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just a little background we want to thank the mariachis allegre we brought them in for in mexico it is dia de las madres on may 10th so we want to thank everybody and then um this work we'd also like for them to play um las mananitas if they can fair yes as long as um representative rivera sings it otherwise no would he think representative yes ma'am [Laughter] thank you i would like to invite them to come up and and play las mananita's part for us thank you [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] thank you again mariachis we appreciate you [Applause] mrs pryne i think we have a quorum yes mayor good morning this is a meeting of the el paso city council for tuesday may 10 2022 president council chambers our mayor lisa mayor pro tim schwarzwein representative vanello representative molinar representative salcido representative rodriguez representative rivera representative lizardoga and representative hernandez is joining us virtually it is 908 a.m and without everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by police chaplain robert hemphill jr good morning mr mayor good morning council representatives and dignitaries really love the music and uh happy mother's day to all the mothers out there let us pray most heavenly father we ask that you guide our steps as we discuss and take action on the business affairs of el paso texas i pray that you guide the mayor as he presides over this meeting i pray that each council member listen to one another as they present their ideas and opinions on various agenda items bless their master to make good decisions on behalf of the citizens of el paso help us work as a unified unit and lord please guide us to develop ideas and strategies with great outcomes as we place this meeting in your hand master direct our thoughts our words and decisions and actions and all we do during this meeting bless us as we work together on our shared mission so this we ask in your holy name amen amen thank you thank you mr gonzalez will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance sir please thank you sir thank you sir good morning everyone and um i know we have a lot of people in here and uh please ask for everyone to be respectful of each other and give each other the room needed as uh we've um as we talked about it yesterday mr consultants made a um kind of gave the report uh with his team about uh cobia 19 and where the city is today and how we're 82 fully vaccinated but i still you know if you want to wear your mask please wear your mask if you don't you have the right not to but we do ask you to understand and know your surroundings and again i ask everyone to plea be respectful of everyone in here i do want to thank the men and women that served our country and has given us the right to be elected to be here today and to all our veterans that have uh gone to war to protect the rights of everyone here and i want to make sure that we put them in our minds and and we we think about peace on earth and peace all over the world so with that i'd like a moment of silence thank you may god bless every one of us and every one of you all right and there may be peace on earth and god bless with that mr america thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first proclamation this morning is el paso police officers memorial day police week mr river representative thank you mayor proclamation by the city of paso texas whereas the city of el paso the state of texas and every american community and law enforcement officers are committed to prevent prevention of life or preservation of life and property risking their lives to protect us from those who defy the law providing law and order and service the cause of justice and whereas the city of el paso the state of texas and law enforcement officers of the el paso police department accept a profound responsibility and work to maintain law in order safeguard our rights and freedoms and continue to confront the challenges of fight against crime and whereas the city of el paso and the state of texas honor the heroism our law enforcement officers especially those who have given their lives so that others might live asking god's blessings for the families and friends they left behind and whereas by the joint resolution approved october 1st 1962 congress authorized and president john f kennedy proclaimed may 15th of each year peace officers memorial day in honor of the federal state and municipal officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty further designating the calendar week in which may 15 falls police week and whereas the city of el paso and the state of texas the nation's flag will be flown at half staff on peace officers memorial day under public law 103-322 as amended and whereas in awareness across the nation and the city of el paso observance of police we will commence with ceremonies including the display of a blue bow or ribbon to honor law enforcement officers who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty and to honor all those who continually strive to keep us safe now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of el paso that may 20th 2022 shall be known as the el paso police officers memorial day signed this 15 day or i'm sorry may 15 through may 22 21st so 2022 shall be known as police week signed by the honorable mayor lisa this date [Applause] thank you thank you cancel thank you members of the community uh thank you everyone we just want to say um that we are committed to making el paso a safe and productive city for everyone and thank you so much for this and we hope to see you in police week thank you [Applause] and the next proclamation is mental health awareness month thank you laura whereas great community awareness concerning mental health conditions can positively transform attitudes towards individuals with mental health conditions making it easier for our fellow citizens to seek help and whereas it is essential to eliminate disparities in mental health by promoting well-being for all ages regardless of rape ethnicity sexual orientation gender identity language place of residence or age and ensure equity of access delivery of services improving community outreach and engagement ensuring culturally and linguistically competent care to diverse communities and whereas u.s sergeant general dr murthy issued a new surgeon general's advisory to highlight the urgent need to address the nation's youth mental health crisis exposed by the covert 19 pandemic and whereas nami el paso and emergence health network work every day to expand access awareness and education surrounding mental health conditions and whereas mental health is part of overall health where one in five adults experience a mental health problem in any given year and el pasoans can text nami nami to 741 741 to access the crisis text line and el pasoans can call the emergence health network crisis line at 915-779-1800 if they or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis and now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of el paso that the month of may shall be known as mental health awareness month congratulations hi good morning good morning good morning mayor and council members thank you so much for having me here today christy dardy ceo of emergence health network i want to thank you for recognizing may as mental health awareness month and also thank you for your continued support of ehn as you know once again we're excited to allow our families and our clients to celebrate may as mental health awareness but know that mental health is important every day of every month of every year as we celebrate the month i wanted to first tell you that this past saturday your staff at the zoo were amazing we had the first annual children's mental health acceptance day which was may 7th and we kicked it out we had a wonderful event at the zoo and it was full of all kinds of activities we had vendors out there packed house with regards to resources that families could access for their children with regards to mental health services in our community education our our partners that stand with me are here with me here today at nami were out there uh ywca oliviani all kinds of really great activities so again your folks at the zoo were phenomenal hosts so thank you for allowing us to do that um we also have a calendar of events that we can send over to your offices it's also on our website of things happening throughout the month one thing that we want to say is on may 16th we're going to be having our mental health learning library will be hosting a stress a stress management workshop which will be opening to open to the entire community and i think there's a lot of things going on in the world right now that everybody could use a little uh relaxation and stress management uh it's an hour-long course to help uh to provide coping techniques and relaxation exercise to help us all de-stress um just a little bit of update regarding ehn's operations i met with several of you and we're trying to get on a couple of their other calendars saying thank you so much for your time but just to let you know we have um several we have a couple multi-year samsa grants that are increasing services in our community to include children's mental health services through our school-based initiative as well as some clinical programming with our justice involved partners with regards to cit we've had some conversations with some of you regarding our cit expansion not only with our city partners our county partners city of socorro as well as into the episd law enforcement and then as well as our core program which is going to allow more officers to have mental health resources at their fingertips through technology again i want to just a shout out to all of our partners the the sheriff's department the county the city i'll pass paso police department the school districts we just couldn't do it every day without just the solid partnerships that we have in the community because mental health is so important to everyone we continue to to work to increase both education and outreach to our partners at fort bliss i want to let you know that we're so excited to be working with a very positive um or very mental health positive garrison command at fort bliss not only are we working with our veterans but the garrison command there has invited us invited eh in there to work with the active duty uh we were there to receive a group that just came back from korea for a nine month deployment we were the only civilian group they allowed in to just really help these soldiers understand there's resources they can call our crisis line if they need something and we don't even ask their name just someone to talk to we want to make sure that that's offered to to all soldiers returning and those better are stationed here in el paso um again i wanted to thank you for not honoring may again as mental health awareness know that we're here all the time our crisis line is here our services are here uh we appreciate uh representative vanello's service on our board and all of your continued support of emergence health network and thank you for allowing me to be here today thank you thank you [Applause] good morning mayor good morning council i'm isidrothares executive director of nommie el paso it is a pleasure to be here with you all today um in celebration of may mental health month um we are excited and grateful that we get to be here together especially with our community partners such as emergence health network to bring awareness this month and shine a light on mental health there's no doubt that these past two years have had a huge impact on our collective mental health as a community and across the nation and so it is it is with great pride that we're able to stand along and work together for mental health to ensure that we help our community as mentioned in the proclamation especially our youth who are struggling right now and we may have all have had heard a story within the past two years of how uh how mental health conditions are having an impact within our community um over the past two years nami el paso has provided continuous support both virtually and in person as our community endures grief trauma uncertainty in isolation we will continue to meet our community where they are as long as they need us and continue our resources support groups through these challenging times by joining together for mental health we can build better communities where no one feels alone in their struggle we've been it is my first time in my six years with nami el paso that i've seen such a saturation of mental health events this month in may such as this past weekend at the zoo and other events being held this month such as the walk that's being held by the public health department for family services at the end of this month so it's a great um it's great to see us back together in person and great to see such uh saturation of events celebrating mental health month and bringing awareness to our community again thank you mayor thank you council for your support of mental health and continuing to stand by and together for mental health thank you and we'll do a we have one more proclamation and then we'll do a photo and we'll do the photos up here since there's quite a few people up and um out there we'll we'll do it right in front of council area with that um ms prine yes a final proclamation this morning is international internal audit awareness month thank you laura proclamation of the city of el paso texas whereas international auditing is a vital part of straightening organizations and protecting stakeholders of both public and private sectors and whereas international auditing helps identify and message the organization's risk and ensure policies procedures and controls are in place and working appropriately and whereas international auditing is an increasingly sophisticated and complex activity requiring specialized knowledge training and education and whereas internal auditing is an established profession with a global recognized code of ethics and international standards for the professional practice of internal auditing and whereas the institute of internal auditors the internal audit professions most widely recognized advocates educators and providers of standards guidance and certifications celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2022 and whereas historically the global internal audit profession promotes awareness about its value during the month of may each year and whereas the contribution of internal audit to the success of organizations and the global economy of the large deserved our recognition and commendation and whereas we gra congratulate the institute of internet internal auditors on the 81st anniversary and the iia el paso chapter and its 43th anniversary now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the city council of city of el paso that the month of may shall be known as international internal audit awareness month signed by the honorable mayor oscar leaser thank you morning good morning my name is miguel montiel i'm with the city's internal auto office so i want to thank the mayor the city council and the city manager for the support you gave our office and also want to thank all of you for recognizing all the other internal audit shops within the city thank you thank you so far we want to mr kosov we can do the pictures yeah so if i can get um the council down here in front of the dice and if i could get the police folks recognition down here as well followed by the emergence folks and then followed by the auditors thank you right here let me see oh uh everybody everybody look over [Music] we're ready okay temple stay put uh uh uh over here thank you whatever we're in the um building so really yeah we play office with us wow miss brian it looks like we're ready and before we get started i want to wish everybody again uh happy mother's day on sunday and feliz diaz mothers today happy mother's day to everyone now i was um i told representative i thought representative molinar had brought the mariachis over it was my birthday on saturday and i thought they were going to sing me happy birthday and he but i guess they didn't but we can send you happy birthday today so no that's all right right before the meeting let's go whose birthday is it happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear mere lisa happy birthday to you thank you 64 years young and i know you guys are kind of shocked i said i was 64 years i know you thought i looked a lot younger and i appreciate those thoughts thank you and with that ms prine yes mayor that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken if an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved council may however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting thank you miss prine good morning everyone um propose revisions for the may 10 2022 meeting as of may 10th at 9 30 a.m page four item eight move to the regular agenda per representative rivera item on page six item 15 delete per communications and public affairs page 8 item 19 revised for planning and inspections page 8 item 20 revised per planning and inspections page 8 item 21 revised per planning and inspections that revision on those two items are to the applicant to strike out bre development in the city of el paso and insert hunt east lake industrial thank you miss prime uh page 11 item 28 postponed for weeks per represent lasaga page 12 item 29 postponed four weeks per representative lazarga page 13 item 35 uh revised per representative lasaga that revision is to the district the item should read district 2. page 13 item 36 revised for representative lazarga as well and that revision is to the district it should read district 8 and the revision to item 19 on page 8 is to is on the public hearing date it will be on may 24th 2022 and on page three item two a request to excuse representative cassandra hernandez from the meeting she had to leave okay are there any other revisions at this time council do we have a second segment thank you there is a motion made by mayor pro tem shortly seconded by representative rivera to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote representative lisadaga thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor if we may move to the item number eight that was moved to the regular agenda we do have some folks signed up for this item let's uh let's take a call to the public first yes you read it yes if we could um let's go ahead and do that and then we'll go to 12. okay all right would you like to know item eight the one you moved up yes sir item eight is a resolution that the city council accepts the recommendation from the parks and recreation advisory board and approves the renaming of happiness senior center located at 563 north carolina drive as jessie moreno happiness center and then after that we'll take item number 12 please mr five good morning mayor uh council for the record ben 5 managing director of cultural affairs and recreation the item before you today is a renaming of the happiness senior center to the jesse mourinho happiness center this is in honor of a long a long serving user of the the center itself who passed away at the age of 101 last year she was a fixture at the center and of her community this was unanimously approved by the parks and recreation advisory board and had strong support from the community as well as center users themselves thank you ms prine yes the first person that signed up to speak is juan moreno mr moreno will be followed by melissa baeza good morning mr moreno you have four minutes sir good morning mayor lisa morning council members and friends of our mother thank you very much for this opportunity i won't go over all of the awards our mother received when she was a member of the carolina center but will mention a few she received awards for 25 and 30 years of service from rsvp governor rick perry and governor greg abbott respectively the mayor's proclamation on her 100th birthday from mayor d margot endorsed by representative henry rivera excuse me she was grandparent of the year by the city of el paso parks and recreation by mayor oscar lisa she received 20 years of service award from governor rick perry and rsvp awards for 30 years of faithful support from the ladies vfw auxiliary of which my father was one of the original members of the vfw seguida mcdonald she received five years outstanding service by mayor william tilney and she received 100-year birthday cards from president barack obama president g w bush governor abbott and congressman colin allred and 101 birthday cards from congresswoman escobar my mother had a mission and it was to help others to give and to serve but have fun doing it we hope excuse me we hope we've made you aware of the many things she did for the center in the 55 pages that we submitted and in case anybody wants to re review them then i've got a copy here one of the things that she did a lot which was every year was baking bunuelos for all of the members of the center including some of the members of the bus that gave a rise to the center she used to make 200 goodie bags with nuts candies and peanuts on christmas and mother's day and father's day she made sure that everybody had a candy bag left no one without a gift she participated in all the celebrations they had whether it was for american holidays for mexican dances and of course for halloween which she loved we ask that you vote favorably to make this addition to the existing name of the happiness center as we feel she's demonstrated happiness at her center she volunteered in many events there and made it a place that welcomed everyone we decided to apply for this name change adding our mother's name to the original the happiness center as she loved her second home and all her friends friends still talk about the contagious joy joy she portrayed in dancing and singing at all of their dances and everywhere they went many of her friends at the center have shared beautiful memories they shared mr moreno with her thank you thank you thank you very much the next video we welcome the opportunity thank you and i know that you could probably stand up there for about two hours and not be done yeah with all the great accomplishments thank you very much thank you the next speaker is melissa good morning ram you have three minutes good morning council members mayor lisa good morning my grandmother jessie was so many things she was the kind of community leader who didn't just attend the happiness center she served as an officer for many years and when i when not an officer she found ways to still help counting the money for pandulce coffee popcorn bingo cards you name it she was the kind of greatest generation member who constantly reminded others not to waste whether it was food water electricity she even sewed handmade bags to keep our used grocery bag so that she could reuse them at the center she was the kind of friend who gifted a dress she wore to another friend who had fallen in love with it at the center she was the kind of person who loved to make others laugh she dressed up every year for halloween wearing scary or silly costumes and participating in their costume contest just to make everyone laugh she was the kind of stranger who would open up her home for someone in need one day the lift bus was picking her up and a stranger in a wheelchair needed to use the restroom she asked my grandmother and without hesitation she helped her inside she was the kind of innovator who made the most intricate christmas tablecloths baby outfits blankets detailed kleenex box holders and other crafts found around the house many of these she gifted to her friends at the center she was the kind of performer who stole the show even though she was just in the backdrop or supporting role for many years she danced in the folklorico production of revolution and was recognized by others by her for her dedication and spirit she was the kind of traveler who had her suitcase ready two weeks in advance of their trips to las vegas and ruidoso and she helped prepare the seating chart for the others and had burritos ready that morning she was the kind of giver who made small gifts passed out poems for mother's day and father's day and handed out personalized goodie bags even in her uh homemade santa mrs santa claus outfit she was a kind of cook who always ate last and loved to feed others so she regularly made desserts and meals for their potlucks she was the kind of dancer who upstaged her own granddaughter at her granddaughter's wedding she was the kind of gambler who played max bed at the quarter slot machines and that was the only time she never felt hungry or tired and she loved playing with her friends at the center she was the kind of el pasoan who celebrated mexican holidays and loved mariachi music she was a kind of american who led the pledge of allegiance at the happiness center and always made time to vote for one of her milestone birthdays she was she received a flag flown over the capitol and she donated that to the center jessie moreno embodied the word happiness she was so many things but she was always trying to make others happy she left the happiness center a better place than she found it on behalf of her family we humbly ask that you vote in favor of changing the name of the happiness center to the jessie moreno happiness center help us to honor her contributions and significant service to the center and her family there thank you very much thank you very much is there a motion thank you mayor pretty much as everything has been said about ms moreno when she showed up here that we and honored her with a hundred before her birthday gave her the proclamations she won most of the council all of the council that was here that day i remember we had a great time with her and she even made i think the colonel blush and a few others so um this is really uh i asked for your support in this as the happiness senior citizen senior citizen center say that three times uh was really miss jesse moreno center and she she was uh just infectious in her laugh her attitude and her friendship thank you i make the motion i make the motion to approve yes there's a motion made by representative rivera seconded by representative anelo to approve item number eight on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative hernandez had to leave the media requested to be excused with a consent thank you yes we now go to item number 12. and this is to discuss the 2022 texas society of architects annual conference and design expo in el paso event that will attract over 3 000 architects design professionals and vendors to el paso this year and to request access and assistance in coordinating tours that will highlight the great work the city has accomplished to architects from across the entire state of texas and beyond and this is mayor pro tim schwartzman's mayor pro tem hi thank you mayor um good morning everybody thank you council and again thank you to uh to bill helm and the planning committee for the texas 2022 texas society of architects annual conference um we've already seen a lot of great news in terms of the conferences that we've been able to bring in into our downtown and into our community which is really providing a clear economic impact the initiatives that this council have approved in terms of utilizing state incentives for increased hotel commerce center space is really starting to provide a clear economic benefit with our streetcar we're seeing the ability for us to attract bigger and better conferences and conventions in this area and this 2022 texas society of architects annual conference is further proof of that and so i thought the fact that there's going to be 3 000 architects design professionals and planners coming through our downtown in october i thought people should get a heads up about why all these architects and planners and designers are running through our downtown and what we're seeing here today so i thought it'd be really great um for us to get an update from the uh from the horse's mouth if you will or from the architect's mouth um and so i would like to introduce everybody to bill helm who is the uh the lead on this great conference coming here to el paso um and so mr helm if you'd like to give a presentation your presentation as well good morning thank you for your nancy blazer good morning do we have a presentation we can bring you there's uh i.t if they could bring up the backup well honorable mayor lisa council and city manager gonzalez thank you for giving us a few minutes today in your busy schedule busy agenda my colleagues with the aia el paso chapter our chapter president michael stills and myself william helmer here today to share with you the exciting details of this upcoming texas society of architects annual conference and design expo that will activate our downtown as a campus for the study of architecture this october 25th through 29th of this year the texas society of architects is our state component of the american institute of architects with 17 regional chapters like our own and more than 7 400 members our annual conference is texas architect's largest annual event and is the third largest aia conference in the nation each year this conference coming to el paso this year is not a hapastance it is specifically the result of the dedicated efforts of our local aia chapter who six years ago recognizing the momentum of redevelopment building in downtown and the quality of life projects taking shape across the city our chapter set a goal for ourselves to bring the texas society of architects annual conference back to el paso we set up a local committee of our membership and began lobbying the society staff and board members in austin to consider us as a host city for a future year when we first contemplated this effort to bring in the event back to the city it had been so long that it since it had been here that nobody could specifically remember when i was but with the help of the society we've since learned that the last time the society held its annual conference in el paso was on october 19th through 21st 1977 45 long years ago in 2020 we received word that el paso was awarded the annual conference for 2022 as a result of our efforts i want to give a big shout out to brooke underwood and valerie garcia at destination el paso brooks here today with us um destination el paso has been our uh active partner in this effort as we reached out to the society they joined us at our conferences in other cities as we lobbied the organization helped us respond to a formal request for proposal and hosted a site visit for society staff and board members in 2019 valerie and brooke continue to assist our efforts by serving on our conference committee this year as we prepare the way for this massive undertaking in october the conference will be um the conference will be an intensive multi-day experience drawing 3 000 of our architect members design and industry professionals from across texas and the southwest to el paso in the process the conference will contribute over 1200 room nights and an estimated 2.7 million dollars in direct economic impact to the city the indirect impact gained from hosting these events is incalculable the conference will offer over 80 continuing education sessions three keynote speakers in the plaza theater and 30 plus tours throughout el paso and the region the design expo will completely fill the convention center with 300 plus boos offering a variety of the highest quality architectural prod products and services on the market the engaging educational sessions tours and events will provide architects with a unique opportunity to fulfill their continuing education credits for licensure network with colleagues and vendors and will leave recharged and inspired for the year ahead we would like to extend our gratitude to you our city leadership who have been steadfast in moving our city forward hosting conferences of this size would not be possible if it wasn't for the private development of new hotels and the redevelopment of our historic hotel stock that has been incentivized by this and prior administrations and councils it was when the texas society of architects toured the paso de norte and plaza hotel projects under construction during their site visit back in 2019 that convinced them that el paso would be ready to host our annual conference again during their site visit the recently completed el paso streetcar project demonstrated that el paso had a vision and story to tell about transit-oriented design and our commitment to building a sustainable future san jacinto plaza was already a shining example of our city's commitment to creating great urban spaces that uh that uh invite our citizens to come and play downtown and paseo de los lucis also shown brightly as an example of creating a pedestrian friendly urban environment helping welcoming our neighbors and family members from across the rio grande and to our downtown these and so many other of our quality of life projects that were underway at the time of the site visit demonstrated that we would have a host of exciting new projects to offer tours of for our membership as the host chapter for our conference it is our responsibility to organize 30-plus tours of architecture throughout the city for attendees a full third of these tours we are offering are of city of el paso projects the result of your leadership and dedication to this vision for our city this is the success this is the success story that we will be sharing with our member architects from across the state one community working together to improve the built environment and quality of life for our citizens in the process we also want to thank all the city staff across multiple multiple departments who are assisting us with these tours of city projects including our collaborators at cid parks and rec and sun metro to name a few and finally to close we'd like to encourage other professional organizations like our own to consider taking on a similar charge if your organization has meetings or conferences that have not considered el paso as a location in the past get involved and start asking why it merely takes local citizen leaders within organizations to care enough to become the champions for your community and bring these events here thank you thank you and i want to thank you for that i think um your slideshow really showed a great you know city of el paso as a great quality of place and a great quality of life that uh has been going on for many years now and it started really long before been 2012 with the quality of life on that the city of el paso and the citizens voted on i think you really showed that how the architects have really come together to make that dream come true that the citizens of el paso want it so i want to thank you all for that and i look forward i i thank you for the invite to do the welcoming speech and i look forward to to being there on october 25th so um bright and early too so um i guess you guys get up real early every morning so i look forward to being there on that day and um and welcoming all 3 000 to our beautiful city and encouraging them how to really look at the whole city of el paso as uh the architectural buildings in in the city of el paso has really grown and continues to grow you know whether it's east west mission uh the downtown area every part of el paso's really shows a lot of the work you all have done and and i'm going to encourage and welcome them to look at it all as they're they're here for the you know four or five days to look at the great work you all have done so thank you and i look forward to being there representative yes sir the great work we've all done yes sir absolutely absolutely representative rodriguez thank you mayor and thank you representative schwarzwein for putting this very important item on the agenda i think this is very exciting um you know i actually studied under you bill helms so thank you for everything that you taught me i find it very unique in the sense that i find our built environment inspirational right which is why i studied architecture so with that said i'm beyond excited that this convention is coming i think it's long overdue i think we have a lot of um treasures to showcase to the entire architecture community from our architectural to our new build so thank you so much for this i will be there on october 25th and 29th whether i'm there professionally or not you know this is something that i'm definitely supporting so thank you again all for being here thank you representative mayor potem schwartzman thank you again mayor um really excited about this again and and um did not realize that representative rodriguez was one of your students as well so you learn you learn a new thing every day here in city hall so we have our goal everywhere i'm kind of curious one of the things that that you had made mention was the entire downtown is a campus have you identified or in in sort of looking at it the need for more sort of convention space or multi-purpose space within the downtown yeah for sure we're um and as brook i think would acknowledge we are completely filling the the convention center campus we're filling the entire expo floor we're using every meeting room in the in the convention center to host these 80 ceu sessions and beyond we are spilling out into the meeting rooms in paso del norte hotel so we thank them for our part for their partnership um our three partner hotels our hotel paso del norte plaza hotel and and a loft and they've they've all been uh excellent in helping us um uh bolster our you know the space needs for the conference uh in addition we are um taking on the plaza theater for for the week um to host all the general sessions because these are very large um usually expecting 1500 to 1800 people for the general sessions including the three keynotes um the first of which um mayor lisa will be speaking at to welcome the architects um so yeah um we're i mean we're very happy that we're um um filling the conference space the way we are and thankfully we have the hotels now to support that and um but i think there's there's definitely room for growth and and we we need additional space in downtown so that we can move it forward even further yeah and i think that's again one of the reasons why the multi-purpose center that again was approved by voters in 2012 is so important that it gives us a larger convention center campus and a larger ability to attract these kind of of conventions you know the the investments that we have made as a community this is the kind of result you know the impact that we have with five new hotels built in the last five years ten hotels around the streetcar a 97 million dollar investment from the state um in addition to the 2012 quality of life bonds these these are real impacts that we're seeing both in the private and public sector you mentioned it it's been 45 years 45 years since we had this kind of conference come to the sun city that is the kind of of moves and investments that this community has made over the last 10 years and we're starting to see real real improvements about it um you know another thing too is is we've been in discussion with city management we've been in discussion with with your planning committee and just want to make sure that we have the resources available you know when we're talking about 3 000 architects and designers waking up um at the crack of dawn you know i think it's like farmers and architects usually are the first ones up right so um glad that some saw there so you know we need to make sure that they have the ability to get to the convention center that they have the ability um to have the full support of the streetcar system there not just in terms of the conference but also getting there around and so city management has been extremely supportive and will continue to be so so if there's anything that we need to do to make sure this is a success you have brook's direct line so she is she will help to make this convention center the best success it can be and again this is um a great testament to all of us here in el paso and for those that are all sitting here you know these are all signs of a healthy city when a city that is in flux is a city that is apathetic a city that does not care about its past present or future and so it's really remarkable and wonderful to see everybody that's in this chamber here today the planning committee as well as the council and mayor we are here because we care and it's really a great thing to go and see um the fruits of of all that hard work um and that investment um starting to pay real dividends so again thank you to all of your hard work and your leadership and i think all of us look forward to seeing you guys in october as well so congratulations absolutely thank you and thanks for your continued support and city management and staff's support as we prepare for the event so thank you thank you thank you mayor pro tem [Applause] and thank you everyone for for being here it's important to see everyone here and uh i think mayor potem kind of said best we got to look at that convention center and that was built in the early 70s and look at how we can continue to expand and grow and go to the next phase so thank you for that and mayor just to add on that we do have that next phase and it's the multi-purpose center that was approved by the by the voters that is the best complement to having a more robust and more modern convention center campus in our downtown what oh thank you again and like i said i look forward to more conventions and i look forward to seeing brooke come see us more often has they've been coming quite often as you're you're doing a really good job and we thank you for showcasing our community as it's important as people come we have 3 000 people here and a lot of them are going to be from out of town and there's no better way of marketing our community than ambassadors when they come here and they leave and talk about the great experience they had in el paso and what what a great city it is so i said i look forward to um more conventions expanding our convention center and having bigger conventions more conventions and given us that opportunity so thank you for your team and everyone and mr helm thank you again for for doing this and with that thank you all miss prine yes mayor it is 10 o'clock would you like to race us to go to mass transit at this time please may we have a motion to recess second there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is a recess at 10 03 am good morning this is a meeting of the mass transit department board for tuesday may 10 2022 present in council chambers our board chair lisa board members short fine anello molinar salcido rodriguez rivera and lizardaga we did not have anybody sign up for call to the public so we now go to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by mass transit department board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken if an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved the mass transit department board may however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting motion to approve there's a motion made by board member rivera seconded by board member salcido to approve and and if i may include the revision on item number two to request to excuse board member hernandez from the meeting thank you there is a motion and a second to approve on that motion board member short swing aye annella aye molina aye salzido yes ma'am thank you and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number six on the regular agenda and this is that the city manager or his designee is authorized to sign the fy 2022 low or no emission grants for buses and bus facilities competitive program good morning ellen smythe chief transit officer this item is requesting permission um from the mass transit board to allow the city manager to sign a grant application that we'll be submitting for 11 million dollars this 11 million dollars we're asking for to replace the entire lift fleet with electric vehicles and electric charging stations it's part of the funding that's come down from the federal government as part of the infrastructure and it's a competitive grant so we're hoping that el paso will be successful thank you we have a motion in a second who was the second one representing thank you so there is a motion and a second to approve item number six on that motion board member short swine all right anello aye molina salcido aye rodriguez yes board chair lisa yes ma'am and the motion passes unanimously the next item is number seven and this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2022-0525r i-10 mitigation transit service neighborhood and express rebit to lulac project amistad yeah is there a presentation for this i made a request to be briefed and i haven't said like a presentation on this thank you yes um yeah go ahead okay i'll do the purchasing part mr smith um good morning crystal boss with purchasing and strategic sourcing this item is linked to strategic goal number seven enhance and sustain el paso's infrastructure network the linkage to the strategic plan is subsection 7.3 enhanced regional comprehensive transportation system this is a request for proposal requirements contract there were 20 views online one proposal was received being from a local vendor an inadequate competition survey was conducted no protests were received for this requirement we are recommending award as indicated to lulac project amistad the the sole highest ranked proposal based on the evaluation factors established for this procurement so um let me share my screen here can everyone see this yes okay so um this is um the on your screen you show these five rounds route 90 six and eight so historically uh project amistad has been working with sun metro for the last decade and they have run the um 90 round west to east express the five point circulator and the gateway circulator number two and number eight and so what they use are smaller size vehicles rather than the 35 and 40 foot buses that we use for sun metro and these run much faster through traffic they pick up the people and move them uh to their destinations it was so successful we've added two additional or really it's one route number um the far east um sila vista transit center express and then the far east mission valley express so it's the same route but they're going in opposite directions so what we're able to do is pick up the people from syllabus to mall and get them out to the far east side as well and and so this um partnership that we've had with them it's extremely successful and it it's funded under the congestion mitigation funding from the mpo the mitigation is to improve the air quality and so by putting smaller vehicles on the routes that don't require the larger vehicles we're able to qualify for this funding to reduce the air emissions and so in your packet is the entire contract but that's pretty much it in a nutshell and i i believe project amistad is here or on the line as well to answer any questions thank you again miss smythe um and staff for the presentation um what were the how was um this lulac project amistad routes funded previously through the cmec money as well the same bucket of money were there any other cmac related um projects that were in discussion uh for the awarding of these funds not this time around but previously we did run the express over trans mountain road you might remember when the west side interstate project was taking place with all of the construction it was really difficult to move people down the west side of interstate 10 so project amistad did provide a route across trans mountain road since the freeway construction has been completed the ridership on that route dwindled to nothing and so we we canceled that one but we're always open we can add additional routes if the if the you know we have the data and the need or the requests come in we can certainly look at adding routes yes i just know at least four for the for the west side um txdot is going to be doing the uh i-10 expansion project from the uh north mesa street um exit over by the upper valley all the way to the dome new mexico state line and that project should be starting in the next few months i know that when they were doing the the go 10 project that had expanded and widened and redone i-10 from mesa street to executive that the cmaq funds and circulators were used there so i think that's something that we should be thinking about as well also previously we have used funds similar to this to help offset the beginning costs of the streetcar line as well which is an all-electric renewable and sustainable transit service that we offer as well so just wanted to put those those thoughts out there to you at this time thank you okay yes i'll get with text out and see what their plan their starting time is and the impact it would have on the freeway and we can certainly consider that one thank you and i think it's important i think you said it right there mr smith that we'll keep looking at and keep looking at the numbers to look to see where we can and need to expand and if we don't we won't but if we do we're looking at it and making sure that we're prepared so i thank you for that and with that we have a motion in a second and now we have representative sir about that sorry mayor thank you hey ellen i know that this is a conversation that we've had um the smaller uh i guess vans right replacing some of our fleet with that and so i'm wondering you say you know if there's option to expand this have you looked at kind of rather than purchasing these smaller v vehicles uh doing a partnership for the smaller circulator routes right well so project almost has a capacity limitation as well you know they don't have as large of a fleet as we do and so we would have to talk to them about investing in their capital which we certainly can do um and then of course on top of that is the maintenance which is really again one of the i know that they do contract out their maintenance to a local shop and so they would have to look at expanding their capacity as well but so we're open to that option as well okay thank you thank you for that again miss pine yes sir there is a motion and a second to approve item number seven on that motion board member shortly nick anello aye molinar hi salcido aye rodriguez yes rivera the motion and board chair lisa yes ma'am thank you and the motion passes with seven affirmative votes uh board member shortline voting nay the motion does pass that brings us to the end of the agenda may we have a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the mass transit department board meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the mass transit department board meeting for tuesday may 10 2022 is adjourned at 10 14 am may we have a motion to reconvene the regular city council meeting there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 14 a.m we're on page number six item number 13 and this is discussion and action protecting women's rights and to direct the city manager to work with the city council to establish a city of el paso women's commission and or board focused on women's equality and protecting their rights can we do public comment first and this is this item was placed by representatives ribera anello schwarzwein and hernandez thank you miss bryan do we have some public comment we have 55 55 members of the public that signed up to speak thank you can we um amend that to two minutes each since we well i'd like to um hopefully i'm going to limit them to three stairs just because when we only have a few we don't give them additional time and i think it's important but i would like to make sure please uh stay really close to your time and i think it's very important thank you thank you for that and i will remind the audience to please remain on topic and i'll read the instructions for participating in public comment and it reads the city of el paso as a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the city council meetings are public meetings under the texas open meetings act public comment is available to people wishing to sign up to speak on an agenda item 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 thank you and i know ms bryan that um we asked not to um this is not a political forum and it's really important and police as we talked uh when we first started the meeting let's respect each other and respect people's viewpoints so i thank you for that ms prine yes sir the first person that signed up is dora oaxaca followed by veronica esparza mark cavalier ray baca marcos lares again the order of the first few speakers are dora oaxaca veronica esparza mark cavalier rey baca there is a timer on the podium that will keep track of your three minutes and you'll also be able to monitor your time on the tv screens in council chambers good morning miss oaxaca you have three minutes ma'am good morning good morning mayor and council um i'm here to make a plea to you i believe and i'm not the only one but i'm here on behalf of many women that couldn't be here today with us to ask that you establish this women's rights commission i want to thank the authors that place this item that was very way long overdue and uh i believe uh representative nello you said it the best but to these women that are up there i ask you representative rodriguez and representative sancido to understand the value of a women's commission in the city of el paso within your government within your local government that will address many issues that impact 50 plus percent of the population and that is us to the mayor mayor you have not only friends that are women but also daughter and i just want to tell you mayor that you are the leader you set the tone for this city and we ask that you're also in support of this you're going to hear many many people talk about different issues but here the focus the target the eye el candelojo is that you elevate women and by doing this you set an example you join the other cities across texas to make sure that there is a commission that speaks just like that there is a veterans commission we deserve a women's commission as well right mr molina this commission goes beyond boundaries and it's going to be effective in so many ways it'll address health care it'll address socio-economic issues it will address everything in between that is a gap especially equality many of us many of us are still underpaid so it doesn't come at a time only when there's one issue before us but there's so many others and the beauty of it is that you will be able to appoint that woman to this commission that you'll be able to drive policy for all of us i thank you and i ask you and i tell the women that are watching this and listening this morning that we stand together with you and this will be a gift to everyone this mother's day thank you so much the next speaker is veronica esparza followed by mark cavaliere good morning mrs barza you have three minutes ma'am good morning hi thank you so much for allowing me to speak um i've come and i've come on behalf of life of course i'm wearing the shirt and i even brought a model of a baby at 12 weeks so that you know that we are speaking about a life we are not speaking about rights when we say rights we should speak about rights for the child as well if a child is a woman or a female who is thinking about this females rights this baby has rights as well and that's why i'm here and i want to thank you guys all because you guys started this meeting with prayer to the mighty god you're asking god in this meeting let's not come up here just in voice and say we're calling on prayer and we're calling on god and then just exclude him you can you can read the bible in the first ten commandments and know that we shall not murder that is part of our commandments let's be a city that cares for everyone including the un unborn life let's think about that baby let's not be hypocritical and say it doesn't matter all lives matter to god and that's why i'm here i am here because of the children because of life the lord did not give me a child but i'm here to fight for other children because it is the life that matters to the lord everybody in this room was at once this size think about that you can call this women's rights all you want to but at the end of the day it is a right to kill a life but when a woman who is pregnant gets killed the criminal is charged with two counts of murder think about that let's think about let's use our common sense two counts of murder because there's a life in her womb there's a life and now we're saying we're gonna give women the right to kill her her baby we're gonna give her the right to say i don't want this so whatever excuses people want to make i want you to think about the image of a child in the womb this child right here has rights because it was the rights were given to this child by almighty god the same god that we asked for help right now before we came up here i want you to please please consider the lord when you make your decision because this is not a decision that's going to go lightly with the lord so i'm here to say i oppose item 13. i'm here to say that we shouldn't even be discussing this because we live in texas the heartbeat law of texas el paso texas i don't even know why we're here but since we are i'm asking you on praying that you would be members of conviction and of integrity and that you would do the will of the lord and remove this even off of the agenda thank you my next speaker good morning mr cavalier you have three minutes sir uh mayor ernest d members of the council thank you for your time my name is mark cavalier on behalf of the southwest coalition for life and i asked the city clerk this morning to distribute a petition to you all that had 414 signatures and growing on behalf of our of our organization i'd like to point out that 70 72 of those signatures are from women the petition states that we are writing to remove item 13 from the may 10th agenda the subject is to establish this commission uh however the background section of the item 13 does make it clear that this item is about protecting abortion this item is outside of the purview of the city council and is therefore illegal if item 13 is not removed however and if item number 13 is approved by the council in which case uh the the undersigners demand that the women's council be sure to include women who represent the values of supporting the normal healthy functions of a woman's natural body and life cycle anything that alters suppresses or destroys a normal healthy function of a woman's natural body to include induced abortion is not healthcare due to this nature of this topic we also demand extreme transparency of any and all funds and budget items related to this women's commission to expose any potential bias to or from special interest groups or waste or misappropriation of taxpayer dollars which could be more appropriately focused on actual city responsibilities such as water services public works libraries etc if the city intends to support women's equality and rights we believe that we should focus on removing the expectation that has been burdening women for the past 50 years due to roe versus wade has put the expectation on them to alter suppress and destroy the normal healthy functions of their natural body and life cycle in order to conform to our city's society which is really based around male norms instead i we believe that we need to shift the expectation to employers and universities and our city to instead be the ones to alter and conform to support uh the woman's natural healthy functions of her natural body and life cycle to to truly support women our city needs to be focusing on things like pregnancy help resources resident support education programs that cater to the unique and new uh the unique needs of new and expecting moms family rice life resources fair wages paid maternity leave and life-affirming health care that supports rather than destroys a normal healthy function of a woman's natural body i thank you for your time on concern on behalf of the signatories and as a man i just would like to apologize that for the last 50 years that we have failed to step up and take more responsibility to support women and have have put women in a situation because we have been guilty of objectifying and using and abusing women in so many situations and then have left them to deal with the emotional and physical trauma of abortion and i believe women deserve better than abortion and i ask i ask you gentlemen on the supreme council to please uh step up and to protect and defend women rather than burdening them with this uh this trauma thank you for your time the next speaker is ray baca mr baka will be followed by marcos lares bruce edward reed susana acosta madeleine harris good morning mr baka you have three minutes sir good morning mayor members of council this proposition that is being placed before you it's not about women's rights per se i mean let's face it it came about as a response to the leaked memo on roe v wade it's being couched as being a women's general rights but it's not it's being proposed as a way to keep abortion as a primary women's rights which we are obviously opposed to has been said more eloquently than i is what abortion is and what the life of a child means every life is present precious we don't think that the city at this level should be getting involved in this issue the supreme court has finally recognized after 50 years that roe v wade was a bad decision and they're sending it back to the states where the local voters in the statewide bases can decide what is right for their state and we think that's where it should be nothing that this council can do is going to change that law obviously if council has particular individual members have particular preferences they can talk to their state representatives just like we can and say we think this is what the law should be but eventually it will be decided in austin and that's what the law will be if in fact this passes i'm going to share just two reasons why i am personally against abortion pretty much in any circumstance all i understand there are some people that will differ with that opinion that they'll say in certain circumstances it should be allowed i have a daughter she was a throwaway child she should have been aborted by all measures that are cited today and i won't go into the particulars but her birth mother had every reason to abort that daughter that little girl she chose life and as a consequence we were able to adopt that daughter and that daughter has been the pride and joy of our lives i have a grandson more recently i have a two-year-old grandson that grandson was abandoned at the hospital the mother said i can't kill this child but i can't raise him so she let him go at the hospital and my daughter now has a grandson that is part of the family also a throwaway baby that should have been aborted if you'd ask any person that's involved in the abortion industry but those two lives are precious just like all the lives around us are precious and will there be circumstances where perhaps a a fetus is not sustainable maybe there will be i don't know what they are my daughter's an obstetrician she's been practicing for 15 years and she says dad i've never seen an instance where the baby's life would have caused the mother to die that's a very exaggerated example now are there issues of convenience yes there are so i asked the council reject this proposition thank you very much the next speaker the next speaker is bruce edward reed followed by susanna costa madeleine harris christina gonzalez gloria fields good morning mr reed you have three minutes hello my name is marcos lares and i am a recent graduate from new mexico state university with degrees in uh genetics and biotechnology and biological sciences so if there's any question that i'm qualified to speak on this issue i am quite qualified i know when human life begins so that is the least of my worries however it has come to my attention that they're creating this body plans to create a commission to so-called protect women's rights when a women um half of them who are aborted um we don't speak about them and so this body sadly it has like i said come to my attention that it uses this euphemism of choice because it is a euphemism because the choice is technically killing a child and as a scientist i know when life begins there is no question from the moment of conception we begin to exist we're human beings through the virtue of science and we are granted personhood through the virtue of law and sadly laws in this country have discriminated people for decades from slavery to the anti-semitism and i can go on and on and on women have not always had the rights that they have now but the right to abortion is against actual women's rights because half of the abortions are little girls who deserve the right to live it was in 1973 when seven old white men decided that for some reason they needed uh women needed abortion to be equal to us and that is just not not it's not going to fly with me it doesn't represent the values of this community because we're latinos we're we're f we're members of big families we love big families we love our families every child here is a blessing every one of you standing in front of me is a blessing and i'm glad to see your faces and i'm glad to well i would like to see all of the district representatives here but unfortunately mine had left and had to step out of the room um regardless um losing losing these children uh induces a big burden because we're now in a what it's called in a bottled neck um so it's when there's not enough babies to provide for the people that are dying and this is something that we don't we need to look more into and we need to look as as as a scientific community this is very concerning so i reject this proposition um i i'm fully against it and i hope that you are willing to consider the science behind it and leave aside all religion because this is not a religious issue this is a scientific issue and there's no doubt about that life begins at conception thank you the next speaker the next speaker is bruce edward reed bruce edward reed susanna costa i don't see him in the queue we'll go to susana costa followed by madeleine harris go ahead i recently moved back to the borderland and we chose el paso to raise our young family because of its strong family values and it's it's a great place and i'm here to ask you to please remove item 13. it's outside the purview of the city council and is therefore illegal if it is not removed i expect to have a representation of women like myself that understand and value women's reproductive abilities why am i here because this issue matters as a woman as a mom it's i'm here because i know for certain that abortion hurts women and all those around her dear friends and women that i care for deeply have had abortions and they expect express extreme sadness and immense loss that occurs because of this decision abortion does not end after it's committed women suffer the most after the fact always wondering what if whether they expressed it or not recent studies indicate the following women that choose abortion have suicide rates that are six times higher than compared to women who give birth 65 suffer symptoms of ptsd which include depression nightmares anxiety guilt suicidal thoughts eating disorders the risk of clinical depression is 65 percent higher 60 said that part of me died drug and alcohol abuse significantly significantly increased and there's there are significantly higher rates of psychiatric treatment this is not pro-women but there is hope in healing available places such as southwest coalition for life guiding star here in el paso are amazing places that offer so many services that love and support women which is what they need and they're free of cost so if you want to hurt a society hurt the woman she's the heart of our of our homes and of our society if you want to uplift the society form strong families i'm currently 11 weeks pregnant and five weeks ago um i heard my baby's heart for the first time at six weeks a strong powerful heart was beating inside of me that body which is separate from mine is developing inside of me and it's amazing every pregnant woman should have access to that experience of an ultrasound so they can see what is happening inside of them so each life is precious each life is a gift and we cannot play god by deciding which hearts can keep on beating and which ones are disposable it's a child and all it needs is time abortion hurts everyone so it is said that if you want to test a man's character give him power on this day of las madres make your mama proud and do what's right okay thank you the next speaker is madeleine harris followed by christina gonzalez gloria catalina fields carol cassidy barbara carrasco good morning miss harris you have three minutes good morning i'll make this brief and clear i want to state how i stand with this issue i wish for it to be removed if it were not removed then we should have a diverse group of voices that come together in a diplomatic manner to discuss these issues and the pro-life voice should be included lastly as a christian and as a mom of a five-month-old baby um i do want to leave three thoughts with you number one you were once unborn as well number two you should be thankful that you're here today because someone chose life and number three please i urge you in person look at the bins that carry these babies lifeless because if it were you or your children would it have mattered then would abortion have mattered then thank you the next speaker the next speaker is christina gonzalez followed by gloria catalina fields carol cassidy good morning ms gonzalez you have three minutes thank you good morning my name is christina and i am also here uh to make this a little bit brief and in short but i'm also here to ask you to please remove item number 13. it shouldn't be part of this at all but um the reason why i'm asking for this is because you know abortion demands and forces you or women to only make one choice and it tells us women you're not enough you're not strong enough to be a career woman to have a job to be a student and go to school full-time you're not strong enough to be all that and be a mom or be pregnant that's what the culture tells us and that's what abortion tells us so abortion forces us to make a choice you know what you have to make a choice you either choose your career choose yourself and get rid of your baby and that's not fair it's not fair to us so i reject it i reject it wholeheartedly we can have our cake and eat it too as women we can do all of that but we need to be empowered we need to be empowered so what we need to do is we need to enact laws and to help support women pregnant moms in the workforce and universities and students when they are you know working hard to get their degree or whatever we need to help we need to help them period so um don't force us to make a choice only one choice the choice of abortion that's not right um so instead empower us to celebrate life celebrate life and all of its facets from the very beginning to the end thank you for your time the next speaker is gloria catalina fields gloria catalina fields if you're in the queue star six gloria catalina fields six i don't see miss phil's phone number in the queue we'll move to carol cassidy followed by barbara carrasco samuel thomas amada beltran good morning miss cassidy you have three minutes man good morning good morning mayor and city council and good morning to all the beautiful people that are here today and we're hoping that this will be recorded i'm going to lead with baru haba bashim adonai this is hebrew 4. welcome we are all here in the name of the lord jesus [Applause] our rights are defined by this these documents and they don't change and we have the first ten amendments are called the bill of rights and they're for all americans and there is nothing in here as the scotus lawlessly passed starting in 47 and then in 73 when they went after separation of church and state those five words do not exist in these documents uh city council and mayor and all that are present here and i do have a gift for you uh however i want to reference to you uh where who is the authority for american law america's jurisprudence is defined in the first paragraph of the declaration of independence and the words are the law of the laws of nature and of nature's god i'm going to reference that for you those words were written by sir william blackstone in the year 1764 through 1769 thomas jefferson took from uh that magnificent document which actually is the rule of law for all of the british commonwealth anyway the laws of nature and of nature's god you can reference them under black blackstone institute the uh it is the bible so any laws that have been passed in the united states my goodness going back in time at least through the 19th 20th century that violate the bible are lawless anyway so we are here to remove this uh this item number 13 and please uphold uphold the men and women and the family and and our wonderful children so thank you so much and a gift for all of you someone can pass this out to please the city council the mayor and let's not forget the city manager here please i think i've provided you with enough anyway thank you the next speaker will be barbara carrasco followed by samuel thomas a mother by beatrice beltran good morning ms carrasco you have three minutes good morning good morning mayor and council thank you for allowing us to be here i'm here to express my opposition to the formation of the commission or board on pregnant women to the right to abort what other rights they may lose the supreme court was extremely clear very implicit and i'm going to quote the court to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right so this idea that we need a commission to protect women's rights in the city of el paso is bogus and i'd like to ask councilman i'd like i'd like to ask councilman rivera what he said that women's right effects affect men i like to know in which way and i'd also like to know what his definition of women are because we're treading into troubled waters that we have no business being into where were your voices when men were crossing over into women's sports obliterating our young girls sports this in my opinion is a volcanic issue that the city has no business being in and i appreciate the proclamations and the presentations because that showed good governance you were all in accord with with the presentations and proclamations that you made city governments is what you should be focused on our budget our taxes which are increasing exponentially our debt continued use of the certificates of obligations you should be concerned with our streets our electric grid our water supply quality of life projects that are seldom on time but always millions of dollars over budget you should be concerned with our public safety and health you have the people here with the presentation that's what governmental good governance is you should take on projects that represent the whole city where you can represent the whole city not a specific group not a social agenda when you start going into social issues you're going to divide the city you as a governance body have to keep us united that is your job we trust our vote in you when we put you in office we trust that you will use our taxpayer money prudently and that you will not be foolish with it and that you will do your due diligence when you spend our money a commission is not necessary it is not in the scope it's not in your purview so i would respectfully request that you please stay in your lane and remove the agenda the item from the gym the next speaker the next speaker is samuel thomas followed by amada beatrice beltran sandra carranza sylvia costa sonia castaneda michaela oliver good morning mr thomas you have three minutes good morning good morning thank you for allowing me to speak to you city council this morning my name is samuel thomas i am a pastor here in our city and i am here today to speak in opposition to the city councils consideration of forming a committee to protect women's rights which i think we all here know today is simply a veiled euphemism to give women the right to murder their pre-born children i am all for our women having rights our constitution provides for all of us certain alienable rights however a woman does not have the right to murder someone else just as i or anyone else in this room does not have the right to arbitrarily and selfishly destroy someone else's life the life inside a mother's womb is another life [Applause] it's a separate life it's a sacred life it's another living soul created by god and the mother and her baby are two separate lives with different organs different fingerprints and different personalities therefore a woman does not have the right to selfishly decide for no medically legitimate cause to murder the human being that happens to be living inside of her body god will not continue to bless a city and a nation that is complicit with murdering its pre-born children think about this the only people who are pro-choice and pro-abortion are people who have already been born [Applause] by the way mr mayor with all due respect aborted babies never get to have a birth day thank you for allowing me to speak the next speaker is amada a mother beatrice beltran if you're in the queue star six amada beatrice beltran star six if you're in the queue to unmute your telephone amada beatrice beltran i don't see her phone number in the queue we'll move on to sandra carranz carranza followed by silvia costa sonia castaneda michaela oliver sandra carranza sandra carranza i don't see her coming forward we'll move on to sylvia acosta mesa costa if you're in the queue star six to unmute your telephone she's sure hello mayor and cal hi how are you um hello mayor and council thank you for allowing me to speak today ywca's mission is to eliminate racism empower women and promote peace justice freedom and dignity for all in 2022 you would think that would be an easy job but it is not it is not easy because so much of what the ywca stands for and believes isn't is considered radical and is still under attack i invite everyone here to think back just over 100 years ago 1919 women could not vote we could not open bank accounts without a man's permission we could not be we could be sexually assaulted by a male spouse with no consequences and look at this room today more than half of our city council members are women i have the pleasure of working with women who own businesses hold public offices save lives women who change the world every single day none of that came easily people fought and died for the rights we all enjoy today and when you consider what women have accomplished and the differences between now and ninth and 1919 it would be easy for you to sit back and smile and feel like our work is done but our work is not done our work is not done at a national level or state level and it is not done on the local level our work is not done when women in our state and nation no longer have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies in may 2019 a pew study showed that 80 percent of americans support a woman's right to her bodily autonomy our work is not done when women are not guaranteed are when it is more difficult for women and individuals to cast a ballot every single year our work is not done when black indigenous and women of color go missing and public outrage and concern is essentially non-existent our work is not done when domestic violence shelters are filled to capacity and our work is not done when immigrants come to us for help and they are treated as criminals or as less than human i do not pretend to know the solutions to all of these problems but i do know that women must be part of finding those solutions i implore our city council to create this women's rights commission because our work is not done and because every issue let me repeat every issue is a woman's issue when women are at the center of conversations about human rights health care economics and other critical topics communities thrive that is why a commission on women's right is important and why as a city council member you can lead take a lead in the nation and ensuring that all voices have a seat at the table remember that our nation was founded on the separation of church and state thank you thank you you've reached your three minutes thank you thank you the next speaker is sonia castaneda followed by michaela oliver irene armendares jackson raymond aguilar good morning miss castaneda you have three minutes good morning good morning um mayor lisa and city council representatives my name is sonia castaneda and i have come today to speak about the women's right murdering of a baby is what you're wanting to protect i want to give you some information here approximately fifty thousand million abortions occur globally each year that means a shocking one one a thousand one hundred forty thousand people are killed daily five thousand seven hundred each hour nearly a hundred every minute and almost two every second approximately 1.5 million abortions occur annually in the us one of the highest rates of any developed country that means that four thousand one hundred babies are murdered daily in this nation 177 every hour three every minute we have to wonder which with each life given a purpose from god what might they have accomplished in their lives had they been protected i came today as a friend a friend cares about you and will tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it if i saw you running as fast as you could toward a cliff i would do whatever it took to stop you from going over the cliff to certain destruction if you choose to go forward and fight for murdering of babies by creating a women's commission to protect those rights you will be spitting in the face of god his word is clear to him that knows to do good and does it not to him it is sin dr sylvia acosta right now she says that she was appalled for dehumanizing illegals but why isn't she appalled by dehumanizing a baby in the womb [Applause] each one of us stands for a purpose and reason for being here we can't continue to choose who is more worthy than another proverbs 24 declares deliver those who are drawn towards death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter if you say surely we do not know this does not he who weighs the hearts consider it he who keeps your soul does he not know it and will he not render to each man according to his deeds we all must remember that the wages of sin is death one day each of us will give an accounting of our lives to almighty god are you ready to face him and it's true and many have said here at the beginning we started with a prayer but who are you truly praying for two to one that just is okay thank you thank you the next speaker is michaela oliver followed by irene armendares jackson raymundo avila melissa bailey michelle garcia good morning miss oliver you have three minutes good morning thank you for giving me the opportunity to be heard today and say and state my stance against item 13 and advocate for better options for the people of el paso firstly our governor of texas greg abbott signed legislation known as the fetal heartbeat bill and item 13 is outside purview of city council and is illegal now i hear women and that they want to seat at the table and i do believe that we deserve a seat at the table and to have our voice heard but not at the expense of innocent lives abortion is a murderous act that subjects innocent children to cruel to cruel and harsh and slow dust i'm grateful for the opportunity to stand here today and publicly thank my mom and my dad for choosing life 26 years ago when their doctor encouraged them to abort me simply simply for the convenience that they could have a simple li a simpler life and achieve their goals as if they couldn't do so with me now abortion is a band-aid over a large wound that is bleeding out this large wound is a representation of social issues that have been poorly addressed and neglected why not invest in creating a society of young men that respect women and women that honor men why not expose planned parenthood for being motivated by greed and discrimination instead of allowing it to take root in our city planned parenthood sees women and they see dollar signs planned parenthood sees abortion as an opportunity to quietly commit genocide and discriminate against minorities and the poor by strategically placing their clinics in certain areas every day planned parenthood kills hundreds of thousands of children literally carrying out large containers of dead babies human remains from clinics daily this should not be welcome on el paso soil ever we can be better than that we can encourage the peace of the people of el paso to do all that they can do to not take part in continuing the cycle of pain and death and ignorance and we can educate our youth to be better and continue on the wisdom for generations to follow to the city manager and city council regardless of any corruption or influence you have been given the chance to lead and develop the city into a place of compassion for all lives i hear women wanting to fight for women's rights but i was a woman from the moment i was conceived what about my rights then we can show the world what el paso strong truly means by setting an example not letting the rest of the world dictate how we live and treat each other starting with adjusting our curriculums as i mentioned before don't give in to the facade or be bullied into accepting that murdering innocent children is ever solution nor something that should be acceptable supported or celebrated thank you miss oliver thank you the next speaker can we before the next speaker can we wait about two minutes because i don't want to miss a speaker so i'm gonna going back for one second i'll be right back if we can um can we do a five minute research yes sir may we have a motion to recess there's a motion in a second to recess the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is on recess at 10 59 a.m for a short break uh council if you return to the deus the meeting can continue we need counsel to return to the dais at this time please in order to reconvene the meeting are you miss princess ready council we need a quorum on the dais please in order to continue with the meeting may we have a motion to reconvene second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 11 06 a.m we continue with public comment on item number 13. the next speaker is irene armendares jackson followed by raymundo aguilar melissa bailey michelle garcia maria martinez allison glass good morning miss armandous jackson you have three minutes thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak even though i'm exercising my constitutional right to appeal to the government good morning to city council and the mayor and for those of you that are mothers and celebrated lia de las madres feliz dia de las madres i just want to make a note and remind you that for those of you that are mothers remember you're first born in your womb i remember my firstborn she's 27 and a mother of four now today we celebrate my only granddaughter's birthday she's five years old how beautiful it is to know that life continues remember you're first born in your womb fathers remember your first womb in the y in your wife's uterus it's supposed to be the safest place on earth but all of a sudden a pair of pliers that have a fancy medical term go into the womb and grab a leg the baby scientifically proven pushes to the top of the womb trying to preserve its life but it's no match for the baby the adult holding that pair of pliers pulls without its all its might and tears off a leg your baby screams but nobody hears it all of a sudden the pliers go in again and grab another leg pulling it off and your baby screams and nobody hears it then they go to the arms one by one and your baby screams in pain and nobody hears it finally they separate the head from the torso and they bring out the torso lastly the head is floating in the womb of the mother they grab the head with a pair of pliers squishing the head making sure that it can pass through the birth canal spilling its brain that's the brutality of abortion el paso is 83 percent hispanic and the hispanic culture is pro-life how many of us have had children and have had a baby shower how many people show up to the baby shower i had over a hundred people in my baby shower for my firstborn we celebrate life el paso is pro-life and item 13 should not even be on the agenda hear the voice of the people that are here behind me you know that we outnumber more than ten to one the brutality of abortion should have should never be political but that's exactly what has a lot of us involved in the government thank you and for those of you that celebrate mother's day today happy mother's day and like somebody else said please make your mothers proud the next speaker the next speaker is raymundo aguilar remundo aguilar if you're in the queue star six raymundo aguilar i don't see mr aguilar's phone number in the queue the next speaker is melissa bailey i believe miss bailey submitted a statement for representative rodriguez can you come back to me let me pull it up because i wasn't prepared for it yes we'll go on to michelle garcia followed by maria martinez allison glass good morning miss good morning good morning mayor good morning city council michelle garcia deputy director of women for lulac el paso thank you first of all to councilman henry rivera for adding this item to the agenda and to the council members that support the creation of a women's rights commission as a resident of san elisario i am proud that our sister city has taken the initiative to start this important venture in support of women's rights my hope is that the our smaller cities also take on the challenge women's rights are meant to protect all women regardless of their situation protection for women are gay and lgbtq communities should be a non-negotiable and we must hold every elected office accountable to this day the situation for women is still shocking globally at least one in three women experience violence in their lifetime women work longer hours and we are paid less we need to make more noise about the issues sparking conversations through social media or in person is the bedrock of change and it is important way to drum up more support share local events with your friends call others out when they make insensitive or ill-informed comments and help amplify the voices of women on the front lines lastly i like to quote the second woman to serve on the united states supreme court and a feminist icon ruth bader ginsburg the decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman's life to her well-being and dignity it is a decision she may must make for herself when the government controls that decision for her she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices that was going to be the end that was all i was going to say to y'all but i was raped when i was 16 and i did not have a choice a month later this commission would have helped me as a 16 year old i was raised by my father by himself my mother left me and i had no resources this commission is much more than just abortion we need to look at the bigger picture our young women of this community need guidance and help thank you so much for your time at this time i'd like to make an announcement to the members of the public that the city council is a the meetings are limited if there are limited public forum so the use of campaigning on on apparel is not permitted in this forum thank you the next speaker is maria martinez followed by alison glass good morning ms martinez you have three minutes good morning mayor good morning good morning city council i am a registered nurse i have been so for 20 years and i believe in the dignity of life i have served as a hospice palliative care nurse i have served in our community health centers and i have also served in the hospital setting for three plus years i have also served as a client services manager at a pregnancy resource center and i am currently the nurse manager at west side pregnancy center i have counseled countless women and i believe it is safe to say hundreds of women that deeply regret their abortion and they suffer they suffer emotionally and psychologically and sometimes even physically the statistics and the research is true i have witnessed it they do have a higher risk of anxiety and depression they do have suicidal thoughts and they experience ptsd it is very real i have also witnessed that abortion in two-thirds or eighty percent of the time is not a woman's first choice i believe they need support and when fully informed about all of their options and the scientific evidence of fetal development i have seen it they changed their minds ultrasound has given us a picture to the womb and as it is said a picture is more valuable than words many of these women after they have had their child they cannot imagine their life without their babies in spite of the challenges the challenges are real and we are aware of that i believe in protecting the rights and the health care of the unborn women and men abortion is not health care on a personal note my mother had an abortion and she would always say i probably aborted the boy i always wanted so i i ask and i do not support item 13 and i ask that we have a platform to speak and to support women in the systems that are available to them as resources i believe that could make a difference i believe that we are created in the image of god and that we are humans and that is what makes us different thank you my next speaker the next speaker is melissa bailey and her statement will be read by representative rodriguez women's right women's rights committee why not the why not the word abortion is it because it is uncomfortable el paso city council code of integrity it says respect and dignity for all but throughout my dealing with most of city council that isn't always followed monday city council will insert themselves into one side of roe v wade roe versus wade and vote to form yet another committee at taxpayers expense a few months back city council wanted three committees to police the police which chiefs allens made sure citizens of el paso knew would cost taxpayers thousands something city council was not forthcoming with like the reckless spending the 91 million in certificates of obligation non-voter approved debt which raises our taxes one city county state leader care more about illegal immigrants criminals animals than a life of a baby should scare the hell out of all of us medical scientists have been divided and can't even agree if life begins at conception or later so why does city county state government leaders think that they have a right to say one life matters over another texas was among the first states to enact a feticide law in 2003 feticide laws that apply to the earliest stages of pregnancy including conception if someone injures or kills a pregnant woman the fetus dies as a result they are charged with feticide but even with this information leaders and pro-choice advocates try to contradict how this law applies these are the same people who support people pretend to be the scientifically ones but they are not they are the ones who supported defunded police and tried our law enforcement hands as they painted criminals as victims and as police villains they supported black lives matter illegal immigrants justice reform some drugs to be legalized letting criminals out of prison and into the country and we have watched where disastrous decisions on social media news media in our cities our school and our churches as crime rates skyrocket across the country rapes murder robberies are up mental health issues rise over overdose is up children being bullied attacked or killed what i find ironic when many of us screamed my body my choice we are demonized lost jobs but because this fits a political agenda like defund the police they they again jump on the bandwagon as el paso is seeing more crime city council stayed silent except for district five isabelle salcido who told ktsm it's worth noting that most of these shootings do not take place inside the establishment but outside in the parking lot the silence and lack of seriousness of concerns of el paso and show city council doesn't care when it's black on black brown on brown crime because it doesn't fit political agenda they don't care about black brown babies being killed in the abortion clinics doesn't the future of our black brown babies matter it's okay when we kill them in the womb justify it by our own self-serving interests if we don't respect the lives of our unborn children enough to save them and fight for them our lives mean nothing with hispanics making up 18.7 percent of the u.s population and blacks making up 13 that translates to approximately 456 hispanic children 912 black children and 840 white children you've reached the three minutes thank you thank you the next speaker is allison glass followed by chris yost deb gray daniel flores miss glasses in the queue good morning miss class you have three minutes good morning my name is allison glass and i'm speaking today in support of agenda item number 13 the establishment of the city of el paso women's commission among other boards here in el paso i actively sit on the community board of planned parenthood greater texas which includes el paso the need for a women's commission has never been clearer now more than ever we need the structure in place at every level to ensure that we're protecting women's equality and women's rights last week was a devastating blow to the future of women's rights while the leaked supreme court opinion shocked many those who have been following the constant attacks on health care access in our state have been fearing this moment for some time though that doesn't make the news any easier to digest my mother was a 20 year old college student at the university of texas during the ruling of roe v wade in 1973. she was on the steps of the capitol cheering for this landmark decision that gave young women across our country options it is unfathomable to think that nearly 50 years later we are still fighting for the same rights a woman is commissioned to focus on the rights and equality of women is needed in el paso but i'm talking about all rights not just health care rights research by the ywca shows us that right now too many women in our community are struggling to make ends meet according to this research 24 of women are the only ones in the household to have a savings or checkings account el paso also has a larger percentage of female-led households than any other texas city 26 while the research shows that women are working the median annual earnings for women in el paso is approximately 68 of those of men in el paso so it's not surprising that the poverty rate for women in el paso is 23 compared to 19 for men initiatives by the city council to alleviate in inequalities can only be beneficial for this city i urge council members to vote in favor of directing the city manager to work with the council to create a commission to protect women's rights and equality thank you the next speaker is chris yost followed by deb gray daniel flores joseph grant williams brianda garcia valerie bowers and mr yost also submitted a statement to be read by representative rodriguez mayor liser and members of council thank you for giving us the opportunity to exercise our first amendment right to redress grievances out of government it is vital to keep these rights safeguarded and to utilize them to allow for discussion and debate on issue that will impact the citizens of el paso i am the precinct chair of apostles precinct 131 and i have been in politics long enough to know that it is a dog and a pony show this word play on the committee of women's rights is just a backdoor tactic used to support abortion and ways to develop loopholes and backdoor dealings to continue it with that being said this committee being discussed under the false pretense of women's rights would be a violation under city of o'possible employees handbook which i'm sure all of you are familiar with specifically page number seven entitled integrity and ethics code of integrity final bullet point obey the letter and intent of the law and also page 9 conflict of interest a link will be provided at the bottom to reference we all know this committee was stemmed out of the recent u.s supreme court leaked opinion to strike down roe v wade and this has nothing to do with women's rights as there is no right to an abortion under the 14th amendment to the u.s constitution it makes vague references to right to private privacy however using this rationale the city of el paso was in direct violation of this logic when it violated the rights of the citizens of el paso under unconstitutional covenanting measures such as violating the privileges and immunities clause of the constitution when unlawful curfews and unlawful shutting downs of businesses were enacted by the city of el paso it is also vital to point out that the creating of a committee of women's rights the city of el paso will be discriminating against males because now you are prioritizing one so-called right over another this is textbook discrimination again there is no texas state there is no texas state or united states constitutional amendments protecting or even mentioning abortion however there is a texas state law that was passed recently restricting it in the state of texas what about fathers rights in the corrupt el paso family court system you are elected officials elected of and by the people of el paso you have also taken an oath of office as required under law that oath was to be signed dated and notarized or validated and it is criminal offense under texas penal code title 8 chapter 9 section 39.02 and your oats of office and the penal court are attached with my written testimony to be entered into record and is punishable by fine jail time and up to and including removal from your office or combination of the three for violating your legally bound obligation to follow and honor your oath a contract you agreed that i will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the state of texas and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the constitution and laws of the united states representative rodriguez the next speaker is deb gray followed by daniel flores joseph grant williams brandon garcia valerie bowers sochi rodriguez good morning ms gray you have three minutes good morning council and thank you so much for this opportunity to speak on agenda 13. i would ask that that you vote this down i believe that they are just wanting it to protect the right for abortion i stand before you as an adoptive mother and i can tell you right now that there is not a child that's unwanted they are wanted by the lord he created them and there's a whole community of foster parents and adopted parents that would eagerly and lovingly take this baby i also want to address the the other things that they're saying the commission would be for is for women's health women's issues we have several pregnancy centers in el paso that deal with these issues every single day when a woman finds herself in a crisis of an unwanted pregnancy we can help them and i am the executive director of west side pregnancy center um any girl that comes in and finds herself with no support we are there to support her through her entire journey a lot of times we're accused of being pro-life for a christian that we just care about the baby of course we want to care we do want to save the baby but we care about the mom too and we want to walk that journey at westside pregnancy center if they find that they're in a financial situation we can help them navigate their application through texas benefits if they find themselves without education and just scared that they can't support the child we help them with a border workplace workforce we can help them with their ged classes we can help them with esl classes we can help them with resume workshops we can help them with computer labs dress for success and we also are wanting to support and to provide emergency shelter if they find themselves homeless and without any shelter we want to be there again we want to walk the journey with the girls and if you do pass this please allow your your pro-life people to be part of this and to help the girls at risk and the ones that do find themselves with unplanned pregnancies thank you so much and may god bless you the next speaker is daniel flores daniel flores followed by joseph grant williams brenda garcia valerie bauer sochi rodriguez good morning mr flores you have three minutes hello good morning everybody my name is daniel flores and i am the president of the diocesan pastoral council and also the president of the bi-national pro family pro-life league thank you for having me here i hope you and your families are doing well on behalf of the catholic diocese of el paso and the bi-national league i would like to express our concern on the proposed item number 13 for the today's council agenda this proposal to establish a city of el paso women's commission and or board focus on a women's equality and protecting their rights is very concerning because very often this type of vocabulary is used to promote a perspective that neither supports women nor their onboard children it proposes what is described as an exercise of choice for women when it in truth the abortion-minded women to whom we have spoken feel free as though they have no choice but to abort their child because they do not feel as as though they are receiving any support if the city would like to be involved in truly helping women we would give the means by which they could receive the assistance they need to receive medical care that serves both mother and baby financial support with their expenses adoption services if they do not feel ready at this stage in their lives to raise a child that could also assist the thousands of childless couples who are unable to have a child and to provide a loving supported supporting community one example is to support centers such as guiding star or the west side crisis pregnancy that have been working for years in this community to help women on pregnancy crisis and providing true health care services we do hope that our council does not allow the political climate of the moment to lead them to do something that will only exacerbate the polarization in our community thank you very much and god bless you the next speaker is the next speaker is joseph grant williams followed by brianda garcia valerie bowers social rodriguez rebecca vazquez kenneth bell good morning mr williams you have three minutes good morning my name is pastor joe williams i know a lot of you guys i get to pray when we dedicate things and i was a little bit hesitant about coming because i don't want you guys to be mad at me all right but guess what i have to stand up for what i believe is right all right and i i respect your right the the people who are proposing this i i understand i was born and raised here my family grew up here went to eastwood high school had three great children four grandchildren and all that and i understand i am assuming that uh mr rivera and the rest of you that you're good people and that you mean well and that you're you're doing this because you really want to help women but what i believe is that i want to get you on our side because i don't think that you've thought it through completely right and the people here i want to assume the best of you you know our our church we've helped poor people our for 22 years we have a cps room that helps foster children we have we help ladies off the street who've been abused we have countless ministries to the community but yet i'm pro-life let me ask you a question does that make me a hypocrite does that make me a misogynist does that mean that i'm a racist or a bigot or i don't love women because i believe that a baby is separate and that's separate from the right of abortion of course it doesn't okay but i'm sorry we need to maintain decorum so yeah this is an example i i she is right this is my belief and i don't represent her you're right okay okay [Applause] and and i i appreciate that i was watching one of the young ladies outside who was weeping and was on the other side who wants to have the commission i love that woman all right and we want to help but yet we have a profound difference and i would expect that i'd have a little more time because of the interruption please okay okay thank you um what i'm hoping that here in el paso will be different than other cities we're not going to be attacking churches we're not going to be attacking the abortion clinics we go out and we pray and we pray that they would change we pray that the the babies would be saved but i i don't want to be accusing uh henry of anything and i don't want to accuse the other people but what i'd like you to do is think about this for a moment okay if you are for abortion all right and that's what this really comes down to and i know you might want to say i'm not but that's that's what this is really about then is it at 15 weeks okay is it at nine months eight months those are things that we haven't thought out it's not for this forum or this purview to be able to do this correct so here's what i'm suggesting i'm suggesting that we we do away with it because it's really not our business to do that and and let the community decide itself all right everybody that's on our side has said that but if you do decide to do that thank you mr williams well i i i gotta get a little more time no i'm sorry thank you sir they interrupted so we're gonna thank you thank you mayor thank you thank you give me just a few more seconds all right no sir everybody was three minutes and uh even when they interrupted you just said i could no thank you sir for your time thank you for being here we let you actually go 15. okay i'm sorry thank you thank you thank you the next speaker is brianda garcia followed by valerie bowers social rodriguez rebecca vazquez kenneth bell yvonne inohosa go ahead ms miss ms check happy birthday [Music] i'm sorry to interrupt but i cannot stay i have a lady in the car i'll give you three minutes in a little bit meshech if you can please wait i don't want her to get the ticket i know thank you meshech this is michele can you wait a happy birthday i i know i thank you for calling on my birthday but can we wait for your turn please i appreciate you thank you we need to move on to miss garcia please she's the next speaker in line thank you mischie miss garcia go ahead ma'am you have thank you for being here miss scheck we'll talk to you in a second buenos dias [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] not request an interpreter this morning but to those that don't speak spanish she was against item number 13. we'll go ahead with miss valerie bowers followed by sochi rodriguez rebecca vazquez kenneth bell ivani nojosa go ahead miss bowers you have three minutes good morning city council um i find it providential that we're here on the day celebrating mary lisa's life and mother's day in mexico um i'm a labor doula by profession so i educate women on their uh impending birth and i assist them in their birth and well aware of what a birth looks like and and all the all the nerves that kind of go along with with preparing for something like that i'm here in opposition of item 13. i believe it should be stricken as it is illegal and outside of the purview of the city council and i also add that if it were to be approved i ask that the voices of pro-life pro-woman pro-family members of this community would be represented in the goals of the commission just as has been stated before that women be encouraged and empowered to trust their bodies and to trust their instincts which is part of what i educate women on what to do because we are phenomenal creatures and creations women need complete access to good health care to be educated in a way that enables them to make decisions that are not based in fear or in doubt and to have resources available that would make a new life something that they can say yes to and we do have those resources in place in el paso why not direct our support more towards those those uh organizations that already exist we have pregnancy centers we have education programs that can be expanded when i was young i was asked to give a friend a ride to a doctor's appointment i was in my early twenties in chicago and i stayed outside the building it was a it was a high-rise building and um she came up she called me about an hour later uh somebody actually a nurse came out and asked me to walk her out to the car i had no idea what i was doing there i just it was taking her to a doctor's appointment i needed to walk her out and to give her a ride home i put the dots together or connected the dots later in life and realized that she probably had a an abortion and i was part of that um at the time i don't know what if i would have said yes or no about seven years later i had another friend ask me to give her a ride she told me what it was for and i apologized and told her i could not be part of it and i offered to give her help in other ways then we prayed together and did all kinds of things anyhow after that she decided to go for the abortion and she was haunted by it uh months and months later and called me telling me about the dreams she had about the baby that she could have had but what they both had in common was that they were afraid they were afraid that they didn't have the support that they needed and if we were to give them that support it could really change things for for mothers and for children i was born and raised here i returned from new jersey i moved there and brought my husband and children back with me i am so proud of el paso and i reject the idea that our el paso strong community is going to be defined by a willingness to find to deny life to the most vulnerable and i've heard the phrase sanctuary city for abortion used regarding this commission sanctuary is sorry thank you the next speaker sanctuary means holy place holy place the next speaker is social rodriguez followed by rebecca vazquez kenneth bell ivany nojosa blanca cebusa go ahead ms rodriguez you have three minutes good morning my name is sochi rodriguez and i am the development officer for planned parenthood of greater texas in the paso region we're grateful for the leadership of those on council who support this initiative especially at a time when we are collectively considering what it means if a key constitutional right is overturned for women overturned for women in the u.s safe legal and private access to abortion is a right planned parenthood believes that passing positive and proactive policies and legislation for women's health care and economic security is critical now more than ever i'd like to share some data with you citing the cdc and the texas campaign to prevent teen pregnancy in 2019 pre-kovid the number of live births per 1000 females aged 15 to 19 determined that the teen birth rate in the u.s was 17.4 in texas 25.3 in el paso 33.14 double the national rate a baby was born to a teen mom in el paso every seven hours and 18 percent of teen births in el paso county were repeat births with thanks to our incredible colleagues at the ywca mentioned by alison glass earlier we know that as a fact women in el paso face hurdles and disparity that unfold at an intersection of educational attainment economic mobility and access to essential health care including family planning and essential health care including abortion abortion is in fact health care and the choice to have a safe and private abortion is a fundamental human right an unintended pregnancy especially before women receive their high school diploma in a state that does not offer science-based sex ed or affordable family planning can derail a woman's chance to pursue higher education and a career her chance for economic mobility and of course essential control of her own future initiatives by the city council to alleviate all inequalities can only be beneficial in 2018 planned parenthood returned to el paso to bring affordable accessible health care services including breast cancer and cervical screenings hiv tests testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections birth control including long-acting iuds and implants and safe legal abortion services we're currently offering abortion services in texas as legally allowed under sbi planned parenthood supports and affirms the right to decide when to have a child and the right to access complete health care including birth control and abortion we support and affirm the right for a person to access support and health care to carry a healthy pregnancy to term should they choose to for too long too many women in our community have not had access to competent compassionate affordable or accessible health care a commission that will help alleviate the inequalities that affect women and their futures we support council's vote in favor of directing the city manager to work with the council to create a commission to protect women's rights and equality thank you so much the next speaker is rebecca vazquez followed by kenneth bell ivani nojosa blanca cebusa emma costa good morning miss vasquez you have three minutes hi good morning my name is rebecca and i'm here today to speak up against item 13. although the summary does state that it intends to protect all women's rights and is focused on women's equality the decision to appoint a committee is really only being driven by the fact that the supreme court is intending to overturn roe versus wade so this women's commission that is being formed to supposedly protect women's rights is deceiving and biased to only one thing and that is abortion as a young woman i am very offended and angry that our leaders continue to believe that providing my that protecting my right to having an abortion is women's rights and women's equality for one access to abortion has removed the responsibility of men in our country another truth is that abortion hides itself as a right to make a decision of our bodies and disguises itself as a form of empowerment but the reality is that it does the opposite abortion suppresses the natural ability that women have which is to give life this committee that you're wanting to form is you telling us women that we cannot be a mother and still succeed you are saying that as a woman if i find myself pregnant that abortion is my best option and that me being pregnant is the issue rather than changing our culture to accommodate women that are pregnant if this committee if this committee is to really protect our rights and represent the women of this community then instead of fighting for us to have abortions why are we not making schools are work environments and even universities friendly for expecting moms why is our city not working to making safe living conditions for pregnant women why are you not providing the resources they need to sustain a child or a family why are you not empowering women in their journey of motherhood by catering to their needs your goal stated and i read it online that it is to nurture and promote a healthy sustainable community while abortion does the complete opposite of that and like i said before abortion suppresses the natural ability that we have were given by god to bring life into this world that not a man could do and so that right was given to us and so abortion suppresses that so i really suggest that if you are going to do this and create this committee to either revise what you are doing or completely remove it thank you for your time the next speaker the next speaker is kenneth bell kenneth bell if you're in the q star six kenneth bell if you're in the q star six to unmute your telephone hello can you hear me yes mr bell go ahead you have three minutes thank you uh everyone who's present my name is kenneth bell i am a board member with justicia fronteriza and i'm here to call in favor of item 13. yes we do need a women's committee to self to ensure that women in the society are being treated fairly that their rights are being um protected and codified into law because quite frankly it's 2022 and women are still being treated unfairly in the workplace they're being paid lower wages they're expected to not only provide financially for their households but also take the brunt of you know caring for the household as well in it and uh this there's no work-life balance but that's that's not the the issue with the city the issue is that again we do need uh to support women's rights and a lot of people here are you know trying to make this as a religious issue and making it about abortion but here's here's the reality all right abortion is women's health care right unequivocally period full stop now if people out here um don't support religion don't support abortion because of their own personal religious beliefs that's their business but they do not have the right to impose their own religious beliefs on other people if you don't want abortion don't get one but don't stand in the way of someone else getting abortion full stop and i would hope that this uh women's committee also honors the women of durrangito who are standing up and supporting their communities uh the numerous women over the centuries in the south side of el paso who have fought will fall for their rights well for civil rights for human rights and i also hope that this council all this women's committee also includes trans women because trans women are women and their their rights are also equally important so yes i am in favor of item 13 and thank you for bringing this agenda item forward and i hope you all passed this unanimously thank you the next speaker is ivani nojosa followed by blanca sabusa emma costa is julie mendoza good morning jose you have three minutes good morning hello and thank you for your listening years i am ivani nojosa and i am against item 13 because it is outside of city responsibilities and should be removed from the agenda if the city proceeds with creating a woman's rights commission then i want to make sure my views are represented because as a woman i see my body specially made the woman's body is so specially made we need to take care of it as a child i did not know my body as well as i should have it is just now that at an older age where i have learned about my body and how it functions and what is intoxicating to it and what is good for it nowadays we have the sources we can go to to learn how to take care of our bodies how to love them and embrace them in the right way in the natural wholesome way a human body is such a precious wonderfully made substance where beautiful cells are put together in our mother's wombs and become one miraculous mysterious awesome cell a woman me a woman needs to understand this for our mental and physical well-being thank you very much the next speaker [Applause] is julie mendoza blanca sabusa thank you the next speaker is mesema costa mesa costa star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning mr costa you have three minutes okay can you hear me now yes ma'am thank you so much good morning mayor and council i am emma acosta former city representative and current chair of aside democrats as el paso and i am calling in today because i am in support of creating a women's rights commission not only am i in support but the whole eastside democrat membership is in support during a regular meeting of the east side democrats of el paso held monday may 9th a motion was made and approved by the members to send the mayor and council a litter in support of creation of a women's rights commission we believe that women should have the right to choose what is best for their bodies and for their lives all women regardless of income nationality or race should have the ability to seek the best health care for the reproductive decisions this commission should enable women to seek the resources needed to make the correct and most appropriate decision regarding reproductive concerns affecting their bodies the creation of this commission should not only focus on a woman's right to pro-choice but a woman's right to all types of health care including reproductive mental menopause breast cancer and other cancers heart disease and so many other health concerns affecting women whether they have any access to insurance or not women's rights are human rights including the right to live free from violence and discrimination free from harassment in the workplace schools and everyday lives to enjoy the highness attainable standard of physical and mental health to be educated to own property to vote and to earn an equal wage the commission's mission should be focused on the rights of women with the following purposes one assist women with access to health care especially in reproductive health care two address which inequity and employment issues three identify and address safety and security issues across communities and industries four develop community-based programs to enhance the quality of life for women in el paso five assist women and women's organizations in taking full advantage of federal state and local funding opportunities six identify areas in which gathering information through further study would benefit women in el paso seven establish recognize support and publicize a community-wide geographically dispersed network system for meetings of women open to all women without cause for attendance or participation the members of the eastside democrats are possible implore that you mayor and council make the correct decision to create the women's rights commission it is time to recognize that women are important in this community and that women have an equal voice on all matters concerning their health the reproductive issues and their lives with that i closed thank you so much for listening to me this morning thank you the next speaker is isella castanon williams followed by julie mendoza gwyneth conrad edward garcia good morning miss williams you have three minutes good morning everyone my name is isela cassinion-williams i strongly believe that women have rights fifth over 50 percent of the population in this community is composed of women however we do not have services for women because we simply do not and have not had the opportunity to look into those issues that affect women in this community previous speakers have talked about why we do not have support for women we don't have support for women in in their jobs in education because there has not been a focus there has not been a way for the city council to identify and to pursue decisions to provide the quality of life that all el pasoans deserve women need to be supported and it does not have to do with abortion i think to focus on that issue is a very narrow narrow issue that is only one of many issues that needs to be addressed i will give you some examples in texas we have a very large number of women who are poor and of color who die of complications after giving birth we need to look to see how does el paso rank in texas in that respect because in this community we have many poor women and women of color who are giving birth on a daily basis secondly this is another example women like myself who are breast cancer survivors and who have to have a mastectomy and who need to have a breast prosthesis to move forward with their lives can no longer get a prosthesis in this community this is an issue that the city council should be looking into to provide that kind of support for those women like myself we must make a very expensive trip out of town for more than one trip to get fitted and to receive the prosthesis we deserve these are only a couple of of examples this city council needs to be able to make intelligent decisions women deserve to have the intentionality that is the focus to have the kinds of decisions that will enable us to have good jobs good education a women's rights commission will provide that focus that venue for u.s city council members to receive accurate information to incorporate in your decisions to improve our lives thank you the next speaker is julie mendoza followed by gwyneth conrad edward garcia good morning ms mendoza you have three minutes good morning my name is julie mendoza and i'm here to say that i am against item 13 because it is outside of city responsibilities and should be removed from the agenda if the city proceeds with creating a woman's right commission then i want to make sure my views are represented because as a woman i believe motherhood should be encouraged and supported as well i am deeply insulted by you henry rivera and peter scarben and tired of pro-choice men telling women what to do with their bodies by expecting women to suppress destroy the normal healthy functions of our natural bodies and life cycles to conform to patriarchal norms men sexual demands and men's lack of responsibility i am disappointed by you congresswoman cassandra hernandez and alexandra annello that as fellow woman this is the best you expect from us women deserve better than abortion and the trauma that follows after women can embrace motherhood and be successful my mother is a testimony of this coming to el paso from mexico as a young woman she worked as a full-time waitress while attending new mexico state university all while raising and caring for baby girls with the support of my father and motivation coming from her children she has graduated and is now an amazing teacher i am proud to say that i was raised by a resilient woman that embraced life when she had all the odds against her i demand that we focus on shifting the expectation to employers universities and the city to confirm to women by actually addressing the needs of women like fair wages paid maternity leave support for student moms and more these have been ignored for 50 years because of roe that women have not had a fair choice between suffering the trauma of abortion and rejecting motherhood versus confirming to male norms to be successful item 13 degrades el paso's quality of life thank the you speaker is gwyneth conrad good morning miss conrad you have three minutes good morning mayor and council thank you so much for the ones that have stayed to listen patiently i'm requesting that item 13 be removed from the agenda because i'm told the background section of it makes it clear that this item is actually about protecting abortion i'm also told that it's illegal to be on the agenda because it's outside the scope of the city council if item 13 remains and is approved we we the pro-life community request representation to provide life-sustaining options that support the rights and health of both the mother and the unborn child not many people know that i regrettably contributed to this statistic of more than 60 million babies being aborted since roe v wade was incorrectly decided in 1973 but as a 16 year old facing an unplanned pregnancy in northern virginia in 1979 i went to a planned parenthood clinic they did not discuss or encourage parenthood as their name suggested and did not offer an ultrasound to show a heartbeat or any other life-giving choices i was pushed to abort even though i had reached five months before receiving the saline procedure that burned and killed my baby and caused me to deliver a scalded and blackened baby girl i thought to bring pictures of a healthy five-month-old baby in a uterus and a black burned aborted baby but i feared copyright accusations anyway um back to this story two years later i found myself pregnant again with a hardened conscience and knowing what to do that boyfriend's family sent me money so i could take care of it so that their son could head to college and move forward with his life i went alone to a clinic and had them perform a suction type abort abortion because i did not suffer complications as many girls do i went home took a nap and then went to work in that afternoon talk about a hardened conscience hard i suffered mental and unemotional distress from these two great losses for almost 10 years until i learned that i could be forgiven of my sin that i now know is murder i receive jesus as my savior and i'm extremely grateful for my salvation much later in life i had the privilege of adopting three teenagers and i'm very grateful that their mother gave birth to them back to the point of women's rights my aborted babies at least one known to be a girl were human beings who had a right to life and liberty as guaranteed by the constitution at least one if not both was a girl who had a right to grow up and become a woman with the same rights i should have been encouraged to save that woman's life instead of aborting it so i greatly appreciate all the pro-life advocates and organizations please remove i item 13 from the agenda and do not protect abortion in el paso thank you and god bless america the next speaker is edward garcia edward garcia will be followed by el paso young democrats james pagnado alexis zubia oprah laser whaling good morning good morning city council members my name is edward garcia u.s veteran i have four girls five boys seven on earth two in heaven one of those in heaven i spiritually adopted my wife's aborted baby i wasn't with her when she was 18 but i claim him and um as a man that's what we need to teach men how to claim our children we also had a a retreat called rachel's vineyard for post-abortion 65 million abortions in the u.s there's a lot of healing to be to be done doesn't fill up that much because what the response is women are living in shame and regret it's good at the moment but then it's a lifelong decision that you carry i'm also a counselor male mentor at a pregnancy center that believes women deserve better holistic care rather than alternative of having experienced and live with the trauma of an abortion women that choose life they experience a lifelong commitment and women that choose abortion they also experience a lifelong commitment women deserve a community that will choose them accept them and journey with them when they need us the most during an unplanned pregnancy in combination with a complicated situation women deserve a pro-abundant life through countless of testimonies from clients and retreating we see the pain and regret of all those who have chosen to abort these individuals felt like they had no choice through the pressures of our society that are telling them what to do but not willing to encourage and support the options and possibilities of keeping their child or placing for adoption we do and we walk with every person who chooses life or the person that does not choose life and of course if they choose to let us be part of their journey we assist them with the financial materials spiritual emotional social and mental health needs and support through our educational programs and other services the greatest joy is when a client comes back to surprise us and show us their baby with tears in their eyes saying you were right i could do this you encouraged me and i and you supported me thank you our heart also fills with love when women and other family members seek post-abortion healing and support the journey of healing begins if you know of anyone there is help lastly i mentor men who have lost their way or have never had a father guidance of how to love someone else unconditionally through today's culture pornography easy access to abortion birth control some men are objectifying women and engaging in relationships with conditions abortion is being used as birth control our men are not learning self-control not learning how to honor women and not learning how to set aside their own selfish desires no greater love exists but to lay down one's own life for the other i'm against item 13. thank you the next speaker is el paso young democrats followed by james panado alexis zubia oprah laser whalen and morgan lilly the statement from el paso young democrats reads dear members of council and mayor lisa as many of you are well aware last week there was a leak of a supreme court draft opinion that targets the opinion of roe v wade and women's rights at their very core this draft opinion and the attack on roe v wade is yet another example of the continued oppression that women have to survive every day now more than ever el paso needs to lead the way in being a safe equal and equitable place for women to live in we can do that by passing item number 13 and creating a women's commission at the city level here in el paso we are fortunate to have a female majority on the council a strong fronterisa representing us in congress and now more than ever women are taking the opportunity to run for office here in el paso we can lead the way by ensuring this commission passes so that we can eliminate the pay gap fight for affordable housing and health care for women invest in women in our community and support women's rights to have a more just and equal community while members on the republican side of the isle are attacking a women's right to choose we want to be abundantly clear that the purpose of this commission is to empower women our organization is and its 300 plus members are proud to stand up for women's right and we hope you will too lastly we would like to thank city representatives rivera anello schwarzwein and hernandez for doing the right thing and for standing up for women's rights we urge the rest of council to do the same and vote yes on item 13. the next speaker is james painado mr penado if you're in the queue star six james pinado followed by alexis zubia oprah laser whalen and morgan lilly mr penado if you're in the q star six i don't see mr penado's phone number we'll move to alexis zubia followed by oprah laser whelan good morning miss subia you have three minutes good morning thank you good morning well good afternoon thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak my name is alexis and i work very closely with pregnant women and families so i'm against item 13 because it's outside of city responsibilities and should be removed from the agenda if the city proceeds with creating a women's rights commission then i want to make sure that the reality of abortion and all of its detrimental effects are brought to light as well as have representation from life-affirming alternatives so as a woman in the field of science and medicine it's critical that we acknowledge the damage of abortion to the women's and really anybody who's affected by abortion such as the father or family and friends the damage it does to the mental physical emotional and spiritual well-being of that woman with advancing technology we're obligated to share the information with women withholding such information is unethical and essentially would nullify consent and i say that because so many women that i've spoken to as a counselor at this pregnancy center has given the opportunity has given me the opportunity to see the regret if they had only known that that was their baby not just a clump of cells so with this advancing technology it's imperative that we do educate women and they have all of the knowledge that they need um i can't tell you how many women have have regretted their decision and you've heard some of them speak in this room today so um as a woman i feel that's important and that's truly uh protecting our rights and and equality and so with again with advancing technology roe was decided when when we didn't have as much technology so now that we do we need to make sure that women are aware so new nicu advancements have moved viability to as early as 21 weeks c-sections are faster and safer to help women in life-threatening situations so with all this medical advancement it's time that we update the law of the land to match we we deserve better than abortion abortion is not health care abortion is not health care at all it it damages the woman and it damages the family so um anything going against a natural natural process no matter how much your mind doesn't agree your body already knows so we just good good ethics is good medicine so women women deserve better than abortion thank you the next speaker is oprah laser whalen followed by ann morgan lilly lisa bellamowick paul hop harriet schneider miss waylon if you're in the q star six please you'll have three minutes thank you representatives for proposing this commission and all of you for being here today i'm a reproductive health researcher and we see that existing policies and these new policies and potential for even more harmful policies disproportionately and negatively affect low income people of color because of access issue issues which is absolutely a city issue and these people facing these issues are full human beings who deserve access to control their fertility yet people want to focus on a fetus that can be seen as pure and innocent and vilify those who are actual full human beings who deserve respect and not have others impose their views religious or otherwise even with quoting hand-picked stats or junk science about regret and depression you know people imposing these views on other people who deserve the respect to make their own decisions why this is an issue for city council is because this is an issue of democracy as a country we talk about democracy and liberty but when access is differential and the right of women or other people to decide their bodily autonomy is at issue then our whole crux of democracy is at issue and you representatives are supposed to uphold our democracy and you graciously decided to serve our community which is full of low-income people of color who need access to contraception and other services and so a commission that addresses these issues is absolutely necessary so thank you very much for your proposal the next speaker is anne morgan lilly followed by lisa bellamowick paul hall harriet snyder lisa turner elliott hess miss lilly appear in the q star six please to unmute your telephone and morgan lilly or lisa bilmowick if either of you are in the q star six i don't see miss lilly's phone number or mrs bielamoic's phone number in the queue we'll move to a statement submitted by paul hulk which reads as i peruse this week's city council agenda i notice agenda item 13 that i find extremely important and feel compelled to speak on the supreme court is as i fear going to strip women's rights to govern their own bodies by overturning roe v wade decision this decision if passed by the court will reverse nearly 50 years of constitutional protection for abortion and let the states set their own restrictions on the procedure if the draft reflects the final decision of the court exp expect all expletive to break loose in the states it would virtually eliminate abortion access in texas when women will have no say in the matter the item is intended to protect all women's rights including but not limited to the right to make a decision about their bodies it will be far-reaching and actually lead into the demise of other rights of which women have gained for themselves over the past 50 years help put a stop to this action now in texas this will only open the door to other issues which will affect men and women if roe v wade is overturned by the courts thank you paul hope the next speaker is harriet schneider followed by lisa turner elliot hess miss schneider star six please you'll have three minutes good afternoon i'm not going to speak at length others have spoken very eloquently on this issue i just want to bring up one point that i don't think anyone has mentioned and that is pregnancy is preventable by a number of methods and so it's not like a disease that comes over someone that they have no control over and it is a leading cause of death worldwide and in our country and if we're surprised by the violence the random violence that we're seeing among young people against other people why would they not when human life is so devalued if a baby in the womb is not safe and people consider it not to be a human being then why would any other person be considered a human being we've lost any sense of what it means to be a human being thank you for your attention the next speaker is lisa turner lisa turner followed by elliot hess diana sochi luran debbie torres good afternoon miss turner good afternoon mayor council i don't know what fools told these people that you all can't consider this but they're wrong you all can talk about anything you want there's a lot of people who don't even bother to understand government they have no idea about government they talk about the concept oh there's no right to an abortion i will agree it's not written in the constitution neither is the right for any of you straight folks to get married it's not in the constitution there is no right to travel there is no guarant right to be treated innocent until proven guilty there's no right to a jury of your peers there's quite a few things in there that we all take for granted as our rights but they're not written down now i would wish that these religious leaders who probably mobilized all these people would turn that effort to the children who go hungry every single day in this city and they sit around and do nothing they're interested in their power their position and the trappings that come with being quote the religious leader where are you all why are children hungry in this city i want to know i know there's a couple here please meet me after this they say it's not health care i'm old enough to remember coat hangers that's how a woman would get an abortion then go to some back alley somebody who would do it and there were coat hangers involved among other things and their chance of living was that we're talking about women's rights i mean we don't get paid fairly for doing an equal job we're looked as the idiots i have blonde hair i have blonde hair and i'm all i'm considered a bimbo and easy and ignorant i'm the smartest person in the room i've got an iq in the 150 160 range okay there's not anything that i can't do i can't read minds like some of these people can i'm sorry that's just one skill i have yet to master but it's like this etopic pregnancy what's the cure abortion a miscarriage that doesn't leave the body what's the cure abortion otherwise just give the woman a glass of wine because she's about to die the fact of the matter is we have so many issues as women they need to be addressed and that's what this commission will do thank you mr turner the rest of these people just want to keep us as brief elliot hess followed by deanna sochi lurang debbie torres pierre elliot hess elliot hess diana sochi luran if you're in the queue star six please ms duran star six two and mutual telephone diana sochi duran go ahead mom you have three minutes go ahead ms duran you've unmuted your telephone however we can't hear you diana sochi luran go ahead i believe miss duran is having technical difficulties we'll move to miss debitores followed by pierre natalia monares teresachavira andy discareno good morning mistoris you have three minutes thank you good morning mayor lisa and city council representatives my name is debbie torres and i'm here to speak against item 13. when it's said that the one of the goals of this item is to protect women's rights what rights are we talking about beyond a woman's quote unquote right to tear apart and dismember her baby in her womb practicing retroactive birth control and sacrificing her child's life on the altar of convenience whose rights are we talking about on april 26th the san diego board of supervisors voted three to two to implement a new ordinance that changes the definition of women and girls to include men and boys the final hearing will be today it will mandate males who who self-identify as women must be allowed full access to girls and women's sports girls locker rooms women's prisons and domestic violence shelters will the rights of biological males be protected by this proposed women's commission will you protect the quote-unquote rights of little girls and women who as they are trafficked across our borders are sold into slavery and subjected to the horrors of multiple rapes and trauma daily what other women's rights need a women's commission in order to be protected let me share with you what the word of god says psalm 139 says for you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful i know that full well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in the secret place when i was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be in jeremiah 1 5 god says before i formed you in the room i knew you before you were born i set you apart i appointed you as a prophet to the nations these and other verses are distinctively clear there is no bible verse saying an embryo becomes a living soul only in the second or third trimester does using the greek word fetus which means unborn baby make having an abortion more palatable does it sound like some blob that you can dispose of without worrying about your conscience abortion kills a human life the sixth commandment is clear thou shalt not kill kill please do not support amendment 13. and for the record representative hernandez has just joined the meeting virtually we move on with fennel pierre natalia monares teresa vida and escarino pride uh fino sent an email saying that he couldn't stay anymore okay thank you mrs the next person is natalia monares if you're in the queue star six to meet your telephone nuts i don't see ms monadas's phone number in the queue followed by andy tiscardini good afternoon ms javida you have three minutes good afternoon um it's a pleasure to be here in front of council mayor um the community i want to i'm work for the center against um family violence and sexual assault um i want to give you some statistics these are factual information it's not an opinion this is what is happening in our city currently we have approximately 100 women and children who are at in a shelter for domestic violence who are victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse domestic violence is still the number one call for the police department regarding calls for service which i see as a safety concern domestic violence includes physical financial emotional psychological abuse also this can include um denial to health care and reproductive care physical abuse also includes sexual assault the center against sexual and family violence responded to almost 300 sexual assault calls of women in el paso just last year that's in a 12-month period statistics show that one in five girls will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime victims of sexual assault and domestic violence lack proper legal service health care mental health services but most importantly victims of sexual and domestic violence lack support from their family their community and the criminal justice system victims of sexual assault and domestic violence suffer a lifetime of trauma and ptsd in texas a woman cannot dissolve a marriage if she is pregnant she can file for a divorce but the resolution of the divorce cannot be resolved until the birthing of the child tying her sometimes to her abuser both financially dependent psychologically and emotionally some of the other information that i wanted to give you was that between september and december of just this past year we had 27 victims of sexual assault between the ages of 13 and 17. 27 and a four-month period ages 13 and 17 they are not women they are girls we also had 12 girls and i say babies between the ages of zero and six years old and those are the statistics here in el paso thank you for your time the next speaker is andy piscarino [Applause] and this is the final speaker hello afternoon you have three minutes thank you for allowing me to speak today i'm speaking in support of agenda item number 13. the importance of developing a women's commission representing the rights and the right to equality all women deserve is monumental women's rights have always been a fight that has never fully finalized or ended to be able to have a committee that would be best that would best represent women preferably by women about women would accept would exercise our rights as women to continue to have to continue to fight for our rights that are continuously threatened and put up for debate as a transgender woman i work with the borderline rainbow center as the youth services coordinator and volunteer coordinator and i know a little bit about the threats of of my rights being taken away and the debate of whether i deserve to have the right to decide what to do with my body while this item is meant to create a way to best represent and protect the rights and equality of women the topic of abortion and pro-life is still dragged into the forefront women are are continuously demonized and belittled when it comes to abortion yet these cl these claims that a woman is responsible for the life she may create in her womb comes from a high place of privilege people who have the privilege of access to health care people that have the privilege to be able to afford to add another child to their family many cannot afford these privileges adoption health care education access to safe sex education and materials continue to be restricted the ability to earn money and maintain a job remains a privilege because all of this continues to be restricted and restricted from the reach of anyone who cannot have a child cannot afford to have a child or is forced to create a child from rape incest or a violation of their body yet these ideas seem to slip people's minds when entertaining the the debate on whether or not women have the right to bodily autonomy until affordable access to medic medical care child care support full access to adoption rights full support for parentless children and the children that flood the foster system that are waiting for a parent but can't because their the parents who may want them are gay trans or not christian is available is until it is available and protected until then no one should ever be forced to keep maintain and birth a pregnancy they cannot have and forced to and forced to to do with their body that they choose not to i speak i speak in in support of this of this agenda item to draw attention that this is about women's rights this is about women's equality and this is about the fight that has still not ended for women to be able to have the to at the right and equality to be human and not have their rights taken away thank you [Applause] council that concludes public comment on this item thank you very much um representative thank you mayor okay and i want to thank everyone who took the time to be here in person or call in to speak on this important issue and thank and thank you for my colleagues who uh supported this item to create a women's right commission under the city el paso as we heard women have fought for generations to defend their rights this commission is long overdue and will give women in el paso a unified i'm sorry i will give women in el paso a unified voice to address health care issues economic disparities and advanced equality and equity from women unlike what was expressed today that is the target of the creation of the women's rights commission with more than 50 percent of our population in el paso being made up of women this commission is long overdue cities such as san antonio austin and houston have a women's commission in place to address women's issue and empower them as they should be i i find it uh refreshing to know that there everybody has the voice in this and and they're they express them to their best but uh i believe that this women's rights commission women's rights commission is needed here in el paso and that is what was my cause for placing this item on the agenda as we heard we need women women have said they need quality quality and pay quality jobs and quality health care therefore i make a motion to prove that the city el paso direct city manager and city attorney to work with the city council to create a women's rights commission and present the council with the city council meeting with for the scheduled meeting held on january june 7th 2022 and that board be comprised of women across the community everyone not a selective uh group but everyone included i make that motion second thank you representative thank you mayor representative rodriguez thank you and thank you again to everybody that was here there was so much passion i appreciate everybody's story everybody's testimony and i do want to make clear that i believe the reason why there was so much confusion on this item is because i am reading the background on it and i see nothing on here that says women's equality equal pay anything of that nature it just talks about roe v wade so if you all are wondering why there is so many pro-life people here that is why and so i personally believe and miss neiman are you ready for some questions for me um is this issue right here or is this bored the creation of this board illegal or legal or illegal for the city council to to make as as worded as you just stated it it talks about the roe v wade decision we still don't have a final decision from the united states supreme court under texas law texas law states that cities can make abortion regulation that is stricter than state law but not less restrictive so there's some area that the city could regulate but only to make it more restrictive than it currently is not less restricted so in terms of legality until we have a decision from the texas the united states supreme court you could only make it more restrictive in the city limits not less thank you so with that i feel that it is not within our purview to be making this type of recommendation for a board so i would actually like to make a motion to delete this item second second mrs perm we have a motion and a second to delete the item yes mayor point of order point of order um point of order we we have a number of people have signed up to speak from the city council respect they're willing to remove the second and then we can continue the conversation are you willing to remove your second tell god no i do not wish to remove now miss neiman can i allow council even though because i know we go by robert's rules of orders can i allow a conversation or does it say we have to take a vote laura what is our tradition the council can continue discussion but they can only discuss the deletion of the item i didn't hear your apologies council would only be able to discuss or deliberate the deletion of the item not the item itself sponsored so the open question mayor what miss prime is stating is that the the question on the floor is the deletion of the item all right so let's take the vote in this coin okay um i think that we all want to speak and i know that she mentioned that we can have discussion if it's deleted right so we can have a conversation i agree with you and that's why i asked for the removal of the second no but we can have a discussion the discussion will be limited to the deletion deletion of the item we'll discuss the deletion of the item okay point of word doesn't like this isn't my goal sponsors also have uh opportunity to speak emotion on the floor is to delete and so the discussion at this point is limited to the deletion only the deletion not the item itself and that's why we'll take the vote and then we'll continue with the discussion so ms pryon take the vote please so mayor i would respectfully i would like to speak about talking about the deletion of the item i'd like to speak go ahead for the deletion of the item i will take uh i will take representative salcido okay well this is go ahead representative pro tem thank you mayor um and i want to thank everybody who came out to speak here um first of all i would like to again respectfully ask my colleagues to remove the second for this deletion so that we can have a robust conversation about this item the reason why i feel that we shouldn't be deleting this item at this point in fact having a civil conversation about it is the exact reason why we'd want to have a women's commission established to be able to have a diverse to be able to have a diverse view of opinions both from a variety of perspectives that would be appointed by each individual council member here to create a women's commission focusing on women's rights issues of wage disparity issues of small business development for women are all issues that could be applied and could be taught and could be discussed in a women's commission to silence those voices to not allow people from a variety of perspectives represent rodriguez and myself may not agree on a variety of things but she can go and appoint who she pleases with whatever political persuasion she has to finalize that to delete this time when all of us could discuss this further about a composition of a board i think um goes against the the is quite frankly anti-democratic and goes against the spirit and values of this community as well as this board again and so i respectfully ask the members who have put this motion up for deletion to look at either removing it so we could continue conversation debate on this important commission for women thank you sir representative salcedo followed by representative vanello followed by representative um hernandez thank you mayor um and thank you for all the public speakers that spoke today i appreciate all the opinions and passion shared here today for the against for or against abortion i want to note the question before us is to establish a commission to focus on all women rights some rights that come to mind are to earn a fair and equal wage we need to stay on the question please and then i will get to that mirror after i'm done saying no no but you got you can't get all the way through and then get to it we are still at 83 cents for every dollar men make in 2020. rights to live free from violence slavery discrimination to be educated to own property to vote to own their own business to name a few celsius i'm going to ask you to please stay with the question of deletion only please she could she could men are 50 of citizens of el paso 50 of them are women and i think it's important to have a commission that focuses on all women rights and i have some questions for carla in regards to that um [Music] when this commission gets established can you explicitly uh specify that all voices are heard okay again we got to stay with the deletion ms neiman so the council has authority to create the commission and give it its subject matter just like any other boarding commission so you would set the parameters as to what the board could or couldn't do or what it would discuss or not discuss okay so i can't speak on behalf of all this counsel but i will ensure that my appointee brings a balanced approach to all subjects discussed so for that reason i will not support the demolition because i think that we have a commission to discuss all women rights not necessarily just one so that is why i wanted to talk about the deletion thank you thank you mayor thank you episode of anillo followed by representatives i apologize uh i'm just gonna speak right now uh on the deletion so um you know mrs nieman i'm a little concerned about your comments about what this commission does if you read the background and discussion um it does point out the leak that happened from the supreme court on may 2nd but the actual language from the backup says this item is intended to protect all women's rights including but not limited to the right to make a decision about their bodies okay so this item specifically says it is not just in response to the right to choose what you do with your body and so i think that i just want to be very clear that any misconception that we are asking for a commission that would violate state and federal law is untrue and inaccurate um and so that's why i will not be supporting the deletion um and then i will ask to speak again mayor thank you representative molinar i would ask i think it's important that we do allow council to voice your opinion if you would uh remove your uh second with the understanding that we make no other motion and we'll take your motion first okay mayor you are the uh charge of this commission or correction the city council so once again your word will we will not have any other motions by any other representative do we have an agreement we already have a motion to approve i know so they already have a motion so we'll take your motion so only in under under that set of circumstances because if not then uh thank you so much thank you so much prior to your words yes i'll you're withdrawing i'll read through all the second for that for the deletion thank you representative and with that we'll go back to everyone get back in line and i would um i am going to go back to representative salcido first just the way we ever got thrown out of the line here so i'll go back to you because i know you have a lot to ask and go through and i appreciate that so go ahead thank you mayor and i just wanted to reiterate um i think that it is important to establish a commission that addresses women's rights i did say that before i think one that is very important to me is fair and equal wage i said we are still the 83 cents for every dollar men made in 2020. um but i believe in all rights so i want to you know be able to address everything that does affect every woman i think that this committee will be able to do that um as council members we are able to appoint somebody so i would make sure that my appointee has a balanced approach to every item that is discussed here when i interview them and so that that you can assure from that you will receive from me so i think it's important and i am in support of assembling this committee thank you mayor thank you representatives so see the representative hernandez hi uh good morning everyone um or afternoon geez it's a long warning um thank you all for your comments today um and and thank you representative molinar for giving us the the opportunity to speak on the issue um so so all i want to say um because i know my my colleagues have eloquently stated these issues is that there's a reason why i call my my son who's here a miracle baby um there was a point and in my pregnancy where i didn't think it was viable and that's and that's a decision that i can make with my doctor it's my body to make that decision with my family and with my doctor it's not your decision it's not it's not the decision of one party in this country so when we have young women who are being raped then we have an obligation to protect them and when a country is divided on an issue it is up to local communities to rally and to advocate so that we can be the voice for the voiceless we have an opportunity today to allow women to speak up when they feel so marginalized and when they feel like their government is not protecting them this commission is more than just about abortion rights it's about making sure every woman understands their value in this country within local communities and is absolutely within our prerogative and within our parameters and authority to create this commission i just want to say that i'm supportive of this i thank you representative rivera and anello for putting this together um and i'm very proud to support this thank you representatives now we're going to go to represent saga thank you mayor i just want to thank everyone who took the time from their busy schedules to come out and address the city council i respect everyone's opinion and intentions and i'm grateful to our voter enacted municipal form of government that allows us to have this discussion um i think personally that we should just wait right now on this commission until the supreme court comes down with their decision so those are my thoughts right now thank you man thank you uh mayor potem followed by representative anillo thank you mayor um again i'd raised some of these points in relation to the deletion so i'll just explain it again um you know respectfully to our city attorney this woman's rights commission um is separate and apart from um any sort of declarations from the supreme court this is um specifically about why i'm supporting is creating a long overdue commission focusing on women's rights and women's issues within this community not limited to wage disparity towards issues of small business development towards the fact that 50 percent of our city if not more than that are women and they deserve to have the ability by a city county a city council appointed body to offer recommendations or suggestions about what are the issues and concerns that women face in our community there's very well that some of those members that are appointed by this body could talk about the issues of of um wanting to to honor uh wanting to honor the living or the unliving or whatever issues they have relating towards women and the issues that they have but that is up to this body to appoint representatives to that bot to that commission that they seem as appropriate again we have a veterans affairs committee that is a committee that is appointed by each and every one of us to talk about and to highlight issues challenges and opportunities relating to our veterans community for the time that i was there i appointed somebody who was the spouse of a veteran i felt it was important to have a female voice on that veterans affairs committee that could speak about the challenges issues and opportunity that affect veterans families so why would that be any different for women why would that be any different for women in this community to have a commission and have a voice to be able to go and offer ideas challenge solutions and concerns to their city council representatives and to this body this women's committee is precisely the kind of platform for women to discuss these issues in a in a in a rational reasonable and intelligent space where they can have these discussions they can have these debates about what are those issues relating to women in our community and i absolutely support this and i feel it's important to understand that the issue of what is going on in dc and some of the other conversations is separate than what is being proposed and being discussed for this women's committee and that's why i'll be supporting it today thank you again for everybody who had the chance to come out and speak and thank you again to this council and to this mayor again for having this opportunity to engage in this kind of conversation thank you representative thank you mayor pro tem representative anello thank you mayor um so i want to thank well everyone who came out and spoke mostly everyone um but our last speaker andy uh was here at the last council member they spoke about our trans resolution that passed unanimously by this council excuse me and so i highlight that because uh trans women are individuals the trans individuals in general are are people who have been attacked by the state of texas over the last year okay i've had a lot of questions recently on like why do you care what the supreme court has done why do you as a city council have the ability to react we don't we can't do anything about what the federal government does but i think you need to understand what the supreme court is actually saying the supreme court in their opinion is not saying that abortion will become legal they are saying that these states have the right to decide we as a municipality are heavily regulated by state funding i believe it was one or two maybe two legislations ago that the state of texas decided that we could not use public health dollars to help fund women's health care when it came to contraception and abortion we never had that conversation at city council never once have we had that conversation but that is something that impacted our local funding for our public health authority these are the conversations that we need to be having we quite frankly should have been having for the last 5 10 20 50 years every single thing that is decided by the state impacts the city it impacts our funding and it impacts our community all women whether they are trans or they are you know heteronormative whether they are in a same-sex relationship however they identify my colleagues have mentioned other issues that have been discussed heavily we know that there is a a pay gap we know that there is a child care issue in this community these are women's issues we know that whatever the supreme court decides if there is a change in texas on women's health care and access to health care there will be a large period of misinformation and we as a council have the ability to create an ordinance that bans misinformation on women's health these are conversations that we should be having these are conversations that we should be allowing the community to lead and informing us on and so um you know i'm very happy to have this item up i'm very happy to clear up any misinformation that was shared today or people who have questions we as a community need to protect each other no matter our gender or our identity and there has been a large you know with in and i bring this up because of mrs nieman's points the supreme court opinion said loud and clear that there is going to be an issue of disparity amongst this community and specifically for women that is why this item is here it is not about your religious opinion it is not about your right to choose it is about giving women in this community the right to be heard and the right to have us fight for them in any way that we can thank you mayor thank you rep savanillo representative molinar [Applause] thank you very much mr mayor okay so i'd like to say express my gratitude to everybody that came up here and submitted something in writing by telephone in person giving up your time your efforts to come out here and voice your concerns and at the same time it's a little bit shocking to see that here not too long ago three years ago our city our beloved city was attacked and out of that came a phrase that we call el paso strong but yet here we are divided by faith political party past experience the knowns and the unknowns and a bunch of other things i just wish that we could come together as a community as a city and say you know what yes let's do something well for all of us not just for a certain issue not just for a certain thing i mean it's feeding the homeless and yes there are veteran homelessness it's child care i'm not sure i can think of the young lady or the person that mentioned something about children going hungry here in el paso and it's just all these other things that come to mind but you know what happened to el paso strong is it just something that we made a bumper sticker and wore t-shirts and put it on our social media or do we think about that and what actions do we take to promote that so once again i do thank you i wish every city council could be this packed house on all other issues not just related to this thank you very much thank you representative rodriguez thank you so i was wondering i.t if you all can put up on the screens the background discussion because again i keep reading this over and over and i don't see any specifics about wage disparity i don't see any of the specifics that i believe are absolutely 100 percent important i am one of five women that sit on this council and of course women's rights equality are important to me however i am looking at this background discussion and i don't see it i only see this being triggered by a leaked supreme court decision that has not even happened yet so if we can please put it up i would really want somebody to point to it where it's talking about wage disparity and any other specifics that have been brought up that are very important to all women i don't see the specifics i'm sorry i see a huge paragraph that says on may 2nd 2022 an initial draft majority opinion written by justice samuel alito was leaked and stated that the supreme court has vetoed to strike down the landmark roe v wade decision according to the draft the u.s supreme court intends to overturn roe v wade reversing nearly 50 years of constitutional protection for abortion and let's stay and let states set their own restrictions on the procedure if this draft reflects the final decision of the court expected this summer it would virtually eliminate abortion taxes in texas that alone mentions abortion twice right there i again don't see anything where it says wage disparity or any of the other specific rights that are being supposedly violated towards women [Applause] keep reading because that was very convenient for you to stop there i will keep reading this decision is intended to protect all women's rights including but not limited to the right to make a decision about their bodies and direct the city manager to establish a city of el paso's women's commission focus on women's equality and protecting their rights again nowhere does it mention wage disparity or the losing of any other right for women [Applause] mayor excuse me representative thank you mayor well representative rodriguez excuse me excuse me ma'am what you said and stated here it says women's all women's rights including but not limited if you don't understand that that's that's engaging in all this all the issues that we've been trying to bring across here okay so i mean you're just focused on one issue and that's it uh we can't we can't sway you from there so that's it uh the dealer said i i place this on there because it's genuine concern for women's rights in this and what's wrong with el paso being progressive and proactive and and and send this committee where we're one of the largest cities in the state of texas and we're the only ones without it so i i i continue with my motion and thank you mayor for letting me speak thank you representative sorry thank you mayor again i just want to say i'm i'm completely i'm very grateful for all the speakers that came out here and really shared their stories with with us um i did agree i did hear a lot of a lot of concerns in a lot of uh stories but i did like what mr cavill cavier mrs acosta and mrs gonzalez which is they talked about having a balanced voice on this committee and i will if any of them are wanting to join i'll be my appointee i would i would love to sit down and appoint one of them um and thank you for saying that i think that every board should have a balanced voice in everything that we discuss and i i will have to say that i do feel that it's it is very disrespectful for council members to put motions where they censor other members to speak i think that this was a very passionate conversation and i think we all should have been able to speak and that's how things get talked about find solutions but i do think that it was very disrespectful and uh that's why you know we have what we have right now so i'm glad that the second was removed um on top of us um having a point of order but you know it's a way of censoring other council members and you're censoring our districts we speak on behalf of our districts so i just wanted to say that thank you thank you and i appreciate your your comments i know that even though we did talk about point of order that's not the reason why it was removed it was removed courtesy to the council to allow the council based on y'all's wants even though it took a minute that allow everyone to speak i know i haven't um said much so i'm gonna i'm gonna kind of now speak and tell you yes take your time second i'll come back and speak in a minute can we take the vote yes ma'am this is to delete or postpone indefinitely correct pardon me the motion is to delete or postpone indefinitely this was made by representative rodriguez seconded by representative molinar this is to postpone indefinitely or delete item 13. call for the vote you can't have two motions that those are two separate motions mrs prime which is it no no in robert's rules there's no motion to delete and robert's rules it equals to postpone indefinitely so i believe that's what the council wants to do so can we take according to robert's rules it's postponed indefinitely which which is the same as deleting right i'm sorry i didn't hear that motion who made that motion to this definitely it was representative rodriguez by representative molina okay i mean we can't assume what they're saying i have to hear what the motion is from them motion to postpone indefinitely it carries the same weight as postponing indefinitely it's the same it equates to postpartum let's just take god let's take the vote mr praying yes thank you the voting session is open council so the vote yes would be to vote to delete to vote no is against delete the item it can of course it's indefinite but can always be brought back and put back on the agenda uh go ahead mrs pryne the voting session is open representative hernandez no and the voting session and the motion fails five to three representatives molina rodriguez lisa representative schwarzwein anello hernandez salcido rivera voting no the motion to delete fails all right i'm gonna i'm gonna try again here but huh yeah but i'm gonna now we get to vote on your motion but before we do i want to speak and um it's really important i think that we build a commission to allow women women's rights and the women to equality there's no ifs and buts about it i'm 100 against abortion i am i can tell you that i don't support abortions um 40 years ago my wife was pregnant and we went to the doctor and they said we need to abort we said no we went to a different doctor and they said we needed abort we said no so we had an option and my wife had that option my wife made that option but we couldn't find a doctor to help us and we sat there for i can't even tell you how many weeks as my wife lost quite a bit of blood and trying to find a doctor that would help us because we didn't believe in abortion so we had the right to make a choice my daughter was born 10 weeks early and we did find a doctor my daughter probably wasn't going to make it and they at birth they told us she wasn't going to live but just like everyone else in here said we needed to pray and we prayed and we prayed and i can tell you she'll be 40 years old the next birthday and has four beautiful children [Applause] think miss chuck's still here but i believe that everyone should have the right and we had our rights and we made the right decision and um i love my daughter dirty [Applause] thank you thank you mayor and once again thank you to everyone who came to address us this morning i just wanted to say that probably more significantly more significantly we as a city council cannot exercise powers and discretions that are reserved for our state legislature all right i think our most practical practical way to do something about our concerns on this issue is to work with our state delegation and not leave it for an advisory commission to do so on our behalf but i just want to urge everyone to continue to respect every each other's opinions on this hot topic and wait to see what the united states supreme court does i'm sure that at the appropriate time and maybe even today the city attorney can weigh in some more with some thoughts on the legal issues issues informing this commission i can't support this until i see the opinion and i believe this is on the agenda because excuse me ma'am please because of the supreme court's pending decision and we can always revisit this in looking into this this i hope the city can answer some of the questions about the structure of the commission so that we can vote on this intelligently thank you mayor lisa and thank you for your sharing of your very personal item to this body thank you and you know i believe that uh with this commission we need to build and make sure we educate and make sure that we we go out there and be a very proactive group to educate and help and allow people to know because i can tell you that we made the right decision but i think women have the right to make that decision and we can help them and help with stories like this because i can tell you that without testimonials without people understanding i i can tell you that again i do not under any circumstances believe in abortions but i believe in rights so with that uh mr prime let's take a vote yes sir there is motion made by representative rivera seconded by representative anello to approve item number 13 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session and the motion passes with five affirmative votes representatives short spine angelo hernandez salcido rivera vaulinai representatives molinar rodriguez lizarragavorini the motion does pass thank you thank you for supporting women mayor would you like to go to call to the public at this time mayor protem excuse me again would you like to move to call to the public at this time yes please thank you thank you well now move to call to the public the el paso city council is a local government body charged was serving all of the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the city council meetings are public meetings under the texas open meetings act public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decor that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or integrity which are not pertinent to city business nor may any member of the public use this forum for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however we don't have a quorum right now i'm sorry we've lost a quorum we need uh someone from the council to return to the dais police so we can continue with the meeting we've lost a quorum we need representative angelo mayor rodriguez or rivera to return or the mayor if the mayor or representative angelo rodriguez or rivera can return to the day as we can continue thank you mayor please note that during the 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 commented on be posted on a future agenda can we can we please ask that you take your conversations outside of the council chamber so the meeting can resume if you can please the the media and the public if you can take your conversations outside of council chambers we can continue with a meeting please this afternoon we have nine members of the public that signed up to speak excuse me can we um can we come back in and um so we can have public comment the first person is marcie chavez her topic is comply with politicians jobs and duties she will be followed by ron cuomo michael castro alonso good afternoon miss chavez you'll have three minutes ma'am uh good afternoon um good my topic actually is about this corruption in el paso which involves as we all know many the key the corruption the key to the corruption is off of all crimes and is the key to greed which is always has existed but is not as transparent as now i will also talk which it disregarded completely the declaration of independence and the constitution the freedom of speech the civil rights which many do not like to hear the truth because that's the only way they can wash their hands by not having an answer i was this past friday i was falsely arrested by police officers by false imprisonment and due to all this i will not allow of any agencies local state or federal government entities to defame my name in any way shape or form this corruption also nobody speaks about human trafficking and now the lives that do matter homeless which versus illegal immigrants that have more rights and are funded by taxpayers money the corrupted courts that we have which take away the due process and the rule of law and other agencies that are not funded or all politicians that are not representing are the united states citizens should actually you know step down our seat and with this i end this by asking kindly to other representatives that do not comply to their jobs and responsibilities and duties to please that are not representing the el paso in residence to please sign the resignation by giving the opportunity that will do so and mr joe molinar you talk so much about uh keeping el paso strong when he never has been weak that you all want to do as you like and you don't want to do as you please doesn't make us weak you don't represent us you represent yourselves because i have brought matters to all of you for years and none of you have taken the time or you comply to your duties and responsibilities you know to take it down to the authorities if i can say to the congress or senate somewhere out there you know to have solutions for the el paso residents many are becoming homeless because why corruption many are becoming hungry why because of corruption and we don't touch those subjects all we want to play is whatever pleases or tickles your ear and that's my comment thank you the next speaker is ron cuomo his topic is concerns with animal services he will be followed by michael castro alonso cuellar sabrina soto colt de morris efrain saucedo lisa turner good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon thank you once again i'm here i would like to show you some numbers these numbers are approximate because i can't get actual numbers at this point we have approximately 900 strays in our shelter at this point our shelter roughly is set up for 400. that leaves 500 more strays in our shelter than what it was built for your new plan to add 50 new kennels for larger dogs brings it down to 450. this new plan is completely inadequate we need to get this fixed we need to stop trying to stuff all these animals in a shelter that was not designed for it i'd like to point out in 2019 end of month count of strays in our shelter was 1311. i want you to understand that in uh 22 i'm talking march now the end the end count was 26.05 i have been standing here i have been on the phone explaining to you people what huss was going to do to the city again i'm right you guys didn't pay attention and we're buried in strays we need to fix the problem we need a new efficient shelter because you all didn't listen when the community told you what was going to happen in 2020 so here we are in 2022 you didn't act you listened to no offense i know this is gonna piss people off but you listen to two pathological liars about what was happening in our shelter thank god they're both out but now we've got a cleanup now we need a bigger shelter now we need more employees we don't want to house a lot of pets but we don't have a choice again i'm going to say the same thing i said last meeting we either have to kill him or house him mr mayor you said you wanted no kill we all believed you you put your heart into that program the program that in 2019 only had 1311 dogs between fosters and in the shelter as opposed to the 2605 we had this year we have a problem you all need to address it 50 kennels is not going to put a dent in the number of strays that we have we haven't even taken in all the strays on the streets of el paso all the people that supported haas and went around this country and talked in best friends conferences about how great haas was had no clue because they weren't listening to the community they were not listening to the rescues that were saving your butts i turned 65 next month i'm either going to continue thank you mr cuomo if i retire it's your fault the next speaker is michael castro and mr como i remind you sir please no personal attacks where you're while you're speaking oh no problem yeah thank you sir thank you the next speaker is michael castro followed by alonso cuellar sabrina soto colton morris efrain saucedo good afternoon mr castro you have three minutes um hello good afternoon city council can everyone hear me yes sir awesome um so yeah just to bring up again what's happening right next door um in new mexico southern park new mexico a couple things so obviously new mexico went recreational april 1st um the first month of april new mexico itself and this is all information you guys can look up and i please um urge you to look it up yourselves um they made a 22 million dollars in revenue and they actually uh you know were able to divide what cities made what um as far as revenue i believe albuquerque made about eight million dollars las cruces about five million and then sunland park new mexico actually made about a million dollars worth of um revenue or basically million dollars worth of revenue and cannabis sales so we got to think there's a million dollars worth of cannabis in el paso texas right now and that's easy and it's way over that right with recreational cannabis um you have dispensaries that are no more than five minutes away from the el paso texas border right now i'm sitting on a farm that's no further away than 15 minutes from the texas state line now something happened this past um weekend or this past week on may 7th in austin so this is our state capitol and again look this up this information is available but they actually um decriminalized cannabis they didn't legalize cannabis but the city itself was able to decriminalize cannabis now what that means is they actually banned no knock warrants and they actually um though the way it's um the way it's passed is it actually bans police officers from ticketing pursuing an arrest for misdemeanor amounts of cannabis or misdemeanor paraphernalia so like a pipe or something like that or scale whatever it may be unless there is a higher crime involved right so i urge the city council to look into this because again this is done by our city this was done by the state capitol austin austin texas you guys can look it up and please do so we've been coming to you guys for the past two years about what was gonna happen uh recreational sales happened they opened up and guys i promise you if you go to any dispensary right now all you're gonna see is texas place el paso texas i'm one of those people i work and operate on a cannabis farm and i travel in between el paso texas and my job every single day right so basically guys the city council is you guys can actually do something about this so you know you guys can actually make this an agenda item we can actually go further with decriminalizing cannabis here in our city in our city and i think we should do so just based on what's happening right next door um you have hundreds of thousands of people thousands of people traveling back and forth through new mexico every single day right now and they're buying cannabis if you guys haven't been to ultra health thank you mr castro thank you sir the next speaker you'll have a good day thank you the next speaker is alonso cuellar followed by sabrina soto called demoris efrain saucedo alonso sabrina soto star six please to and meet your telephone you'll have three minutes good afternoon thank you it has been a little over a month since recreational sales have started in new mexico and in just that short amount of time they have made over 22 million just two days ago austin borders have passed a proposition to decriminalize low-level cannabis possession this is the direction that we should be moving towards yet el paso still wants to raise taxpayer dollars to arrest and prosecuted el paso has spent over 106 years arresting and pushing an outdated stigma on cannabis and its consumers we are long overdue for change if you continue to approve this funding you are only trying to stop the inevitable from happening cannabis is and has always been in the city and it isn't going anywhere we should be focused on helping our community not penalizing them over a plant that helps so many of us from health benefits to jobs to so much more the global marijuana march is this saturday may 14th the cannabis community invites you to come out get to know us since he is fighting for cannabis i strongly suggest you deny this increased funding request i also just wanted to uh thank you to the city council representatives for fighting for women's rights thank you thank you city council have a good day the next speaker is called demoris efrain followed by lisa turner and gloria kron mr josedo's topic is concerned with el paso police department good afternoon sir you'll have three minutes thank you very good afternoon much going to take my head off because of you you recognize me that i'm agreeing okay yeah first of all i want to find out if you read where i saw me and that she is going to pay the bills for the hospital or the officer flores i would like to know you have the answer right there and also the black guy who went to my house and then i helped me and he now raised my son and the other one the other police officer does ricardo rodriguez who is protecting two corrupt government makers cabinet maker and last saturday i didn't go to boat because i tried to get my trainer then uh one guy stole from my chat when i was in my business and he has been in more than four years and i stay at the loop on a circle k outside waiting for the police to go over there i'll go there 9-1-1 and i stay there more than six hours and that's the reason i that's the first time then i i didn't go and vote and the people that i take to vote i got somebody else to take him to moore but i wait six hours to get my trailer and this is the third time that i call with it and the second time i wait for hours they went over there nobody was at the house they saw the trailer but they hadn't done nothing okay they asked me for the police report i don't know if they know how to write or not the only one who wrote the police report is robert orozco but he's on the escobar he doesn't say you know judy on there so i would like to know the answers as soon as you guys can please now let me tell you something else to be very el paso and they say strong and everything you guys i don't know why they blame you oh we are the ones who are supposed to do our job not you you are leading us but i don't like that they blame you guys i told you in four more years there are gonna be no poor people here in el paso texas is gonna come from my business like i did in the early 90s and something else major i was in you choose you broke my heart you made me cry because on my daughter then no doctor help us at all my daughter right now she is a teacher teacher and thank you and uh thank you sir i have to say very much thank you very much and like i say there are gonna be no more poor people here thank you very much the next speaker is lisa turner followed by laura cron gloria cron miss turner's topic is health care rent good afternoon miss turner afternoon again afternoon mayor of council mr turner good afternoon billion dollar plus hospital does not have a single handicapped accessible bathroom in it you can't get in it there's no electric door openers so how does somebody in a wheelchair get in how does somebody in a scooter again how does a soldier on crutches with a broken leg get in they don't i filed an ice complaint that was over a month ago no response the va did that with their clinic in las cruces forgot to put electric door openers on the bathrooms that's beaumont now some of you may know some of you may not i'm a transgender woman i'm also a veteran and if this lump in my breast when this biopsy comes back cancerous if they decide to take my breast guess what i won't get reconstructive surgery they're more than happy to cut it off but that's the extent of the ba's it's against their directives to do any kind of reconstructive surgery on a transgender vet really sickening our health care is basically denied i've been denied by surgeons doctors it's it's really really bad if you're a transgender woman in this community and the medical community could care less about you and it's really the same thing for women because a woman goes to the doctor and the doctor doesn't listen to her complaints they consider it's just psychological it's in her head and send her home told her to take an aspirin that's a problem that your women's commission can address your doctors that are being treated in the medical school here are not getting any training enough training on women's issues and they're getting maybe a minute or two on a transgender gender woman's issues it's all male centric so you go in for you think you're having a heart attack well everything is taught about a man's heart attack his symptoms not what a woman may be having experiencing who's undergoing a heart attack it's not the same thing these things need to be addressed this commission can go down that lane and it's not going to happen tomorrow but at least we can start moving forward thank you thank you mr turner that concludes call to the public ms krohn's issue has been taken care of would you like to continue with the next item mayor you want to you guys want to take lunch move for a recess 30 minutes there's a motion and a second to recess the city council meeting for 30 minutes all in paper anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 1 30. do we have a motion there's a motion in a second to reconvene the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 207 pm we're on page six agenda item number 14. this is discussion in action on a resolution that the city council declares at the expenditure of district 8 discretionary funds and an amount not to exceed 50 000 to support the opportunity center for the homeless renovation rehabilitation expansion and construction of bathroom facilities serves a municipal purpose are we back on yet ms prang it looks like we're the big schmidt says in recess i.t there we go okay we have a motion in a second yes okay go ahead yes thank you thank you um i'm just overjoyed to put this item on the agenda you know the opportunity center has been such an anchor in our community and this uh money will go to much needed bathroom facilities and so i hope that i will have the support of my colleagues thank you mayor thank you ma'am thank you for putting the item on the agenda with that we have a motion in a second yes a motion made by representative lee zaragas seconded by representative rivera to approve on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez you're on mute and so was i you're still on mute there you go i see you saying yes we can't hear you but i do see you saying yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 16 and this is a presentation and discussion on a report by moss adams llp on the financial and grant audits of the city of el paso good afternoon adrian camisole margarita can you please upload my presentation thank you um this is a presentation of the audit results for fiscal year 2021 next slide the strategic goal for this presentation is goal 6. set the standard for some governance physical management specifically 6.6 ensure continued financial stability and accountability through some financial management budgeting and reporting next please for this year that we just closed the most significant accounting standard that we early implemented was statement 98 related to the name of the annual comprehensive financial report if you all remember the name of the report used to be comprehensive annual financial report cafe and the board decided to change it to annual comprehensive financial report or acquired due to some language conflicts we continue to improve financial reporting internal controls through trainings monitoring activities and incorporating best practices all our policies are up to date and as you will see in my next presentation we are bringing forward a brand new policy related to post issuance compliance for the bonds we continue to assess our current processes and look for changes that brings more efficiencies in the department for instance we continually continue to proactively invest our funds to ensure that the city keeps earning the most amount available in injuries since 2016 our treasury division has been able to invest and earn 30 million dollars and we are anticipating 4 million dollars this current year in the area of grants we have received 222 million dollars in federal and state grants with the majority of them being related to the covenanting pandemic during the year 21. the oversight of the grants along with the the reporting requirements increase the workload substantially for the grants division however however we did put in place policies and procedures that help us monitor and grant performance and maintain requirements compliance within the requirements of the grant next one of the greatest projects that we deployed during the year was the popular annual financial report or password this report was created with the regular citizen in mind so technically you don't need to understand accounting or finance to to be able to to understand the story that this report tells so i would like to show you the video if i t can you please play the video [Music] so the popular annual financial report or power it's a simplified version of the annual comprehensive financial report and is it's written in a very simplified way so everybody can understand the city's finances we initially started this project we we took into consideration the audience and we said you know what we got to make this entertaining for anyone and of course be able to provide the information needed some of the information that is included in the paffer is revenues where we got the revenues from how we use them we also talk about the general fund balances one of the things that we wanted to do aside from presenting the financial information was to showcase the city the theme is destinations of el paso so it's very colorful because we definitely want to make it pleasing to the eye and at the same time be able to facilitate information so when you open it up you're going to find information on the sources of revenues that we collect how we use those revenue to provide exceptional services to the community you can also get information about capital projects um grants that we receive and fun facts about the city you know we're we're all accountants you know so you know as far as graphic design anything like that we don't really have that under our belt but we were able to manage it with ideas you know uh that were things that we saw and together you know we were able to come out with a vision of what we wanted to produce i feel that is very very exciting and also feel that is part of our our commitment to our city to provide something and they they have that transparency of the city what is what is the city doing with our money and with their money so that has how they can see how it comes into the city and how it went down this is a great step on transparency and for the city it's a great achievement this is the first time that the city has deployed something like this and it's a best practice many other cities in the united states are already doing this so we're now part of that don't get intimidated with the numbers it's just a document and you can actually grasp it and get a very very good insight of what the city is doing right now the report is very colorful and it's very short and very simple to read so we invite everybody to to read it so that they know how the cd runs thank you and for those that are listening the report is available in the comptroller's website and the cfo website i hope that you enjoyed reading it um can you go back to next slide please so the results for the years notes external audit findings this is the sixth consecutive year with no audit findings um i do have aaron hamilton here he does work with most adams and he's going to be talking to you a little in a little bit about the results of the audit and also some details about the the work that they did next uh currently we're working on the implementation of gas v87 related to leases and um this standard is very complex and i know i have to mention this to you before but really really quickly um the way that we record lease payments and this revenue right now is just directly into the statement of revenues and expenditures as expenses of revenue as simple as that so this standard what is requiring us to do is technically to recognize the future payments that we're going to be making or the future revenues that we're going to be collecting when we are the lessor and discount those payments to the net present value and record the liability of that revenue of that receivable in our books and this is supposed to bring comparability among financial reporting entities so it's a very complex um standard that we're working on and getting everybody involved working along with it and other departments in the city the airport the real estate division so we're working together to make this happen um we do have to implement it by the end of this fiscal year so we're right on track the other statement that we're kind of analyzing right now is 92 and the statement is the omnibus because it encompasses different updates for different order statements such as the 87 in cell the 84 for fiduciary activities statement 67 and 68 for pension so we do have to go through everything and determine how this is going to impact and the financial reporting for the city for the current year and then you have the nidc with the 96 which is the the subscription-based information technology arrangements this one is very similar to the 87 and it becomes effective for us in the year to end the fiscal year 23. it does the same thing we have to see how much we're going to be paying in the future for it arrange technology arrangements discount those to the present value and record the liability in our books so we're going to be working with our t department to get this done starting potentially at the end of this month and finally we're also assessing statement 97 which has to do with the fair compensation plans the cafeteria plans and that becomes effective as well uh this year so a lot of work for for otc right now very fun and next slide please so this concludes my presentation i really want to thank the city manager and the cfo for their leadership and support to our department my amazing staff that you know dedicated and creative and very very compromised with the mission that we have and all city departments for following our rules and procedures and reaching out to us when in doubt thank you so much everyone and now if aaron is there can you please come in so you can do your presentation one more time there you are can i i t can you please there you go upload the next one thank you good afternoon everyone and thank you miss munoz for for the introduction um i'm i'm aaron hamilton a senior manager with moss adams and i'd like to thank uh mr mayor as well as as the representatives of the of the account of the council um uh in advance for this opportunity to present the 2021 audit results the audit has been completed and the packet that you see before you that's been included in the agenda is the exact same packet that was reported to the financial oversight and audit committee it was discussed in great detail during that committee and so i will only highlight some of the key features as it's already been presented in detail if you could skip to the third slide we'll just start right with the reports that were issued if so for the year ended august 31st 2021 we issued two reports on the annual comprehensive financial report it's a new acronym act for this year the first one is that in our opinion the financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the united states of america that is an unmodified opinion and that is our own jargon for it is a clean opinion that the the financial statements are fairly presented also included in the acfer is a report on the internal controls that's required by the government auditing standards board um it it basically reports that there are no internal control issues so if if there were internal control issues that we felt in our judgment or opinion that merited the attention of you all it would be our report would be modified it modified or would present those findings over internal controls over compliance in addition we also issued reports over the single audit programs it is a report on compliance related to all major federal and state award programs eight programs were tested in total six federal and two state and we're pleased to present that there were no findings of non-compliance noted during our audit procedures next slide please in addition to financial statement reports we were also engaged to perform agreed upon procedures and have issued the follow uh the following reports um for the year ended august 31st 2021. you can see them listed there i won't read them verbatim but the most important part is during the the performance of our agreed upon procedures there are no findings of non-compliance or internal controls noted during that process next slide and as mentioned earlier we covered the the details of these slides uh uh very thoroughly in the audit committee meeting but just show you that you're aware we we perform risk assessments and and identify certain areas that we consider either audit risk areas or areas of focus or emphasis you can see them listed on this slide and on the next one the one that i'll call out from this slide is management's estimates so during the course of accounting and the financial reporting process management is required to make some certain estimates we bring this up because it's it's a matter of judgment and what we we do is look at the key inputs as well as some of the the methodologies used to determine those uh those estimates and make sure that they are done in accordance with accounting standards next slide on this slide the one thing that i will bring up on this one is that even though we are auditing financial statement amounts we do look at information systems as they can impact or affect financial statement balances therefore we look at the general computer internal controls this is making sure that system access makes sense within the organization if there are changes done to any of the systems that they are done in accordance with best practices also listed on this slide are the two major state programs as well as the six major federal programs with the amount that was expended during the year and tested or excuse me that was tested during the year and then on slide seven on slide seven and eight you will see the required communications that we presented to the audit committee we discussed these in detail during that committee and so i won't mention any of them except for one that's on the next slide on slide eight and this is the backbone to our profession um and that is that we are independent so moss atoms the very last bullet point mos adams is independent with respect to the city of el paso and because of that independence we feel that we can issue opinions and reports as has been discussed throughout this presentation you'll go to the next slide miss munoz actually uh discussed this at length during her presentation but i will call it out as well gatsby 87 which is changing the accounting for leases will be effective in this this this fiscal year 2022 um and the only reason i bring it up is that the actual face of the financial statements the statement of net position some of the your income statement amounts as well as footnote disclosures will dramatically change just to make you aware of that and lastly on slide 10. i just want to say thank you to the entire accounting team um margaret marguerite's team as well as all personnel across all departments that were helping us during the course of this audit we recognized that the tone at the top and attitude from management was one of helpfulness openness and candor as we were working through audit requests going through discussion points as well as getting getting our questions answered so thank you so much for that and at this point we will stand for any questions if there are any so before y'all have any questions council i want to recognize the accounting staff and margarita munoz and also want to thank robert cortinas nicole cody and all the departments throughout the city they've done a tremendous job there's a lot of grants that get monitored there's a lot of work that's put into this kind of result there was a time not too long ago in 2014 2015 that you know you had dollars uh that that were not being returned in time to the city from txdot to the tune of almost 20 million uh the dollars were actually not correct in terms of the allegations it was 19.2 million uh that went all the way back to 2009 and i think whenever that was brought out i believe they were trying to bring that out as a as an issue uh for any of the functional requirements that the departments are responsible for and the departments didn't have the resources then didn't have the training uh didn't have a lot of those support systems as an organization in order to do a more effective job so not only did that particular area go back all the way to 2009 but there was another area in community development that went back to 2003. so there's a lot of corrections that have been done i also want to recognize the foac for the work that they do the the council subcommittee that really monitors a lot of this different work so six years yeah yes of course good job foac so the the six years without a finding is significant when you had 21 external audit findings at one point not to mention the fund balance being utilized for other things other than than what was planned out because you can use fund balance money but you have to plan that out so there's been huge strides made and i want to recognize staff for all the work that they've done i want to thank the council again for during the budgeting process you approve those items we recommend that pay for these systems and processes and for the training training is paramount in order to get to this kind of result and get to this level of execution so thank you council for having the foresight to again to make those very strong good decisions bless you bless you and to be able to get to where we are today so that's a reflection of the entire team the organization and you uh as a council who's leading our organization so thank you thank you representative thank you mary thank you thank you i just have to echo what uh city manager just complimented the uh the staff his staff margarita and mr cortinas every time they presented the full act it's in some complete detail it couldn't be any easier it makes it easier for us to to understand it's especially this new booklet that they put out for for everyone to read that's so simple and creative i hope they continue to do that work and so i'd like to thank them for for their presentation as well thank you thank you mayor we have no other questions mr prine yes sir that brings us to item number 17 and this is an update from the department of aviation regarding the el paso 5 megawatt solar farm project hello shane brooks vip administrator for the airport here today with an update for the five megawatt solar farm project there we go this falls in strategic alignment with goals 1 8 and it's included in our 30 by 30 initiative as item 24 create and implement an urban energy plan project description we've set aside 40 acres located in our airfield to install a ground-mounted solar pv system five megawatts of capacity once constructed it will be the second largest solar installation in el paso the electricity generated will offset the airport's consumption as well as other city facilities and this will be a partnership between the city of el paso and el paso electric this is a site map that shows the location of the airfield you can see it sits in between our commercial runway 8 right and rga runway this will be a virtual power purchase agreement el paso electric will own and maintain the installation the airport will benefit from the renewable energy generated by signing into the virtual power purchase agreement and the proposed term will be 30 years the benefits will of course be environmental we will see a reduction in greenhouse gases improved air quality and we will earn renewable energy credits there will be some economic benefits in the terms of budgetary certainty and then resilience we will lower the airport's peak demand so the calculated demand is inclusive of the airport all of our meters total about three megawatts which is inclusive of the terminal the cargo centers the airfield lighting the rental car center and the air rescue fire station the remaining two megawatts will be used to offset various city facilities some big users are city hall pd headquarters the fire department parks libraries museums this is a breakdown of the rate component we won't know what the rate will be until we receive bids from the rfp but it will be comprised of capital costs the o m cost of the system and the cost to be included in the virtual agreement this is a process timeline we began this process early 2021 we started looking at a small scale solar installation out in front of the terminal we started working with el paso electric and our discussions grew so we looked for a larger area we brought as the airport brought a consultant on board to perform a feasibility study and helped us find a location that worked from an faa regulation standpoint which brings us to today where we're working with el paso electric to issue an rfp it will go out tomorrow we hope to have contract negotiations complete by spring of next year and begin construction in early 2024 and at this time i'm happy to answer any questions mayor potem thanks um has has this plan for a virtual ppa been brought up to the renewable energy advisory committee i'm not aware excuse me i'm not aware that i have okay i i'm not sure this is sam rodriguez mayor pro tem sam rodriguez airport director uh i'm not sure fernando's on i know fernando has been uh presenting updates to the react uh on all our all our efforts to include this as well as some of the gm work that's been happening with the mou but i'm not sure if he's on the line to confirm but i know he's been updating the react on our progress as fernando has been part of this discussion as well pastor electric as we've developed this project okay because i i have a lot of questions about doing a virtual ppa as well as um as well as um understanding why it is that we'll be built we would be building the solar farm but el paso electric would be owning the uh the storage as well as the solar panels as well um you know the the location of where we're looking at um i also have questions too whether that's expandable to other parts of of the airport land we have one of the largest if not the largest piece of contiguous airport land here and one of the discussions that we've had with this initiative before with city staff and leadership was that it would be able to be a location that would be expandable for future for future uses as well um so i don't know if you can talk about that as well absolutely let me handle that shane real quick um so one of the things that that we looked at as part of our strategic plan and what discussions was to handle the demand from the airport as an operation is as part of that discussion we evaluated and our total demand has changed it's about three megawatts that included that includes our terminal uh includes our cargo center our airfield lighting a lot of our major the map is driven by the the the airport so but it totals about three megawatts of demand in conjunction and discussions with our past electric as part of our negotiations included the expansion of this to other commercial accounts within the area of the airport and as part of the discussions um we discussed in in looking at the urban energy plan that was uh identified by the city council uh to take advantage of this virtual purchase agreement to include potentially other city facilities as as as part of that to make up that five megawatt uh is the area expandable to your pos to your question um it certainly is the location that we chose is very strategic uh from an airfield perspective because we had to run this by the faa for mcglare analysis and where the current location of the faa tower is so they needed to approve this as far as the location of where it is and it's also very close to the substation for a paso as you may be aware any solar farm [Music] that is on the consumer side of the meter is is maxed out at two megawatts and so being able to do a virtual power purchase agreement with a pass electric um would allow us to do a five megawatt but it will require that a paso electric own and operate that solar farm why is it that they would be to require that under the regulations um if the airport what's to do was to do one on its own on our side of the meter we'll be maxing out at a 2 megawatt maxing out at 2 megawatts which would not be enough for all of the airport operation granted it's in a per meter basis um but the benefit of this is that it's very close to their substation america it also says two i don't know we can bring up slide eight so we don't know right now what our ppa what our rate would be locked in for 30 years at this point correct no and not that's correct and that that would still be part of the negotiations uh we certainly bring bringing this this uh briefing to council so that you all know that the rfp is going to hit the street but obviously once we get uh proposals we'll be evaluating and negotiating with a paso electric and bringing those negotiations once to council at a future date but we wanted city council to be aware of the fact that the rfp will be hitting the street so the the rfp would be for bids for el paso electric to receive or for the city of el paso to receive for the construction of this project it would be for el paso electric to receive the bids so why why is it why would that be because it seems that if if we're going and investing in this solar farm and we're going to be paying it back through our again through our our costs and that rate over 30 years it would seem that this would be something where we as a city would want to control the bids we as a city would want to go and find the best value as well as oppose el paso electric which may not necessarily share the same values and concerns that we do in terms of an efficient installer or in terms of the the rate that could that could be presented as well i just have a lot of questions about this because you know um i can understand a power purchase agreement i can understand us owning it but i don't i don't really understand again how we came to this and the fact that we we haven't really had any sort of oversight from our own renewable energy advisory committee gives me a lot of pause to move forward with this rfp and this current arrangement at this time and i know that this isn't listed for action right now but i do have a lot of concerns about about it's not even us putting out an rfp it's el paso electric putting out an rfp at this time is that correct so so may uh sam let me address the mayor pro temps question so man pro tem yes you're asking a lot of very good questions first of all just for the council's information and for yours we did brief react on a plan we did work with them on a strategic plan and one of those items was to come up with demonstration projects this is a demonstration project we told council we were going to work on that we told council we'd keep you updated we'd keep the committee updated committee has been updated i will confirm if the level of specific specificity relative to this specific item was brief we could we can talk about that because i don't go to every react meeting but i know that nicole ferrini's on the line and she can jump in here after i i finish but i do want to make sure that you hear me and the council hears that that's what this is we want to make sure you get updated on this and if you asking good questions we have no problem we sit down with you or coming back and giving more additional detail in a future update as well so we can do either or or both nicole farini had her hand up so if you want to jump in and then sam if you want to add anything before nicole starts speaking let me know no okay nicole muted uh good afternoon mayor and council and the california chief resilience officer i do just want to say that this is actually not um only something that has been brief with the react this is something that has been a core component of their strategic plan and we have worked on several occasions not only in the full react sessions but also in the work sessions in terms of how this project advances multiple pillars of the react strategic plan and i'd be happy to sit down one on one um even have an additional conversation about how closely it aligns with react um in terms of how it's going forward yeah like like i said again i just i i have some significant questions and concerns that we would essentially ask ask el paso electric to put out a bid for this for this capital improvement project um and then we would be on the hook for the costs associated that locked in for 30 years um and so i just i have a lot of questions about it again i'm not aware of how this has been i know that there are some questions and brought up as part of an overall strategic plan with react but i'm i'm trying to understand the specificity of of how they've been um of how they have been briefed about this and their comments and concerns relating specifically to this virtual power purchase agreement so because i'm assuming too is that with the five megawatts that would be here we would probably look at not advocating rooftop solar for other existing and owned and municipally owned buildings it's certainly an opportunity uh mayor pro tem the the reality is that you know the original scope as this was intended it was going to be a commercial solar solar project for el paso electric uh in what they were going to partner up with the airport and have one of the airports be one of the one of the participants of this project as as as we pushed ahead in the same similar way that the past electric the residential solar program residential solar program this was going to be a commercial solar program that was going to be offered to the community and it certainly still can that's that's how the discussion started miracle time as part of that discussion with react and and um ultimately working with with city council with the airport and our goals uh to be net zero as well and so that's that's where the discussions were um as we got into the discussions about the land lease and the faa requirements it certainly lends itself to the opportunity for us as an airport to capture and use a lot of that solar capabilities that they're going to generate because part of that goal is also to for us to be able to capture most of our power usage um because of the meter situation that we have here at the terminal we have a single master meter that's over two megawatts we would never we would not be able to capture all of the solar that we will need this presents an opportunity to really capture that on this particular project now the other city facilities we saw that as an opportunity to to pursue that and again we're not we're not bound by that um you know i think as the bids come in if the if we're able to negotiate a favorable or or put a fair deal for the city we certainly move forward with that um but that's that's where that's what discussion has where where it began and where it is right now but we're not negotiating it that's that's my largest issue is that correct we're not negotiating this rfp we're not having any say whatsoever about how much we're going to be on the hook for with this with this virtual ppa that as it's currently written the rfp is not for the city of el paso to purchase it and have it administered or operated by el paso electric it's for them to put out their own bid to figure out who they want to who they want to buy this equipment from and how much they want to pay for it and then we're going to be on the hook with the rates locked in for 30 years um and i don't know if there's anybody from el paso electric but i kind of want to go and understand the rfp before it's really put out so what i will say mayor pro tem is that we have been meeting and have reviewed and provided feedback on the rfp uh it has been a very collaborative effort between the city and el paso electric it's not been they have not developed this on their own they we've been collaborating and reviewed and given our comments um and our intent and the intent of the process is for us to be part of the review of the submittals and and be part of the process to finalize whatever contract is awarded eventually by a paso electric um but certainly you know at um you know we can certainly uh talk to the pastor electric and provide more information as the city manager stated thank you mayor potem thank you representative hernandez hi uh thank you mayor um i had i had been briefed on this and i've been following this um before and so so what i want to say is i think that this meets um first steps and the renewable energy study that we both mutually agree to with el paso electric as part of the acquisition of el paso electric and so i i think it's really critical that we do move forward with this and then work in partnership in collaboration with el paso electric about all of the uh finalized issues the rates and things of that nature nature um so i i just don't want to derail this process but i do agree with with mayor pro tem schwarzmind that you know in terms of the details i i guess my question is at what point can we intervene can we have additional oversight on what that would look like um anything just to you know to make sure that that oversight eventually comes back to city council um yes representative hernandez i think the the the approach um as i stated we have been involved from city staff standpoint uh developing and working on this rfp uh you saw the timeline from shane it's a very lengthy timeline um and you know we're at the point where past electric is is ready to issue out but we wanted to share this information with you all first before we hit the street uh we can certainly uh ask him to hold off uh some more time and provide more individual briefings and more details on the rfp that's certainly something that we can do but it is it is uh our intent is to be involved every step of the way and ultimately whatever contract agreement gets executed by a vessel director will have to have city council blessing and obviously be fully reviewed by city staff with recommendations to city council so i mean at some point if we're not satisfied and we feel like maybe the the rates are just um you know too expensive and it just becomes um just just not um affordable for ratepayers i mean you're saying that at that point we still have the opportunity to cancel um or just deny uh what those rates will come back and look like absolutely okay and i'm sorry if you have to repeat that i have um a full a full house today now um like i said earlier i i do believe that it is critical i have a lot of faith in and staff i think you all are in sync with us we we make clear that reducing our our carbon footprint is a priority and this this gets us closer and so that's why i'm going to support it today um but you know of course i i do want to have some updates and and to be able to see those final contract negotiations when they're complete thank you thank you mayor potem thanks um this item is not listed for action so there really is nothing that this body can do to stop the release of this rfp um i would have appreciated to have been briefed about it i would have also wanted to review the rfp before this is sent out mr mayor tim first of all um what i said earlier still stands i mean the reason why we're presenting is because we're advising you giving you information about this keeping you in the loop because this is a priority for the council and as i said already that we worked with the react to put a strategic plan together for them because they were at one point extremely exasperated because a lot of the things they were wanting to do they couldn't because of the regulations and things in place whether the state guidelines federal guidelines and there's there's different things that they were talking about they were very admirable and things good for our community but you couldn't do because of those different guidelines so the plan that we put in place are things that can be executed things that we can work with them on and they can see some progress that's what this is however it doesn't mean we don't give updates and whatnot that's why we're here so we're going to after this meeting give additional updates obviously we're going to meet with you anybody else on the council who wants to have a briefing and or come back at a work session and and flesh this out more and talk about the benefits and talk about some of the things that y'all brought up today i think that's a very a very healthy way to kind of make all of you feel more comfortable because it is a priority for you and as you all know we're aligned with you in the strategic plan and getting these these uh products these results on on the table so we absolutely can come back number one we commit to doing briefings if anyone want anybody wants one and we will come back probably in a work session to flesh this out even further so my my i appreciate that and i thank you for that and i know that this is this is listening to the council and the community's priorities about understanding the renewable energy and solar energy is a priority for this community to combat global climate change and also to be able to go and provide good jobs to it the issue that i have is that it was stated that tomorrow this rfp is open so that really gives us sam are you going to visit with them and push it back so we can have perhaps a work session discussion is two weeks gonna kill the deal it's not um yeah so we can just push it back and then and then we can come back and have a discussion with council because actually this is good news and so i think you'll be heartened by the good news so if if the couple weeks isn't going to hurt anything we're happy to do that and again i appreciate that and again that the devil's in the details this is absolutely the kind of kind of innovative collaborative thinking that we need to be doing not just between el paso electric and the city of el paso but between all entities whether it's intergovernmental interdepartmental these kind of collaborative ideas breaking down these silos is absolutely necessary important for the future viability and the present viability of our community so well i'm glad you had these questions because actually this is very good news and this is something that maybe needs to be messaged a little stronger yes and so the council can maybe message it at the next meeting in a more positive way so that the community sees re-axes the news stations everybody can see that this is following through on some of the commitments that the council made during those negotiations with el paso electric and how this is coming to fruition so a lot of that that guidance the vision is is actually happening so that's actually the message i know you your questions kind of got us down a different path but that's okay because you know you got very detailed typically you know you guys are good with what we're recommending in terms of the operational functions and i think council probably feels comfortable with this but but you don't and there's a couple others that don't might have questions miss and unders brought it up as well uh so we'll come back and get more information and it's it's again it's really great news we're we're following with the renewable energy advisory strategic plan we're following the initiatives in our own strategic plan and also this is part of also making sure that we follow through with what this council directed which was which was the creation of a climate a comprehensive climate action plan for the city of el paso of which many different cities in the united states and in texas already have so this is very reassuring news which by the way we'll come back with more information um to discuss those kinds of things because when you for you to have that kind of plan you actually need like an ams system believe it or not so you can understand kind of what you know your your debt your data looks like what the carbon footprint looks like and an ams is part of that the automated metering system so that's part of what you're working on we're working on with the electric company this is also a demonstration project so that's part and parcel uh part of the grand master plan so yes we will come back more information uh more insight and again stronger messaging to the community and again i appreciate it and thank you again sam for working um with this to look at just postponing this a little bit to get briefed up to understand the rfp and this innovative collaboration opportunity between both entities thank you again council i think there's anybody else who'd like to speak at this point representative lazarga i know that you're very passionate about solar you have said it all thank you for being such a great spokesman thank you i uh i'm passionate about our community um all right miss prime next item yes sir the next items are the first reading of ordinances these are items 18-23 22-23 okay so you're you're asking to postpone items 22 and 23 for how long representative two weeks all right uh mr price is there a second i think that was representative rodriguez thank you go ahead would you like to include 21 as well 20 21 22 and 23. let's get some briefings on those the reason for it mayor is because those were previously in district six i am familiar with them but as you all heard the rest of council is not and there is a new representative representative to postpone for two weeks which are number 20 20 through 23 22-23 is there a second second the motion was made by representative rivera seconded by representative rodriguez and this is to postpone for two weeks items 20 21 22 and 23 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes in the voting session the motion passes unanimously is there a motion to introduce items 18 and 19. there's a motion made by representative rivera seconded by representative molinar and this is to approve the introduction of ordinances number 18 and 19 on that motion call for the vote representative analo thank you representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we now go to items 24 and 25 i'm sorry 24. and this is discussion and action on the request that the director of purchasing a strategic sourcing department be authorized to issue purchase orders to lexis nexus coplogic solutions inc dba lexus nexus risk solutions move to approve there's a motion made by representative molinar seconded by representative rivera to approve item 24 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously the next two items are related mayor 25 and 26. i'll read them together 25 is discussion in action that after having provided adequate notice as required by the texas government code the agreement for delinquent court fines and fees services pursuant to solicitation 2022-0007 r is awarded to delgado acosta spencer leinberger and perez llp item 26 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2022-0 collection services for delinquent fines and fees municipal court delgado acosta spencer leinberger and perez llp move to approve i think there's motion in a second there's a motion made by representative molinar seconded by representative salcido to approve items 25 and 26 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 27 and this is discussion in action that the purchasing director is authorized to notify jar concrete inc dbhar construction inc that the city is terminating solicitation 2021-1037 rojas drive whitening motion to approve there's a motion made by representative rodriguez seconded by representative molinar to approve on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes with seven affirmative votes representative aneello voting nay the motion passes the next item is number 30. create a presentation this is discussion in action requesting city council support for an infrastructure for rebuilding america grant to invest in road rail transit and port projects good afternoon mayor and city council um if you want a briefing we can go to a briefing that's that's good with us i know you're going to do another you did a briefing with all the council members so uh no do you guys like to see it yes okay yeah please then so good afternoon everybody coronado with international bridges happy to be with you today so this is an application that we're working on right now we're seeking today your approval your blessing for us to proceed with this application it's for a grant under usdot with the improv program i'm going to let ann cover those details and then i'll jump on the other side to talk about specifics of this application and hi good afternoon i will be sharing the presentation and i will be telling you about the grant program itself before i pass it back to david coronado to discuss the project this is an application through the us department of transportation multimodal project grant program this is a three-pronged program consisted of the sub programs called mega infra and rural we anticipate based on the size and nature of this project that this would be considered for infrastructure funds that stands for infrastructure for rebuilding america uh there is 1.55 uh billion dollars an award available for fiscal year 2022 through that program and our application is due on may 23rd with announcements anticipated in this fall the local match is 40 for this grant with the grant funding up to 60 of projects costs eligible project types include those pertaining to uh to our transportation infrastructure these can either be uh planning items to include things like feasibility analyses preliminary engineering uh or implementation which would be the actual construction of the improvements this is a list on the left of the selection criteria for this particular grant you may remember we brought forward a a raised grant application that had relatively similar criteria and then on the right you'll see a project outline which notes how we need to explain and justify the project and with this i'm going to turn it over to david who's going to tell you about uh what we will be requesting if approved thank you and so so this is a now this is a needs assessment of the international uh bridge system here in el paso in our region a few weeks ago we had briefed you all we sent you a message about what we presented to the tpb over at the mpo the policy board when we first started on this project on this application we were looking at doing only an isleta visibility study since then since that meeting and since then we've had meetings now and several discussions with uh the us government with gsa and cdp and then also our bridges steering committee and so we have briefed them we had a meeting with them last week we briefed them on this project got their support uh we're right now we're looking to get their support letters back from them for this application so we can add it to the backup and make our case even stronger since then like i said we've talked to gsa and cvp now the consensus is to actually expand the scope of work not only to focus on this data port of entry but also focus on the entire bridge system and look at a needs assessment for every single port within the city limits to include border pdn and stanton to include pedestrian crossings vehicle crossings and cargo crossings to really look at what we need here to expand to modernize and to add additional new technologies for example like the the freight shuttle that we're going to be briefing you all on on next next week all these issues we really need to look at in a study like this one we have not engaged in a study of this magnitude at the bridges in in the last at least in the last seven years since we've been at the uh here at the with the city with international bridges go to the next slide and so when we look at the entire bridge system in el paso we are that one of the top three you know top two and personal vehicle crossings top two and pedestrian crossings stopped through top three and cargo crossings along the entire u.s mexico border from from san diego all the way to brownsville and so by no means we're a small port of entry we rank second in these two third in cargo crossings you know last year alone even during covet we broke record and cargo crossings numbers we also broke record and trade value and broke record also on employment in manufacturing industry in juarez as well and so right now it's a good time for us to invest in the bridge system look at the entire system not just one port of entry alone but look at the dynamics of the entire portal entry uh and assess those needs working with all the stakeholders part of our registration committee we have the support from the gsa from the federal government from also cbp and from usdot as well here at the local level so go to the next slide and so on our end at the cedaw castle you all the city council have identified water crossings and trade and these structures as essentially economic drivers for our region they're no longer just a revenue source for the city we really need to look at investing in them the plan for the city has several initiatives tied to it that addresses the need for us to invest and and understand and modernize these structures and so this application is aligned with exactly those initiatives identified in our plan the budget for this study is about a five it's a five million dollar budget like ann said it's a 60 40 split 60 better which is three million forty percent local which is a two million for a total of five and the source of the match will be bridge revenues so again no impact to the to the to the general general fund or to uh uh taxes in our region go to the next slide and so this is a very short list for the scope of work that we want to pursue with this system needs assessment again if you look at the entire system we have six crossings in our region uh four of those are within the city limits so again we want to look at system-wide dynamics travel patterns origin destination we want a master plan and look at conceptual redesign for all these courses of entry we want to look at dynamics of the industry and i'll get to that in a second in the next life but here we essentially are analyzing the entire system and some of these points actually came as feedback and ideas from gsa not only in el paso but also gsa leadership tied to the el paso district so we have the buy-in from the federal government in the u.s and also we have support from file commission fuentes on the mexican side who is our counterpart on the mexican side we have already met also with the state of chihuahua with the city of juarez and with the new administrator with customs in in mexico and juarez they are on board fire commission de puentes is actually also pursuing a similar study on their end so this is again this is a really good time for us take advantage of these opportunities at the federal federal level for these dollars uh it is a large commitment 40 but again this is a major study that we haven't having gone through uh in recent history let's go to the next slide so talking about those dynamics this is what i'm going to do david yes sir before you get into graphs because you're really super freaky smart and you're going to get into some very good detail and we just wanted to just reiterate to the council this is just a continuation of the work that we've been doing to play a lot of catch-up along the bridges as you know the work started back in 2015 when we got all those stakeholders together and those stakeholders really gave us a lot of good input that led to the 32 million dollars that our state delegation was able to get for us that the council approved first in terms of the the guidance and the direction with respect to that and we've had to go back and get that amended a couple of times through the state delegation in order to get that funding and they were very instrumental in getting us those dollars but this is just a continuation of working to update the bridges we still have a lot of work to do a lot of work we need to get them technologically more in line with the other bridges that are more state of the art so that's a priority for us and obviously it's one for the council as well but this is just a continuation of that as you can see this is as he pointed out this hasn't been done in a very long time so a lot of things that haven't been done in a very long time or hadn't been done at all are being done now in the bridges as several other areas that we're working on throughout the city and that's again back to the plan that we've got that we're executing but you can take it from there david i just wanted to interject that one point thank you yeah no that actually plays into the next slide that i'm going to cover right now but here before before going to the that's like on the dynamics there's many other events outside of the region right that impact crossings 911 is one of the major shock to the system the great recession another major shock to the system we had construction on mexican side but also you see the dynamic on the cargo this is crossings for trucks from juarez to el paso and so now isleta the zetaphor of entry is by far the largest player as far as truck crossings uh we need to evaluate all these these uh changing dynamics and flows and traffic not only for vehicles but also for trucks how that impacts the industry how it impacts supply chain issues all those kinds of things that we you know we talk about in the media and we see we see out there so this is really going to help us understand those dynamics um and really again address the needs that we have locally at these ports of entry and what we need to do to uh plan for for the future for future growth and future shocks like this one or like the one that we had just a few weeks ago with the dps enhanced inspections that was a major disruption for that one week of time uh again all these dynamics right we need to be able to adjust and the ability to adjust working with the stakeholders to go to the next slide this is essentially a summary of what the city manager just talked about so this is another you know many of the reasons why we should do this why it's aligned with our plan that you all created and why it's the right time for us so like i said first when i first started it's aligned with the initiative under our plan for enhanced plasma water mobility for all bridge users not just vehicles not just trucks but also pedestrians it's aligned also in continuous momentum with the texas mexico border master plan we just finished that study working with txdot in early 2021 and so these kinds of uh studies is what we need to do to secure additional dollars under another perhaps a mega in one year once we finish this in two or three years we can pursue additional funding sources to actually implement the the findings and the recommendations from this study this one's also aligned well and complements our efforts at the local level with our cip complements the effort that the city manager just mentioned the 32 million dollars from the from the its that's been invested that the state delegation and our local leadership has been has working towards us uh towards uh and providing to us uh it also helps offset some of our costs you know we have limited p3 dollars i know it's a 60 40 split but again this is a major investment that's needed to really look at the entire bridge system and like the city manager also said you know we have a lot of catch-up to do you know these poes have been have been neglected they're outdated we don't have any technologies we know the immediate needs but this plan is going to set us up not only for the short term the medium but also the long term so again it's these take take take time right it's not easy to invest not easy to modernize a system that's com that's complex such as a portal of entry and so again this is just a long list that i think the scene manager also covered covered up quite nicely go to the next slide so like i said you know it's aligned with its expensive water master plan working with the state members and the state delegation and also with the bridges string committee we came up with a list of of close to 300 projects we now have a price tag in 2021 of close to 12 billion dollars that we need in our region for all these investments not only at the first of entry but also on city on city highways state highways uh and other roads leading up to the bridges both in the u.s and in juarez so this is a really good plan that that now we have uh really good um sort of you know guideline but again at the local level this is a state white line but at the local level this is this initiative this project is how we're addressing our needs i believe the next slide is the last slide essentially we're asking for actually no this is not the last so this is uh we talk about the registering committee this is an interagency by national collaboration discussion that we had we just had a meeting with them last week we adjusted the scope and expanded the scope based on the feedback that we got from them just last week and also uh from from gsa and again this is a really active group this these folks have been just really supportive you know it really helps when we have outside shocks like the one that we had with with dps to address the needs that we have at the local level uh go to the next slide that is the last light so we're essentially asking right now for support uh for us to proceed with the application commit to the 60 40 split it'll come from bridge revenues uh and the deadline for this is may 23rd so this is you know it's fast approaching this is a priority project for us and right now we're working on completing the the application pending your approval so with that we can take any questions if you have any thank you and again this is uh no no impact to the taxpayers and that's the important part so thank you for that and uh it's a it's a good program to to get behind and hope that the federal government funds it for us mayor pro tem thank you mayor um our ports of entry and our international mass transit was our international transits one of the most important parts of our economy that we need to support um and uh coming up with a plan and looking at a realistic and comprehensive assessment is a great step in that direction i know that this council in previous iterations has made international mass transit one of its priorities also identified in the estino 2045 plan as well as the border um the btmp the border the texas mexico border master plan it identifies specifically within downtown pedestrian crossing and international mass transit i just wanted to state for the record or ask for the record if that's going to be included as part of this assessment short answer yes so we are looking at improvements that are different that we don't have right now we're looking like i said automatic technologies not only for cargo like the freight shuttle and trying to understand and see if that can be uh built in this and this port in this district but also we're looking at the eastern crossings and vehicle crossings the voter master plan calls for two new pedestrian dedicated crossings or bridges at both downtown and arizona and so we have that long list that is included in the btmp that we want to consider we want to explore more with this needs assessment uh and again it's not just about his letter the original ask was about his letter now that scope has expanded so we're going to be looking at all the four ports of entry within the city limits uh and addressing or looking into the visibility right of those kinds of projects that are right now we don't have uh in the region and of course to include to include additional issues like staffing charges those kinds of things and again it's you know it's important to look at this short medium and long term you know we are this as you said and it's a great point to to put out um it's not just goods that cross over the border here um in the paso norte region we are the second largest um crossing for pedestrians and we all know that that is family that's friends that's business folks students across every single day and so that solution for um human capital development right in the 21st century what is it that we're going to do to make sure that people are able to to cross in a dignified safe and efficient manner is absolutely important and so it's good to know those assessments are going to be looking at that it's going to be looking at not just dedicated pedestrian crossings but also looking at international mass transit whether that is a dedicated bus line streetcar or other things like that that is an important part and that's also been identified in multiple plans throughout the years as well including the texas mexico border master plan and so i'm very happy to hear that um and i'm very much looking forward to supporting this grant application at this time thank you do we have a motion the motion was made by representative molinar believe second if i representative rodriguez no or was it salsa i'm not sure i don't think so so representative rodriguez made the motion and representative molinar seconded did anyone checking it huh i want to say i second it i didn't delete it okay so motion made by representative rodriguez seconded by representative olinar now we have a motion no now we have a motion for that can uh we take the vote yes sir mayor can we also reconsider item 27. let's finish with this real quick thanks so the motion in a second on item number 30 on that motion call for the vote this is to approve item 30. representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously is there a motion representative yeah i make the motion to reconsider item 27 i it has to be made by someone on the prevailing site i move to reconsider item 27. why why couldn't you do it okay so there's a motion and a second to reconsider item number 27 all in favor anyone opposed nay motion to approve item 27. okay item 27. i only heard one nay so the motion carries item 27 is discussion and action that the purchasing director is authorized to notify jr concrete inc dbhar construction inc that the city is terminating solicitation 2021-1037 rojas drive whitening you can just call the question that's right okay so we need a motion in the second oh i motion to a proof representative rodriguez had made the motion and you seconded it representative thank you so and this is too uh yeah just for the record i voted incorrectly the first time okay and i was very delayed in letting her know that oh i'm sorry this is to approve the denial of the termination of the contract so on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes with seven affirmative votes representative molinar voting nay the motion passes and we'll go back to item 31. item 31 is the next one yes sir and and this is discussion and action on the appointment of four candidates to fill five part-time on-call associate judge vacancies at municipal court the candidates are elia garcia jose gonzalez leonel nunes and manuel para there's a motion made by representative annelo i believe the second was representative molina no representative lizarda counsel i'll ask you to please turn on your mics when you're making a motion sometimes i don't hear who made the second and this is to approve item number 31 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez no thank you in the voting session the motion passes with seven affirmative votes representative hernandez voting nay the motion does pass the next item is 32 and this is discussion and action on the results of the public engagement related to the community progress bond motion show proof do you not want a presentation on this what represent reverse i have a presentation if council would like it mr hoffman that lighting do you guys want to see a presentation thank you really nice it's like a ring light no it's just the natural passive sunlight thank you though beautiful that's what happens we have the light behind your your camera it's a nice soft flat light if it could please bring up the presentation i can go over the results so while it is doing that again what the purpose of this presentation is is to go over the findings of the public engagement process that we went through related to the bond exploration process we're asking council to accept the recommendations as a result of those uh public engagement results that we that we're gonna go over here shortly uh and that if council does accept those recommendations that will come back with very specific projects and costs associated with those at the next council meeting so if we can go to the next side please so again uh for many of you you've seen this presentation uh already but i just want to go over again the fact that our strategic planning sets our priorities and so as a result of this in december of last year city council adopted additional strategic goals uh the first or the fourth of which was to develop a bond package that was focusing on identifying community priorities and so what we wanted to do is develop a process to identify what those community priorities were and go to the next slide please and so in order to meet a timeline of a potential bond election in november of this year we were really tracking against upon introduction ordinance that needs to take place on before august 2nd and that in order to get there that we wanted to develop this community engagement process that would lead to project selection which would then allow us to go back out to the public once we identify those projects and in order to do that we needed to start that process in early winter next slide please and so then in terms of a very specific timeline we had discussed with council back in january how we were going to go through a public engagement process between february and april and at the end of april that we would conclude that public engagement process and then come back to council with those findings which would enable us to then identify projects which really align with those results for the public engagement process and so that's where we are today next slide please and so then just to talk a little bit about how we ended up developing the questions that we then engage with the public regarding was that we took all the ideas that were discussed during the strategic planning session here on the right these were ideas that came from each of you as council members as well as city leadership and we tracked those against the vision blocks within our strategic plan and really what we're looking to do is to discuss the high level priorities not to discuss specific projects next slide please and so the way that we did that was that we took something like safe and beautiful neighborhoods and made that questions about save high quality and complete streets and so the types of questions that we asked the public then as an example were as the city makes investments in streets and transportation infrastructure which investments do you feel are most important or we took the vision block of high performing government and made that into a question about climate change and solar energy and asked a similar question about what are the priorities when it comes to addressing energy and climate change next slide please and so we did that as well with vibrant regional economy asking questions about economic development and then with recreational cultural and educational opportunities about parks and recreation so again we were just really trying to get uh you know what were the priorities in terms of the types of projects that people want to see the locations that we wanted to see public investment next slide please and so then mapping those priorities then against these project categories and these buckets this is what that information looked like we were trying to get at each of these ideas again when we asked questions about these broad topics of information when we engage with the public next slide please and so the way that this presentation is organized and it's mainly in the back up is that we then tabulate the results against each of these broad categories for purposes of today's presentation i'm going to be going over just the strategic planning prioritization and the safe high quality complete streets but in the back up you'll find all of the survey results related to each of these categories next slide please and so just to remind council that uh this was our engagement method we ended up developing a website called elevateep.com that people could get information about the capital planning process how they fit into it to get more information about the strategic plan the strategic planning process and then we also had on our website our survey and then live results to again promote transparency throughout the process these results were refreshed every five minutes so people could see during the entire time that we ran the survey how their vote was impacting their overall public sentiment for with regard to prioritization of different projects next slide please and so just to go over some of our milestones that we ended up having as a result of our public engagement process we did a total of 11 meetings six six of those were district specific meetings five were hybrid meetings that we hosted regionally throughout the city 97 of our responses were made online through our website for a total of 2170 survey responses these um responses by district and these are the old districts um so i apologize for that but by the time we close out our survey we're using so the old geographies majority of responses came from district 1 and district 4. next slide please and so looking at this spatially we can look here on the left by zip code we can see that 79912 and 79936 were our highest response rates we also had really good responses in the northeast as well the map on the right is showing the same information the previous slide just mapping it spatially that again shows the responses by the old districts next slide please and so when i briefed each of you individually we did offer up that because we were we did ask a question about the nearest intersection to where people live we actually were able to look at the responses um by nearest intersection to the home location of respondents and so we can see that we got a really good um spatial distribution throughout the city and so if need be we could remap these responses then based on the new district boundaries and see what the priorities were based on the new district responses the map on the right is showing the same information as that on the left except it's a cluster map so then you can see how the different uh points uh overlap with one another and seeing where the highest response rates were which again or track locations of where we have our major clusters of population throughout the city which is on the west side the northeast and then on the east side next slide please so then getting into some of the very specific responses that will again inform the recommendations at the end of this presentation is to first look at the overall priority um within uh the city when it comes to our strategic planning and our public engagement process next slide please and so we asked uh people you know what was the overarching project area that is most important to them and so the different uh questions or responses could be looking at streets looking at parks and recreation facilities looking at economic development solar solar energy and climate change and then also a question about ecotourism uh what we could see here just looking at the majority of responses that overwhelmingly the support was primarily in two areas which were streets and then parks and recreation which again is going to really um help frame uh our recommendation which is going to be focusing primarily on these two categories for potential uh bond projects next slide please and so we could see because we have the information based on nearest intersection that wasn't just a simple majority of the city it was actually spatially streets were the priority throughout the entire city and so it wasn't just you know a few people in a certain area of the city you can see here that streets is the overwhelming majority opinion in terms of what the priority is throughout the entire city here next slide please and so um we can see again 56 percent people saying that streets are the most important thing followed by parks and recreation at 22 and so 75 percent more than that people saying that these are the priorities and so that's going to help inform our recommendations next slide and so getting into then some very specific recommendations when it comes to safe high quality complete streets and again we did the same thing with each of these categories but just for purposes of giving an example we'll share now the information related to streets next slide please and so knowing you know just that street's our priority we really wanted to know what types of projects were the priority within streets and so we asked people to rank and prioritize you know if we have these different pots of funds that are potentially available what are the types of improvements you want us to prioritize and so the majority of people about a third of respondents said that traffic congestion and emissions reducing those things were the priority followed by pavement quality and then looking at uh safety and so really what this told us was that traditionally we like to look strictly at the pci but that respondents were telling us that there are other things that we need to consider outside of just addressing pavement quality next slide please and so one of the interesting things that came out of this is that we saw that traffic congestion matter most of people who live for example in the north uh furthest out northeast further south northwest and the furthest out on the east side whereas pavement quality was the most common response in some of our older established neighborhoods and so it really helps show that it really isn't necessarily a one-size-fits-all fits-all approach when it comes to investing in street infrastructure and that we need to keep in mind that people have different priorities based on on where they live and so we need to be considering this a more expanded program as part of addressing street infrastructure in our city next slide please then we then follow this up with a question about spatial location in terms of what areas or which types of streets should we be prioritizing we see based on this question here that the the second response here on the right high traffic streets that take people from one area of el paso to another was ranked as the most important um in terms of what we need to be prioritizing for street investment and so this really helps a line you can go to the next slide please with the work that we've done with our high priority across uh corridor cross functional team we've identified those high priority corridors and uh really looking at these high priority corridors to be looking again outside of just pavement condition and so it can go to the next slide our recommendations for our streets program as an example would be that uh we should be looking at a streets program that goes beyond resurfacing and that safety and traffic congestion are also going to be priorities so what that means is that we could also be looking at things like landscaping and lighting looking for ways to reduce traffic congestion by doing you know things like roadway extensions or looking at you know installing multimodal infrastructure and that prioritizing streets such as the work that we've already done previously with our high high priority corridors are also our top 50 arterials to help prioritize investment along the streets while also remembering to keep in mind that we do want to be looking at residential streets to help increase the overall pci score throughout the city next slide please and so in terms of the overarching recommendations that we then have as a result of the public engagement process or listed here on the left this graphic on the right i think really helps drive home what our recommendation is on on the staff side as a result of the public engagement that we conducted which is that again we we recommend a program that really focuses primarily on streets that's why that particular circle is the largest followed by parks and recreation but also recognizing that these things do overlap and so that's why it's more of a venn diagram that these things overlap with one another and really trying to be responsive again to what the public uh identified as priorities through this process and then also wanting to reflect back on our strategic planning process and making sure that those things aligned and so what we're asking for council today to do is to accept these recommendations and that as a result of accepting these recommendations that were based on the public engagement process that we'd be coming back with very specific projects that align with these priorities and the costs associated with them and go to the next slide please and so then in terms of next steps uh where we're at right now is that we've completed um the the public engagement process we've gone through the strategic planning we've done the departmental priorities and needs we're in the process of finalizing the scopes of work to you know again align with the recommendations that came out of the public engagement process and then to come back to council with potential projects and begin our phase two public outreach which would have projects identified to get feedback from the public again next slide please and so um this presentation was originally supposed to be made on april 22 26 and so that's why this particular slide here has april 26 as the data consolidation presentation to council that's taking place now but we are in the process of finalizing our our preliminary cost estimates and so we're actually ahead of schedule we're scheduling to come back to council with those projects identified and the costs associated with them here in two weeks to help facilitate having project recommendations finalized to then be able to go back out to the public to talk a little bit about what types of impact that will have to the taxpayer as well as operations and maintenance costs associated with those things again we're looking to track against uh an introduction ordinance for bond on or before august 2nd and continuing public outreach uh all the way through until the november 8th election to go through that process and again to you know be as transparent as possible and really show how we use the strategic plan to identify these priorities and then we're being responsive to what we heard through the public engagement process and so with that that concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer any questions you have alright thank you again mayor and thank you again council and thank you again staff for this presentation um on a very long day so there's just a couple a couple observations that i had relating to this um so one discussion that we have again is is the kind of parks that we prefer to see from a staff perspective taking into account operations and maintenance costs and then the kind of parks that we see in our comprehensive plan uh from 2011 and and i think that this if you look at slide 40 um i think this kind of sort of owns sort of owns in on some of the concerns that we see from the community right and i don't know if you can bring that up or if um some of the the elves in i.t can bring that up is that rude i apologize if i offended any elves or any members of the i.t department at this time my apologies um slide 40 specifically states um uh that 35.6 of the investment priorities looked to by our own our own members at least this is from the back is smaller neighborhood parks within walking distance of neighborhoods there is a term for these kind of parks that is identified by other new urbanists and other urban planners anybody want to take a guess what these kind of parks are referred to as pocket parks yes pocket parks smaller parks within walking distance often less than a half acre in size if not certainly less than two acres in size problem with pocket parks is that that tends to go up about some of the concerns and some of the requests we have from our parks and rec department about this so i do think that we should just keep in mind that when we had this robust community engagement that 35.6 of of our own constituents um looked at these kind of parks as something they would want to say um if we go to slide 41 there's another thing too that i think is also important to point out in terms of looking at hearing what our community really is is um interested in and this is something that i was following um in real time um one of the things that was consistently listed as the highest priorities um basically number one to number three was open space and trails as well as linear parks now i think that a lot of a lot of residents look at both linear parks and open space in a very similar manner in fact we can look at open spaces having essentially linear parks throughout them and if you take both of those together 34.4 percent and 19.6 percent that's 54 of respondents had said that they want to see priorities they want to see investments when it comes towards open space and our trails and uh i know that our own marriage yesterday as as for his own words enjoys the trails that we have here enjoys strolling on them i think that we see that throughout different parts of our city especially in the different parts of the valley where whether it's the franklin canal or some of the existing levees people utilize those spaces river bend for example upper valley and others to utilize them for a variety of recreational uses and that's not to include also our beautiful franklin mountain state park and lost dog trails and others to that so i think that that should be something that we really understand that i don't think you can really separate them and i know that on number 53 on number 43 in terms of the project types there's the discussion about trails within parks and other connections i do think that again based upon the data and what we're hearing from them um that open space preservation needs to be part of of these recommendations and part of this package as well the 2012 quality of life bond again had money set aside specifically for open space preservation that was something that was very well received by the community um as a whole and i think that that's something that we should consider as well i don't know what that open space is where it is what it is and how much but i do know that when we hear about it when we've seen the constituents vote about it open space is something that people come out for and people support because once it's gone it's gone forever the other point that i would like to say as well is that also i think that that is probably another thing that you can utilize as part of the the tourism section as well um i think that there's a lot of great uh programs in this another thing to think about as well is i think all these kind of improvements when we talk about the modernization of of parks of improvements in historic parks and others we have a really great program in place that originally was funded through the 2012 quality lifebond fund and that is our nip program our neighborhood improvement program that is one that is very well liked and it also really engages our constituents in our neighborhood associations i know representative agrees with me right now right sir absolutely 100 representative agrees with me on that one so um i just think that those are just some observations if you're if you're asking for some of our input and engagement um on this process again i think it's loud and clear that the the large focus and priority for our community for our neighborhoods and for our citizens regardless of what district they live in old or new is that streets um and the condition our streets needs to be the focus of it we have been able to focus on the last 10 years on improving our quality of life we have seen real tangible economic impacts from that um we have also understood that we need to inve and focus on public safety and in the 2019 we saw that with the overwhelming passage of the 2019 public safety bond and now we really need a focus on streets as well and infrastructure and um based upon this data and based upon your presentation i think we're in a really good place to deliver the opportunity for residents to vote on those concerns that we have been hearing about for years so thank you again mr hoffman and that beautiful el paso sunlight thank you representative vanilla thank you i'm not going to be as passionate or eloquent as representative schwartzbein those are code words um do we know how much is left in the open space fund from the 2012 bond anybody know that nobody knows that it's okay um but i think that representative schwartzman brought up a really good point i think that that was a really successful program in the previous bond package i know this council has utilized it several times since i've been on council to purchase land um with the you know partnership of the community and so i i think it's a great thing to look at um something i wanted to bring up to the council which is a conversation that alex and i had or to staff or whoever is paying attention when it comes to decisions which is not the mayor at this moment um you know we look at kind of the idea of who what kind of streets need to be repaved and alex had when he gave the presentation kind of showed me that people were more interested in paving high traffic streets not residential streets but i pointed out that actually the category that scores the highest is residential and lower traffic streets as equally as important i know that we as a council really set out to make a dent in residential streets we've done that but there's a lot more to do there's a lot more communities that need their residential streets repaved but not just repaved but also re-looked at in my areas there's a lot of water and runoff mitigation that is needed and so when we're looking at those streets and we're looking at repaving them how are we also preserving them by dealing with runoff and storm water and so alex i want to thank you for this presentation i know you and i were like let's get more into the data if possible but i think that there's a lot here and it's you know this is a really good document for us to have even moving out of this bond or in the future and it's something i think we should continue to be doing i know that i brought these surveys to senior centers to make sure that their voices were heard because they're not you know they don't have the internet and they don't really do these surveys but i think if we keep engaging our community we're really going to have a better understanding of what they need for example more pocket parks so thank you alex we really appreciate it representative we'll come back to you with the amount in the open space fund and just don't have it on hand at the moment yeah that's fine i mean i i imagine that it's it's pretty much kind of depleted i know that we again we as a council have really and you know i know that the the bond advisory in the open space committee have made recommendations in in the first half and then this council has made a lot of recommendations and i think it's been a really collaborative fund and we've gotten a lot a lot done with it um and i just think it's just the beginning right i think that the more money we have in open space and i think that you know looking at open space in a different way too right we've we've been historically using that fund for preservation areas around the mountain but even looking at things like acquiring land for pocket parks in neighborhoods is you know maybe doesn't fall in that category but it's a conversation to also have um and with the bond so thank you thank you kerry thank you representative molinar followed by mayor potem thank you mayor appreciate the opportunity to speak alex great presentation again and do great work to you and your staff and everybody putting this application together the software and everything else i'd like to send a shout out specifically to polonia roldan she did attend our district 4 meeting she was very patient and she did get a lot of information and good feedback from that so and also to the constituents living in district four thank you very much appreciate everyone's input on that and we continue to work together to make our community better and safer thank you thank you representative mayor pro tem thanks um yeah just to go back on on everybody's favorite term of today is pocket parks and i i think too once again um if only there was an entity that the city had that had parcels of land that could be utilized and planned for in a comprehensive way perhaps even a master plan for packet parks that could again be utilized across this this city uh wouldn't that be a beautiful thing wouldn't that be a great idea right lasarga absolutely absolutely so um again also again alex i think too that that if you look at the data and how how it works in relation to our streets also think too we've seen areas of a lot of congestion of roads and extensions and challenges in in areas of high growth as well as that pavement deterioration in some of our or older neighborhoods so again i think your data is spot on reinforces a lot of what we are hearing as uh as representatives so again thank you again for your work thank you again for the patience and the hard work of this council of this mayor and of all of city staff today thank you for that we have a motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by representative rivera seconded by representative salcido and this is to accept the program recommendations presented by staff on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 33 and this is discussion and action on a resolution to adopt the post issuance compliance policy for the city of el paso motion to proof there are motion in a second yes there is a motion made by representative salcido seconded by representative molinar to approve item number 33 on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez very exciting yes thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 34 is discussion in action that the city hereby adopts a revised city of el paso budget policy which allows for the establishment of a pension stabilization fund and amends the language of the stabilization fund created on march 3rd 2020. motion to approval second promotion in a second good afternoon council thank you if you bring up the presentation please i'll see if you're like miss neiman he said it's a brief presentation i want to see if you'd like miss neiman this is going to be the best presentation you've seen all day sir i don't know pocket parks is pretty exciting this will be the best presentation you've seen all day at least since after [Music] 3 45 you're right so really good to follow up for what alex presented with the discussion related to a bond uh potential for november 2022. so this presentation is really going to do two things so it's going to address revising our current budget policies related to our stabilization fund but really if you heard a lot of things city managers talked about not only today but all throughout the time he's been here things you've heard me talk about really about the long-term financial stability of the organization and so building off again that discussion of the bond election of what can we do to lower our bond costs and we would do that through getting a better boundary of increased bond rating and lower interest rates which would save millions of dollars for our taxpayers so this presentation again aligns back directly to your strategic initiative related to the creation and implementation of a plan to address long-term liabilities and sustain the city's bond rating so this again not only addresses or these changes would not only address debt that we have on the books already that we still need to issue over the next several years but also our unfunded pension liability which is a pretty substantial amount when you look at overall unfunded liability and again looking at the long-term liabilities for the city as a whole and so again this is one of the 25 by 2025 strategic initiatives that the council approved several years ago you reaffirmed this in the december strategic planning session so this is something that we've been working on pretty extensively over the last several months you're going to see in the presentation we have a recommendation at the end we have some further work to do as far as the actual implementation of how we will address the pension additional contributions but again this is an important item something that's in the strategic plan and that i'm very very excited to be able to get this in front of you all for your recommendation and approval today so again our budget policies you all approved in march of 2020 reaffirmed our budget policies and in there is when we created the budget stabilization fund and again the purpose of the budget policies really sets the tone for how we go about developing the budget on annual basis it looks at again not only the current but the future goals of the city and again focuses on only the operating but the capital projects as well as i mentioned the stabilization fund actually dates back all the way to december of 2015 when that fiscal year we had finished in august 31st of 2015 had finished with the surplus we had recommended putting some of that money towards creating a stabilization fund unfortunately at that time it was not approved however we did come back a few years later and that was approved ironically enough prior to kovid obviously nobody had an idea we were going to be faced with a worldwide pandemic at the time but again being very proactive in the financial decisions that you all are making and approving again to position the city not only for the short-term but the long-term success and again any time that we bring forth the recommendation to either utilize the funds or put money into these funds it always requires your approval of the city council so there's two amendments to the budget policy directly related to the stabilization fund so one it changes the title of currently it's just referred to the stabilization fund so it refers to it and calls it the operating and debt stabilization fund and so again just to clarify and you all heard again the presentation related to another potential bond election we still have as you've heard me talk about 407 million dollars of debt to still issue on already approved projects most of that related to the public safety bond projects which were approved in december november of 2019 secondly what it does is it creates a new stabilization fund directly for our pension our funded pension liabilities so those are the two things that this recommendation does again the operating and debt stabilization fund maintains the same purposes again to minimize future tax rate impacts protects against raising charges or fees and then the third one again providing available funding for specific or emergency type of situations and again it always requires council approval anytime we're going to utilize the funds or put money into the funds which we have a recommendation for you at the end of this presentation on the pension stabilization fund so i mentioned that this is something we've been working on we still have a little bit of work to do on this and how it's going to actually work we're looking to go out and get an rfp for an extra rail to help us come up with some different scenarios so the thought behind this is having additional funds set aside within our stabilization fund to begin to address those again long-term liabilities related to the unfunded pension so one of the ways that this could work is we could do an additional contribution in the future so we could do for example let's say a million dollars a year additional contribution to our unfunded pension and we would do it to both the police and fireman's pension and also the civilian employees pension as well and so that benefit is that million dollars a year for example let's say over a 25-year time period the compound interest of a seven and a half percent rate of return that 25 million dollar investment over 25 years ends up being 75 million dollars with all of the roi so you really start to make some pretty significant headway on funding that long-term unfunded liability so those are the two changes to the budget policies and so we have a recommendation for your consideration and it's part of the action that we're asking you all to take so again to recap i presented some information to you all throughout the fiscal year we did a presentation back in march indicating showing you all how strong our sales taxes performed you heard snapper yesterday talk about at the state level as well the large surplus that they're experiencing ours is in anywhere near nine to 12 billion however we are seeing a pretty nice surplus so far in this fiscal year and again primarily being driven by the increase in our unprecedented growth on our sales tax revenue our expenditures have been uh pretty much on par with what we expected due to the large number of vacancies however as you all have approved a couple of weeks ago the increase in our minimum wage for our employees the additional pay raises and the additional sign-on incentives again in order to address the issues that we're having with those vacancies so we are seeing our expenditures increased a little bit but are still again overall projected to be below budget so as of about a couple of weeks ago this is what we have been projecting and so overall revenues and expenses you look at the bottom line they're highlighted in yellow currently projected about a 27 million dollar surplus at the end of the fiscal year again primarily being driven by the increase in the revenue on the sales tax category in particular so our recommendation is to approve the budget policies amendments again establishing the operating and debt stabilization fund creating the pension stabilization fund and then approving the allocation of that projected year and surplus 20 million dollars into the pension stabilization fund and then five million dollars into the operating and debt stabilization fund and so that would bring overall with this recommendation our operating debt stabilization fund to 44.6 million and our pension stabilization fund would be at the 20 million amount so again continuing to increase our reserves providing that flexibility and again really focusing on the long-term financial position of the city and again that 90-day standard city measures been talking about it's really quite embarrassing didn't have to say that in 2014 we were at nine days of operating fund balance which is just a real really bad position to be in if anything really unexpected were to happen to a city the size of the city of el paso so now with this recommendation putting this 25 million dollars into our reserves gets us to about 75 days so again over the 60-day best practice but again still well below the 90-day gold standard really what we need to get towards if we're going to get that bond rating increase and so this is the recommendation for your approval again it's the two different items it's the amendments to the budget policy and then the recommended allocation of that 25 million thank you for that now before the 20 million we're you're proposing where um where where we at today we are at about 60 days right now so and that's 20 25 million no how many where are we at today before the the 20 million days or amounts balance dollars and dollars uh currently about 100 million okay great thank you for that yeah i know it's you're right nine nine days compared to the today it's uh it's almost hard to say with with a straight face i i could see you so thank you for that mr gonzalez thank you i know it's been very important to make sure that uh we prepare the city so i i thank you all i know it's not been easy but uh it's um it's a great job to be able to to say that we're at 75 percent and 90 days she's just right around the corner so thank you for that yes sir that's so good just one more point that i i didn't make that i wanted to make sure to get it across and i did mention this to the folac is that so for example we talk about that bond rating and what that could mean in in terms of savings to our taxpayers so 20 basis points so for interest rates are going up obviously right now but use an example a 4.5 interest rate versus a 4.3 so 20 basis point doesn't sound like much but that 20 basis points over 25 years over just the remaining amount of debt that we have to issue the 400 million that we have left equates to 14 million dollars of savings wow so we're not talking about chump change we're talking about millions of dollars of savings of potential savings if we were to get that bond rating upgrade which these recommendations here address the issues that have been pointed out by the bond raiders so not only increasing the reserves being fiscally responsible but also addressing our funded pension liability is something they continue to ask us about you know what is the city's plan to fund your unfunded liability and so this would be something that they're going to look forward to whenever they go through whenever we go through that next process with the bond raiders thank you that we do have representative uh hernandez and i think mayor pro tem are you is your light on i don't know if it was the last time i didn't clear it so mayor potent will follow thank you um i just want to reiterate my comments from the uh foac meeting that i'm i'm extremely excited about this and this has been long overdue um something that our creditors have clearly said will improve our overall bond rating and so first i want to say that our strategic plan is working this is a true testament even in a time of pandemic and economic turmoil that we've seen significant sales increases and there's a lot of reasons why that that's happening due to federal support we do we do see an influx of of dollars that have been injected into our community but nonetheless our city has demonstrated that we can expect a increase in our overall revenues which is exciting you so today we have an opportunity to create a long-term plan that's going to improve and save taxpayers millions of dollars that's what this action will equate to so the decisions we make today are going to translate to long-term savings for our taxpayers that's dollars that our taxpayers get to keep in their pockets so i'm extremely excited about this i think this is going to change the entire landscape of our our bond rating and so with that said i had mentioned earlier um to you mr cartines and i hear you but i do want to make clear that council today should request um and it is our expectation that we we do a bond review at our earliest convenience so that we can see those savings as part of the upcoming bond election if it's approved by voters so that can also translate to more savings of dollars if a bond election is approved and so i'm requesting it i know you've said it but i want to request it again and and i'd like to understand how quickly that could be done mr cortinas if this action is approved today with this approval we can i'll work with our financial advisor she's going to help schedule those meetings with the bond raiders i would imagine we can do it within the next i give myself a little flexibility here within the next two to three months and and we would probably do it sooner than that and he just given them because they've heard from me when we talked to the council to make sure you give yourself enough parameters or enough time enough of a time frame but we'd probably do it sooner than that thank you robert okay great so i'm supportive of that i hope council will support this today too and we're excited to hear the news from the bond raiders and and hopefully they can give us a little bit more insight as to if they're looking for something different what we can do to help continue to save uh dollars for taxpayers uh but great job mr cortinas and margarita you all have done a really wonderful job of responding to to council's request to making sure that we're in line with the strategic plan but most importantly being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars great job everyone thank you representative hernandez uh mayor pro tem yeah i just would like to echo i think representative hernandez brings up a good point i do think we should look at doing that in the near future especially as we prepare to possibly enter into a voter approved bond initiative for the november election understanding where our bond rating is and hopefully it's improved uh will be will be a a good thing to do um again just just in as plain language as possible because we understand it all of us are here taking this job very seriously but for the public that might be watching or others help us help them understand why is this this kind of actions by this council of increasing the stabilization fund so important to taxpayers in this simplest language as possible so the number one reason it's not just the bond rating yes that's important the number one reason is you never know when you're going to run into an unexpected worldwide pandemic so to be able to have sufficient funds or reserves in place no different than a savings account it's critical when you hear city manager talk about a billion dollar organization that that he runs that you all are responsible for it's and to have nine days of operating fund balance at one point back in 2014 is it's that's not acceptable and so the effort from day one when city manager started was we're going to fix the budget process so merely so you've seen that happen since you've been here starting with your first term you saw the change in the budget process so more information all the budget updates that we do the management updates so having adequate savings to be able to address if you're ever put in a situation where you need to find unexpected emergencies we don't know what's going to happen with covid we tend to see positive trends however we presented on monday what's going on if we were to have another spike we don't know what's going to happen with the state and federal government again we don't know if the federal government's going to come bail us out so we need to have adequate reserves that's the number one priority number two yes is with the kepler projects that we have being able to generate an increase in our bond rating would result in better interest rates so that means just like buying a car buying a house the lower interest rate you can get means the more money you're going to save on on that item in this case providing those capital projects whether it's street projects public safety projects the new fire stations the new police stations the training academies on all those projects that we still have to build out so it's rainy day emergencies and saving money on these kepler projects robert did an excellent job answering your question i think that the only thing i would add would be that we didn't know covet was happening if you remember and it just fell upon us on everyone's head not only us but you know the entire world and if you recall we were bringing back the race stabilization fund for the third time and this council took action and you you had heard it in the november of 19 we brought it back february you approved it and then the pandemic hit the next month so being able to have those kinds of rate stabilization funds in place you have flexibility you hope that you don't have to use it but you at least have flexibility so we don't know what the next covet is going to be or if there will be another covert overcovet will you know spike back up the way some have said and it's happening in the eastern states you don't know right we don't know we didn't know covey was going to happen so you want to be prepared so this puts us in a position to be prepared but the simplest way to your question would be when you have a credit card and you've all been there i've been there where you first get married and and you have a credit card you have to pay that 18 21 you get good credit and then you get lucky and it's down to six percent or whatever percent that's what this is it's it's like your own credit card but for a one billion dollar organization where you want to get a better interest rate so you don't have to pay as much on that credit card and that's what this primarily will achieve and get us in a better position to have a better interest rate on that credit card great thanks again thank you representative salcido thank you mayor i just wanted to say this is great and i think that this is only going to help our bond rating and it shows how much fiscally responsible the city has been in these decisions so thank you again for the presentation i'm looking forward to seeing our bond rating get better thank you thank you and with that we have a motion in a second there is a motion on the floor it's already been made the motion was made by representative rodriguez seconded by representative salcido to adopt the revised policy and approve the allocation on that motion call for the vote representative angelo hi thank you representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mr cortina so what's one of the better presentations by the way thank you the next item is number 35 this is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the mayor to sign a certificate of approval of the highest elected official in conjunction with a proposed issuance by the housing opportunity management enterprises pfc motion of proof there's a motion made by representative salcido seconded by representative lizarda to approve on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously item number 36 is discussion in action on a resolution to authorize the mayor to sign a certificate of approval of the highest elected official in conjunction with the proposed issuance by the alamito public facilities corporation there's a motion made by representative manelo seconded by representative rivera to approve on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you and the voting session the motion passes unanimously the final item is number 37 and this is discussion and action that the city manager be authorized to sign a professional services agreement for a project known as traffic management center upgrades to aecom technical services inc there's a motion made by representative rivera seconded by representative molina to approve on that motion call for the vote representative hernandez yes thank you and the voting session the motion passes unanimously so motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed all right colonel is the motion passes the regular city council meeting for tuesday may 10th 2020 is adjourned at 4 13 p.m colonel thank you for everything is peter going to take over the elf from the shelter say i'm sorry sir i said thank you for everything is peter going to take your spotter's elf in the shelter i've been told i'm still going to continue the tradition after i oh [Laughter]