are you guys gonna see your your new director on the city council today yes three Mr Pine we got one minute good morning mayor good morning everyone we'll be starting in just about 30 seconds good morning you don't think anymore I used to have boundaries anymore veggie good morning ma'am good morning good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday June 6 2023 mayor lacer is present and presiding inside council chambers along with mayor representative Kennedy mayor Pro tem anello representative Hernandez alternate mayor Pro temolinat representative Salcido representative Fierro representative Rivera it is nine o'clock AM right on time and now well everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain Rabbi Levi Greenberg good morning rabbi good morning before I begin the invocation I would like to do an act of charity Sovereign of the world look favorably upon the mayor City Council Members the city staff and all of us gathered here this morning in person and online and bestow upon us all the joy of life good health and prosperity this week we study the Bible Narrative of the procedure followed by the Israelites throughout their 40-year journey through the desert to the promised land the Divine Cloud that hovered above the Tabernacle would Ascend indicating that it was time to travel forward to the next destination while the Israelites packed their tents the Levites hurriedly dismantled the Tabernacle and loaded its various parts onto their designated wagons a trumpet blast signaled the beginning of the journey and the entire Camp of several million strong marched forward when the clouds stopped the Levites reconstructed the Tabernacle under it and the Israelites camped around it in their designated pattern there was no set schedule as to how long they would camp in a specific area at times they were stationary for years and sometimes the clouds signaled a New Journey after only one night regardless of the convenience or lack thereof the Bible States at God's bidding they encamped and at God's bidding they traveled this provides us with a powerful lesson in our own lives wherever we may find ourselves on the Journey of life we must be conscious of the fact that our path is set by God and every step on the way is an opportunity to perpetuate goodness and bring light to places where Darkness prevails to accomplish the Divine task of perfecting our world one step at a time it behooves us to reflect on the statement in God we trust printed on our currency to appreciate that all our success is a blessing from above and we are to utilize these blessings to spread goodness and kindness one routine action at a time thereby fostering unity and friendship preparing the world for an era of true peace and tranquility please God give strength to our elected officials to be cognizant of your presence and they have the ability to elevate the quality of life to everyone in our region and to inspire us all to come together in unity that we truly care for our peers for society our environment and work together to make our world a better place for all May our Borderland region serve as a beacon of light strength and moral courage as we do our part in preparing the world for an era of Global Peace and Tranquility may this occur speedily in our times amen thank you sir thank you um sure will you lead us in the pledge sir in the United States and I do want to thank and recognize everybody this year today thank you for being here hi I do want to you know I I think about as the rabbi was talking about humanity and people and it uh I had the opportunity to start thinking about the way the city the county and really the state has handled the finishing of title 42 and how the city of El Paso and um they um office of emergency management everybody handled the um our Asylum Seekers and how we treated people with respect and will continue to treat people with respect and will continue to make sure that people are treated properly and the city really did an incredible job of doing that and I want to continue to make sure that even though the numbers today now show that they're way down it's really because of the I attribute that to really the the job that everyone did as a whole and you know you can you really can't Point your finger at one person because really everybody did it as a team and we've talked about that as a team we do a lot of things well and individually we don't do very many things on our own very well so I I want to you know kind of thank everybody for the job they did and I want to thank everybody for treating people the way we always want to be treated and I I want us to kind of close our eyes and kind of thank all the elected leaders non-elected leaders office of emergency management and really our federal partners that really helped us to make sure that we had the funding and we had the proper tools to be able to do the right job and thank everybody for really the job they did and moving forward to make sure that we always continue to treat people the way we always want to be treated thank you Mr Prime thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is personal attendant Appreciation Day and for the record representative Canales is also present in council chambers um representative um Kennedy thank you whereas elderly and people with disabilities want to live free and independent lives with community-based services and support in their own homes and whereas personal attendants play a crucial role in ensuring people with various disabilities and the elderly are able to live independent and productive lives while facilitating facilitating activities of daily living such as but not limited to bathing dressing toileting feeding transferring Mobility cooking cleaning laundry managing medications routine care and other help related to health issues provided by a person without a nursing license and whereas persons with injuries or in sickness may need long or short-term services from personal attendance and whereas people with disabilities and the elderly would like to acknowledge and extend their gratitude to those people who without benefits equality of pay for their important services or paid vacations work diligently to facilitate the lives of others and now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of city of El Paso that June 6 2023 shall be known as personal attendant Appreciation Day good morning good morning and you know it's um as you read that uh representative Kennedy I um I think of when my father had Alzheimer's and he needed somebody to help him and there's always an angel everywhere and my sister took good care of him and knew all of the angels to the people that need your assistance and your love so I thank you for that thank you mucha gracias in English speaking Spanish translation my name is I'm the organizer for the personal attendant Coalition of Texas is this Coalition formed in 2006 to start fighting for the rights of personal care attendants we've been fighting for better wages and benefits for 17 years for personal care attendance and every year we've been fighting to um get better wages but our legislator just gives us sense as reasons and China our fight has been for 15 an hour for personal care attendance 11 is the switch for a personal care attendant right now is two dollars and 49 cents was the increase that this past legislature approved as a race for attendant wages 10 10 60 is what was approved as a minimum for personal care attendance foreign we've been fighting for 15 an hour because that's what our personal care attendants are worth with this Proclamation we want to acknowledge um and thank the personal care attendants for their passion dedication uh working for people with disabilities in the elderly thank you mayor city council for the proclamation [Applause] thank you gracias thank you thank you the next Proclamation is Juneteenth Independence Day wait for the individuals to yes ma'am come up see Monica if you want to come up good morning my friend so so Proclamation at the city of El Paso Texas whereas in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring all slaves free however this Freedom was not made known to many enslaved black Americans until two years after its passage and whereas Juneteenth recognizes that on June 19 1865 the last enslaved people in Galveston Texas were informed that slavery had been abolished and black Americans who had been slaves in the southwest celebrated June 19th commonly known as Juneteenth Independence Day as inspiration and encouragement for future generations and whereas Juneteenth provides an opportunity for the city to celebrate black American heritage and honor the live sacrifices and contributions that are woven into the American Fabric and acknowledges the United States commitment to Liberty and equality in accordance with our constitution along with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery ratified by Congress on December 6 1865. and where as the candid acknowledgment of this history is necessary if we as a nation state or city are successful in our efforts to build a truly Equitable community that exemplifies and promotes the fundamental American values of Freedom diversity equality liberty and justice and whereas the city of El Paso recognizes Juneteenth Independence Day as a day to celebrate the culturally important role of emancipation and the work towards the Liberation in our past present and future and recognizes and can commends the efforts of organizations like black El Paso voice and the inter Club Council of El Paso for promoting and preserving black American culture in the city of El Paso now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that June 19 2023 shall be known as Juneteenth Independence Day thank you good morning oh I'm sorry good morning good morning to thank the city Council for approximately last year and how it's sometimes during this time of year people do complain and say I can't believe we're celebrating another black history month and the thing is when it comes to Juneteenth it's about Freedom um ever since the first celebration in Galveston uh years ago to celebrate uh being free here in Texas and in Texas it's been acknowledged since 1980 actually and it's now a Federal holiday so what we're doing now is celebrating here in El Paso and thanks to city parks and rec who I contacted last year in May to see if they would assist us with having a celebration this year and the office of Representative anello we can make that actualization on June 17th at 2 p.m at Nations Tobin Park where we'll be celebrating but not only will we we be celebrating we'll be educating the community about the importance of celebrating Freedom day and we can do that more here in El Paso by educating the community it's much needed when it comes to not just black history but the importance of why we celebrate and some things that we're still in some ways fighting for uh when it comes to the education of the community about Juneteenth um we're missing it and we would like for the city to join with us in educating the community this is a celebration where we hope that the city would actually take on as it as its own just like Winterfest we hope that Juneteenth could be a Summer Fest or something to celebrate um our freedoms it's been difficult um putting it together because when you contact people and tell them about it and um they're like well Black History Month isn't until February why are you doing this now so we're still we're still somewhat missing it but not only in the city as a whole but with our own uh black community as well so we hope that the city will join us in educating the community about the importance of Juneteenth thank you and thank you for what you all do thank you greetings everyone good morning Sir Marcus McCoy I serve on the McCall Center board of directors as the Director of public relations um I want to invite you all in spirit of Juneteenth to come out on June 19th at the McCall neighborhood center from 8 to 10 we're going to be doing a Juneteenth breakfast and all the uh the information can be found online at mccollister.org thank you thank you sir good morning my name is Randy weich I'm a native apostleant and I'm very proud of El Paso um considering all their people in the community in the black community and I hope to see all of you at Juneteenth it starts with leadership and to give that knowledge to people and also for you guys to learn the knowledge and see and meet the other half of El Paso so I hope to see you there thank you thank you again for what you all do thank you all congratulations thank you and if this morning's honorees will please remain in Chambers Council will have an opportunity to take photos with you once all the ceremonial items have been completed the next Proclamation is Texas Police Athletic Federation Texas police games week if you'd like to come forward representative um [Laughter] Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the dates of June 11th through the 17th 2023 Mark the Texas Police Athletic Federation Texas police games and whereas the Texas police games include all law enforcement First Responders and active veteran military and athletic events and whereas the El Paso Sports commission destination El Paso El Paso City Parks and Recreation and El Paso County Parks and Recreation have partnered to bring the Texas police games to El Paso and whereas over 1 000 participants from Texas Arizona Nevada New Mexico Colorado Oklahoma and the state of Chihuahua New Mexico are expected to compete in nearly 40 events all across El Paso County and whereas the 2023 Texas police games marked the first time the games have been held in El Paso since 1981 and whereas law enforcement First Responders and the military are a lifeblood of the El Paso Community unity and whereas law enforcement or it's going to be whereas the El Paso Community wholeheartedly supports all law enforcement and their participation in the 2023 Texas police games and whereas we encourage all businesses and community members to welcome and support all law enforcement as they take in our City's restaurants shops parks and hotels now therefore it be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso the June 11th through June 17 2023 shall be known as Texas Police Athletic Federation Texas police games week signed the honorable Oscar leaser mayor city of El Paso [Applause] good morning sir good morning mayor council members thank you so much for having us today and thank you so much for the proclamation my name is Bo Bagley Sports tourism director for the El Paso Sports commission 1981. been a long time uh two key selling points for the Texas Police Athletic Federation number one El Paso has put in one billion dollars worth of infrastructure improvements the last 10 years it's time to show it off number two it's time to support law enforcement behind me uh what 14 of the last 15 years top three safest large cities in the United States uh in terms of the Texas Police Athletic Federation became a no-brainer it was a unanimous vote to bring the Texas police games back to El Paso and I'd like to say just as of yesterday registration is now up to 1200 participants in 40 events making this the largest Texas police games in nearly 10 years it's coming to El Paso takes uh it I'm just kind of the conductor but it takes an orchestra as you can see behind me there's a lot of people involved to make this happen uh El Paso PD um everybody in of course uh the late chief Allen in lieu of advertisements and have a copy of a program that's going to come out in about two days we did a two-page advertisement uh dedicating to Chief Allen um and uh takes a village uh Sheriff's Office Commander arutia Deputy Omar Gonzalez actually defending national champion in soccer I'm about to talk some smack out there uh El Paso a Municipal Police Officers Association Sergeant Victor Vela I'm sure if he's here uh local 51 Paul Thompson um uh of course uh City Parks and Rec Ben Fife Monica Vargas and their crew County parks and recs Veronica Myers Tessa Jimenez and their crew and of course our title sponsors at T firstnet this is something that's very exciting coming next week to El Paso there are 40 events all over the city certainly invite all of you out to uh to welcome the participants and enjoy the enjoy the the festivities and all the events I like to bring up maybe commander arutia and a member from the El Paso Police Department and ATT firstnet if I may please thank you good morning mayor good morning you did a great job by the way on the pledge thank you sir thank you um this is exciting 1200 participants that's 1200 people coming to visit our beautiful city uh rent our hotels eat in our restaurants and we get to Showcase what we're all about um really too this is about we have so many athletes that work in public service firemen police officers federal law enforcement that were former athletes in college and in high school and they get to go out and showcase their skills of the El Paso County Sheriff's office has uh Lieutenant Corey Harrison who was a division one track athlete at UTEP Lieutenant Andre Wright who played on The Saul Ross team that went to the Sweet 16 in 2004 so these are great individuals get to come out showcase what they're about organize events on behalf of the police games and really bring El Paso to the spotlight in the law enforcement community and their families so it's a great event thank you for sponsor thank you for your support on the event and we hope to see you out there thank you thank you [Applause] a member from El Paso PD well uh like Liz Archuleta from ATT firstnet please thank you good morning good morning so good morning mayor um it is an honor for at T to be the chief sponsor of the 2023 Texas police games at T has a long history of supporting Public Safety and providing reliable emergency communication services to our country um we're excited to welcome over 1200 participants and their families and supporters to our fine City again we want to thank you for your support in welcoming the Texas police games and we wish all competitors especially our local competitors good luck lots of fun and safety and for them to enjoy everything that El Paso has to offer thank you so much thank you and I think you see that this Council in this city supports police First Responders and always will thank you mayor and Council just you said it right Liz said it right ATT has been supported public supporting Public Safety through firstnet for a very long time and we're honored to continue to support uh law enforcement in this exciting game so thank you all um for for this important for the proclamation and we're just really excited to be part of it thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Mr Bagley you have a really good voice you ever thought of going on TV I'm just wondering uh thank you [Laughter] climation is not cancer survivor month I noticed representative Salcido thank you mayor Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas a cancer survivor is an individual living with a history of cancer from the moment of diagnosis through the remainder of his or her life and whereas there is a more than 900 909 147 000 Texans who are cancer survivors and nearly 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States and whereas more than 137 308 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Texas and whereas many cancers are preventable and are treatable if detected early and whereas helping those with cancer is a top priority through increasing access to Quality cancer screening care providing effective prevention strategies and providing services to individuals living with and Beyond cancer whereas the first Sunday in June is recognized that the national cancer survivor day and during the month of June we celebrate those individuals who have bravefully and successfully battled with cancer to earn that designation Survivor and whereas we celebrate our cancer survivors who have reached their milestones and recognize those who have been supported along the way now they're therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso the month of June 2023 shall be known as National cancer survivor month signed by The Honorable Oscar mayor liser good morning Miss Henry good morning and thank you mayor and Council my name is Carol bowley executive director of the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation we are very grateful for today's Proclamation this month we celebrate survivorship just like we did last Saturday at our annual give cancer the boot Survivor celebration but it's also an opportunity to bring awareness to challenges that those that are going through a cancer Journey continue to face and I'm not talking about treatment and side effects which are devastating enough but also Rising medical costs inadequate Insurance difficulty finding or keeping employment an ongoing physical psychological and financial struggles the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation exists to reduce the considerable burden of cancer and improve the quality of life for those living with through and Beyond cancer I'm honored to be joined this morning by some amazing people who would like to say a few words Nancy swopes she's a oncology nurse and breast cancer navigator from the hospitals of Providence Dr moaz Solomon a radiation oncologist from Texas Oncology Felipe Solis executive director of El Paso Pro musica and a cancer survivor and finally Cindy Martinez program manager for the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation thank you so much thank you good morning thank you familiar and Council for the proclamation um as Carol said I'm an oncology nurse and breast cancer specialist in the 17 years that I've taken care of cancer patients we like to celebrate them every day we do have June we have the rest of the month but also as Carol said along with their struggles of cancer the treatment they they survive so many other things they have emotional distress financial distress spiritual distress child care so everything that they get they get through is a big milestone and it's worth celebrating and so like I said June 4th is cancer survivor day but we like to celebrate them all year long with every Milestone they do because they really really are survivors thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Nancy and thank you uh city council for having us here this morning good morning um for this important occasion my name is Melissa Solomon as Carol said I am a radiation oncologist I specialize in the treatment of solid tumors uh with radiotherapy but more importantly I specialize in making sure that our cancer patients can live strong healthy and fulfilling lives I want our city leaders to know something before I speak about our survivors I've had the opportunity to work around this great country at several Cancer Centers both community and academic and nowhere have I found such a kind trusting resilient welcoming community that is a privilege to take care of but part of what this community also needs is ensuring survivorship is also not forgotten oftentimes as Physicians we're focused on the success of treatment but we also need to focus on the success after treatment the success of life not just being alive but being able to thrive and with that I want to you know recognize our survivors here in this community that have paved the way for all of our future survivors to come through and to be able to live those strong healthy lives thank you [Applause] good morning good morning everyone I'm Felipe Solis yes I'm with El Paso Pro musica and music also heals as well but um I'm not here just as a Survivor or as we said and saw how the doctor put so eloquently thrivers um I'm here to salute all of the survivors who every day not only make a difference for themselves but are examples of strength and power for us all when I was first diagnosed Charlie swopes was one of the first people I spoke to because I didn't know what was going to happen and there are people like this in this community who are making a difference for people who may not have the means who may not understand what the next steps might be and I think it's so wonderful that city council today especially you mayor Lisa are here to celebrate and honor those people who have had difficulties getting to the point of the finish line and the one group of people I think that is most important to recognize today are those people who have stood by beside all of us our families our loved ones our friends in the worst of times and in the best of times as we're crossing that finish line and we're called as survivors so it's the love that we have that surrounds survivors that makes all the difference and the love from the city city council indeed giving all survivors one great big hug and we want to thank the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation for all they do simple things like a yoga class a cooking class having someone to talk to for so many people how important it is to just be able to wear a wig at the most difficult times real grand cancer is making so much happen for so many thousands of people in this community every year and to be able to stand up here with them is an honor for me and a greater honor for me to stand before you thank you so much for this incredible Proclamation thank you [Applause] good morning just to recap I'm Cindy Martinez from the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation thank you so much for joining us and celebrating National cancer survivor month it is an inspiration working at the Cancer Foundation daily and seeing our patrons come in at the best times and at the worst times we celebrate them every day and they Inspire us and thank you very much thank you you know and I want to know anyone in this room in here that it's either had to cancer themselves or a family member that's had cancer please stand up so see how important this is and there's so many people affected in our community so thank you all representative thank you final problem is Young Women's Leadership Academy month mayor um I'm going to ask to probably forego this they were unable to make it today and so I'll just translate yeah we'll we'll move it further following okay thank you so much appreciate it that's fine mayor would you like to go to the consent agenda I would love to do that thank you on my way Mr Lee you sound like you could do um TV also you do have that voice for TV also there's a future there thank you all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine I 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 what number is it I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page 5 item 13 revise per the city clerk's office and that revision is to correct the board name to read Americorps seniors advisory Council and then I have another one it's page eight item 19 and that is to add representative anello as a co-sponsor come here also would like to move item nine excuse me 18 to the front please foreign portion number yes so there is a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to page 8 to item number 18. on the agenda and this is discussion in action on a resolution that recognizes June as post-traumatic stress disorder awareness month this item was submitted by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina yeah oh okay good morning mayor council Rene rotado with Chief of Staff for emergence Health Network your mental health authority good morning sir as we just heard Junior's post-traumatic stress disorder Awareness Month an emergency Health Network along with its veteran services department and other partners would like to use this time to shed some light on the importance of this condition well most people make a connection of PTSD with the military Community it is important to understand that PTSD is not only developed by members of the Armed Forces anyone can develop PTSD when they experience or Witness A traumatic event in whatever setting non-combat PTSD can affect all ages genders income levels ethnicities and Lifestyles anyone who experiences or learns about an event involving actual or threatened death sexual violation or Serious injury can develop PTSD and it can be debilitating in some cases PTSD can disrupt an individual's daily functions and they can re-experience the event they can have negative flashbacks nightmares severe anxiety irritable behavior and angry outbursts it's a condition that can impact any person and those around them especially family members unfortunately in El Paso our community has experienced a series of traumatic events from the horrific events of A3 to the pandemic and its aftermath to our current ongoing challenges getting help can prevent symptoms from getting worse it the important message here is that c can help a treatment for PTSD can make real can make a real difference reaching out is the first step whether it's reaching out to hn or other community providers it's important to take that first step at emergence you can reach out and call our our call center 242-0555 or simply dial 988 as the local mental health authority in El Paso emergence Health Network would like to take this time today throughout the month of June and they actually really throughout the year to help raise public awareness about the real issues related to PTSD reduce the stigma associated with it and help ensure that those who are suffering from those invisible wounds get the proper treatment thank you sir I'm here with some members of the PT of the emergence team who are here to Champion this this important cause thank you sir thank you post-traumatic stress disorder Awareness Month resolution whereas post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD has been recognized in His official mental health diagnosis by the diagnostic and statistical manual mental disorders since 1980 and whereas anyone can develop PTSD when they experience or Witness A traumatic event and approximately 12 million people will have post-traumatic stress disorder within the any given year and whereas Veterans of the Armed Forces and active duty military members are disproportionately impacted by PTSD and whereas many post-traumatic stress responses remain unreported undiagnosed and untreated due to lack of awareness about post-traumatic stress and the persistent stigma associated with mental health conditions and whereas post traumatic stress significantly increases the risk of post-traumatic stress responses including anxiety depression homelessness substance abuse and suicide especially if left untreated and whereas opasicans call the 9 8-8 suicide and crisis line for the emergence Health Network Crisis Line 915-779-188 excuse me one eight zero zero if they or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis and whereas June is recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder Awareness Month a time for people to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and Recovery now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that the city of El Paso recognizes June as post-traumatic stress disorder to bring awareness to those with PTSD and to encourage people to reach out to their fellow citizens to provide support and remove the stigma associated with this disorder sign Oscar release or the mayor city of El Paso thank you again thank you for being here thank you Mr Prime is there a motion to approve motion to proof there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Fierro to approve the resolution on item 18. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 19 is discussion in action to approve a resolution recognizing women Veterans Day for their service to the United States armed forces this item was submitted by Representatives Kennedy and a mayor potema anello representative Kennedy whereas for 248 years women have proudly served in the United States armed forces in both unofficial and official capacities to serve and preserve the freedom and liberty of the people of the United States and whereas women's contributions to the success of the American Revolution include but not limited to the spinning of Liberty cloth picketing merchants selling British Imports writing propaganda and firing cannons on the battlefields and whereas women some disguised as men commanded troops and fought in battles such as Cathay Williams the only woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier and a Buffalo Calf Road woman who knocked Lieutenant Colonel George Custer off his horse in the Battle of Little Bighorn and whereas thousands of women enlisted in the U.S nurse Corps and navy nurse quarters often tending to the killed and wounded on the battlefield and thousands of hello girls operated switchboards near the front lines of World War One whereas in World War II 350 000 women enlisted in the women's Army Corps of the Navy women's reserve the Marine Corps women's reserve the Coast Guard women's reserve and the women's Air Force service Pilots the Army Nurse Corps and the Navy nurse Corps and whereas a 1948 Congress passed the women's armed services integration act allowing women to serve as permanent members of the United States armed forces but restricting each branch to two percent of women many of which many went on to courageously serve in mass units in the Korean war combat theater and whereas women who volunteered to serve in the Vietnam war in the health Communications intelligence Administration fields and continued to face the horrors of combat with eight women killed were finally allowed to be promoted to General and command units but still faced a 10-year obstacle to the building of the Vietnam Women's Memorial and whereas Desert Shield Desert Storm although barred from combat forty thousand service women deployed serving in more roles than were previously opened such as plane and helicopter Pilots and where more women found themselves engaged in combat as the lines of Engagement were continuously blurred since September 11 2001 over 300 000 women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and whose courageous actions and exemplary performances have further opportunities for women by the way of lifting combat restrictions nine thousand Combat Action badges 114 Army Rangers 940 tankers infantry and Cavalry Scouts Scouts and whereas an estimated one thousand women have been killed in action 100 were prisoners of war and countless others wounded in combat since 1773 and despite being the fastest growing subgroup of veterans women veterans continue to face barriers to equality and recognition amongst their male counterparts and in the civilian community and furthermore declare that they will no longer be invisible now therefore be resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that the city of El Paso recognizes June 12 2023 as women's Veterans Day to recognize and honor the service and sacrifices of the women who volunteered to served in the United States armed forces foreign thank you so much representative Kennedy for initiating this Proclamation and thank you everyone for your support my name is Melissa harcrow I'm here today not only as the chair of the city's Veterans Affairs advisory committee but also as the women veterans program coordinator for West Texas with the Texas veterans commission and since I've started this position I've I've learned that many women who have served in the armed forces do not consider themselves veterans and that's due to a multitude of reasons some of which because they were told by society that they are not veterans because they are not a man some because they were did not deploy and some because they did not serve and combat jobs that is absolutely false and as we said in the proclamation You Are Not Invisible you are a veteran so if you served in the armed forces you are a veteran um I'm here today with a group of strong women leaders behind me strong women veterans we have Shalia Anthony she is with the military veterans peer Network and the emergence Health Network and we have next to her Alexis McRae who is the chair of the of the County's veterans Advisory board and the spearhead of the women's Veterans Day events we have Beatrice Ramirez who is the commander is a commander of the American GI Forum here oh and Shelia is also the vice she is the regional Commander Shalia is the vice regional vice Commander I'm sorry about that and Lisa Turner Lisa Turner is the for the transgender veterans what is your position Lisa National chair for advocacy for the transgender Veterans of America if that doesn't tell you that women leaders lead from the front I don't know what else does so and as they said for Juneteenth it starts with leadership again I thank you so much for that does anybody want to say anything no okay one thing I'd like to say though oh you know Lisa always got something to say [Laughter] so I did want to also point out some uh combat deployments Shalia how many did you have two deployments to Afghanistan one deployment to Kuwait it's hot there what Betty has one deployment to Afghanistan Lisa Fort Bliss [Laughter] and I have four one to Iraq one to Afghanistan and two Qatar to Qatar plus one overseas tour to Korea so thank you again very much for this I really really appreciate it I really shot from the hip today but thank you for your time thank you for all for your service thank you [Applause] mayor Miss Lisa Turner signed up to speak on this item thank you all again for for your service to our country thank you for everything and Ms Turner mayor Council my name is Lisa Turner I presently serve as the national chair for advocacy for the transgender and diverse Veterans of America we are agile adaptive and we work at the local level we're here for all of our veterans you put that uniform on your family plain and simple now there's a dog tag over here a large sized I can't wear these around my neck it says Heroes don't wear capes they wear dog tags we go where others are scared to go we do what is our nation ask of us a lot of us come back broken women were not considered veterans until 1980 by the VA and I remember when we opened our Women's Health Clinic at our local VA Dr Rogers was the head the VA furnished it with broken equipment so we will always need your support and your backing if it was quite frankly as Melissa says women are still not treated as veterans it's quite simple you put that uniform on I don't care for your male female whatever your family and you're a veteran thank you thank you Mr Turner thank you all and again thank you for serving our country is there a motion to approve we need a motion to pray sorry well I didn't make one I made the motion to improve sorry there's the motion made by mayor Pro tem Manila secondary by representative Molina to approve item number 19. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously is there a motion to recess there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 9 51 a.m in order to take photos with this morning's honorees council members and folks who are joining us this morning um we're going to go ahead and do the personal attendance Appreciation Day photograph in the back of this room um in front of the photographs since our our folks are already situated there we're going to follow it up with the juneteen Independence Day photographs in the Juneteenth Independence Day photographs are going to go ahead and go outside in the lobby Then followed by the Texas Police Police Athletic Federation Texas police games week again we're gonna do that one out in the lobby as well so if I can get those folks to join us out in the lobby followed by national care cancer survivor month also out in the lobby and then we'll move on to the post-traumatic stress disorder awareness and the women Veterans Day out also in the lobby so if I could get the council members and folks situated in the back of this room and everyone else if I can get you all to meet us in the lobby thank you thank you foreign so we won't uh we won't come back to um we won't okay thank you Miss Prine yes sir at this time uh we would like to convene the city of El Paso Health Facilities Development Corporation meeting good morning this is a meeting of the city of El Paso Health Facilities Development Corporation for Tuesday June 6 2023 it is 10 12 A.M board chair Lisa is present and presiding along with board of directors Kennedy anello Hernandez molinar Salcido Fierro Rivera and Canales that brings us to item one on the agenda and this is discussion in action to approve a resolution of the board of directors of the city of El Paso Health Facilities Development Corporation authorizing a first supplement to indenture of trust and security agreement and improving documents in connection they're with good morning Paul Braden with Norton Rose full Bond Council to the city and the health facilities Development Corporation uh there's a presentation that was a part of the backup for this item and I can just go through it briefly it sort of goes a good overview of what is being asked to the city's hfdc and and why is necessary so this if you'll so this is really has to do with the transition from Libor to sofa Libor as many of you probably know was an international index that a lot of financings relied on there were some it was UK based there was scandal-based associated with that that index many years ago and they they are phasing out that index and it's actually going to go away at the end of June so Bond documents were put in place in 20 2010 that relied on Libor in terms of calculating the interest rate and so this has to be changed in the bond documents because that index is disappearing at the end of this month and so it's being substituted with this new index called sopher and that's really the Genesis of this change and I can go through it here the the corporation is the non-profit corporation that was created by the city many years ago for the purposes of helping Health Facilities within the city of El Paso you know providing to provide really tax-exempt financing it's a way for 501c3n entities in the health side can access the tax exempt Bond markets in first in 2002 but then in 2007 and most recently in 2010 benvenue Senior Health Services which is a El Paso 501c3 entity issued debt and again as indicated the debt was a pegged to Libor as an index the debt that was issued the city is not responsible for it in any way nor is the hfdc responsible for in any way the city hfdc has to agree to make changes to the documents technically for tax purposes the hfdc is the issuer under the loan documents so as I indicated the bonds were tax exempt and they pay interest at a variable rate based on a percentage of the London London interbank offered rate which is Libor so in 2017 UK announced a discontinuation of Libor Libor will cease to be reported as an index on at the end of this month do you in 2017 the U.S Regulators also identified that the secured overnight financing rate which people refer to as sofa is the recommended replacement for Libor Bloomberg which of course we're familiar with published would be would be recommended spreads to Soffer as a replacement to the one month Libor so those are the things that the industry looks to in terms of what the right replacement for Libor is uh JP Morgan which is the lender on Ben video's debt indicated they would actually do a little bit better than what Bloomberg recommended so they've agreed to a spread that's a little bit better than what was industry recommendations so first action taken with respect to this matter was on March 23rd city council met and re-constituted the board of directors of the hfdc and appointed city council as the board that's just for ease Administration on a going forward basis now this meeting of course is just to go ahead and meet to approve the changes to the bond documents if approved by the board the hfd president which is the mayor and the secretary Ms Pine would sign the first supplement to the indenture of the trust and the bond reflecting it Ben vivita is responsible for all legal fees associated with the modifications and as indicated they're also responsible for all payments under the debt these are the technical changes to Libor in terms of the percentages we also added some definitions so there are fallback Provisions that if in the future so far went away we sort of already built something into the documents so that we wouldn't have to come back and make the same type of changes uh no changes are being made to the existing term security structure or any of the Covenants I'd run a pause here and indicate that there are two representatives from Ben Vivir who's making this request in the audience they want to come up and say anything associated with this uh thank you for considering our our request today it really is needed by us we think it's a fairly simple process of approving it we have been working in the community for a very very long time it's complicated in that a whole lot of lawyers and representatives from our underwriting Corporation Kane brothers from that's a division of Key Bank and a variety of different people have been involved to make sure that the document is accurate and that it represents what it needs to represent and we're able to convert over from library to sulfur but we appreciate the time in your consideration of this request to amend our bond indenture it's very necessary for us to go forward in in paying our debt um and I will tell you that this is a very valued organization within the organization within the community we've been here for 35 years and I am very certain that we touch every single City District we have people coming from all of your districts to include district one because we just extended into 799-12. and we recently made some editions of 79927 and 79928 and the rest of the city is being served by by organization what we do in in a very condensed way is we make sure that frail elderly get comprehensive services and they get good and they get choices so when someone comes to us or is identified to us it's a voluntary enrollment but they can only be considered for enrollment in this program if they are nursing home eligible and then our mission is to keep them out of the nursing home until the day that they die we provide comprehensive services and we provide more than Medicare and Medicaid would pay or or support or approve because we are at risk for making sure that all services are provided to that individual so that they can maintain their their residents in their home we appreciate your support in the past I I know that at least a couple of you have visited our facility it really I think would Enlighten you in terms of how comprehensive and sophisticated this Service delivery system is if you would come and visit I it's very impressive and I think you'll see the level of Frailty that we deal with on a day-to-day basis so again our request to you is to please support us I in in amending this Bond indenture thank you very much for your time man may we have your name for the record please your name and title my name is I'm the president and CEO of the organization and I have with me Luis Ortiz who is the Vice President of Finance and is much more involved on a day-to-day basis in terms of working with all of these sophisticated financing systems mechanisms that we have to work with and certainly with the attorneys and if you would like to ask us any questions we are more than glad to do that thank you thank you Mir so I did have the honor and the privilege to visit bienvenid on Friday I must say that I was very impressed number one with the staff the executive staff everybody that made me feel very welcome I got to see firsthand everything that was happening there on a great tour so I will be supporting this and motion to Mr Prime we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by board director Molina seconded by board director Canales to approve item one on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to the end of the agenda is there a motion to adjour there's a motion and a second to adjourn the health facilities Development Corporation meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is adjourned at 10 22 A.M will now convene the mass transit Department board meeting thank you Mr Frank good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board for Tuesday June 6. it is 10 23 A.M present and presiding a sports chair leaser and also president Chambers are board members anello Hernandez molinar Salcido Fiero Rivera in Canales mayor members of council before we we begin the mass transit again I'd like us to take the opportunity to introduce you all to Anthony De Kaiser who will be leading us through the mass transit agenda Anthony has been with the city for a couple of years now and was recently promoted to the director position for Sun Metro interestingly enough Anthony came to us at the city through the bridge fellowship program so came from Fort Bliss through our bridge program had an internship opportunity so we're very glad to have Anthony here in the director position did a great job in the assistant director position and uh I think his leadership's going to serve us well here at the city and with Sun Metro so with that Anthony go ahead appreciate that sir thank you sir that's some slides associated with this brief I don't know if someone can bring those up we need to go to call to the public first sir if we may Mr Mr chairman we do have Mr stroomer Stevens rumor signed up to speak first call to the public and he's coming up his topic is Route 34 tardiness scanner difficulty for day pass disabled persons State passes unavailable for purchase and streetcar Riders fees Mr Schumer you have three minutes good morning sir name is Strummer that's okay um I want to ask you for the disability passes they have been very hard to get they're not available as of Friday ask for we thank you for the street car we don't know the fare of the streetcar for two different opinions one from Sun Metro another from the Press Corps that they are free so it's been um but we really appreciate it very much the streetcar using for the disability the mobility hydraulic lift for it is extremely important to me we were hoping maybe it would be a little bit for the morning we didn't know because of the heat the Intensive heat we do not want our seniors out in the Intensive Heat could lead to stroke or heart attack four or five o'clock we have a lot of seniors in South El Paso they're disabled and they're frail I thought maybe there's a possibility anyway I've had trouble using the uh day pass with the um scanner the driver shows me how but still it's not so easy to use you got that laser or whatever in it we had wanted a stop on Montana at Saint Clements the reason for the dire Brio so that people can move forward down Montana easily um these were ideas as I say we've had trouble some the bus gets packed during the morning hour on the 34 students coming up to El Paso High School at the 34 at four o'clock this bus is also packed the Burgess students on the 59 the bus is packed is there bumps in the road little things but they are a part of life doesn't mean everything's bad some is very good I appreciate the services and thank you for your precious time thank you very much sir and we will address that I know that we'll get Anthony we'll get him your number and they will get a hold of you and and kind of address that for you yeah no that should we'll get it to him sorry thank you sir thank you for being here for the record Boardman two items on the on the move to approve all matters listed under the consent agenda including those on the addition to the 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 there's some motion in a second and there is a motion made by board member anello and seconded by board member Canales oh is someone missing voting session is open I don't have it what third time oh there it is and the item has been approved unanimously thank you moving on to item number four it is a discussion in action and a resolution that the city manager or designee be authorized to sign and submit to the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas any required applications documentation information in order for the city to participate in the Texas commercial driver's license third party skills testing program and certify the city as an authorized organization to administer CDL examinations and there is a presentation second there's some okay first of all I'd like to say uh thank you mayor thank you city council for having me today and uh to Mr Stromer um I hear your concerns and I will get with you and I'll make sure that we we address that and we'll we'll work out those issues and make sure we try to take care of you and all the rest of disabled citizens of El Paso as best as we can thank you for that sir so what I'm here to talk to you about today is uh the third party skills testing program and what I want to do is increase the efficiency of the training and Licensing program for Sun Metro and so that's the goal so what I'm going to cover and talk to you about today is a third test third party skills testing program and what in the types of CDLs and how that applies to Sun Metro how it will benefit Sun Metro and finally asking the city council to approve the request to enter into this agreement what Senator Mitchell would like to do is enter into this agreement and the reason why is to reduce cost and minimize the out resourcing this would allow us to do on-site testing save coordination with DPS the travel times and the wait times that we have to to do right now at DPS really what we're trying to do is save the resources um with Sun Metro currently it takes two to three buses two trainers and 15 students in a few days to move all of those resources down to the Anthony site and do the testing under the existing circumstances we have to maximize resource and time and coordinate all of these uh testers ago at one time that makes it so nevertheless but usually the more it takes an hour and a half at least for each tester to test and so because we have to group these all together we have the rest of the tester City and idle and we also have to have the trainer there available too to coordinate with the right the testers in case there's a first time failure so we know how to retrain that individual so what I want to do now is tell you a little bit about the program first the programs of the program the amendment the agreement made by the Department of Public Safety authorizing the third party skills testing program to be in existence this consists of them allowing there to be testers records Keepers and auditors right and then the next portion is the examinations this is a third party skills testing Which authorized companies like Sun Metro to administer the knowledge and driving skills examination right and then it comes to actually having Sun Metro having the required Personnel so right now we have the CDL third-party tester we're allowed to go and do that training so we have the test run site what we do not have is the records keeper and we need the approved from the city council in order to send that person to training to do that piece so we will use our existing staff to do this so each of the people the tester and the records keeper that we've identified to do this this for us is certified CDL holders right so they have their CDL license they're also Transit safety Institute certified they also have been drivers supervisors trainers and safety personnel for Sun Metro so we've done our due diligence about the individuals that we're picking to make sure this program works correctly so the CDL type that we need is a Class B with the p endorsement this requires a written test and a driving test the class B authorized individual to drive a vehicle that weighs 26 000 pounds and it also authorizes for you to carry passengers up to 24 passengers so our vehicles 35 Footers are 42 000 pounds and our 60 foot is our 69 000 pounds so we definitely have to have the class B CDL license now when you talk about the P endorsement the P endorsement comes when you have to carry passengers or the public not just passengers of a company or whatnot right and so the P endorsement goes further in depth with the testing and it goes into boarding and de-boarding ADA requirements serving securing Mobility devices and other safety aspects so how does this benefit Sun Metro what are we trying to get out of this currently we have to work with the limitations of DPS and their testing schedule um potentially it holds up the class for two weeks so if we have four classes a year right four classes a year because it takes about two months but if we extend that out every time we have a class by two weeks that reduces the amount of classes we can have which reduces the amount of drivers we can have on the on the road uh services in the city citizens of El Paso this becomes problematic right and so the end result what we're looking for is to increase the efficiencies time resources and save saved saving of money so that's what we're looking for here so the third party agreement the bottom line is Sun Metro will be able to do the testing and keep records on the behalf of DPS it speeds up the process it relieves DPS of backlog testers and it increases Sun Metro efficiencies so what we're recommending is that the board approves Sun Metro enter and into this this agreement and so with that that's my presentation and I hope that you uh the city council agrees to let Sun Metro increase its efficiencies and increase the amount of drivers that we can get behind the wheel and the buses to service the citizens of El Paso thank you very much Colonel for your presentation and uh representative anello mayor Pro tem hi sir how are you can you pronounce your last name for me Kaiser the Kaiser thanks I just wanted to make sure I was saying that correctly um I want to say thank you for the presentation you did a great job it's great to meet you we're happy to have you on board in this role um I just want to ask a clarifying question so this is a testing program through DPS that someone on our staff will be able to do the test or someone else comes in and does that now this is a program that's already with DPS it's already up and running there's other companies or corporations entities that are using this program and so we are allowed to to enter and join this program actually the the MV the lift that does our Paratransit already is entered into this program and so the individuals that we'll use again are our current existing staff and so we do everything in our training program right now in order to get individuals licensed except for the actual testing portion so we have classroom portion then we have uh our on-site portion our close course portion and then that middle section the testing portion and then we have to take them out on the road and do Road familiarization nation and familiarization with the routes that the drivers are actually going to drive so that testing portion is kind of right at the at the two-thirds point and that is where the holdup is and getting them tested passing the test and then moving on to getting out onto the road and you say that there's a reduction in cost by doing this so the main reduction in cost comes from not having to use our resources we get to do a couple things keep the buses that we have to take off off the the roads off the routes and so now we don't have to use as many doing the testing process and then we actually use our drivers are for the trainers they're actually also drivers so when we go into the test the training program the drivers become trainers and so now we have to if that class lengthens we have drivers doing training for an extended period of time so there's resources that that were taken away and as long as the class extends because we have to keep them together or that creates more resources that we have to do by having more trainers right then that's just many more drivers we don't have on the road once again so I'm trying to maximize the resources in the shortest amount of time to get the most amount of resources drivers and buses on the road well it sounds like this makes a lot of sense it was supportive and I thank you for the presentation the explanation thank you ma'am congrats again thank you thank you again Colonel and with that we have a motion in a second we do have a motion to approve by board member Rivera seconded by born member Salcido the polling is open and it has been approved unanimously that's the last item motion thank you very much again all those in favor aye and the meeting has been adjourned at 10 39 a.m missionary convene council meeting there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor aye anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 39 A.M mayor can we please move up item 35 on page 14. I know we're going to do item 18 first I know I'm kidding yes ma'am thank you this is item 35 ma'am thank you item 35 is discussion in action on the appointment of two candidates as substitute associate Municipal judges of the municipal court to fill terms from June 26 2023 through June 25th 2027. good morning good morning so this I'm Lilia World director of the municipal court and I'm happy to introduce our two judicial candidates uh Miss Sarah pretty and Mr Roberto Ramos thank you thank you for being here do please feel free to kill people no questions we have a motion don't make a motion to approve so it's pretty good we got two motions in two seconds so one for each one of you Miss Prine yes sir the motion was made by me representative Hernandez I just would like an opportunity if you all could just introduce yourselves and so we can welcome you to the public thank you so I'm Sarah pretty um I have criminal law for about 11 years I'm a one-trick pony so I don't know anything that's not criminal law I started as a prosecutor then a public defender went out into private practice I was a full-time criminal law magistrate at the jail for three years I missed private practice so I've been out for a whole two months and um and I'm excited to work at munichord again so um one last thing I guess I have a million kids precisely six um and and we live in Manhattan Heights so we interact probably unfortunately interact with representative anello a lot I wasn't very nice unfortunately I think I might be a little bit of a pain um but but yeah any any questions specific questions judge thank you for being here we really appreciate your service to our community judge thank you thank you representative Kennedy good morning go ahead sir good morning so my name is Roberto Ramos I'm a born and raised El Paso in I lived in San Antonio for a little bit but came back to help you know serve my community because that's the reason why I went to law school I recently went out on my own this January I also am the city the county mediator for the family law cases that we have and I'm just looking forward to serving the city and serving the community of El Paso again and hopefully being approved as a judge thank you judge thank you represent Kennedy I was going to say that I'm knowledgeable of both candidates have dealt with judge pritty of when she was a magistrate on frequent occasions and I think these two are as qualified as you could find thank you and then we have motion and a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by alternate mayor Pro temolinar to approve item 35. unfortunately I don't get to vote but I would vote for both of you thank you and congratulations on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously congratulations thank you very much thank you congratulations again we now return to page number eight the next item is number 20. and item 20 is presentation discussion and action regarding proposed amendments to the noise ordinance title line and Amplified sound permit title V including but not limited to an update on progress toward the direction provided by the city council in June of 2022 to continue public Outreach and the solicitation of a third party expert to evaluate and recommend proposed amendments this item was submitted by representative Canales guy representative thank you um yeah for for many years now the the city council has been looking at different proposed changes to our noise ordinances both concerning uh noise nuisances and Title IX uh of our code and then Amplified sound permits uh in title five after a very robust public Outreach process with many public meetings several hearings in front of the council the first set of changes passed in February 2019 with the understanding that the implementation of those would would be monitored and that future updates would come back to the council based on uh how that implementation rolled out and the real world uh practice that we saw um of course one year on from that we then experienced the the covid-19 pandemic um and this issue was kind of on the back burner uh a lot of businesses were closed a lot of uh uh the outdoor traffic and outdoor noise wasn't wasn't at its normal levels but the conversation came back um in 2022 particularly looking at some changes that were recommend recommended uh more so on the Amplified sound permit side and that was discussed for several months in early 2022 and culminated in the last public hearing which was about one year ago in June 2022 so at that time the council considered some proposed changes based on recommendations that came from the police department and from a cross-functional team that the city had set up of employees from different departments uh that was tasked with monitoring the implementation of the noise ordinance and uh you know making recommendations to the council based on the successes and the challenges of that implementation uh that included lowering the maximum decibel level from 70 decibels to 65 on the noise nuisance side and then on the Amplified sound permit side it included revising the definition of an outdoor area to include uh you know a Patty a semi-enclosed patio with rolling doors or open Windows expanding the location requirement from 350 feet to 500 500 feet away from residences in order to obtain that Amplified sound permit to play music outside uh expanding the notice requirements so that more people around these permit holders would be noticed when they were coming in for a new permit or a renewal uh lowering the the threshold for revocation of of an amplified sound permit from 10 violations uh to two violations and then clarifying that the city could see conjunctive relief uh from the courts in cases where there were multiple violations um that June 2022 meeting resulted in in the city council asking staff directing staff to continue uh public Outreach with the community with businesses with interested parties and some additional direction to hire a third party consultant uh you know likely and an acquisition someone who is an expert in sound propagation and vibration and sound Dynamics to help us with the evaluation of these proposed changes again the issues surrounding uh the noise ordinance and and some of the violations that that we saw that that precipitated the discussion uh in 2022 they're very much still ongoing and things that as many of our neighborhoods are still dealing with and so as we reached one year since that direction from the previous city council I just wanted to get an update of where we are on this uh the progress toward the direction that the the council gave a year ago and just a better understanding of where we're going on this uh I and you know I'm requesting an update from staff I don't know if staff has that update ready to go today or if it comes in there we got somebody standing up there ready to come address here yes sir yes we do we'll we'll be able to at least give you an update on where we are in that process right now representative and I've asked uh Steve Alvarado from our code enforcement to do this that yeah like I said yo come on up Sir excellent thank you thank you good morning mayor members of the council Steve Alvarado code enforcement director good morning sir good morning here to provide a brief update I still am under the cone of silence so I can tell you is that uh the first bid went out March 7th we received no responsible bids submitted to the city uh we wrote the re rewrote the scope of work uh but included the same deliverables at that time and it was sent out back in April I'm sorry in Feb April yes April of this year um there was 14 views to this second rewrite two local vendors submitted um and we anticipate that they'll be bringing its Council purchasing will be reviewing it to Council in July of 2023 sometime thereof that's all I have for you we have continued enforcement weekly um since 2021 our code enforcement sap and PD is out there taking noise decibel readings and we continue to do that on a weekly basis what type of um um you say you continue to be out there have you seen any difference at all or still basically the same since we have not brought up anything forward new pretty much the same we're enforcing anything over 70.0 there's been minimal citations violations issued but we are out there Friday Saturday starting uh June 17th we will be out there Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday until 0-200 we're actually expanding the hours for summer upcoming so what type of um you should minimal violations do you and you may not have it on top of your head do you know how many roughly do you believe we've given out since the last time we've spoken oh not since the last time but I can get you that information yeah and then you said it's been very few What's um what's the normal when you're out because I went out there with you all and I was out there at uh from Midnight to two in the morning and I did notice that uh you know most of the time the numbers were below you know in the 60s sometimes when you turn the corner and um it was actually in the 50s so are you seeing the same type of consistencies or pretty much the same I believe in the last two months we've probably issued maybe three citations okay yeah no it was something like I said I went out there and spent a couple hours and actually did the Cincinnati district and actually downtown with y'all and uh and you all were very helpful and and I appreciate that and I know it's important I always tell people that we can get a report and presentation but it's really important to be out there and actually notice it for yourself and and I did that and so I look forward to you know looking at the new report and see how we're doing we'll get that information to everybody uh representative mayor I still have some more questions actually okay let's uh since we went on the hymn let's go to representative what's your name pharaoh and then we'll come back to you and let you finish with him thank you Samir um and I'm not sure this is addressed to you legal counsel or or our city manager but um being a new member I would like an overview of what was discussed as far as a timetable of when you find somebody who can fulfill the the RFP uh or or yeah the RFP that the um the impact are we going to have stakeholders involved in this decision making are we going to have the public involved just an overview and a timeline of what to expect yes sir we'll provide you that we'll come back with the with the you wanted a presentation to kind of take that through take you through that Colonel that'd be very helpful thank you yeah because I remember seeing some of it on on Zoom or on YouTube but I haven't been briefed on this so please certainly thank you represent Eleanor and then we'll come back to representative thank you mayor uh Mr Alvarado thank you very much for being here I'm not sure if you've previously watched our City Council meetings I hope you have but during public comment there's a gentleman by the last name of Mr Rivera Rivera that comes here and basically complains and he complains very loud and clear that he is not being I guess the noise ordinance is not being effectively enforced in one of the area where he lives and he does live I won't name the street but just west of your Southwestern University Ballpark and there is a bar there and so I did have the occasion to go there but unfortunately that bar was closer that day so I didn't hear no noise and he was not home at that time but nevertheless he has repeatedly come here and complained and his house is very close in very close proximity to that one particular bar and I know you say you're out there but does that mean and his his one of his main contentions is that the officers do go out there but they don't have a a meter So when you say the officers are out there with beaters does that mean every police officer every unit has a meter or only certain units have a meter can you please explain that certainly each code officer does have we have I shouldn't say each we have about 14 decibel readers that we issue to the code officers typical night we'll have uh for three to four people uh starting June 17th we'll have four assigned each and every week to to enforce it so they do have access to decibel readers they are calibrated each time they go out police officers do have access to to the meters but I can't speak on every half because I don't oversee that part have you personally heard or met with Mr Rivera by any chance I have not personally met with Mr Rivera ever had met with some residents in fact been to their houses at midnight one in the morning to listen to what they are hearing but I believe my staff has met with Mr Rivera excuse me and what is the outcome of that meeting with Mr Rivera if the gentleman I think is Mr Rivera we have met with him went to his house I think he lives there's an alley and then there's a bar if I'm not mistaken if this is the same gentleman different gentleman I I apologize the other gentleman used to live across the alley from later later okay okay so anyways Mr Gonzalez and his team I know talked to uh the gentleman last time he was here for call to the public and they have been in contact with them and will continue to address the matter I know that it was two weeks ago that he was here and I don't know if Colonel Western you have that um but the outcome what I know that I talked to Mr Gonzalez and I know they met with him mayor I don't have the outcome of that but I certainly will get it thank you sir and I'm not sure uh Mr Colonel has directed to you or Mr Alvarado if you could kind of reach out to the gentleman Mr Rivera sure and uh get his side of the story because he every time he comes here he makes it louder and clear that he is being impacted by the noise thank you thank you thank you all right represent Canales thank you mayor yeah I've met with Mr Rivera and I have a meeting on my calendar with uh with Colonel Wesson and staff it's it's on the agenda for that and so we'll I'll I'm happy to fill you in on that situation um and perhaps we can bring in Mr Rivera soon I'm sure he'd love to have a conversation about enforcement here um I I think as we run around the horn here other other folks ask pretty clearly for what they'd like to see I I also would like to see an updated report on uh citations uh and then uh just to look at the tools that we're sending both our police officers and our Code Enforcement Officers out with to make sure that uh you know we're providing the sufficient resources for them to be able to enforce what we already have um and again I know that their feedback uh largely drove the the list of proposed changes that were considered last year in June and so maybe an updated set of observations from the officers that are out enforcing so that we can look at what changes might need to be made in order to make sure that the the ordinance is robust enough that it's you know protecting the folks who just want to enjoy yes certainly I think that it can be a combined comprehensive briefing with our cross-functional team that we've had in place as well as bringing the additional data that's that's needed so we'll put all that together and get that in front of the council at a at a council date coming up let me get with staff in terms of the timing to put that together and do it properly but we'll we'll provide that to you as an in-person update here at the council is the cross-functional team still active as well uh let me let me find out if I have anybody on staff to look at the status I don't know the current status of the the CFT unless I have someone from staff here that can answer to it foreign [Music] that was running the that cross-functional team so there's there's good data that came out of that work that I wouldn't want to get lost in terms of the update to you excellent okay uh I look forward to that that comprehensive update then and uh I think that'll provide us with the the information we need to see how we move forward with this thank you thanks mayor mayor we don't have a public comment on this item yes ma'am we have Miss Turner thank you again representative good morning Miss Turner good morning Marion Council I have at times living up on Bartlett heard the bars down on Donovan Drive they do make a lot of noise if I lived in that area I would be up here raising bloody Kane with every single one of you because if I can hear it up on Bartlett Drive through everything it's got to be you know what within 100 300 feet of these businesses thank you I make a motion to approve so there's no action no I mean it was posted with action in case we needed to take specific action but I think staff has gotten the right the informal Direction they need here in order to to come back to us I agree with you yes sir thank you Mr Price yes that brings us to the first reading of ordinances these are items 21 and 22. either motion there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina to approve the first reading of ordinances items 21 and 22 on that motion call for the vote voting session is open representative were you going to vote on this item thank you sir and the voting session and the motion passes with seven affirmative votes representative Fierro abstaining thank you next item item 23. okay so representative Federer recused himself from this from this thank you the first reading of ordinances item 23 move to approve is discussion in action that the city manager is authorized to sign an authorization and reimbursement agreement public road crossing improvements surface signal and Signal interconnect with Union Pacific Railroad Company move to approved there is a motion made by mayor Pro Tem anello seconded by representative Ribera to approve item 23 on that motion call for the vote I'm sorry Council let me start that over looks like a tie you want me to break the touch voting session is open in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 24 is discussion in action on the request that the purchasing director be authorized to wish to a purchase order for the award of solicitation 2023-0415 Mast arm polls to Consolidated electric Distributors Inc DBA Wildcat Electric Supply second and we do have public comment on this item we have Miss Turner again good morning Merit Council let's turn a good morning again this is just a sample of a lot of these bids that have come through that you've taken and awarded uh you come in they submit a bid it gets awarded it comes up to you and there's a price increase on it now explain to me how when you award a bid you didn't take in account what it was going to cost to do business and I've seen a lot of these this is a simple one it's like only six percent increase but I've seen one that came through had it like an 80 increase I kind of wondered who is who's watching our money I mean if I bid on something I tell you how much it's going to cost you for me to do the job but now there seems to be an open door I can tell you how much it's going to cost and say oh wait a minute I can't do it so I'm going to come out here and you're going to give me a 10 15 20 50. 100 raise to do it I don't really understand what you're doing you awarded a bid and then there's a contract variance oh we've got to increase it 6.01 due to the increase in price for steel items again if you're going to sit down and submit a bid don't you look at those prices these prices just didn't go up the day that you submitted the bid that stuff doesn't happen but that seems to have been the process every two weeks when we go through these things we see these things time and again time and again a bit is submitted it comes up and by the way there's going to be a contract variance it can be like six percent it can be a hundred percent it seems to be the norm now that ain't the way we used to do business so I was just curious why Nicole Cody managing director for the record so if if you'd allow me to go ahead and respond okay um so the contract variance that's listed is in comparison to the previous contract so when they submit a bid it's not a change during the bid process in this case it's the comparison to the previous contract so when we first had the previous contract it's an increase of six percent due to the price of steel for the new contract children's are totally new it says on here it's just on uh comparison to previous contractors seventy eight thousand dollars yes sir so I just wanted to make sure you told me that amount I'm sorry sir it says electrical duration okay now go ahead yeah yeah yeah yeah and street light poles how many were there I think it's 200. yeah you told me 200 when we did the uh it's okay so thank you thank you thank you sir when you did the briefing on it there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Canales to approve item 24. on that motion call for the vote matter of fact I think mayor Pro temir asked that question how many volts that's your question yes ma'am that's right I was going to say it was your question in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 25 is discussion in action that the city council ratify the additional expenditures with a continued use of health information management system contract number 2021-1443 with Advanced business software LLC and that's that the city council accept pricing for subscription and access to the public health information management system I have some questions good morning Paula Salas with purchasing Paula how are you okay um so looking at the resolution and so I see that the initial term of 60 000 was approved um I think administratively an increase of 15 000 was added where did 91 000 come from okay so during the process this was an interim contract for six months and it was to give Aura allow for the new contract to be in place this is a companion item from an item on consent that we terminated for the same services and this is to continue with the existing vendor with this same contract that was brought in to from Council or to council and the 91 000 is the continuation of the services from July 2022 to May of 2023 so the remainder of the 24 months so 18 months was the 91 000. the 91 thousands is what is owed from July of last year until May of this year the to the 216 000 is for the additional 24 months and I get that but I'm just I'm so what is the exact increase of the cost because it's it's hard to determine with the amendment and then also the difference in length of time right so if you did 60 months for 20 60 000 for 24 months it's different but then there was the 15 000 Amendment for a different amount of time so I'm just trying to wonder based on 24 months with the actual increase of cost is so the costs remained the same okay um the monthly cost remain the same it's just a 24-month contract it's a an additional 24 months great thank you it was really confusing with all those numbers so I appreciate it no no problem representative Canales yes I'm sorry if I'm duplicating the question I'm it's also still not totally clear to me I see that there were uh essentially we were we were Char it's a subscription to a software service we're essentially charged eight thousand three hundred thirty three dollars a month with past due we have past due invoices from July of last year through April of this well through May of this year um is this this is because we continued to use the service but we had already reached the maximum of of the 60 000 approved by Council plus the 15 000 administrative Edition so we've used the service but we didn't have capacity on the contract and this is ratifying those expenditures so that we can pay these past due invoices yes that's correct okay I think I've constructed it now yeah when we okay this is an unusual situation right where we was it just an oversight that we continued to use the service without realizing we had reached the cap of on the contract no there were different issues throughout the in view of the award of the the replacement contract there were a few issues there um because of the compatibility we couldn't establish with the new contract with the new vendor so in order to avoid any Gap in services we continued with this contract and that's why we're coming back to ratify that awarded contract and add additional funding okay and I mean I promise I'm not trying to get anybody in trouble I just want to understand how it is that we had the you know we continued to use a service without without the contract and you know we're going back in time now to pay for services we already used that you know I would the normal procedure be that that it would come to council before to extend the contract for the short term and then just to avoid having to to ratify expenditures that were already made it would that be the normal procedure yes Nicole Cody uh managing director so absolutely representative this is not the norm this is this is truly the exception in this case and as Paula had already mentioned it is a companion item so originally they were going to go to the new vendor that we're terminating with but since they were unable to provide the services that the Department of Public Health had requested they continued because they still needed the services to use their existing or the previous contract and so the previous contract had ended so that's why we do need to come back to you all and ensure that we ratify those expenses so that we're able to pay those invoices during that period so the the part of in my summary the part that was missing was that there was an award to a new vendor and then that new vendor couldn't meet the obligations that they that they agreed to correct correct and so as in an emergency capacity essentially staff persisted with the with the previous vendor exactly and and I don't know if um Dr okaranza is on the line we did ask the department also to be here so that he is so they can explain any any other additional detail you might have about what the contract does or the services good morning Dr okaransa good morning mayor and Council that is correct we incurring to some trouble as Miss Cody is mentioning and that item is going to be coming up but definitely this is a system that we're using currently at the Department of Public Health and we cannot be without that system this is rather an exception in the way that we're presented this we had other contract online but they couldn't meet their obligations yeah I of course understand the importance of maintaining continuity of our health records and particularly the the sensitivity of people's health records and making sure that we keep those secure and and continuous so uh again I don't I don't have any problem with this I just wanted to make sure I had the the timeline constructed here and and understood what we were voting on so thank you thank you thank you representative Kennedy so we awarded it to somebody who couldn't do the job which I'm concerned with the vetting of a new vendor for something that's important but then we operated without a contract for months just as a month to month was it there was no clause in the contract to go months to month or anything so the all options had already been utilized at that point because they needed the additional time to be able to when we moved to award sorry just to add this item the initial item the 2021 1443 it did go to it came to council as a public and health safety exemption because the current contract it was already it had ended and we had already exhausted all the options so it was just to give time for the new vendor to come on board and be able to to perform however during that time period the department with communication with the vendor they notice and the vendor confirmed that they couldn't proceed or because of compatibility issues and Dr okaransa can explain a little bit more if you'd like no I mean it's it's a technical thing but basically they bid on something they couldn't do correct how long after the bid did we figure out they couldn't do the job understand and I agree that it it is an exception because of health and safety but it's I mean I'm concerned about a process where we awarded they couldn't do it my question would be how well did we vet the vendor to be able to accomplish it and what was the time gap between the award and US throwing in the towel going this isn't going to work well we follow the procedure and we were ready to start moving and processing all the health records to the rear vendor when we started finding that the vendor was not going to be able to provide what the specs were when we submitted the RFP and that's when we started getting those conversations with legal with the vendor and we told them this is what we needed you said you were going to be able to provide the specifications that we got and the process that we follow is the purchasing process that is very well said within the city and as an organization we did all the proper procedures so we can give them an opportunity to uh perform the job that they already said that they were going to be able to perform but if they were not going to be able to perform and then we proceed to terminating that contract and that's what we want to continue utilizing the same service that we have up to now where we have the patient records where we have other documents that are very important to the Department of Public Health and to the public my question was what was the time gap between the award and our knowledge that the vendor could not perform it's a number yes and we can get back with you okay I mean it's kind of like we follow procedures but the patient didn't make it well representative uh Kennedy um I do concur with you I mean I think this is something that we do have to take a look at though in in terms of the the vetting process now we've had good vetting you know we've taken it through our normal processes for these kinds of things but the fact that we had some type of immediate incompatibility I think requires us to examine that a little bit more I mean that's uh this this is an exception I know that we haven't you know we haven't deviated in terms of what that vetting looks like so on that uh certainly not putting this on the staff but I think the fact that we ran into this situation does require us to take a deeper look yeah and I'm and I'm not against this item in particular because I do understand you know having the records available is critical my concern is if there's going to be a transition like this we may want to look at moving it back a little further and if you could if you could just give me the the time gap between award and our knowledge that it was a non-functioning system that would be great and uh do are they required to put a bond when they bid on something to make sure that they can't perform I would think they are because that's how we we do business and if they did that were they required to Forfeit the bond because they couldn't provide the service I'm sorry excuse me that's only on construction that we do that no they don't have to do a bond on that at all no sir I thought if they were providing a service for the city they were required to no okay so the answer is no not for this type of no sir not for this type of um representative yeah we're on the same wavelength mayor I was going to ask about some penalty for non-performance as well if that was included in the contract I think that answers the question here um I'll ask it anyway so there was no there's no penalty for non-performance for the the contract that we're terminating so there is in a sense that when we terminate um for convenience well we're terminating for defaults so they are they cannot apply or submit bids for this type of solicitation for three years that's right okay uh did we expend any funds on that contract that we're terminating no we didn't well health did not use any funds for for the previous contract no okay that's all my questions thank you mayor uh actually move to approve thank you is there a difference between and maybe it's in here and I didn't see it the difference between the awarded contract and the new contract there's no variance it's the same amount of money yes from the awarded contract the company whoever they got it oh the awarded contract no I'm sorry I apologize I don't have that uh with me but uh as far as the pricing now this the vendor is still at the same rate but I can get that's a vendor from prior time but the new vendor was it cheaper and that's why we went with them I could probably watch I would have to get that information sir I don't I don't have it here okay thank you man I'm gonna go you were in the right track but I'm going to go in the fact that you this previous vendor did you all uh chose had committed and said he could do or they could do it right and at the end as you started working with this company it turns out that they can't so you have to go to this company now this new company that's being awarded this contract uh and they are able that's the difference right they can do what is what you're requesting to do as far as with all these records that are important it's the existing uh vendor it's the current vendor the current vendor yeah but the previous vendor just couldn't do it and that's when you found out do you have to come to us correct so the previous contract that we just terminated uh qrmd though that's the vendor that got terminated um and the previous vendor ABS has been the it's the current provider and has been before uh qmd just because we couldn't go ahead and proceed with these Services okay so I understood you right then okay thank you so much thank you mayor thank you Miss Frank I heard representative Canales make the motion to approve representative Rivera seconded yes I did um I'm sorry if I may mayor just add one point and I think it's really important that we clarify because I don't want there to be any concern on the overall RFP process so the RFP process is very long in the sense that it's important that we go through the evaluation period there is an evaluation committee where we also have the ability to um there's a question and answer period as well before they even submit the bids to ensure that they fully understand what's going to be requested in the scope of work and so what's different between that process and what occurred here with this vendor is that it was under the emergency exemption for public health and safety so it didn't go the one that we're terminating with cure MD did not go through the full RFP process but we still need to vet the company that we pick to make sure they provide the service that's required and even if there's compatibility or an issue with whatever was the issue we still need to make sure before we award something because it's a company that cannot provide a service that's very important to our community and the safety of the records so I mean I think that we do need to make sure that even though it's an emergency it's even though it's we still need to vet all companies that are going to do business with with the city for you know security to start with but also make sure they provide the service that's required absolutely sir and so we do work with the Departments and you're you're absolutely right we'll make sure that we continue to ensure that the department has fully vetted thank you mayor Pro Temp thank you mayor um and I don't want to sound like a broken record over the last six years or in any way uh hostile or condescending but I think this is a really important contract it's a very complicated situation I think that a briefing to council prior to this item coming up would have been helpful I think you know prior to the pandemic I think we were briefed a lot by purchasing it was a lot more communication in relationship I don't feel like that has revived itself since the pandemic and I think this makes I don't want to say it makes a lot of sense there are still some things that my head is like tilting on and I think that's just because of time and context of the conversation I could have been very helpful to the council and very much avoided in this public setting so thank you yes ma'am representative Canales thanks mayor you just you were asking about the previous contract I pulled up the minutes from 2021. so it was an issue it was a three-year term is it is a three-year term in the amount of 100 150 958 and a two-year option for an additional eighty four thousand nine eighty four so it's what was that it's okay yeah so it's uh slightly I guess it would be less expensive if on a on a month you know prorated to the to the month but uh comparable and comparable in cost thank you Miss Prine thank you sir yes sir the motion was made by representative Canales seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 25. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six two one representative Kennedy voting nay representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item 26 and this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign contract 2023-0194 Citywide litter control contract between the city of El Paso and both work Quest FK tibh Industries Inc and Border TM Industries Inc DBA exceed resources thank you hello my friend I want to first start off by saying that I think this is such a great contract I think it's really important but I would like to know because we don't have a red line in the backup what were the additional locations added so you see there's 23 locations in the backup but I just don't know which ones based on um well then you I'm sorry I apologize uh Paula Salas for the record and the weed control is one of the services that is included the rate per day as needed is another item that was also included and for the other new additions I would defer that to the department and that's environmental okay Services well I'm going to ask them about those things because there's an addition to weed mitigation there's addition to rate which I think are great just would like to know what that is about those things definitely I'll get back to you on that then because I don't see anybody from does anybody know what the increase in the rate was here we go yes Nicholas you've added Environmental Services I'll need to get back to you on the the new uh area the new areas added to the contract in addition this also covers the Cincinnati Entertainment District for uh for us they pick up the trash in and waste there and do a Grounds Maintenance also in that area I'm sorry you're we're on item 26. yes that specifically talks about the airport area in every location listed on the backup 1 through 23 are specifically in the airport area so you're saying we're adding the Cincinnati district the Cincinnati district is part of the contract also previous to this Edition okay but it's not in the backup anywhere uh Sam can you uh yes um the the airport is San Rodriguez director of the airport mayor Pro tem so the additional areas that are being added for the airport are the advanced manufacturing District that's um that we're going to be developing um as well as the additional Corridor on the 601 District that are being added to to the contract for litter and weed control as well as the additional areas along cottonwoods because of Staffing Resources at the airport we're transferring those services to this contract to get help for litter control and weed control on cottonwoods okay and I do now see at the very last page the Cincinnati area but now I don't I still don't see any of those additional areas that you just mentioned which again all of the information in the backup is very helpful and then do we know what the change in the rate is yes so we do so um the annual amount for the litter control airport is an increase of 14.40 percent so it's about fifty two thousand 696 dollars with 10 cents the herbicide the annual amount it did increase for uh twenty thousand nine hundred and sixty five dollars with 60 cents or uh 14.39 percent also for the litter control alley cleanup it the annual increase was 99 653 dollars with 40 cents or 14.45 percent the Cincinnati cleanup I'm sorry uh Cincinnati special pickup per visit did increase for 1 384 dollars with 90 cents and then for the new Services it was an annual increase of a hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and thirty dollars with 20 cents The Weave control is an additional 235 thousand seven hundred and two dollars with 93 cents and the rate per day it did increase an annual amount of 1963 dollars with 20 cents okay great um and you had mentioned that a lot of that increase is wage wage increase it's wage increase do you know what that wage increases specifically no I don't have the the waging the wages okay that I can yeah that'd be great um I also am looking at the legal holidays so I'm assuming by this they follow the holidays of the city of El Paso and I do not see Juneteenth on that list I don't know if it just needs to be updated and now I am just poking holes at this backup um but I I will my question is so what areas of the city do we do Cleanup in I know based on this contract it is the airport um it is current place I know that we also have a contract with the DMD to do downtown are there any other areas that the city of El Paso does Clean Up Services like this through contract not ESD we need to defer to um Mr Rodriguez is on the line and then also Mr Ibarra sorry I'm just kind of talking out there today if they can please yeah um Jeff for the airport um specifically we have this particular contract we also have a contract with exceed that does our terminal Services they handle all our restrooms at the airport uh it's a very similar contract to this through through exceed uh specific to it's just it's not under this contract but we do have those Contract Services for the airport uh Richard um no streets of Maintenance may have similar contracts at some of their facilities janitorial and whatnot well I don't want to yeah I don't want to cut you off I guess I want to get kind of to the point I'm wondering why current place was added to this contract and why we have singled out a neighborhood outside of previous contracts to add to this contract uh what the qualifications for that were and we don't have to have that conversation today but it is something that I am curious about what other contracts we have across the city and why we have uh exceeding more funds on the current Place Entertainment District so we again you don't have to answer those today but I do think it is important um and I just but I will be honest without that information I I I feel iffy about this because I I think this is a great program I think Exede is a great company I think utilizing services from individuals with idd other disabilities is extremely important I just again this is the type of information that I would have liked up front thank you representative thank you mayor and I believe that mayor Pro Tim's on the right track the only thing I have to ask for you is uh you've got all these special locations that you all are taking care of with this um what about our Center medians I'm getting bombarded with our men our Center meetings being uh wheat infested and uh I have no answer for them when is it when are they going to take place um Nicholas Nevada again with Environmental Services we do have one contractor now currently that assists our meeting staff to take care of medians um they they are working right now currently uh on a scheduled basis going from a location to location um I don't have their current location as of today but we do have one contract and it was only we only had one company apply for our proposal give us a proposal for the previous contract uh could I have a meeting with you on that as to when the east side is going to and the uh the east side in the Mission Valley area are scheduled to be cleaned up I'm I'm I have tons of complaints on that representative Rivera yes sir we absolutely will and uh and I'll sit down with our folks and I think it's probably something for the entire Council in terms of what the priority schedule looks like just being under that thank you service that would be great to appreciate that I'll make sure that we get that to all of you thank you thank you mayor thank you representative Rivera what is the date of execution on this contract on June 16th as soon as we get the payment and performance bonds June 16th there's one Council there's oh so we would have to approve it today you all know that I love this this is my least favorite thing that happens at the city council where contracts are brought literally before the date of execution I just I I really don't know how many times we can have the conversation about it just not leave room if you're not going to brief us you do not leave room for conversation it's just I it's getting extremely unacceptable with that I think there's a motion to approve the devotion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative sancito to approve item 26. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes seven to one with representative Kennedy voting nay the remainder of council voting I the motion does carry that brings us to thank you all very much that brings us to item 27 and this is a public hearing on an ordinance of the city council amending ordinance number 018749 concerning tax increment reinvestment Zone number 10 by reducing the boundaries good afternoon Karina brezgala economic and International Development assume you all would like to see the presentation so this is an ordinance that would reduce the boundaries of tax increment reinvestment Zone number 10. this was mentioned at the board for tours 10 meeting with this would be coming forward it has been introduced and notified publicly in the newspaper so a little bit of background again for everyone here and for the public listening in um on December 19 2017 city council created tax increment reinvestment Zone number 10 tours 10 the contribution is a hundred percent of the city's portion of real property tax revenue that is a 44 acre parcel at the corner of Paseo Del Norte and Gateway nor desert North I think I've gotten that I get those wrong all the time um and then on May 19 May 29th 2018 the boundaries are expanded this is commonly referred to as tours 10 a under chapter 311 of the Texas tax code it is one tax increment Zone um but you know we have different funding streams within the city so this is a fun distinction between 10 and 10A the contribution for 10A which is a larger piece of land again I have a map on the next slide is that 33 of that real property tax revenue the intent of the expansion as stated in backup and discussions of the time was to fund infrastructure improvements including storm water for the potential development out there and then also look at using the tours as a possible funding source for the wrestler extension as Council may be aware the wrestle extent wrestler extension was funded as part of the community progress Bond there's just a faster way of getting the money for those necessary traffic improvements and then a lot of the identified stormwater need has been Incorporated into El Paso Waters stormwater CIP and so we're just not seeing there's not as many projects that would need to be funded and then on June 12 2018 the board adopted the project and financing plan and so that governs those allowable expenditures for the tours funds here is that boundary the ordinance today would remove the section again 10A so all of that highlighted in Orange um a little over 3 800 acres and would remove that from the tur's boundary here is the fund breakdown so you can see the two different funds so 2361 is tours 10 that is a hundred percent that is on city-owned property so it does not generate very much revenue and then turns 10 a the expansion Zone that we would be removing fund balance revenue of this year is 8 48 000 and then we have obligations that includes the recently approved paso del Norte traffic signal at 600 000 some administrative expenses and then an allocation for Schneider Electric approved as part of their chapter 380 agreement also for 600 000 that is reimbursement for public infrastructure improvements so less than 1.2 million remaining fund balance for tours 10 a again the section we would be removing under this ordinance is just under nine hundred thousand dollars so under chapter 311 of the Texas tax code there are some procedural steps that we have to go through in order to reduce a turd's boundary so we have to ensure that obligations of the fund have been paid that's that 1.2 million you saw on the previous slide that has been done there are no bonds issued to date there are no other funding obligations on the zone and then again under chapter 311 014 D any remaining tax increment in the fund will be transferred into the general fund so that'll be paid back to the municipality requested action from staff is going to be approval of the ordinance reducing the boundaries of tax increment reinvestment Zone number 10. again as the fund funding source is no longer needed for those improvements happy to take any questions no who's um I think represent Canales yep just one quick question uh the remaining increment will be transferred to the general fund yes that is just the 10A portion the 896 400.15 okay easy for us in this case because it's in two different funding streams I think there'd be a personality requirement if we did it otherwise but yes and so the fifty thousand five hundred five dollars and ninety one cents in the tours the the 2361 the first 10 fund balance that remains as a balance that remains as the balance would be used for administrative costs and then if that was sold or developed in the future would start generating Revenue understood thank you thank you represent Kennedy why don't we get why don't we get rid of 10. that is an action that Council can take it would need to be a separate item it would need to go through the same public notification process but stats recommendation would be to keep the tours in place it gives us the best flexibility in terms of attracting investment to the area and looking at ways to develop that property but that is absolutely how long has that through has been in place 2018. so we haven't had a bite in five years maybe it's time to cut bait Mr Trigg so we've had a we've had a couple um we've actually had two contracts on that site Unfortunately they didn't work out um both of them contemplated using the tours primarily for the traffic signal improvements which Council uh previously funded or the tax increment reinvestment board recommended to be funded um so that was the big uh thought process for the smaller piece I I will say that having the tax increment reinvestment zone is helpful this is a very strategic property for the city it is uniquely positioned out of any of the properties that we own to take advantage of the State Convention Center Hotel program currently tours 10 is completely owned by the city so it is not generating any Revenue nothing is is being diverted away from the general fund um it just it provides us additional flexibility because we don't know exactly what the development will look like in the future I think we are still targeting a hotel with meeting space options so that we can take advantage that State Convention Center Hotel program however there may be other uses out there that that we can't predict at this moment and this just is an extra tool for us I'm not a I'm I mean if it was if the piece of property was that you know chili red hot I think we'd probably have something working on it but I'm just saying I'm not a real fan of having a tour sitting there that's non-functioning and has been for five years I mean it's kind of like okay I understand it I understand the concept that you can use it to try and attract people to that area yes sir but representative Kennedy the property is real hot and if we put it for sale we'd have a thousand offers on it we don't have it for sale we'd not put it for sale we've kept it in our inventory which so you're right it is red hot property and I know the cities had a lot of inquirers and people that do want to buy it and I think the city's been trying to hold it for probably a hotel or something but to your point is it is a red hot property but we've not marketed to sell it we have it and there and actually there's been activity with that as well I mean I think pretty continuously until that the the last deal um you know didn't didn't go through I will say I don't think it hurts you to have it there I mean there's a potential we don't know what that project might look like it's very easy as a city council as the board for the tours if you feel at that particular time if we do attract the project there you may not need a tours you may not want a turds and you can take it down um as a city council anytime you choose to do that and so I don't think it puts you in any kind of position right now where it's a detriment from a financial standpoint to have that in place knowing as well that you can always you know you can always remove it but again that's uh prerogative but if we were to take it down it wouldn't preclude us from bringing it back up right no you can go through the process again to do that so you're correct it's not irreversible right okay that's correct and I think the the second agreement that we had on there that we're going to pay for the traffic signal themselves because I remember they had talked about part of The Proposal Part of the offer was including paying for all improvements to the traffic signal in that area up to a certain amount yes sir right but anyway so yeah so that but that is a really really hot property and if we put it for sale we would sell it anyway so that's that is there any motions or amendments or anything y'all want to make one last question mayor sorry go ahead sure um yeah I know this is again at least mostly city-owned property it's largely well it's not not non-revenue generating then whether it's in a tours or not it's not contribute we remove the turds it's not contributing any uh uh property tax revenue to the to the general fund either what is the small amount then the the small changes in the fund balance I see it's like the mental math 6000 in the first year 10 000 in the second year uh you know approximately that amount in year to year where we've built up this balance of fifty thousand five hundred five dollars and I believe that's the small portion that is not City owned so there's like a Panda Express okay right in the small in the small Northern you have to go and look at the details of the fund Revenue okay the northeast corner of it I think right is the small tiny portion that's non-city owned right property okay what's up here thank you thank you sir thank you thank you for the presentation uh quick question what does it cost what's the cost for creating a terse the cost for creating a tours is um I mean they're all staff initiated so it would depend on how we do them and we do have Professional Services agreements with David Pettit Economic Development he has done and his team have done almost all the tours that's the primary cost is the project and financing plan um it's uh for a brand new creation document I think it's 35 000 if it's something like this where we have we removed and replaced or we're doing amendments it might be an adjusted cost but that's per their contract that is for the brand new creation um to remove or make minor amendments that would be handled in-house primary cost is newspaper notice so a couple hundred dollars perfect thank you that answers my question thank you nuts we do have a public comment Mr Prime yes yes mayor we have a Mr Rick bonart followed by Lisa Turner great thank you good afternoon uh good morning mayor and Council um in favor of the reduction but also as Mr Kennedy has stated I think that you should do away with the smaller Parcels tours as well is not generating any income and who wouldn't want to buy it if you're getting 100 tax rebate that's quite an incentive to sell but it certainly isn't very fair to the rest of us that are paying taxes on our property I would like to get my taxes back 100 percent and put it into my property that'd be great but I think the complaint has always been yeah but your property doesn't generate anytime dude I think the the complaint has always been that the taxes are unfair to the residential customers and we need to increase our commercial tax base in order to make it a more even playing field this removes a big piece of property from that tax base the commercial tax base that you're requesting so why you would indeed try to give a hundred percent rebate to a property owner to just get them to come the benefit to you would take 58 years to recoup if you're giving a hundred percent rebate for 31 years it takes another 20 some odd years before it begins to break even I won't be alive to see that most of you on city council won't be alive to see that benefit the fair thing to do is to remove this tours Market the property sell it and let the new owners begin to pay their fair share of the taxes thank you they just like to respond to you Mr Barnard there's no incentive agreement on this property and so you mentioned you mentioned this as if there's a rebate on on this property there's none but the tours itself is 100 participation rate in other words the person that buys it or the property in question would receive 100 percent of the taxes that they pay the city portion back to those owners I'll have uh back to the tours to the tours itself but the terms and this property are all one there's not like 17 owners it would just be to the same place bottom line is it won't generate any taxes that go into the general fund that are split amongst the rest of us while they still receive all the benefits of every other tax person so if I if I was Bernard with or without a terse that property is a very desirable property right now so sell it get it on the tax roll let it pay its fair share that way it covers the benefits that it get police fire streets traffic lights everything it's just a participant like everyone else thank you thank you Dr bonard Miss Turner again good morning mayor and Council we entered into these agreements because we believe one growth will help the taxpayer growth does not help the taxpayer it just reaches into their pocket and takes more money out growth is never paid its way if it paid its way our taxes wouldn't be pushing nearly a dollar a hundred for the city what are you in the 90s I'm sorry it doesn't work it's it's quote I constantly get called out because I accused of being a socialist because I believe in certain things well a ters is a socialist thing it is a communistic thing it is not capitalistic you want to own a business you buy the property you do your business you don't need deductions you don't need tax rebates you don't need sales rebate sales tax rebates you need none of that it's gross income minus your cost minus your taxes is what your profit is all on one little small postcard that's the capitalist way but that's not how we do it here we are subsidizing other people at the cost of broken roads children going hungry bad education you name it all that money is going to people with money you should not be supporting the people with money they've already got the money let them put their own money in it have them quit using my money your money the money of the people who live in El Paso it doesn't help me I like to eat you know my rent was it was fine nearly five hundred dollars in two years my rent's gone up and for what I got nothing more out of it building gets older I'd buy a house but I'm not going to pay the same amount on the house in interest and then end up just renting it from the city and the other taxing entities why bother I mean I'll never own it I'll still be paying rent just to somebody differently it's like this get rid of them and quite frankly I think under the new state laws I don't even know if you all can even do this anymore you know this imposes conditions on a business and we're not allowed to do that anymore judging for what I've read the political statements coming out of the the governor's office so I don't know I don't like these things get rid of them they're worthless thank you thank you Miss Turner and you know to your point in um Dr Bernard's Point uh the shop at shiburon right across the street that big shopping center that's 500 000 square feet that was developed uh has no incentives and was built strictly on the developer good afternoon Robert cartoons for the record um if we could bring the presentation back up real quickly I.T so they went through this and we hear you on the discussion about the tours Tim but on the Thursday just wanted to point out it's a fast-growing part just with all the growth that we've seen so doing away with that portion is again going to bring that additional Revenue to the general fund so she has a slide on in the presentation on slide four and you can see here in FY 2020 and turns 10A the revenue was about 435 000 you can see it incremental well stayed the same for a couple years but with the housing growth that we've seen in the far portion of that boundary you see in FY 23 that they grew to 848 000. so it's almost doubled since the creation which is good because it's a fast growing part of town it had been tied up in the tours and now doing away with it that's all additional Revenue that's going to come back to the general fund with the preliminary information that we received from the appraisal district this Kilgore mentioned that yesterday we got that late last week right now on this tours 10 we're looking at again this is preliminary so before all the protests and everything is settled but right now it's about 1.4 million dollars of Revenue so again about 600 000 more than what it was in the prior year so doing away with the tours 10 is going to be significant it's going to help again with the budget development that we've talked a lot about and how are we going to bring in these new Revenue sources and so I just wanted to point that out that this turns 10 is a very very fast growing tours right now so doing away with that again is going to help the general fund with again the budget development well that thing is fast growing area and it's huge and it's mainly grown without tax incentives without any incentives to the developer that built the Cimarron that built over 500 000 square feet in that area without any taxpayers incentive so you're at it I mean every time I turn around and bring in another you know their selling another pad they're bringing another company and again we've not given them since a day they broke you know put the shovel in the ground we've not given them any incentives so that's why it's been growing because uh Jerry Rubin and Adam Frank have done an incredible job of developing that area and and bringing it uh to incredible development out there thank you so what are you what uh what are you recommending you're asking staff is recommending approval of the ordinance to reduce the boundaries but I believe mayor pretended you have a question oh okay I just heard a question there's not a motion on the floor [Laughter] Miss Prine the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Pierro to approve item 27. public comment has been taken on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously may or may we go to item 36. please thank you thank you for that item 36 is discussion in action on the city of El Paso Vision zero Safety Action Plan here yes oh good okay good morning mayor and Council Joaquin Rodriguez with the capital Improvement departments I also have with us Brandon Gonzalez from the team at Alta who have been our Consultants on this project and with us every step of the way we'll also have at the end of this and Scott White from our vision zero task force to also share some some thoughts on the process and uh and get us here it can you bring up the presentation please good morning sir good morning mayor so some of these slides will be familiar to all as you know Vision zero really ties into the city's strategic plan specifically goes to seven and eight additionally Vision zero is really a natural extension of some of our other ongoing efforts including complete streets the recently adopted Street design manual the city's adopted bike plan other programs like our neighborhood traffic Management program and our intersection safety Improvement program against the city has taken a lot of actions to uh promote safer streets in our community and promote Transportation safety in general you can see this through some enforcement and education campaigns as well as through the intersection safety Improvement program really the key difference that we want to highlight is that Vision zero examines the type of collisions that are occurring in order to help us develop a proactive approach we'll go over just a quick overview although we've done some of this at our past briefings with you this is really our big motivation behind Vision zero from 2017 to 2022 within the El Paso Community there were 262 traffic fatalities and 881 suspected serious injuries if that number is not staggering enough the Federal Highway Administration has developed a method by which they apply a monetary value to those so essentially it's a 300 or 3.59 billion dollar loss to our community in that time frame from crashes our vision zero policy that you'll be adopting today really focuses on a shift from the traditional Transportation safety methods to what we call the Safe Systems approach so rather than preventing crashes the focus shifts to preventing deaths and serious injuries understanding that humans make mistakes and that there are limitations to human behavior and designing for that we focus on reducing speed we focus on the concept of shared responsibility and finally we focus on proactively identifying and addressing risks in the community our charge really started with the adoption of the vision zero resolution that this Council adopted back in September that set an aggressive goal to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries and rethink Street design to protect the most vulnerable Road users that goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries also aligns with the Texas department of transportation's goal to do the same the project was split into these four phases this last phase which we are in Now is really adoption of the plan so looking at the planning document itself and everything that is included there one of the key components of this effort was our vision zero task force which as I mentioned earlier a couple members from the task force are here to speak today we held a total of five formal task force meetings as well as a couple follow-ups that we had virtually and a lot of interaction between the task force over email meeting five back in May is where we presented the draft action plan to the task force for their comments and really took a deep dive into what we see as our priority corridors and an overview of the online data dashboard we also wanted to give a quick overview of our community engagement efforts really highlighted by these six events here our vision zero launch was a success where we partnered with some members of the community and the neighborhood Coalition we also made an effort to really go where the people are rather than trying to bring people into our own events participating in events like glow in the park The Love Your Heart Walk The Univision health fair and then most recently the neighborhood USA conference hosted by the city so in total this is sort of a Planning by the numbers to give you an idea of the total breadth of the engagement that we were able to to achieve for this project we really focused on online and in-person surveys in total we feel we really had meaningful engagement with over 500 people throughout the course of this project including seven community events three neighborhood event events and then a lot of online participation through our online surveys in-person surveys and finally the individual Vision zero pledges I'll ask Brandon to come up and go through an overview of the action plan itself and the document that you all are adopting today good afternoon mayor council it's good to be here um I'll go through just a little bit of an update on the overview of the Visionary process and then also the action plan just to give you a little bit of a flavor where kind of things ended up so first of all at a high level when we're talking about Vision zero in the uh you know an overview there's a couple things that differentiate Vision Zero from a lot of other kind of safety work safety plans and one of them is really starts with the systemic safety analysis and this is a really comprehensive really robust dive into the data to try to understand not just where crashes are happening but we want to understand what are contributing factors to the crashes what are the context to the to the crashes um you know and and really that's the deeper dive that allows us to be more proactive in addressing safety in the future and part of that systemic safety analysis is really taking into account contextual data so again we're not just looking at the crash factors of you know what actually contributed to the crash from a police report from you know that kind of reporting standpoint we're thinking a lot about what are are the roadway conditions what are the land use conditions where in the community are they happening who are being affected and disproportionately affected by the crashes so it's really just this big comprehensive look and that's supported through the use of big data and this is a rapidly evolving area in our field of using cell phone data to be able to better determine even down to the details are people slamming on their brakes and if they're slamming on their brakes why are some potential factors for that and so using a lot of what this big data is telling us is integrated into that systemic safety analysis to ultimately help us to create some of these crash profiles and I'll talk a little bit about those Crush profiles in a second but this just gives you the idea of the process that we go through in trying to use the data to develop the story to fine-grain the story and then ultimately to help to develop the crash profiles that we can use to direct improvements limited resources to where they can be most effective so this is just a high level overview of some of the crash Trends this is in the action plan report there's a lot of other crash trends that are in the report itself but a couple that I just wanted to call out because I thought they were interesting you know compared to other communities is 20 of KSI killed or serious seriously injured crashes involved motorcycles and this is something that is I wouldn't say unique to El Paso but is uh much higher than what we see in a lot of other communities and so that's uh kind of directs us to some specific actions when we're thinking about motorcycles on roadways another one that I think is really important is if you look down at the bottom right corner pedestrians make up only about four percent of total crashes but they account for 21 of crashes where people are killed or seriously injured and so that really shows a disproportionate impact or severity of uh kind of the burden I guess borne by pedestrians in the city and so a lot of what the messaging we're doing around this particular uh you know action plan and the request for funding is really geared towards vulnerable roadway users people walking in particular so back to the crash profiles again this is where the data this is a really big outcome of the process because the crash profiles are a description a deeper dive into what all the data is telling us and we divided the crash profiles into pedestrian crash profiles cycling profiles motorcycle profiles again because of that 20 total number which is pretty high and then also looking at vehicular and so this is just a high level overview of those and in the appendix of the plan we go into a lot of specific details around each of these crash profiles but a couple just to bring up that we saw from The Pedestrian standpoint is we saw a large number of pedestrian fatalities were located within really close proximity to Transit stops and that they're also happening at night and so for us we kind of look at that data and say what are the crossing conditions around some of our Transit stops are those areas well lit at night to provide safe access and that's the route that we take when we look at some of these crash profiles another one just to kind of call out is um fetal if you go down to vehicular the the bottom of the the table fatal vehicular angle crashes at unsignalized intersections was another really big thing that stood out to us this can be a lot of different turning movements but it's basically if you think about a vehicle turning across traffic at any spot that's not a signalized intersection that is a disproportionate uh representation of fatalities in the city so that again leads us into countermeasures that we can potentially use to address some of those issues and countermeasures is just kind of the fancy word that we use a lot for for improvements you know what can we do to try to make improvements that are going to directly tackle you know the issue that we've identified and those countermeasures are divided generally into two buckets the first is operational safety countermeasures and these are things that we can do that are sometimes can be pretty cost effective are low cost and it's going in and looking at can we do pedestrian intervals can we change the cycling of are the cycles of uh pedestrian Crossings and links can we maybe do right turn prohibitions in areas where there's higher volumes of pedestrian traffic a lot of these can generally be low-cost efforts but are more focused on traffic operations the second bucket is design safety countermeasures and this is when we start getting a little bit more into engineering infrastructure but there's a lot of different scales of that it could be quick build you know things that we could do pretty rapidly at low cost to you know formal infrastructure but really when we're talking about design countermeasures it's curb extensions um you know Pro medians pedestrian hybrid beacons you know pedestrian signals and those types of things and then we also to talk a lot about count uh traffic calming which I know the city already has a traffic calming program and so we're thinking about what are ways that we can do to expand the city's traffic calming program to really Target some of those um you know some of the safety issues that were the data is telling us so then I'll give a little bit of an overview of the action plan itself and kind of the organization and again at a really high level but hopefully you've had a chance to look at you know some of the information that's in it at this point uh the Safe Systems elements uh Joaquin talked a little bit about those earlier but these are really tied to the Safe Systems approach and a lot of the way the plan is organized is using these safe system elements and the reason why we're doing that is there's two main reasons first of all this is part of the paradigm shift that's happening with cities when they accept Vision zero it's really changing the mindset on how we think about safety and our roadways so that's first and foremost and the second is is that this really helps El Paso to be able to secure some of the federal funding that's coming down through Safe Streets for all because they really want to see that the Safe Systems approach was integrated into the plan into the process and we tried to organize the recommendations to be really based on this to make it really clear as the city pursues funding if this is how you know it was organized and we followed that Safe Systems approach we developed a number of guiding principles I won't read all these uh to you but this is part of the beginning of the project we went through and edited these with our task force and ultimately came up with these seven guiding principles that again get at the shift that's happening when we think about our roadways in El Paso tied to the Safe Systems approach the overall plan organization we divided it into six chapters and one thing to note about Vision zero action plans is we try to keep them short concise and highly visual because the whole point of a vision zero action plan is for the public to be able to look through it and really be able to understand the story that's in there so by you know we really try to keep it as short and concise as possible so we have the introduction division zero we talk about the safety in El Paso today this is the crash Trends the high Injury Network which I'll talk about in just a second and some of those other just details around crash data we go into you know the public input themes and your voice matters we talk about the crash profiles that I mentioned briefly in more detail in chapter four and some of those countermeasures that we think would be really you know well suited to address some of those crash profiles and issues that we see on El Paso roadways from a safety standpoint we talk about we talk about reaching zero traffic deaths so this is really the biggest section of the plan where we have a lot of recommendations and then finally we have transparent implementation so this is the top priorities that we want to start with on year one in the city of El Paso and then also what are some of those top priority projects that we could potentially move forward with a funding request a couple of main takeaways from the plan first of all is the vehicular High Injury Network and this is really important because El Paso has thousands of miles of roadways but it's showing us that 60 of all of the Fatal and serious injuries are happening on just seven percent of El Paso streets so we're able to focus funding on the areas where there's the highest problem and that's just again a use of resources to really Target the problem um you know to Target the problem and this is we divided the Hydra Network into two different kind of maps the first is vehicular High Injury Network focused on cars and because the data showed that there was such a high number of pedestrian fatalities we wanted to create a bicycle and pedestrian High Injury Network to supplement the vehicle him so this map shows that 68 of the Fatal and serious injury crashes involving people walking and biking are happening on just five percent of El Paso streets so again really just trying to help us focus in on the areas that the greatest problem um one other thing just to note that I think is a big takeaway from the vision zero plan is that the high injury networks that I just showed you are focused on El Paso roads local streets they don't include TxDOT roadways and that was really intentional because we wanted to focus on the roadways where El Paso had the most control over but there's a lot of pedestrian fatalities in particular on TxDOT roads and so we identified the top intersections and the top corridors where KSI or killed or seriously injured crashes are occurring and this provides an opportunity for the city to really work with TxDOT on addressing some of these key areas I mentioned the recommendations framework this is in chapter five of the plan and we organized it by those Safe Systems elements there's probably about 60 or 70 different action items that are included in the plan and we organize those on a timeline and then also provided some initial you know responsibilities for who can help carry those those recommendations forward and then finally we ended up with our top 10 priority actions and so this is what we're thinking about from year one as we hit the ground what are the things that the city can do to start really making progress on Vision zero and that first one apply for Safe Streets for all implementation funding is is probably one of the biggest that we're we're working on two other quick things is a data dashboard this is something that was developed as part of the project and it's going to be completely turned over to the city and really highly encourage the city to continue to keep the data dashboard up as you move forward this is just for transparency continuing to update the data to show progress that's being made on the as the city tackles Vision zero this is a really important piece of you know Vision zero programs other cities in Texas that have adopted Vision Zero have really made the dashboard a central feature of moving forward and continuing that transparent reporting and then an annual progress report and this is something that could be short so concise we have an example of it within the appendix of the plan that the city could take and just update on an annual basis and it's really again hitting at that transparency piece of this so that somebody can pick it up read it in a couple pages and see how the city is doing towards meeting some of the goals and objectives of the Visions interaction plan turn it back over to Joaquin thanks Brandon so our requested action today is that Council adopt a resolution to formally adopt the city of El Paso Vision zero action plan I think there were a couple more slides I see okay if you can go to the next slide please it can you go to the next slide there we go and then our next steps uh assuming you all adopt the plan today really are going to focus on preparing these Safe Streets for all Grant application we do expect to come back later this month um with a better a presentation that's focused on the Safe Streets for all grants application adopting this Vision zero action plan is a requirement of that Grant application and really the first step in doing that so with that I'd like to invite a couple members of our vision zero task force up to speak Mr num Apodaca from the medical center of the Americas and Scott White from Vision zero Texas good afternoon good afternoon city council mayor staff and all citizens present here today my name is nauma podaka and I'm here representing the work of the medical center of the Americas foundation in the vision zero task force and the communities that live within and around the MCA campus as you may already know traffic fatalities and serious injuries resulting from vehicular accidents are all and are all too common occurrence on roadways throughout the world and in our city the idea to reduce and ultimately eliminate these needless deaths and wounds has already been a part of roadway design and focus however something has always been missing from this process and we will and we still suffer from a staggeringly large number of these horrendous results on our streets a structured strategy to analyze and Implement real world changes um in roadway design speed limits and Driver Behavior needed to be developed this is how the vision zero Global initiative came about to clarify Vision zero is a worldwide roadway and educational strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe healthy and Equitable Mobility for all it is an ambitious goal but one that has already seen impactful and Lasting changes in other cities and countries throughout the world it is a global initiative that our city engineers and planners joined in with to ensure safer streets for all of us the El Paso Vision zero task force was formed to incorporate a multi-disciplinary approach bringing together the diverse and necessary local stakeholders to address this complex problem on our streets we were able to meet with talented Mobility consultants and City professionals to formulate a set of regular guidelines for our drivers to follow these guidelines and recommendations were the results of the regular meetings our task force had to formalize the street action plan that makes sense for our City's roadways and the citizens of El Paso we took a global initiative with an El Paso perspective and tailored it to our specific needs take into account our driving habits Street designs destinations and demographics I come to ask you to please consider the work of the vision zero task force presented to you today and help support the realization of a safer and healthier streets and multimodal system for the greater El Paso Community thank you very much thank you good morning Mr mayor council for the record I'm Scott White I am policy director for Villa Paso bicycle pedestrian Coalition but this past year I've been promoted to director of vision zero Texas as part of farm and City's reached a really work on part of our core Mission which is to get every Community every County everyone across the Texas to adopt Vision zero so we can end this Health crisis that we're facing and have been facing of there being too many traffic deaths across the state you've seen me up here way too many times talking about safety and now we're at the point where we're going to launch something that's really going to be meaningful to this community into this region and that it is if you adopt this policy today we will launch a huge effort that's really going to change the way we think and act about transportation and Transportation safety this is about a paradigm shift for too long we focused on speed and throughput loss 85th percentile if you know those terms and it's time now to think about how we make our streets safe for everyone because the cost of crashes far exceeds the cost of traffic delays and we need to make sure all our citizens everyone who lives in this community has a fair shake at getting home at night that's all we're asking for is making everyone is safe and sound and that we design our streets our policies and our funding priorities to focus on that goal so I hope you pass this bill today thank you Mr White mayor we also have MS Turner that signed up this week good afternoon Miss Turner good afternoon mayor council decades ago the first thing my father told me when I was going to learn how to drive was that the cemetery was full of people who had the right of way we've got a lot of stupid drivers in this town they passed on they will pass you in the breakdown Lane they'll drive 100 miles an hour down the interstate going through all the lines their clothes will be black at night and they'll be walking across the street not where there's a crosswalk just walking across the street bicyclist I know Mr White supports him but and I used to to race one I can tell you this if you don't follow the rules of the road you're going to get run over and I see a lot of bicyclists that don't bother with the rules of the road stop signs mean nothing to them they just go straight to the sign or they'll just turn right in front of you as you're coming up to the sign you don't know which way they're going they forgot you have to signal same thing for them at night dark clothes no light on the bike how are you supposed to see it you don't know it until you hit it there's a lot of simple things like making sure that that no u-turn sign is enforced they're not enforced we see it all the time red means stop yellow means slow down green means go red does not mean hurry up and yellow does not mean hurry up but in this town that seems to be the way it is and what's worse is we tailgate you can't drive safely in this town because somebody's always three feet off the back of your bumper I don't mind meeting new new people but I assures the heck don't want to meet them in my front seat with them all bloody and me going through my own windshield I don't like to meet people that way our police officers do that they'll pull right up and sit on the back of your car now that's aggressive driving and it's also illegal because you're not supposed to be driving tailgating people but we do that anyway and on top of that we live here in this town but for some odd reason we don't know where we're going we know what that ramp to get off of and we wait to the last minute to go from the far left lane onto the off ramp because we don't know where we're going we don't plan thank you Mr people are stupid thank you Mr Turner thank you and um you know I think it's very important what we're talking about today but as we as the weather always gets nicer and and there's a lot more people out there walking there's a lot more people out there riding bicycles and there's a lot of more a lot more people out on motorcycles we really need to be cautious be careful and be on the lookout and it shows very important to be on the lookout but there's a lot more people going to be out there now that the weather's become a lot nicer so let's um take that in a lot into consideration represent Canales thank you mayor um yeah I think uh Miss Turner's comments highlight an important point that here and everywhere there's there's uh bad behavior mistakes made uh poor decision making from from people operating Motor Vehicles um and it shows I think the importance of this kind of plan that uh you know we we can't necessarily uh legislate for people's behavior but we can make the streets themselves safer through design interventions and that's what this looks to do um you know if anyone's seen me speak about this before I'm they'll know I'm a real Vision zero uh Stan I I think that these are uh interventions that that are really important um quite frankly that a lot of other communities have made uh faster than we have and I it's it's about time that we're getting to work on on making our uh Road Network pedestrian Network bicycle network multimodal network as safe as it can possibly be for for all of the users um and everybody who lives in our community and has to use those those systems every day um I did have one specific question that is I know the Safe Streets for all Grant uh award would be contingent on us passing this resolution today what is the anticipated timeline for Award of that Grant if we do receive it I don't know the answer to that I think uh Omar Martinez might be hiding somewhere who has a better idea of the timeline than I do good afternoon Council oh Martinez grants and strategic initiatives manager uh Mr Canales it would take uh one year after submitting the application roughly to put together the funding authorization package with the usdot this is because with all the federal dollars that are available from for participation projects there's just delays the administrative process and so the best bet we have is to complete all the paperwork and submit the most competitive applications we can and be ready to execute once the monies are available so we'll we'll be back on uh the next council meeting for a presentation specific to the Grant application and the package that we've put together for that if anybody would like us you know to do a one-on-one briefing of that package beforehand are happy to set that up the grant deadline is June 12th and there is a requirement in that notice of funding opportunity that the vision zero action plan be adopted uh by June of this year so that's our original timeline for this project actually had us adopting a plan out in September but because of the acceleration of that Grant timeline we have worked very diligently to accelerate certain portions of the project to be able to have an action plan that meets the minimum requirements of the Grant application in place there are some appendices that we're going to continue to work on that are still part of our consultant scope of work and and things that we need to put together things like the quick build toolkit different design standards and then looking specifically at developing conceptual design packages for some of the high priority intersections and segments that'll come later on in the process but today really the action that we're looking for is specific to the the planning document itself um would all of the so I know some of the design safety countermeasures are more there can more you know Capital interventions where we would need that funding in advance would we be uh would we be able to Institute any of the operational safety countermeasures in advance of the award of the federal funds absolutely so so part of the the vision zero action plan isn't necessarily just an infrastructure plan right there are policy recommendations there for beginning to include some of these safety countermeasures within sort of our day-to-day work and the data they work of our streets and maintenance department um us at Capital Improvements Department we've already been working closely with streets and maintenance to try to develop some pilot projects where we're implementing some of these uh quick build type improvements the the reality is as a city we spend a lot of money on roadway maintenance striping maintenance a lot of that funding is already there it's just a matter of rethinking the design of those projects and you'll see that reflected in our ask for the Safe Streets for all Grant as well where we're using some existing funding sources to try and leverage bringing down some of that Federal money yeah I think again if you if you need uh uh city council Champion for some of these things I'm happy to help with especially some of the policy changes leading pedestrian intervals uh phasing you know cycle lengths I think those are things that we can do quickly um and I'd be happy to put those forward as policy changes uh as part of the overall strategy of the plan which of course like you said with with the federal funds is a much longer process yeah thank you thanks man thank you representative Salcido thank you mayor thank you so much for the presentation I'm also a big supporter of the El Paso Vision Cyril safety Vision that you all have it's very proactive um so I really like that you're you're working on this the safety of the public is what are my main priority our main priority as a whole but I will say that the statistics really do give me anxiety all the time when I see I'm the 67 percent of vehicle um accidents and also the bicycle which is uh 68 so getting that number down definitely is a goal of of mine and and however we can support to to get there we are here to support thank you so much thank you so much and I mentioned to prove exactly fine mayor there was a motion made by representative Salcido seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 36. on that motion call for the vote representative here thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously may or may we go to call to the public please thank you the El Paso city council is local government body charged with 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 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 nor May any member of the public use this form for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have 10 members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Brandon Lee master Brandon Lemaster Miguel Rico Mr Rico's topic is unauthorized use of private driveway and neighbor feeding feral cats and it will need the Elmo for this please good afternoon sir oh okay my name is [Music] council members in recent crafts so you can see the message that you want to give to these people um okay [Music] um yo solo may know about how hard diseases can be I personally have a condition that I'm treating myself Para para tenders because professionals that are here in El Paso are not completely capable to treat my conditions so if you're nice to see the picture and tell me how will I be able to leave my house in case of an emergency respect okay okay I just want you to know Mr Mayor that I am being really honest and I try to respect them but this is something that cannot go on Jose is okay another one people to say that Mr Rico didn't let us know when I'm actually letting everyone know foreign employees believe that they have to explain excuses to me when actually they have to explain themselves to you completely they can say whatever they want but at the end of the day I do not work with them or or they don't work for me so I they cannot make excuses about how all these rules and um an ordinances work in this matter is I just wanted you to um to know about this and please help me give a clear message to this people since I've already let them let them know about this is so the picture that you're looking at right now this is all can food for cats and I do want this to be known that if something happens to me or my family if I fall you are aware of this is [Music] and excuse me excuse me and this happens whenever I am not outside of the property um they are cowards and they know when I'm not outside Senora and I just want you to know that a person that lives in my neighborhood who I get along real well she has picked up a lot of this cans for me and this is something that cannot go home unofficials there is a lot of officers that parked in the neighborhood in this in this picture that officer had been there for a long time and they never had their emergency lights on and brought you this picture because I'm not sure if this police officers attended to the call that they told me they attended to and I'm really not sure since I am not able to leave my home is foreign I went ahead and placed a complaint with uh the office of representative anello about a cat that was left in a cage all day yes I understand that you understand Spanish okay but if you prefer in Spanish I prefer if you prefer a name the next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford's topic is pride month and humility month is thank you thank you so much go ahead Miss Crawford thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak today I want to address what is being celebrated in El Paso and across our nation and around the world as Pride months um God's word tells us very clearly that God resists the crowd but gives grace to the humble and furthermore God's word says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God this is not just about physical things that we see through spiritual warfare going on here um blasphemy is when we shake our fists in the face of a holy God when we take things that belong to God things that are for his honor and we turn them and we twist them for the enemy of our souls and his enemy the devil and to take the rainbow which is the sign of God's covenant After the flood to find that he would never again flood this world with a worldwide flood the rainbow was given after Noah and his family exited the ark as a sign of God's mercy that yes one day he will judge a world by fire but we have these years in his Mercy he's calling out to people to repent and come to him for salvation every time the rainbow is in the sky it's a reminder of God's faithfulness over these centuries and Millennia to his promise to take that symbol and use it as a sign of homosexuality which in the Bible is listed as an Abomination to God there are no words to describe that and as a Christian that's very disrespectful to me and to all other Christians they if people talk about respect this is our heavenly father our Holy Father and not only that he's all of our creator he created every single person those who acknowledge Him and those who don't I plead with you I that God's word tells us that the time is coming when the whole world will be deceived there's deception coming I urge you go home read the book of Revelations the days are coming and are rapidly approaching when the world will fall under deception right is wrong wrong is Right according to people Revelation chapter 13 when everyone who does not know Jesus Christ will bow to the deception and receive a Mark I see with you go home and read Revelation thank you Miss Crawford thank you you've reached the three-minute limit the next speaker is Ron Como followed by Steven Strummer Ephraim Salcedo Lisa Turner Mr Como's topic is Animal Services good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon sir I know I'm kicking a dead horse but I just have to bring this up city of El Paso has replaced the fire chief the police chief and now we get to welcome a new city manager and we've replaced a shelter director our city manager has experience he's trained he has a clue on what to do to do his job properly our interim police chief he's amazing he knows his job he's trained he's certified he's good with people our new fire department the fire chief he's got years of experience he's certified he's got training he's got everything and then there's our shelter director we put a man in because he was a friend not because he's trained not because he's certified not because he spent a day in the shelter before he was made director and look where we are to give you an example we have been telling you we're going to get more Strays more disease and more bites for three years the U.S post Office just released its findings for 2022. El Paso Animal Services went from being number or El Paso City went from being number 25 in the nation for dog bites in 2019. and thanks to our new programs and our new competence and the upper management and everything that's happened in the last three years in 2022 El Paso has now moved to number 16. in the number of bytes in the nation we moved up nine spots from 22 to 19. whose fault is that sure not ours we've been telling you this was going to happen we have a problem with honesty in in the city with employees people being paid by our tax dollars you know we have the city telling shelters rescues that if somebody dumps astray at their property it's okay because it's a shelter but yet a military lady couldn't get rescues to take her dog and she's leaving she tried to leave it at the shelter when I understand they tried to charge her with abandonment but it's okay to do it to private rescues but don't do it to the city so is this double standards now we have a case like I showed Oscar of a German Shepherd that was shot the leg was broken the dog was left out off dire by the animal services why who knows I consider that dog wounded hurt El Paso Animal Services abandoned the dog the dog's owner should have been hit with animal cruelty and the person who shot it should have been brought up in charges nothing was done I'm sick and tired of our shelter the next speaker is Steven Strummer followed by Ephraim Salcedo Lisa Turner Eddie Chavez Arnoldo Hernandez Mr strummer's topic is compliments to celebrate good afternoon Mr Strummer I am thankful for the privilege of meeting a long time friend of yours on Oscar Lisa who is known you and worked for you well over 17 years I'm speaking to you sir this person spoke glowingly of you with me two days ago at the Vista Del Valle Community Gardens he gave me permission to mention his name here today he lovingly supports you in every possible conceivable way sir I'm speaking I'm referring to your good friend Joelle Acosta Joelle was the progenitor and impetus for the multi-purpose Center there are only six of these in the U.S Mr Acosta fought heavily tooth and nail for the multi-purpose Center working fervently to obtain 1.5 million dollars in grant funding for this beloved operation it is going through a rehabilitation at present which I believe sir you are aware he spoke on all you have meant in his life I am amazed to live in a city of such a high caliber mayor who really has transformed a life I am deeply indebted to live in such a place certainly better than San Francisco New York City San Francisco it's been said is imploding from within Wall Street Journal I have been watching the astounding Rehabilitation on the multi-purpose Center and pray it will continue to be a viable strong and part of the mission to undergird the disabled folk throughout the city of El Paso Texas this work will live on for years and years it is a one-of-a-kind investment in human life which I pray will ever be working for the people of the city of El Paso and I thank you sir that every part of me I had no idea thank you for listening to me thank you sir the next speaker is Efrain Salcedo followed by Lisa Turner Eddie Chavez Arnold Fernandez Mr salcedo's topic is how to get rid of the stress good afternoon Mr salsa Hi how are you how you doing how are you first of all I wanted to say uh God bless you and uh I apologize for the people who come and give you a lot of a lot of him now I know that you are getting a city a lot better especially my city rep it's our instruction thank you very much everything is going real well now pay attention or put attention okay I'm gonna tell you how to get rid of the stress okay the first thing that you have to do you are in your house there that sin or Grace take off your truth and your socks go outside make contact okay when father son is out and Mother Earth okay my son my son is gonna give you the purest electrons in the universe Mother Earth is gonna give you the little protons that she has okay we have a Fiverr lower our vegetables one to five we have a 12 mirror ones and we have seven verticals okay so cervicals I'm sorry when you have the chance from number four to number 23 that's the people which goes in every way and telling you fingers in your fingers and stuff like that because he has a stressed all the way most of the doctors I don't know how to do it they just give you some pills and probably make it worse okay like I say go outside they listen make contact in from fire sun in my air you're gonna get the purest and most powerful vitamin for free vitamin D anti-cancer you take out the stress it across everything and you're gonna see your life a lot better I like better for those who have the authority accelerated system like like myself that's very good because he wouldn't take a good care of ourselves we're gonna die from cancer okay so you're gonna hear you're gonna have vitamin D the most part of the concept you're gonna have better than B12 and we'll continue later on thank you and how are you doing thank you sir no thank you we'll see you in two weeks the next speaker is Lisa Turner followed by Eddie chavezek Miss Turner's topic is Governor Abbott and Texas GOP genocidal actions good afternoon Mr good afternoon good afternoon Mr I can see that none of you all have turned trans since we've been here all day so that that theory goes out the window uh recently Governor Abbott signed SB 14. what does that mean that means no gender affirming care for children it also means that those on that care will be forced to detransition so why am I talking about this what it's going to do if Mom and Dad can't find the medication that child will take efforts and matters into their own hands that child will try and commit suicide that you can't live like this you can't live with a mind saying one thing and the body is saying another now I'm probably looking at nine straight people up here that's you know who you are you know you're straight folks like me we know something's different I knew at the age of four something was different there wasn't a word for it back then but something was different you know and we walk all basically have walked the same path you will find yourself at some point on the edge of the Abyss trying to decide whether you can accept yourself for who you are or do you walk into the abyss that's what this law is going to do to a lot of children and they are going to start committing suicide if they can't get access to their medication it's genocidal it's an attempt to destroy an entire generation of children because of one thing they're trans because quote they don't think it's right they use lies information with no basis in fact and then they turned it into law they didn't listen to anybody they didn't listen to the people who came to speak they didn't listen to the children they dis and listened to the parents they didn't listen to anybody it's this is going to be the way it is we're going to make you straight or you're going to die and of course our churches our churches would rather have an empty Pew and another headstone instead of having a transgendered individual in their Church in their pew they would rather see another headstone in the cemetery people have called for eradication thank you thank you thank you Mr Speaker is Eddie Chavez followed by arnulfo Hernandez and wallyk Mr Chavez's topic is the condition of our government good afternoon sir you'll have three minutes city council um I'm cutting up here because I was invited by Mrs Walding um sometimes I feel that it's a waste of time coming up here because I feel like we're talking to deaf ears you guys were appointed up there because you promised us that you're going to help us not to spend more money but to try to save us money and here we are paying taxes again you know we're tired of this I love my my city Northeast we try fighting for them we depend on you guys you got comfortable chairs comfortable jobs or anything and then you abuse it give us something back for our money no we're getting rid of Tommy Gonzalez the office I don't think we need that I think we should come back to the same government that we had the mayor and the council and you guys do your job save us money don't give them more taxes do your job have a conscience we believe in you guys we pray for you guys that you're supposed to lead us so don't disappoint us please as a concerned citizen thank you thank you sir the next speaker is Arnoldo Hernandez his topic is working City lunches city issued P carts gas cards and change of permanent city manager I.T will need the Alamo please good afternoon sir you'll have three minutes sir good afternoon sir search for the permanent city manager is an issue that probably out of sight at the moment but it not should not be out of mind Fort Bliss is our largest employer in El Paso and it's also one of the largest bases in the United States we claim to be the veteran capital of the United States accordingly the search for the city manager should invite candidates who are veterans and ask questions such as what branch did you serve in for how long what was your rank what were your duties and ask for references keeping in mind the city manager I'd like to Pivot to the trolley car system of which the mayor put on the agenda a few days ago I should say weeks ago regarding increasing ridership I think instead of cutting services we should expand this light rail system with Spurs that serve veterans in South El Paso and Lower Valley residents included I show you an article on the screen from May 5th from from Sacramento California where I lived for 40 years before I moved back home and it says that the city of Sacramento received 45 million dollars from the Federal Transportation Administration for trolley cars to serve the people of Sacramento while containing continuing sustainable clean and Equitable public transportation and I emphasize public information that serves the parents with strollers cyclists students from UTEP and also veterans but as it relates to the to the um city manager a new Beaumont Hospital has been built in East El Paso and a new VA clinic will be at built adjacent to it on 26 Acres um my final comment on this we are fortunate that our interim city manager is a retired senior Army Officer Colonel Kerry Weston who was worked on complex Army programs we should make it rich the use of his Rich experience in accessing federal and state grants for the other for for this purpose and others and not have to wait until we select a permanent city manager I will be remiss in leaving the podium and not thanking the city manager University manager and mayor lease for taking decisive and prompt action in terminating City paid working lunches the card belonging use of City issue versus credit cards and you need to do the same thing with gas cards given to City representatives and Senior officials with the exceptions for city-owned cars with proper record-keeping usage thank you thank you sir the final speaker is Miss Wally Schick mayor she did sign up after the sign up period but she's okay she speaks her Michelle's topic is typically right or wrong save America good afternoon Miss check God bless everyone would encountry for America and I love you so much from all my heart I don't use three minutes my three minutes was up in February okay so the city owes me 12 minutes four three minute speeches that I didn't get honored so next meeting I come you can have either three four minutes or four three minutes but I need 12 I got good news and I'm making money for the city and every one of you is invited and Mr Mayor I don't call you at your office I'm so tempted to tell you hello from Channel Eisenhower and God bless you I don't want three minutes thank you thank you mayor that concludes Carlton you can get in touch with me item 28 yes sir item 28. is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 201 e Sunset Road from r four residential to C4 commercial and imposing a condition yes there was a motion made by I'm sorry motion made by representative Hernandez second it by I'm not sure who this thank you seconded by representative Kennedy to approve item 28. guess we're on item 28. it's a motion in a second yes sir on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you for being here thank you all for being here now we do have that we would break for lunch or I want to finish or you want to break for lunch break for lunch huh so okay go ahead let's go it's up to you guys keep going okay let's go okay item 29 is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 1271 Tower Trail Lane from M1 light manufacturing 2c3 commercial and imposing a condition second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by mayor Pro tem anello to approve item 29. on that motion call for the vote coding session is open thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 30 is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 901 North Stanton Street from a to apartment and C4 commercial to GMU General mixed use and approving a master's owning plan there's a motion in Me by representative Canales seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 30. on that motion call for the vote voting session is open mayor Pro Tem thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 31 is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 5037 Crossroads Drive from R5 residential to AO apartment office there's a we do have public comment on this item for Miss Turner did she leave Sheila okay thank you the motion was made by alternate mayor Pro tem molinar seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 31 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 32 is a public hearing on an ordinance to vacating a 53 square foot public utility easement located at 6524 tasulo place there's a motion made by representative Pierro seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 32 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 33 is discussion and action requesting city council support for the submission of the staff recommended Grant application to the FY 23 defense manufacturing Community Support Program motion was made by alternate mayor Pro tem olinar seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 33 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 34 is discussion in action requesting city council support for the submission of the staff recommended Grant application to the FY 23 Department of Defense defense critical infrastructure program grant program for the El Paso training and events campus yes ma'am hi Elma walk me through this a little bit so it is for a training and events campus at the airport property um with partnership from Fort Bliss what does that partnership look like first I I do have Paul Albright to talk more about any detail about the partnership essentially Fort Lee has provided a white paper specifying their needs the needs are included in the presentation this education week includes helping military personnel get Mission required training uh post-secondary programs Army Personnel testing and they lack consolidating training space and lab or lab space and some testing facilities so this facility would actually supplement what's already in forklifts and we would be able to join everything together into one facility and a joint for police and City partnership um and I see that there's also partnership with Western Tech and UTEP will those students be allowed as well because my issue is that we're going to take land that we rent out commercially to build a training center for the largest landowner in the city of El Paso that is a good question so this facility will be owned by the city of El Paso you are indeed correct that UTEP Western Tech and other Department of Defense partners are going to be able to operate in this but this is ultimately a city-owned facility it's going to be Fort Bliss Personnel that come to this and then there's going to be a mixed message so it can be anybody from the public that can also both present deliver curriculum and study in this facility if I can add as well our San Andreas director of the airport um this is intended also for the community mayor Pro tem part of the buildback better challenge if your city council members we submitted a grant for 100 million that included the training component to support the industry that we're looking to attract at the airport for advanced manufacturing so bringing in companies or facilities to technical schools like Western Tech close to vicinity of the advanced manufacturing district is part of the goal obviously it's not it's not going to be a free operation there's a revenue component that we're required to get per the FAA requirements as far as leasing the facilities the operational the big component of this as well is is this event center that will allow us to have consortiums work in collaboration with UTEP to really bring to highlight the industry that we're looking to grow with Aerospace and defense industry so it is a component that was included in the original 100 million dollar Grant asked but we're looking down to supplement this with this particular grant funding that's available through the D7 I just want to make sure that we are training the the public and the military alike in the same that we are not just building a facility for the military on our property which is a revenue generating property to only be training military I'm fine to put that money into the Fort Bliss property if that's the case but I just that's right no it is intended to be open to the public as well so schools like Western Tech schools that also serve the military on post right now uh we're looking to ask them to communicate as well that's an opportunity for them so they can provide the citizens of El Paso on the opportunity to attend those trainings in schools as well our opportunity again is to really provide that alignment to provide that labor force component to the companies that we're looking to bring in for the advanced manufacturer this is a critical component of that when you look at facilities and training and labor force it's it's a big piece and this is a great funding opportunity for us to do that from a revenue standpoint again the fa requires that we collect revenue for releasing and potentially operations of the facility itself to the airport as part of that requirement and have we had any conversations with the high schools in regards to this training and so part of it is obviously the the Partnerships that we have with UTEP uh in the buildback better um the Coalition that we have not with the county uh with the county uh and being able to promote this out um not just um to to obviously the UTEP students and the technical schools but that would be part of the strategy yeah we're we're we're going to be working very closely with them to ensure that we have that that Outreach at this point um I cannot tell you if we reached out to the high schools as a coalition but that's certainly part of the plan moving forward okay I think Paul wants that so yeah thank you uh representative and Sam's absolutely right it is all about a vision of what we're trying to build here in El Paso for the additive manufacturing district and the Aerospace defense design Corridor so what we're trying to do is we're trying to get the entire region they do Pathways into employment to keep the talent here in El Paso so it's not just transitioning service members it's not just service members but it's also on El Paso sons and daughters that graduate from UTEP go to school and then find themselves that the only way that they can make a good living in those degrees they have is to leave El Paso and go somewhere else so we have to provide that that venue here to where they can get the training that they need here that they can get the employment they need here by us creating this pathway by using this this education training and Conference Center provides a pathway into that additive manufacturing district and it also allows El Paso Sons and Daughters who join the service from you know into all the different services to have something to come home to so that they would actually have great jobs and employment here as well yeah I don't disagree with that I guess I'm just missing the strategy building the facility I think that's not been presented at all so the strategy after building is to present to the higher levels of insulation management command is the one that ultimately approves moving into that Army education center which the Fort Bliss Commanding General is already very excited and willing to submit a letter of support for this to make sure that this uh this Vision comes to fruition the strategy so thus far have been with the U.S military no no so there are further strategies going on they have gone on we're getting letters of support from the local universities um we have talked with episd and their stem about doing Pathways uh into this additive manufacturing area so there are conversations happening about building this District out do we have any of those available and conversation and again we've been having this seems like a theme today not a lot of the information provided to the council when making the decisions that will eventually lead to that I'm assume that we have drafted letters of support we sent it out to epist for consideration but we haven't gotten back from them yet so the conversations are there I can send you a draft letter if that's helpful so you can see more or less the language and how we're tailoring it sure I just mean the strategy as a whole I really think that that's a really important piece to this conversation I mean I know this is just a grand application but to support something like this I would love to know what the entire strategy is moving forward I think a lot of the times we're just asked to to blindly uh support these things and then we get the Grant and there hasn't been a lot of conversation about what we're doing and again because this is airport land that we you know do want to be generating Revenue off of is where I have concern I think that the Technical Training part of this is extremely important I don't want this conversation to seem like I'm not going to support this and I don't think this is a great thing I just again there are nine people or a body who are are supposed to be a part of these conversations and these decisions that have thus far not been and with that I'll call the question I will respond to that mayor Pro tem I mean the strategy as a whole is to is to is to create an overall manufacturing capability that supports the regional missions and subsets of the things that are happening at Fort Bliss and so having a training venue as part of that with the Innovation is is certainly something that's not going to be just done with with the city and with four plus I mean to get any of these things done to be able to draw these different capabilities requires a partnership it requires a partnership with higher education it certainly does dovetail as you're talking about into US looking at pursuing um you know maybe programs that we can do at the high school level even if we haven't done it now and so complementing a a a a an advanced manufacturing capability with the training component really is the overall strategy and bringing Partners in as we start getting this off the ground currently I think it's important to talk about how long this has been going on yeah I mean I I mean we've been we've been having these discussions that even even far before I mean I remember a mayor on your first term when we were looking at a science and technology parking capability out at the airport so now that the staff and the team have been able to take that and realize that that pathway to get there I think is really important so that that goes back to uh you know 2011 2012 2013 time frame when we were having these initial discussions but you can't just have say that you're going to bring companies here and bring capabilities here I mean if you're not looking at this holistically and looking at it from the training side of the house as well and so to have Fort Bliss being very responsive to that to have the leadership being very responsive to that um to have many of the conversations that I know we've already had with with UTEP and others I think is a really good start so that's the strategy is to blend those two capabilities at the airport I think with those type of Partnerships really important that the move to try to move forward to uh to be able to do that there's no doubt I'm representative numbness command sergeant major Albright and Omar thank you for confrontation I'm super excited about this opportunity I just have a couple of follow-up questions um relating to the the funding source so there's there's a matching requirement correct there's the eight million dollar match I see that it's Airport Enterprise funds and it might be a question for for you Mr Rodriguez um I'm I'm comfortable with with that approval today but I really think that if we are going to be competitive in getting this grant um you know this should specifically go to line items that uh that are specifically designed for economic development opportunities and training for example the Texas Economic Development Fund looking at the impact fund and I'm trying to avoid you know although it would be an asset of the airport the fundamental outcome of it the goal is to keep soldiers transitioning service members here that helps with our economy they buy homes they purchase cars and they become contributing members of our society and our Workforce that's specifically those impact funds we should be using for matching dollars like this because I would love to see as we are opening up as you know the federal government is opening up more opportunities can we consider those funds in the future as an opportunity yes uh representative Hernandez um it's a really great point the Partnerships obviously there's a lot of alignment within all the Departments that the airport is part of the economic uh goal number one for economic activity and work very closely with economic development uh The Innovation um Factory is is a great example where the airport partnered up with economic development Economic Development brought the policy forward to City councils using our profans that were allocated for economic activity and we're able to make the project work this is uh no different we're working very closely on on on with different with different companies and entities to figure out how what kind of funding sources are available to really make the vision happen for our community right now we're looking at airport funds because we know they're part of our allocation in our CIP to develop this whole area but certainly if we do we get the grant part of the part of the strategy is to look at you know is there different opportunities to use some of those extra funding sources to bring on those those additional technical schools universities Etc to help us make build out the campus at a much bigger component our big focus in this particular case is the convention with our convention but it's the training center the the big piece that could house you know a thousand people for consortiums for trading opportunities for job fairs Etc that could support not just the training areas that you see here but also the advanced manufacturing businesses that we're looking to bring in to have that as an amenity for them it is intended to be a a money making operation for the airport and that's the reason the Airport Enterprise funds are eligible for that but certainly impact fun and other funds um could be used for this particular project as well there's there's going to be a lot of opportunity as we grow as we grow the uh the development we're under the development of the 25 million dollar Grant to build 250 000 square feet of space there'll be opportunities some of those funds to be used for tenant improvements for some of those companies to really help them relocate to help them bridge that Gap in capital needs up front um and and we're developing um the policies that we'll be bringing to Council in support of those that we look to use some of those funds that you just stated I mean that that makes sense and I understand now the intent um in the event that we're awarded uh would we we hire like an operator to um operate the center or would that be done in-house no that would be the intent is to to hire an operator uh we obviously have a concession agreement with the golf course there um it's certainly a we want to maximize the use of of the big space the conference center space uh that could certainly leverage the golf course and the operations there for you know for for weekends as an example where the school the training is not happening to be able to host uh big weddings uh big events there especially for the military that have a lot of uh celebrations that they do so there's there's that component of that that that will certainly uh help to do this particular Grant to use this particular facility but it would be an operator that we would like to hire to support the operation here um or that has the expertise that has the contacts to be able to make this a successful operation uh obviously working very closely with those training schools like Western Tech UTEP and others that may relocate to this location okay and the location has where where on the airport um because I'm looking at it's like Global reach is that linear Road would it be on the east side of global reach or is it the west side yeah I don't if I can bring up the presentation um go slide 11. um actually go to slide um 10. okay I could I could see and now I'm zooming in um so it'll be right by the golf course um again looking to Leverage The Views and the amenities that we have at the golf course is a um you can go to slide 10 please and I see this like like um around the round object there yeah yeah so that's that's the general location so that's Global reach the marmax facility that's the building that's to the left of that and then you see the advanced manufacturing District across Global reach um that's what we're looking to develop that and then if you go to the next slide this is a great opportunity again uh to be able to remember do you have a so it would be so it would be surface parking for a thousand for a thousand uh correct folks in there okay right yeah so you see the conference there I'm looking to leverage the lake view um it's just a great opportunity for us to provide a great environment for uh the students the residents and the soldiers um but also to leverage the golf course and the amenity that we have um or for the airport I mean I I can't reiterate the opportunity um that this presents and um you know I really applaud your team um including you Mr Albright you know without those relationships that we are facilitating and cultivating with leadership at Fort Bliss we're not going to have that Synergy unless you have someone boots on the ground like you and so I really appreciate the work that everyone is doing behind the scenes um Omar in your opinion you know what is the likelihood of us being awarded this are we competitiveness competitiveness competitive enough um related to you know the the nofo that's presented there are 100 million dollars available and the federal government DOD has funded projects around roughly around the same size and so we are very hopeful uh the fact that we have we are meeting one of Fort bliss's stated demands and and needs is is crucial so I think we have a really good shot at getting it okay great well thank you all for your work and I'm excited to to approve this and promote it good job thank you Mr Pine you yes the motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 34. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session representative Fiero thank you and the voting session the motion passes six to one mayor Pro tem anelo voting a representative Kennedy not present the remainder of council voting thank you final item is number 37 and this is discussion in action and requesting city council support for the staff recommended project that has been selected to submit for the U.S Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration charging and fueling infrastructure discretionary discretionary grant program there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 37 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Kennedy not present Council will you be returned into executive session or taking a recess I say executive session yeah go ahead yeah we can break till two yeah let's just break till two there's a motion made by mayor protem anello seconded by you don't want to break till two yes yes representative Canales to return to Executive session all in favor anyone opposed you're a pulsar I'll take a roll call to return to Executive session representative Hernandez yes alternate mayor Pro Tem molinar mayor assists to retire into executive session now okay so you want to recess now and retiring to Executive session at two o'clock okay on that motion all in favor yes anyone opposed and the city council at the city of El Paso May return to Executive session pursuant to section 3.5 a of the El Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss executive session item one City attorney and city manager annual performance evaluations matter number 21-1043-688 HQ number 23-816 under 551.071 consultation with attorney on 551.074 Personnel matters it is now 1 26 p.m city council will recess from 126 to 2 o'clock P.M and retire into executive session at two o'clock P.M forever you're both welcome okay but I also thank you I wish I would have done this probably already didn't do a good job the other folks who walked up with you is a big big sorry I guess I didn't ask they are they were there oh foreign no it's our job good things late the Drake is working again [Music] children the man hello emotionally convenient no coming down he's not can I see you coming down Miss Prime this is Estrellas he's on his way down thank you Estrella sorry Australia thank you mayor is there a motion to come out of executive session there's a motion and a second to come out of executive session all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 2 51 PM mayor Pro Tem ex1 no action thank you is there a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular meeting for Tuesday June 6 2023 is adjourned at 2 51 pm thank you