app only on the app are you able to get that feature done there's no other possible way to do it I have talked to people from AP Paso Electric that are on on working right now and they're retired and they say you just have to download the app in order to do that but I to me that doesn't make a lot of sense because where is the customer service component of that just doesn't make any sense thank you thank you and again I think it's just really important to have this dialogue and and know what can we can and cannot do and how we can help and move forward so I think there's a lot of viable items on on this that uh we can look at and have a dialogue and maybe get clarification or changes representative nundus sorry yeah thank you thank you members of council for your feedback um I know that El Paso Ray payers are um really going to be pleased um if this item passes just a couple points one thing that I did not mention is that we're all we also received several reports from rays that there was some kind of billing issue and as a result of the billing issues now several residents are now going on to deposit for several months that they were not built and they were demanding that at the end once they figured out what happened with the billing systems I don't know if there was a transfer and software or whatnot but once that happened um all of those residents and one of them including my sister um she had received three months I believe of of payment um due and um she was asked to pay immediately um or go onto a payment plan so why is that the rayer's fault like they if you can't submit an invoice um and a payment and then you don't pay and then you make them pay them immediately I just want to remind everybody there are disconnection prohibitions you cannot disconnect for failure of payment um as a result of under billing and so that's why I'm saying we have to do an analysis and ask a Paso Electric well how many are on a deposit I do know that a quarter almost nearly a quarter of op Paso rate payers are back back doe on their payments so that's a quarter of El Paso rap payers in our city who cannot afford to pay their electric bills and that came directly from El Paso Electric coupled with all of these deposits coupled with $250 to $500 deposits that's unsustainable as a community and so I heard earlier from representative F well isn't there like a a notice yeah there's a notice and there's like processes but here's what the notice says the Paso Electric utility um shall provide written notice required by the subsection no no not later than the 10th day before the date electric service is scheduled for disconnection additional notice may be provided by a third-party commercial carrier delivery or certified mail Al pass electric is there a reason why you don't provide additional notice is there a cost to that what are those costs what would be the outcome to the ray payers let's explore that also this subsection of these disconnection notices does not prohibit a municipality or the commission referencing the puct from adopting customer safeguards that exceed the safeguards that are provided in the chapter by the state so it's clear from the puct that municipalities can adopt additional safeguards what are our safeguards and how are we communicating that to the public and El Paso Electric we need you to do more this is a desperate plea for help and in the time of a holiday I would ask that you review your safeguards today and Implement them without any action from Council because the city deserves it especially when you have a quarter excuse me uh yeah 25% a quarter of your ray payers not being able to pay your electric bills I would ask for that Mutual relationship sit down at the table with city council and let's do more and better for Al passor rays that's all I have mayor thank you thank you ma'am we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative erand by representativity to approve item 35 on that motion call for the vote mayor I have a question go ahead sir so the forgive me let me find the wording here no I understand I know but the the if the motion is just to approve the item as it's written on the agenda I think the motion would need to be the specific action items we can't just approve the item without the specific action in the motion um would you like me to to read the last slide on the presentation on your if that's what you intend for your the motion to be sure I'm just already you so right now with the motion says discussion and action to ensure compliance by Pas electric and state disconnection policies and explore enhanced Municipal safeguards for Al Paso customer protection return to City Council in 30 days with recommended safeguards are are would would that be comfortable for you because I think that um sums up the actions requested sure I just want to make sure that the motion captures want oh yeah so I move to direct um the City attorney and city manager to ensure compliance um and Etc do you accept that modification to my motion representative R customer service besides customer protections okay I see what you're saying um I would like to accept that friendly Amendment um so so Mrs PR if we can vote on a friendly amendment to include after El Paso customer protection to in also include El Paso customer El Paso Electric's customer service processes comma and return to City Council in 30 days and that would include customer service specific specifically when those disconnections are happening and then how quickly we are actually they say immediately but I can assure you it's not immediately how quickly they're able to reconnect do you accept that okay M PR okay so the council will vote on the amendment first and the amendment was made by representative ernandez seconded by representative Riva and this is to amend the item to include the words Al Paso Electric customer services processes after the word protection so it reads uh to direct the city manager and City attorney to ensure compliance by Al Paso Electric with State disconnection policies and to explore enhanced Municipal safeguards for El Paso customer protection and Al Paso electrics customer services processes and return to Council in 30 days with recommended safeguards on the amendment call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative fero not present and now to vote on the item as amended the motion was made by representative ernandez secondary by representative Riva and this is to approve as revised on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative fedal not present that brings us to item 36 on the agenda and this is a an overview of state and local law for substandard buildings good morning M Mr Mayor and Council Representatives Tony Theus with the planning inspections department as uh mentioned by Miss Prime this next presentation is going to provide council with an overview of state and local law for step standard buildings this is of course in line with a strategic plan for goal number three to promote the visual image of El Paso and by improving the visual impression of the community next slide please or am I controlling I'm not sure were we able to brief everybody prior to today for the presentation yes this was taken before for spr previously but not all council members were briefed on the specific presentations thank you yes sir next slide please overview of the uh presentation we're going to cover the authorities uh enforcement authorities granted under Texas local government code and of course the local Municipal Code we're going to go over the violations and enforcement processes that the Departments typically utilize the penalties that are authorized under Texas local government code to be imposed by Municipal Court uh and other court tests may be applicable and what the city is currently doing to make sure that these substandard buildings are properly maintained uh or boarded and secured next slide please oh uh next slide will show you the authorities that are granted to municipalities under the Texas local government code the building and Standards Commission is a quasi judicial board that is established under Texas local government code 54.0 33 it is empowered to hear cases concerning alleged violations of city ordinances as it relates to substandard buildings the bill BC has the authority under those sections of state law to mandate the vacation relocation of tenants the securing repairing removal or demolitions of buildings that are dilapitated substandard or unfit for human health and a hazard to the public as well as vacant and abandoned structures uh to that are open to the extent that it would allow unwanted entry from Pro property or people that are not authorized to be within that location additionally if a building is secured but improperly boarded and secured per the international property maintenance code the city does have the authority to order that the property be properly boarded and secured the to Texas local government code does mandate that under these Provisions we establish a local ordinance the local ordinance must uh provide for minimum standards for continued use of the structure while it's going through a hearing uh it obviously has to provide proper notices of the violation and of the meetings to the property owners and afford them the opportunity for a public hearing before the building and Standards Commission as part of the requirements prior to a meeting staff is required to one notify the property owner of the corrections that need to be made to the property inform the property owner that they need to to submit a scope of work to comply with the provisions of the order or of the notice of Correction and we are required to provide notices to the property owner of the meeting that's going to be held 10 days prior to the meeting and it has to be published within a newspaper of General circulation after the building and Standards Commission meeting very similar requirements the building and Standards Commission May order the again the vacation relocation of tenants securing repair removal or demolitions of buildings within a reasonable time once that order is rendered there a signed copy of the order has to be mailed to the property owner and all interested parties within 10 business days of the building and Standards Commission meeting and also has to again be publicized within the newspaper if uh once the order signed and filed with the county if the owner fails to appeal the BC order uh before the district court within 30 days then at that point the order is final and becomes unappealable as a matter of law so what is the reasonable time that's granted under state law so realistically the commission has the right to order the property owner to come into compliance within 30 days but no longer than 90 days once the order is rendered unless the owner can demonstrate that it's not feasible to actually comply within 90 days and this may be applicable to larger structures of course that need have many more floors that need Rehabilitation restoration or abandonment of equipment at that point the owner is required to present to the commission a scope of work of how the work is going to be carried out and a schedule for the completion this is followed up on by the property owner requesting the applicable permits and followup inspections by our department so additionally what some of the authorities that are granted under Texas look Loc local government code for municipalities is that the municipality may take on the work itself whether it's securing the property demolishing or relocating the tenants at the municipality's expense if that is done we also have the authority to place a lean on the property for the cost that was incurred by the city as well as imposing civil penalties on the property itself so now we're going to look at what is authorized under our currently adopted building cods so on the left hand side you're going to see the building officials authorities under the international Property Maintenance Cod and the fire officials uh authorities under the international fire code as you can see there's a lot of similarities in the authorities that both the building official and the Fire official have of course right of Entry if we have to access a property we can't just go in there and take the doors down we actually have to request Authority from the property owner if we fail to obtain that authorization we can can always obtain a rid of entry from a municipal judge both entities are authorized to issue stop work notices and these are really related for construct building code construction violations if we're seeing that something's not meeting the minimum requirements we can is issue that stop or recorder the determination of unistructures is authorized to both the building and Fire official as well as imminent danger the boarding and security is coordinated uh internally between Fire and Building uh one cause could be that we have have complaints of an open and abandoned structure or the other cost might be when the Fire official responds to a fire incident if the structure is so dilapitated it that at that point it creates a nuisance uh we coordinate as a group and order that boarding and securing of the structure through a city authorized contractor so what is inmin danger well an imminent danger structure is a condition that would cause serious or life-threaten injury or death at any time due to potential failure or collapse uh next slide please of the structure or the presence of explosive fumes or Vapors or toxic fumes gases or hazardous materials that pose a life safety issue to the occupants of that building next slide please the next slide you'll see a typical enforcement process for one of our uh city code violations the majority of the times our enforcement processes are initiated via a code complaint at that time an inspection is conducted typically within 24 to 72 hours that's depending of course on the nature of the violation more severe violations will be responded within hours where potentially let's say a replacement of Windows which is a code violation would be take probably the 72 hours once the inspection is conducted and if no violation is found we move the uh and close the case but if a violation is found we issue a notice of Correction to the property owners and all interested parties in these notices of violations we do Grant 30 days typically to correct the issues and if the violation is Abad then we close the case if it's not abated then we have one of two options and they're not singular we can move with them at the same time one of them would be to submit the case to municipal court for legal proceedings and the other one would be to submit the case to the building and Standards Commission this slide shows you the different types of uh sections of the code there are different departments in force upon one being Title 5 Title 18 and Title 20 for planning and inspections and of course Title 9 chapter 9.52 for the fire department as mentioned previously the violations are typically granted between 1 to 30 days depending on the nature of violation and the violation penalties that can be imposed are between $500 and $2,000 per day that the violation continues to occur of course the final penalty in these instances is set by the municipal court so what are we doing currently we have some ongoing processes that we've had in the system for a number of years we are reviewing and getting reports in coordination with I the IT department for expiring permits licenses conditional certificates of occupancy or temporary certificates of occupancy this alerts staff that basically we have something that's coming up for expiration it alerts staff as well as the property owner or the contractor on file that something may be coming up to expiration and that we need to take follow-up action we're also uh getting notifications now for follow-up inspections after a notice of Correction or violation has been issued that way it's not something that gets dropped off and all of a sudden disappears from our memory with so many cases that at times our inspectors are dealing with and finally of course we're following up on all the C conditional certificates of occupancy and temporary conditional temporary certificates of occupancy that are issued for uh construction projects within the city some of the next steps that we are going to be looking at and recomend amending is that we strengthen our current prosecution and penalties of non-compliant cases ramping up enforcement mechanisms where the longer something is out of compliance the more serious the P penalty becomes many times cases are reset in court you know for maybe 30 60 days what we would recommend is if the property owner doesn't come into compliance then of course we have ramping up penalties due to the non-compliance of those this will take coordination with our legal department and municipal courts to ensure that they are aware of the different options that are available under Texas law to really impose these harsher penalties on these Property Owners uh the other Port uh item that we're exploring is of course making potential code amendments and strengthening our current code the these amendments that we're going to be looking at would give us authority to revoke C ofos under specific reasons when we're not getting compliance and finally one of the items that we recommend is really that the city explore the receivership Alternatives that are granted to municipalities under Section 24.3 for those of you that are not not aware of that section basically the state does authorize municipalities to take a property after we've gone through a number of processes be before District Court to appoint a receiver and the receiver would have the ability to rehabilitate a property under the direction of the Cod of the Court uh the court can authorize that the receiver sell the property to recuperate expenses but at that point now we have a different mechanism of how we can address dilapitated buildings that concludes my presentation and I'll take any questions repres thank you mayor thank you for putting this together there's so much here that I I feel um this is happening throughout my district and I I thank you for kind of putting that into this nice presentation of okay this is what we can do what we want to do and and I think the the big thing here is I feel that we need to look at what else we can do at the state level I think the receivership that you mentioned is great to kind of combine our Municipal Code our state laws and really go after some of these properties right and and I think in District 2 I I can think of various properties that we're we're looking at and I think that there are also people that are taking advantage of the system they know exactly what to do right and and I'm thinking about one property owner that's in central that doesn't live here lives in California and is getting um a lot of notices to pay whether it's tickets or whatever it is but he doesn't care cuz he's in California and what is happening is that constituents are dealing with his issues of non-compliance with what is uh with his um property and so I'm thinking how can we start going after the people that are like okay we know the system I don't even live in El Paso so just give me all the tickets in the world and don't do anything about it and and I think that that's where I've been hitting my head against the wall to kind of figure that out and give my constituents a better answer and then I think the other thing is that there is the quote unquote quote reasonable time right some of it could be 30 to 90 days depending on what it is but that reasonable time to my constituents is really something that makes us look like we're doing nothing about it especially for the buildings that have been there for years right um You have the property on dire that took 10 years to get to a better place right with with that property it's still half constructed and hopefully that's going to be demolished at some point and we're going to get um to a better place with that but at the same time there's many different properties that are there I could think of a a house that burned on ban that my constituents have told me about and it's just kind of there burned down and it's causing um issues for the neighborhood whether it's some of the ashes that are just kind of flying around or it's just making the neighborhood look really bad and so I guess my one one question that I do have is is there something else that we could do to kind of put I don't know a big banner a big sign that says this property has been notified and has 30 days to do this so the whole neighborhood knows what's going on with the property yes sir and we typically once a the building Standards Commission does take action we do post the property what We've ran into is that sometimes Property Owners remove those postings okay but uh regardless of that if they fail to comply with that unless the property changes ownership and we have a BC order we can move forward with the Demolition okay because I I just think that I am talking to constituents and they're saying this has been here for years and and so I I don't know what else to tell them at this point right and and almost like if this if they're removing the sign and and doing something like that um I want to see what other Innovative things we could do to kind of give them that Scarlet Letter and say you're not being a good neighbor and the neighbors are really upset about this so that that would be kind of helpful if we could brainstorm on that and then the other thing that we're seeing around District 2 is that I feel like there's a lot of squatting going on at houses where there are people that are going in and out some of my constituents are saying you know they're likely selling drugs and we report them and it's just kind of hard to kind of you have to catch them in the act of doing something right but I I think if we use some state laws on on squatting and why people are there that could also help with some of these properties because there there constit on that I have that are are really scared to go outside their door because of some of the properties that they live by and for some of these properties represented ASO if you'd like we can coordinate a future meeting that way or you can simply inform us of which properties we need to take uh more action on some of them may not be on our radar you know but they definitely need to be on and and some are but then this is where I go back to it's not necessarily anything that you're you're not doing it's that these people know how to circumvent the laws and take advantage of the system and that's what's really really frustrating right and so I think that you're doing what you can on your end but I'm kind of like okay that's not helping if we are just going to threat threaten them with a code with a misdemeanor because that's all we can do with municipal court so let's bring in the county let's bring in the state and start really going after them like I could think about the property on Elm that has just been awful for many years right there in Frankfurt and Elm with that person that I mentioned in another meeting a few weeks ago where they found drugs in that house and that house has been wreaking havoc for the whole neighborhood they finally got the guy out but he still keeps coming back you know and so I think those are the little issues where they are really causing a nuisance and sometimes that nuisance isn't clearly written in policy or an ordinance but if you talk to my constituents it is a nuisance and they are also scared about the activity that is happening there right and so I I think that that's where we can't just be constrained to these things that just because it's not written down or maybe it is written down and we're not enforcing it or whatever it is I I think we really need to meet people in the middle and start saying you know what we acknowledge that this is an issue and we're trying to do this this and that but then we're still not finding a solution so I I think that's kind of where I'm coming and I think my frustration is just the frustration that I'm hearing from constituents it's not necessarily against you I know you're you're trying to do your best but it's also the situations that we're we're getting into with a lot of this and I think like like we mentioned before there might may be Provisions under state law that we are not fully taking advantage of that we really need to assess with our legal department to make sure that we enforcement properly under state law requirements well thank you for for trying yes sir and we'll we'll keep trying and I mean I'll keep sending new stuff yes sir of course thank you so much thank you and I think based on a lot of things we discussed today I think we'll see that based on your presentation we'll see we won't be we won't see another Gateway without us being aware and we not that we weren't aware but that now we have the tools to implement to be able to make sure that doesn't happen again yes sir no on items like that we'll ensure to keep all City representatives of court management up to speed on any items that may be problematic right and and I think the shift of the reporting and everything that'll make a big difference now everybody will know what's going on at the same time and that's something that we needed to have yes sir thank you represent molinard thank you mayor um Mr that Cruz first of all happy birthday to you happy birthday sir um anyways um thank you for all this information great presentation I'm going to talk to you about certain things that are happening in District 4 okay so um there was a fire on the house on Ajax okay and so this happened back in July here we are four months later and the residents in that area are still complaining loud and clear that when is it going to get done when is it going to happen when is you know what action are we going to take uh even though they have yellow tape they have put some uh boarded up Windows and stuff but people are still trespassing there people are still spending the night there's people are still smoking there still people re urinating defecating inside that house there's flies there's issues the people are fed up okay and so I don't know what the delay is on the specific time I know we have asked for an update on that um I just checked my email the last time we did ask for an update it's been two weeks and I understand certain things have happened and certain things have to happen before we do get that information on the update but it's really disconcerning that it takes a long time so one of my questions to you so on you don't have to go to it but slide 8 where it says uh you submitt it to municipal court and the word submit are you talking about that you actually file in Municipal Court like your case and then it gets set up in an agenda or a docket yes sir okay and how long does that usually take before it's heard that can vary I've seen cases sometimes take four six months sir how many four to six months four to 6 months wow that's unacceptable they do have a large workload that they have been trying to catch up on but cases can't take some time that's why many times depending on the severity of the violations the building Standards Commission may be a quicker alternative sir if I'm not mistaken that case was before the building Standards Commission let me follow up on that for you sir um I'm Blown Away by that answer no disrespect to you sir but just the figure that I know being a former police officer that we would we could go to Municipal Courts see the magistrate whoever's on call whoever's there and whether it was an search warrant whether it was an arrest warrant they would make that time even an open court to get a search warrant or a arrest warrant for us then we can go get the the warrant number and the bond and file that in municipal court so I was thinking maybe that's the process but then again I don't know because I'm not sure what exactly your job entails but I can tell you 6 months is a long time and that's this is for notice of Correction um many times if we're looking at obtaining a rid of Entry those happen a lot faster those are days and what is a lot faster the rid of entry for us to assess the property if need be depending on uh like I mentioned if it's a fire incident we can coordinate with fire department depending on the severity to do an emergency board and secure of that property okay and are you um working with the Fire Marshals on that oh yes sir the office of the fire yes sir we coordinate heavily okay and so um I can tell you I know at one time there's a house on Elton the 5700 block of Elton that was a fired that thing lasted a long time um finally someone has got the house I guess painted the house restored the house to a livable conditions same thing as on I want to say it was either an iris or Lindsay another house fire but in that specific area in District for I believe there was a Serial arsonist that was going around till he finally got arrested so well anyways thank you very much for this presentation yes and mayor Pro uh Christ from the city attorney's office uh on the municipal court process the the department p& or the code enforcement will file the the vi notice of violation with the municipal court it's assigned to a judge right away in that Court you know the the Municipal Court Clerk goes through this the process to establish the hearing dates notify the defendant of the hearing dates often the judges will give the defendant time as well so that's why you know from the initiation of the case to the final adjudication it does sometimes take ex you know four to six months but that's because there's like a lot of different touch points with the court throughout that time frame throughout that six months and that would be regular Municipal Court policy to wait that long ma'am the the Municipal Court isn't waiting that long sir it is the Municipal Court judges often do give the defendants a time frame to come into compliance right so they may say you'll have 60 days to comply thank you sir represent Canales thank you mayor um thank you uh for the presentation obviously uh this is something that happens quite often you know we we see these kinds of properties in in District 8 much like in District 2 uh and I'm sure some of the other more Central areas of the city they the older parts of the city um and and you tend to see this this uh type of uh abandoned or substandard property uh pop up more in our areas so I thank you for the the diligence in in working through all the cases and especially uh as the discussion is has uh focused on for the last few minutes taking these cases through BSC and through Municipal Court um it can take a long time um I I give this explanation to people very often when they complain about these properties um because I we you know we all know it does take a long time but uh again we we live in the state of Texas and in Texas uh our our state laws very much focus on uh guaranteeing people's private property rights for Better or For Worse right there there are some benefits to that but also um in cases like this it makes it very honorous very difficult for a city to uh you know tell a property owner that they have to demolish their property or that they have to board up the home that that is on their property and so um you know this is it's not really a question it's more for the public uh you know people need to understand that the city makes a big effort and has to jump through a lot of Hoops to get to that point where we're able to to order something like that it takes uh you know very often an order from the court that can take a long time so uh I I always ask people for for patients and I know that's difficult when they're living next to a property that you know uh people are squatting in and and you know they're concerned about fire risk and things like that um but these things take time and uh I think in our state they they take a little bit extra time uh and you know I I don't like hearing criticisms of of Staff who I know is working hard to make sure that these cases get adjudicated and court and and that we can have resolutions to to the complaints that we receive so thank you for all the work uh I know it's it's not easy to deal with these types of cases and properties thank you thank you sir thank you mayor thank you m p thank you mayor there's no action on this item we now move to the introduction of ordinances these are items 37 to 44 second there's a motion made by representative Riva second it by Alter mayor proen molinard to approve the first reading of ordinances items 37- 44 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously the next item is number 45 and this is discussion an action on the award of solicitation use path to Martinez Brothers Contractors LLC for an estimated amount of $989 52681 this project consists of construction of a shared use path from racetrack to Executive Center Boulevard the shared use path will run parallel to Border Highway East and serve as a continuation of the existing path mayor go ahead sir represent Canales yeah I just want to point out for the public again it's a great project uh funded 94% by the federal government it's a really small match amount from the city um and I think a great benefit to extend the trail that exists there already so I move to approve Mr P there's a motion made by representative P second by representative Ferro to approve item 45 on that motion call for the vote go ahead representative uo uh thank you may just had a quick question um is the Martinez Brothers contractors they in good standing with the city I I just for some reason the the name is kind of like they had a project that was not good I just wanted to clarify that Crystal B with purchasing and strategic sourcing yes so as far as I know they're um they're in good stands with the city okay okay thank you thank you with that we have a motion in a second yes sir the voting session is open and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item number 46 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign a 2-year on call agreement for Professional Services to perform architecture and engineering service on a test byest basis between the city of Al Paso and six Consultants EXO architecture LLC andu architecture pllc Decker LLC Daniel Carl Daniel Architects Inc huitt Zar Inc 9 degrees architecture and design ink there is a motion made by representative Federal second and by representative Riva to approve item 46 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 47 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of Al Paso and ganet Fleming Inc successor in interest to D EC El Paso LLC for a project known as engineering and design services for the air airway Boulevard extension project um yeah I wanted to find out from City attorney are these companies allowed when when they have a bid or they're bidding on something to come in and solicit the elected officials I know that they were in my office I believe it's it's a matter of timing so well that's why I asked because I want to make sure that I know that we're going around office to office and I want to make sure that uh what was done was in compliance with city law or state law because I'm a little concerned about that okay um if Miss Cody would like to Pro provide you with the process and then if we need to discuss afterwards specifically what may have occurred so we can look into it I'd like to know if if this thing moves forward I'd like to know because I'm I'm concerned in uh would uh would consider vetoing the item if it does pass due to I'm a little concerned of violations so this is regarding item 47 correct M okay I'm going to actually let or walking do you want me to go through the state law or do you want to okay so under the state law so this is actually an item under um Capital Improvement department so this is not handled by the purchasing department but the law is not different so under a state law it's an anti anti- lobbying law that prohibits uh vendors of course coming to city council during the cone of silence to uh solicit your vote it uh strictly prohibited and with that uh we actually can restrict and we've done it once that I remember in the distant past um that prohibits them being able to do business with the city for 3 years and so that's where you hear that and so it is it is um completely restrictive yes sir and so I'm not sure which vendor or if we need to go into executive session to discuss this but again it is a capital Improvement uh Department item and for the benefit of the public Miss Cody can you uh explain when the cone of silence is lifted so is after award is really the the best time is to say it's after award I know that's what I'm saying but we haven't awarded anything that's concern so they should not no vendor should be um scheduling appointments to discuss any items with you it should not um happen sir and we've been uh really I know councel and other items for purchasing have um let me know immediately if they've even been approached and we remind the vendors of the rules and the state law requirements during the Kona silence and it is included as part of the solicitation it's actually very explicit we want to make sure everybody understands how critical it is that they do not um come to council to be able to plead um their case or their proposal or whatever that may be there is a process thank you mayor yes sir represent Canales followed by represent molard thank you mayor um yeah I'll say for transparency but I think also for clarification um the uh the company also met with me um uh right away at the very beginning of the meeting I said I hope you're not here to talk to me about anything uh that you currently bidding on or anything within the count of Silence they said nope absolutely not um they asked specific questions about the future of the uh Street resurfacing program looking you know years into the future at no point did they mention uh Airway extension or this project at all so I don't I can't speak for everybody else but that was what my meeting of uh meeting with uh with Ganon Fleming consisted of I know it was a lot about the dashboard and being able to be able to do stuff like this that we're talking about so they did talk about the dashboard they wanted to they they talked about the possibility of developing a dashboard to track progress of future Street resurfacing projects right that's unrelated want to make sure we're within compliance of the law yeah no absolutely and and um again anytime you know it's happened in the past where a company within the cone of silence has you know tried to schedule a meeting and I've shared that with the you know we've shared that with the city attorney's office and with purchasing um I didn't in this case because they didn't they didn't talk to me at least about anything that was currently pending uh okay I did have an opportunity to meet with them um right after the meeting with the the mayor he had concerns so I just wanted to have a clear understanding of what they were bringing forward uh did clarify that if we were actually going out for a bid in the future for the same type of service that they would be limiting their ability to apply for that so we did have a very Frank conversation about uh future products and going to meet with City Council Members regarding items that we may purchase for the city so it was not about this specific item but I did have an opportunity to speak with them because we had several reassignments on other contracts so I think we may have had four or five items that were for the specific company happening in reper fire over the last couple of agendas again I'm just being cautious and making sure so thank you for all the updates uh representative Mard mayor one one final comment if I can go ahead sir just to clarify too that the the reassignments is just because they were acquired right they were they were previously under a different name the company was acquired and correct the fir used to be Dan and bomb now it's ganet funny correct same folks working on the project just the acquisition of the company okay thanks molard thank you mayor just a quick clarification I know the immediate agenda says district one but this should really be District three I know the backup does say District three I don't know if that changes anything for the actual motion but just for clarification purposes only thank you for that representative F mayor yes I I do have something um I think we've come to a conclusion that we're talk talking about two separate items so that's on it but Miss Mack May mentioned a made a comment about if we're talking about something in the future it could affect them how is that I I don't understand if it's something we're not even talking about yet how it could affect their what our what our general policy is even if our staff members go to trade shows and they're having a discussion with the vendor we usually go through purchasing and allow for them to arrange for any type of of demonstration to ensure that if we're talking about a product that we will have a go back out for some type of competitive process that we're having a very specific conversation and not eliminating anybody uh from a special preference type of situation with those products and so I'm I'm referring to that process in terms of how we always include um purchasing in any type of demonstrations and so my question to them was if there's a product that is really going to be something that is managed through uh Capital Improvement then they would really be the client who would be doing the evaluation to make a determination whether that is best suited for uh the city rather than the elected officials who would be voting on initially finally any type of product that we want forward thank you I'll just ask Miss Hamilton if she wouldn't mind sending the council that policy thank you m Pro yeah my question is about cone of silence okay when we know we know it finishes after award when does it start it's when the my understanding it starts once the the RFQ or the solicitation is advertised okay before that there's no requirements or responses required I mean if if it hasn't gone out for bid there are other regulations surrounding future respondents to an RFQ not being involved in the development of that RFQ correct in the specs of the RFQ but the cone of provision specifically starts once the solicitation is advertised right I guess I guess my my question was if somebody has a concept for a widget and brings it to the city and says you guys really ought to think about doing widgets that doesn't necessarily disqualify them if there was a bid then put out for it afterwards right I think we're talking two different things yeah I mean I I will say that that there's a city policy and then there's code silence so there's two different things we're talking about today and that's what m Mack was trying to expl explain to us I I mean I understand that but it it the city policy is is not necessarily what the legal requirements are was just a city policy correct I'd like to see a copy of the city policy also of course we'll send it make sure we send it to everybody that way everybody's aware of what's going on that way we don't get caught in the Trap somewhere thank you for that with that M PR yes there was a motion made by representative ernandez second by representative Rea to approve item 47 on that motion call for the vote Yes ma'am forly known as DEC um because the ethics rules were changed without any like understanding of the processes the prior one for like my first election I received the campaign contribution but because there's no know we're clear parameters I just wanted to say that at an abundance of caution thanks thank you for that ma'am go ahead voting session is open Council and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 54 item 54 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning at 1110 East R Grand Avenue from A2 apartment to SD special development imposing a condition and improving a detail site development plan to allow for a business office as permitted in the SD special development Zone District Canales this this was deleted by planning right I'm sorry yes sir you're correct that is deleted yes you're right that brings us to item 55 item 55 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to ex execute a quick claim deed conveying all right title and interest to Hector Pettis II of the following and described parcel track 1 ja Freedom Bloom survey 130 abstract 2732 in addition to the city of Al Paso Al Paso County Texas thank you mayor um yeah I I had done a briefing with staff I had a few questions about this property um I don't know if we've been able to get answers back yet um it's a strange smaller parcel it's sandwiched between two large Parcels uh one to the West owned privately uh by an LLC and and one to the east owned by the PSB um and this is a relatively small parcel right in the middle do we have an understanding of uh intended use or anything like that of this parcel good morning mayor and conso this is J met with the tax office I do not see anything I just see it looks like an empty parcel um you do have some adjacent properties if you would like to know that but so far I do not have that information with me okay yeah um again it's just a strange one because you know it's it's hard to imagine like what an intended use would be there correct um it's on a it's on the slope of the Mountain uh and again the adjacent Property Owners but it's a PSP on one side it's an LLC connected to Mr Billy AB on the other side I was curious to know if it was this the sale of the parcel was related to either of the Json Property Owners if I may representative Canales Jose Padia with the law firm of delado a Costa we're the ones that do your tax foreclosure sales and so we have some information from the letter uh from the interested purchaser uh where he states that he was intending to buy the property and he quotes a few others that are not desirable and put them back on the market so I'm I'm thinking that he does this on the regular because he says that he does this in other counties around the state uh and just for your information of course when they got struck off that property is now tax exempt so you are not generating taxes of those uh from that property and so it is usually desirable to sell them and put them back into your uh tax roles into your your tax revenue generating uh property inventory yeah of course and it's again just a strange one it's a property with no it has no access has no utilities uh I had the same question representative but obviously it's the purchaser's intent to to buy this get it back on your tax role and start generating taxes for you okay um yeah no other questions thank you mayor yes there was a motion made by representative F seconded by alternate mayor Pro mol to approve item 55 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote representative Hernandez thank you in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 56 and this is discussion and action that the city manager or designate be authorized to effectuate the listed budget transfer attached to the resolution as exhibit a for the capital Improvement department and support Board of allocating investment interest proceeds to complete quality of life projects for proposition one from the 2012 quality of life Bond proceeds per capital expenditures associated with the Chalo a Costa recreational center HVAC systems there is a motion made by representative cido seconded by alternate mayor Pro Tim molinard and this is to approve item 56 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the last item is item 57 and this is discussion and action at the city of Al Paso city council authorizes the submission of an application to the US economic development Administration fiscal year 2025 economic adjustment assistance grant program requesting F in the amount of $400,000 from the grant program with a $270,000 match required from the city for a total of $670,000 for theeta Port of Entry short-term improvements feasibility study two motions and two seconds that's pretty there's a motion made by representative ernandez seconded by representative F to approve item 57 on that motion call for the vote vot vot in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously Council would you like to recess until noon for call to the public there's a motion in a second to recess a city council meeting until noon for call to the public all in favor anyone opposed and the city council meeting is in recess at 11:25 a.m. and we'll reconvene at noon e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yes sir there's a motion in a second to reconvene the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is back in session at 12:02 p.m. that brings us to call to the public the AL Paso city council is a local government body Ser serving all of the citizens and the meetings must be focus on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the 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 against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business or 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 afternoon we have four members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Elizabeth Crawford and her topic is a veteran's Legacy good afternoon Miss Crawford star six please to unmute your telephone and you have three minutes good afternoon thank you good afternoon as we've been remembering our veterans this month of November I'd like to speak briefly about a Vietnam Navy veteran that I just missed meeting John Barrow I recently had the privilege of serving in Florida working against a radical abortion Amendment and I finally got to serve on the sidewalk of Orlando Women's Center and meet the beautiful team of pro lifers there I've been hearing about this ministry for years I was shown a spot where John Barrow's crutches had left a mark in the sidewalk his legacy two decades of serving on that sidewalk having the privilege of saving many babies of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with many countless women of sharing the Lord even with abortion workers and if I understand correctly seeing some of them exit the Min the industry we are told in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ John chapter 15 greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends we know that ultimately Jesus was speaking of himself who laid down his life on Calvary to redeem all who will believe when we who were his enemies in Mercy turn into friends all who by his grace would repent and believe that is the ultimate sacrifice by extended application every believer is called on to be willing to lay down their lives and sacrifice for others John baros the veteran of Florida was subjected to all sorts of cruel remarks to all kinds of wet weather hot weather described as a kind-hearted man who is passionate for the the ministry outside that Abortion Center the Lord took John baros in February this year after years of battling illness what an awesome Legacy he left behind I was told he had a face etched with pain not merely because of physical pain he was battling so the pain of standing outside a murder house day after day year after year the emotional pain as we live in a culture that increasingly defines a hero as one dedicated to self-love self-affirmation popularity we cannot forget the words of Christ and is called to discipleship Luke chapter 14 and whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple so therefore for whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot me my disciple great Crowds Are following Jesus for the physical benefit healing the food Jesus sought to disperse most of that crowd with his truth in the words of Christ be merciful even as your father is merciful greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends that is truly heroic and that is what um the life of this veteran exemplifies thank you so much thank you thank you the next speaker is Ron KOMO his topic is animal services and constitutional rights under Federal section 1983 thank you good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon again good afternoon still um I think where we should start is I sent you all an email on I don't know Friday Saturday whatever it's a uh series of text messages from Colonel Weston Colonel Weston was given some information about the state of Texas and its laws on managed intake managed intake is il legal in the state of Texas and he was given the information and it was also approved not approved but confirmed by our city attorneys and he sent out four messages I believe is what I sent to you guys telling me that he told the director that he needed to be open intake that was ignored sir you told him on a meeting on the 15th three times you need to intake intake intake he ignored that what do you have to do to get terminated from work in the city of El Paso I mean here's a gentleman that's doing absolutely nothing about a problem he's creating more of a problem he's not paying attention to his supervisors and nobody seems to care so let's discuss something we had a meeting in here one day and there was 20 plus people in here we had one of the people from running the shelter that it completely ignored the 20 plus people that were here and we had the director who almost fell on his face walking through that door laughing after all these people talked about death and destruction last time I spoke here we we discussed death and destruction again and the gentleman walked by me out there laughing telling me to have a good day so let's start this again we are having dogs attack other dogs I had lunch with the man on show and go across the street from him was four dogs they get out and killed L Chihuahua in the guy's front yard Animal Services gave him tickets well that did a lot of good because he moved out and left the dogs Animal Services been called out there for times for abandonment and have done nothing these dogs are running in the culdesac and they've already killed somebody's pet I just got a message while I was sitting there from another rescue that her boss's dog just got killed two of their dogs got away what does it take to get animal services to do their job oh I know we need somebody qualified to run it no I'm not you're keep your comments to members of council I'm speaking to you and I and I get it you love him that's great you're leaving all right we'll give you 15 seconds more if you'd like I I I just I'm I'm terrified we we're we're going to get somebody killed and we're going to get him killed because he doesn't want to do his job and if telling the truth isn't right too bad thank you sir the next speaker is Barbara Valencia and Miss Valencia's topic is Animal Services Legacy good afternoon you have three minutes thank you good afternoon I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue for the last four years Animal Services has left dogs running at large on the streets and our stray population continues to explode the excuses from the shelter director continue as well like this one there is nowhere for all these Strays to go when you purposely leave unaltered dogs on the street they will indiscriminately breed and add to the Stray population you don't have anywhere for these dogs to go yet you purposely produce more dogs and that's asinine how about this excuse the 2016 no plan says I'm prohibited from euthanizing so I can't open intake actually I have the original 2016 noo plan and nowhere in this plan does it say euthanizing is prohibited and he's not even been using this plan and then there is the outright denial that animal services in 311 has ever told someone to put a dog back where they found it this is from a couple of weeks ago and this person was told to do just that if you can't keep him until then you can return to where you found okay um are are you sure I won't get in trouble for that no you won't it is against the law for anyone to abandon a dog and it is also against the law for anyone to solicit encourage direct Aid or attempt to Aid another person to commit such an offense wow blatantly breaking the law Animal Service is a taxpayer funded shelter and as such the taxpayers pay over $12 million a year and in in exchange we are to be provided with services that includes providing for the protection and regulation of panion animals in the city to provide and enforce regulations by which the transmission of rabies to human beings and domestic animals can be prevented and controlled in the city to reduce the number of unwanted stray and loose dogs to protect the citizens public health safety and Welfare taking our money but failing to provide the services we are paying for is also a crime the director of Animal Services continues to use manage intake deny intake and leave the dogs on the streets this needs to end there is no magical Island in El Paso where all the dogs on the streets can go live out their lives our city cannot handle any more Street dogs all of you sitting up there have allowed for this to happen now you need to fix it and that will include having to euthanize a large number of the dogs you have allowed animal services to abandon on the streets I present this video of an older frail dog left on the streets to fend for himself and is being viciously attacked by two other dogs that have been continuously running at large I hope that haunts you like it has many of us you have allowed the director of Animal Services to make all of you look like fools now your legacy is about being made a fool of shame on you thank you thank you the final speaker is Jesus Moreno and Mr Moreno's talk topic is congratulating representative ernandez on NLC Centennial under 40 impact award hello hello may and Council my name isus Moreno nice to be up here I work with you all but I'm here to congratulate rep parandis my supervisor on an NLC award an know Paso is the a part of the National League of cities and this award was for those who are elected officials who are young and under 40 um she was nominated and congrat congratulated on this because of the i1 F tree crippers program I think it's really important program I love that it kind of gets our constituents important um get them concerned and activated in the neighborhood um if you all know about it you have to get like five or four members involved in order for your trees to be planted really important I think it's very proactive it's also efficient it's something that instead of us talking about it you can actually have your neighborhood members go out there and actually install these trees um it's a really big award I think it's critical that it's it signified and acknowledged um besides that U I think it's also really important to be proactive especially somebody my age I think it's it's critical we get involved like that and um that's about it I think thank you guys for listening to me talking it's a really big award thank you guys thank you Miss PR mayor that concludes call to the public a motion to Res I mean adjourn yeah sorry about that for lunch there's a motion in a second to adjourn the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the city council meeting for Tuesday November 12 2024 is adjourned at 12:15 p.m. Council there is a special meeting tomorrow at 4M to Canvas the results and order the runoff election yes sir tomorrow at 4 thank you