great cheers you're ready foreign but oh good morning good morning also students um um you know [Music] yes me too um so this is my friends yes no no Good Morning America do we have our vision do they bring them out there's only mine too I think actually right it's okay I actually remember them I don't need gel [Music] good morning foreign um good morning how are you today how are you doing thank you thank you is today Tuesday because on Wednesdays and Wednesdays we wear pink yes yes thank you around okay our review good morning yeah how are you good good how are you doing today yeah yeah real life I've been coughing like okay something something's wrong with it number 17. now we when I'm gone you can claim if it takes good yeah thank you okay yes that's the best 20 years how are you might want to go back to the agent s is a mic on that's right there I'll stand up for you anything I know good morning an Indian chief sorry I took my cup program how are you here I think it's nine o'clock right yes sir Miss Prine Miss Pine nine o'clock can we um good morning excuse me good morning everyone thank you good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday April 25th 2023 mayor Lisa is President presiding inside council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro temanello representative Hernandez alternate mayor Pro temolinar representative Salcido representative Rivera and representative Pierro representative Canales is running a few minutes late it is 902 a.m and now will everyone please silence or electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain and Sun Valley Baptist pastor Dennis Kaufman thank you for this opportunity to open this prayer for the El Paso city council if you would join me we'll we will pray father thank you for this opportunity to bring his prayer before this Council I pray father that you give them all wisdom and and guidance father today as they conduct a business to help I thank you for the many blessings that you have given us City and I pray that you continue to bless this father I pray that you give these that are here your truth and your wisdom as a conduct this business and all that we can do would bring glory and honor to you and we thank you for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Salvation you provided through Jesus Christ we just pray that you again bless this meeting and give your guidance and your wisdom to all in here present and we thank you for it thank you thank you and this morning to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance we have Pablo Villarreal Rebecca Villarreal Abigail Villarreal and Ximena Villarreal congratulations [Applause] for doing such a great job yes good morning thank you very much thank you now I'm not quite sure if you noticed while uh representative Salcido was handing their certificates I had the same last name and um it's amazing I told him just now when I was talking to them they told me that uh they were quadruplets and I said so is that like two sets of twins and I said no said we were quadruplets so um congratulations um I know Miss uh lemon uh where's Miss lemon can you come up for a minute please will you um you know you were a principal so it's like coming in the principal's office you're coming up can you kind of give us a little background Mitch lemon certainly mayor back about 2014 2013. we became aware that one of our city employees his wife had had quadruplets um and we found out that they were using 36 diapers a day and we knew that there was a need so we had a baby shower for them and it was an incredible help to them over the years I've kept in touch with them they are just incredible incredible children they are third graders they all attend the Alicia Chacon International School the three girls their third language is French they learn English and Spanish and French and Pablo English Spanish and Chinese they're incredibly respectful honorable beautiful beautiful children I think they have an incredible future ahead and it just gives me great great honor to be a little part in their lives and certainly thank you mayor for allowing them to come and lead the pledge today as we used to lead the pledge every week when children let it for us and you started that that was your recommendation I took credit for it though absolutely well you told me to tell everyone it was your incredibly fantastic idea thank you mayor thank you and thank you for serving our city mm-hmm [Applause] and uh I always start the meeting with a moment of silence and today I want to have a moment of silence too you know thank for the gift of life and I think today the you know having our two sets of twins come up to us a quadruplets and you know that's a gift of life and it's a gift that uh um we all are thankful for but I think we just have a moment of silence and kind of look back and and thank for a gift of life thank you and again we thank God for the gift of life and we thank God for the citizens of El Paso and may God bless every one of y'all with that Mr Prime thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation this morning is Michelle at Jimmy and Dave hi good morning if the ajamian family can please step forward to the podium um we'll read the proclamation to the record the proclamation of the city of El Paso Texas whereas Michelle Teresa jamian born on April 21st 1983 to Proud parents Bertha and Michael jamian and with deep sorrow on November 16 2022 at the age of 39 we lost Michelle too soon and whereas Michelle was a Star Wars member of the people living with disabilities Community through her experience and compassion she was a champion for inclusiveness and challenged administrations to improve accessibility amenities and not just quantity but quality and whereas Michelle participated in numerous advocacy organizations such as the spinal cord injury local chapter the city the city accessibility advisory committee was the board president of volar Center for Independent Living Center she was the president of sun Metro's accessibility advisory committee and a peer support specialist for children with disabilities information coalition and whereas on top of her advocacy Michelle was an active member in her neighborhood alongside her parents Mike and Bertha leading the Cielo Vista neighborhood association in meetings events donation drives and initiatives to benefit and improve the community and whereas though Michelle left her Legacy in many causes what made her most memorable memorable was her kindness her independence her empathy towards others and her smile that could light up a room and whereas we celebrate Michelle's life and her first birthday away from us she is incredibly missed by her family her friends and community and we are grateful for her time with us and now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that April 25th 2023 shall be known as Michelle a jamian day signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning mayor good morning Council first of all I'd like to say thank you for the support Cassandra and our office has given us this has been a a tough road for my wife our family to travel she was taken too soon however when she was born the doctor had told us she was going to live up until the age of 13. well she made it to 39. for those of you know Michelle she is a fighter sacrifice for what she believes in she was strongly involved with the disability making it what it is today and I have decided to also continue her Legacy um I replaced not replaced she is with me on the city accessibility advisor committee and I was also elected recently to a newly formed Community needs advisory committee we're going to do things that El Paso needs for the benefit of all not only the disability but the community as a whole I want to thank my family for the support our close friends that are today my niece put these shirts together for us the prayer state senator cessler Blanco gave us a resolution from the state also the flag that's flown over the state capitol there's been two dates that we've had the FL the star on the mountain lit one was this past Friday which was Michelle's 40th birthday we had a small celebration close friends and family and on December 24th coach James Rutledge and Burgess High School community again I want to thank you for your support for those of you that you knew Michelle you were blessed to have known her for those who did not she's still with us right so I want to thank every each and one of you for your show of support when you first heard of Michelle's passing many of you sent flowers cards phone calls I see that Mr Gonzalez is not here today but he was one of the first that called me on my phone to give his condolences but it's much appreciated for all that you've done for us and we continue to support you and move this city forward and what we believe in thank you very much and have a wonderful day thank you and I just want to say that um I had the opportunity my first term in this second term to work with Michelle and I think she changed the word from disability to people with abilities and I think that's really important to talk about because they had she had the ability and the abilities to do things and change things so I would like to refer to it as people with abilities because she told she she had the ability and she showed us thank you thank you very much coincidentally this is also my wife and I's 42nd 20th anniversary and and we have some a token of not only our appreciation but of the support that you have shown the community the Cela Vista neighborhood association Michelle was really critical and everything we did we're going to miss her but we also want to honor the love that you have shed among this community and our office has a small token of of shoaf's gratitude and support for the love that you share with all of us so thank you for joining us and thank you for allowing us to honor Michelle thank you Cassandra thank you thank you and happy anniversary thank you so we've got some bookmarks that we'd like to pass to each one of you with a small prayer also for the record representative Canales is also in Chambers and if this morning's honorees will please remain in Chambers the council will have an opportunity to take photos with you once all the ceremonial items have been completed thank you again thank you the next Proclamation is Las Americas day representative mayor Pro tem thank you I'm waiting for Las Americas to come to the podium welcome y'all the proclamation of the city of El Paso Texas whereas Las Americas immigrant Advocacy Center is a nationally known immigrant Advocacy Center dedicated to providing high quality legal services to disadvantaged socioeconomic immigrants and Asylum Seekers from around the world and whereas Las Americas was founded in 1987 by two El Paso human rights Advocates Ruben Garcia and Delia Gomez Who recognized an unmet need to provide legal services for a large influx of central Americans fleeing their countries and assist women and children detained by the ins through its Justice for women and children project and represented battered undocumented women under the batter immigrant women project and whereas this non-profit organization based in El Paso Texas currently holds a three-fold focus Las Americas Mexico program Community migrant advocacy program and the detained deportation defense program and whereas since its founding Las Americas has served nearly 50 000 persons while advocating for a robust Asylum system working to reunify separated families and calling out abusive immigration practices and Las Americas continues to be one of the few non-profit legal service providers assisting in low-income immigrants in the Border region and whereas Las Americas will be celebrating 36 years of continued Services Board of community on May 1st 2023 and looks forward to continuing their mission of providing high quality legal service to low-income immigrants and to advocate for human rights now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso that May 1st 2023 shall be known as Las Americas day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar lucer congratulations John good morning Mary Lisa and mayor pro temanello thank you for the proclamation my name is Marisa Limon Garza I'm the executive director of Las Americas immigrant Advocacy Center and so honored and thrilled that our colleague and staff member was able to secure this Proclamation on our behalf in honor of our 36th anniversary as an organization here in El Paso this is uh clearly a time where we need to be using all of our resources to support those in need specifically our migrant brothers and sisters and so that's what we're here to do so thank you again for this recognition thank you for your service to the community and thank you again for the acknowledgment thank you and I know you've been working really hard with us on the Asylum Seekers and and everything so we do appreciate all the work you do and continue to do for us thank you and I'd like to really celebrate my colleagues and a board member who's here with us as well and thank you for for the opportunity thank you thank you hey Marisha are you related to anyone in here okay interesting just asking the next Proclamation is Fabiola Campos Lopez day thank you and her family thank you mayor Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas Miss Fabiola Campos Lopez first began her in-depth Civic engagement in 2017 by presenting herself as an active member of the Playa neighborhood association with many other neighborhood association leaders and before the city council to challenge a resoning case in their neighborhood and after championing the reasoning case Fabiola Campos Lopez made it the decision to begin the corridor 20 civic association which encompasses District 3 6 and 7 in The Mission Valley to help residents in the area with similar zoning challenges and whereas at the 2019 neighborhood Summit Fabiola Campos Lopez was awarded the 2019 Community leader of the Year by the City community and human development department and elected by the neighborhood association president as the new chairwoman of the El Paso neighborhood Coalition serving more than 85 neighborhood associations across the city and whereas at the 2021 virtual neighborhood Summit because of the community initiatives that were proposed adapted and implemented during the covid-19 pandemic Fabiola was again awarded the 2021 Community leader of the Year by the City Community human development department and whereas the El Paso Community Collision under fabiola's leadership and in collaboration with the city neighborhoods service Division and visit El Paso participated were selected to bring these to the city of El Paso for the first time the neighborhood USA conference to be held on May 24 through 27 2023 and whereas new initiatives Community initiatives were created under fabiola's leadership and with the support of neighborhood association leaders such as to Adopt A School holiday ham drive and back to backpack events and whereas because of her excellence in volunteerism high quality of work social creativity and Community responsibility Fabiola Campos Lopez was awarded and recognized for the third time this year of 2022 Community leader of the Year during the recent 2022 neighborhood Summit and she was also re-elected to serve as the El Paso neighborhood coalition chairwoman now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and city council the city that on April 25 23 shall be known as Fabiola Campos Lopez day signed by The Honorable Oscar mayor Lisa thank you thank you good morning good morning thank you all um like they say my name is Fabiola Campos Lopez and I'm honored to receive this recognition thank you for publicly recognizing the novel value of community volunteerism a leader does not walk away when challenges are right in every situation there are always two options you allow the challenges to destroy you or you accept them and work towards making it sound not only for the individual but for the group of people whose trust has been earned and who believe in the quality of your work this is a high caliber of a community volunteer thank you for recognizing recognizing the many hours in energy dedicated unselfishly by that person who wants to live in a fair in better city called Community leader allow me to dedicate this recognition of my work to the many outstanding Community leaders from the neighborhood associations who dedicate their time energy and sometimes their own resources to bring hope to their neighborhoods and care for the common good like Robert Sandoval from Montoya Heights Susana Martinez from South White Lucinda cuella from Borderland Charlene Teddy from current Place Pablo Lopez from South Side many Silva from chihuahuita Hilda Villegas from Familia seniceros from Rosedale Betty halliburn from Sunrise Ingo Thomas from North Hills Manuel Padilla from last year as Silvia carrion from Mission Valley Dolores beauche and Tori's family from Pueblo Viejo Juan Mendoza from Thomas Manor Ivan Lopez from Playa Ana dueñas from El Paso lower belly Perla Villalobos from Valley View Heights Chris Hill a Jamie and family from Cielo Vista Antoine from Franklin Fred Borrego from San Juan this extraordinary leadership is to mention just some of the 87 amazing Community leaders from the five districts lastly this could not have happened without my strength my support my family my husband Jose my son Jose Roberto and Ivan and my daughter Sophia once again thank you for this recognition of my work thanks to Mayor liser and specially to representative Isabel Salcido for this special recognition to my community services thank you thank you you know and I want to congratulate you on on bringing the the convention here to El Paso I know that um he asked me I think I don't know three years ago to give the opening remarks and be there on the opening day and I'm looking forward to um to that day I know it's coming soon now but I know that uh he took great pride in showing off our community and being able to do that and we're thankful and I'm looking forward to being there with you on the 24th of May 24th right to that 27th yes ma'am so I look forward to to being there and like I said I think you asked me long right before I got elected I think you know I was going to win or something I don't know because you asked me right before I even got elected that you wanted me to give the opening remark shot I thank you for that and congratulations on all you do for not only the neighborhood associations but I see you all around at the community events so thank you for that thank you and I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone of the city council Reps for supporting us and allowing us to invite the neighborhood association presidents to this conference thank you all thank you very much thank you we have representative um thank you very much mayor um just want to take this opportunity to speak a few words first to the jamian family it makes a difference every day when you're part of a neighborhood association not only for your neighborhood but for the community as a whole prime prime Paragon example there the Campos family as well the Lopez family your stalwarts in your community it makes a difference in how things operate the differences that you can make and you're shiny both of you are shining examples and everyone that you read right now the different names of presidents and things like that every day is a challenge but it's also an opportunity and thank you for doing that investment thank you thank you thank you and congratulations again thank you [Applause] and the final Proclamation is Prevention of Cruelty to animals month representative Kennedy thank you and my rescue dog gave me a pause up today for this one so whereas April has recognized Nationwide as Prevention of Cruelty to animals month and whereas the city of El Paso animal services in the El Paso Police Department animal cruelty investigations unit aims to increase awareness around the important issues facing animals in El Paso Texas and the surrounding communities and whereas animals are voiceless members of our community and rely on Animal Welfare organizations and the community to speak up on their behalf and whereas animal cruelty and neglect is a severely underreported crime Crossing all social and economic boundaries and whereas data on domestic violence and child abuse cases reveal that a staggering number of animals are targeted by those who abuse their children or spouses and whereas in 2022 the city of El Paso Animal Services investigated 4 543 cases for basic Animal Care needs and the El Paso Police Department animal cruelty Investigation Unit investigated 500 animal cruelty cases and whereas the city of El Paso stands by having Zero Tolerance of any mistreatment of animals and aims to increase the awareness of animal cruelty and educate the community on ways they can decrease animal cruelty and now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that April shall be known as Prevention of Cruelty to animals month and it's signed by mayor Oscar liser [Applause] good morning good morning council members for the record I wanted to take this opportunity and thank you all for your continued support animal services in the El Paso Police Department animal cruelty investigations unit which is also here with us we work diligently every day to combat cruelty and um there's just never enough staff but we'll continue to fight every day and April is dedicated to renew awareness and help the community to speak up and not be afraid um unfortunately animal cruelty is linked to domestic and physical abuse and evolves to something so much more and we're going to continue fighting we're going to continue bringing awareness one victim is too many and I again I really want to thank you for your continued support and as long as we're here we're going to continue fighting for the pets in our community thank you thank you [Applause] good morning Chief good morning uh Terry capshall Animal Services director I just wanted to thank Council for all your support for please and for Animal Services animal cruelty is a it's one of the ugly sides of uh that happened now here in our community but part of this uh campaign that we have here bringing light that there is animal cruelty into our community if we want to remind everybody before it gets to that there are resources to please reach out to Animal Services reach out to the police department if you're if you're having any difficulty so animal cruelty is a lot of that is that standard of care making sure that your animal is properly fed and make sure it's housed properly those types of things so before it becomes a an issue please reach out to the city the animal services and we can provide resources we can provide that guidance before it gets to that so I just wanted to remind everybody that's a big part of this campaign to bring that awareness and we can prevent it before it does happen thank you thank you Don can you come up can you come up for a minute yes sir of course you didn't want to you know good morning and and I think um I I kind of I think it's important to kind of talk a little bit about what we're doing back right behind us if you take a minute to to kind of explain that because I think it's something really important as we're continuing to expand yes sir excuse me so um what we're working on right behind uh City one here at the Old El Paso Times building is a our third satellite facility uh as you all know we have the shelter we have the one down in Socorro down by speaking Rock and this will be our third uh at present we have about 120 animals in there uh currently all dogs and um you know it started as a uh just an overflow for our distemper pandemic that happened there at the shelter um but then it quickly grew into also you know be having to be an overflow for our HVAC project that's going on at the shelter uh that project got underway at the beginning of April and very soon we're gonna have to display some animals from the shelter so they will be transported over here to the site as well while they work on various areas of the shelter so you know as Chiefs mentioned before you know kind of out of sight out of mind uh it's very important that we get eyes on on those pets that are here at the Times building and so starting on April 1st we will be having our official opening to the public to where we will allow members of the public volunteers uh we're also going to do a a shape It Up program where city employees can go and walk dogs for shape it up points um so that will be announced later on this week through a press release but you all heard it first here in in Council and we're very excited to get uh get going and having those adoptions uh more frequently through that facility I know he meant May 1st Chief May 1st came in May 1st we all knew that Dawn if I may I'd like to thank mayor Lisa for that idea I was actually with mayor Lisa at the site recently and he had the brilliant idea of bringing our employees together with the dogs bringing the shape It Up program together with animal services it's a win-win so merely sir thank you very much for that support and that great idea and we're looking forward to activating on that staff is working all through all the details at this time as you said there'll be a press release later this week so thank you very much for that thank you now how many team members will we have back there staff working there we will have about 12. and that's why it's important that um city employees City team members people that work down here to go back there and walk those dogs because you don't I mean when I went in there the other day we had 126 and we don't have time to walk every one of them in one shot pavement out there gets to be 90. it's gonna be really hard for them to take a walk back there so if people could go early mornings and start going down there and take them for a walk would be really important as I think it'll really help the dogs a lot we'll start the adoptions out of there like you said grand opening on May 1st so I'd like to hopefully see a lot of volunteers going out there and every morning and walking dogs you're not back parking lot there's a lot of room back there big business here downtown so we really want to um you know get the word out that those those businesses know that we're here that maybe they their employees want to stop by and and see the dogs during their lunch breaks or whatever but I think it'll be really good for for downtown and um and for the community to have another the third satellite location thank you mayor thank you great job thank you again foreign yes mayor that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion as requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page seven item 18 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative anello page 7 item 19 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative anello page 8 item 24 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Fierro second 100 representative um Hernandez yes I have another revision Mrs I spoke to Mrs Prine earlier about it I'm seeking to be excused so I have a family emergency I have to attend to and so if I can seek to be excused after 10 30 A.M I know there's a Rudy a second so if that could be included I don't think we need a motion to approve her leaving at 10 30. it'll be noted yeah it'll just be noted thank you and hope everything's okay with that we have a motion in a second yes sir we do have public comment on item number three from Ms Turner item three is a resolution that the city manager or designee is authorized to sign a lesser's approval of assignment on Butterfield Trail Industrial Park lease between the city of El Paso and 50 Walter Jones Boulevard Inc good morning mayor council uh just curious this is a 40-year lease with one option to extend for 10 years do I read this right that the rent on this property will not change at all over 50 years if that lease is extended I'm Sorry Miss Turner what item item three three okay I'm sorry go ahead yeah Mr Rodriguez on there yes uh good morning mayor council San Rodriguez director of the airport uh as as briefed yesterday this is the lease assignment uh so we're assigning the leads the terms of the agreement remain the same our per FAA requirements our lease does include escalation Clauses every five years the rates do it get adjusted uh Ms Turner uh so it's not the same rate for 40 years um it goes through an escalation process based on CPI every five years okay thank you you're welcome thank you Ms Prime do we have a motion yes sir there was a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Fierro to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 18. that was moved to the Forefront and this is discussion and action to recognize the El Paso County juvenile probation department and their efforts towards Global youth service day 2023 this item was submitted by mayor poete Manilow thank you um I will make a motion to approve and then read the resolution this is whereas today's investment in our youth will provide hope for our future here in El Paso Community and we need to come together to provide them with the necessary resources and opportunities for them to succeed therefore making it vital to commit to enhancing the Education Health and overall development of our youth and whereas Juvenile Justice Center alongside with Community Partners host an annual Global youth service Day project celebrating the mobilization of millions of youths around the world working to go around the world working together to improve their communities through community service with this year's 2023 gysd theme as preparing for the future where youth participants will engage in service learning and Community projects throughout April and attend a community service learning Summit and career exhibition to be held on Saturday April 29th and whereas the preparing the future Summit will provide these young adults the opportunity to gain skills tools and resources that will allow them to be successful in their future endeavors in the Juvenile Justice Center has partnered with local agencies that will provide presentations focusing on Career Education local resources and skill development providing participants with opportunities for enrichment and positive Youth Development and whereas the Juvenile Justice Center seeks to provide the opportunity for participants to work together with fellow community members and Community leaders in service learning opportunities so they can contribute to the creation of safe spaces for youth to be heard and identify solutions to obstacles and whereas the Juvenile Justice Center staff along with EPCC Workforce Solutions borderplex lujuro Productions and other numerous local community organizations are honored to provide the involvement and commitment to Global youth service day and whereas Global youth service day is the largest youth service and Civic action event in the world and the only one event that celebrates and builds capacity of all youth ages 5 to 25 to help their communities Thrive by working together for a common good and now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso the city of El Paso is proud to support the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Department as it provides opportunities for our City's Youth and builds a better future for our community congratulations y'all thank you so much for being here good morning um good morning my name is Jennifer Contreras and I'm the field compliance and Community Improvement supervisor at the El Paso County juvenile probation department and on behalf of Chief Rosie Medina the executive team and the global youth service Day committee we would like to thank you for this opportunity and also for the sponsorship of the global youth service day 2023 our theme is preparing the future and this has become an annual tradition with El Paso County juvenile probation department and we're very excited to be part of this worldwide initiative that provides a platform for our youth to thrive through enrichment opportunities and what better way to celebrate our youth and our assistant with preparing for the future then coming together as a community and through our ciudad El Paso Texas so thank you very much I really appreciate your time and juntos Si SE puede that's yes thank you thank you so much and I'll make a motion to approve [Applause] Miss Prine yes there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by alternate layer Pro tem only not to approve item number 18. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative item number 19. one second please I was going to ask the team and the members to introduce themselves but I guess they took off oh okay that was two they're two up there do you all want to introduce yourself well good morning mayor and City Representatives my name is Elizabeth and I just wanted to emphasize um our appreciation for your support on this event this event is very near and dear to our hearts because this is something that our youth is asking for that they want more services in in providing vocational and continuing education opportunities and we're thankful to be able to hosting this event this Saturday and with your support because it's only with the community that we're able to do this so thank you thank you good morning mayor city council my name is Robert Hernandez I'm the one in charge of the provincial Intervention Program in El Paso County junior probation department so I just want to thank you all for the opportunity to have us here um I know lately it's been it's been Rocky but we're doing everything in our power to assist our youth because we we recognize that they're the future will pass though so I want to once again I want to thank you guys for the opportunity silly rappanello thank you for sponsoring and we appreciate everything you guys do for us thank you good morning major and City councils my name is Adriana Diaz I'm one of the provision officers that work with our youths I really appreciate all the help and everything that you have helped us with this event thank you thank you and remember shisha puede thank you thank you all we have two more resolutions and then we'll be taking photos yes item number 19 is discussion in action to recognize April 29 2023 as Dia de los Ninos Dia de los libros and recognize the work of the El Paso public libraries and Parks and Recreation Department as they provide free books to children at the event this item was also submitted by mayor Pro Tem onello thank you I'm going to wait for our library friends to come up um really excited to be hosting this event for the second year in a row in District Two And while they make their way up I will read the resolution and it states whereas the city of El Paso through the El Paso public library and parks and recs departments is dedicated to emphasizing the importance of literacy for children of all Linguistics and cultural background whereas research demonstrates that children who participate in cultural and linguistically diverse literacy activities are more successful readers and the city of El Paso is dedicated to support healthy minds and healthy bodies and whereas many of El Paso's children face greater challenges in developing strong literature skills due to the lack of access to resources and books to use at home and whereas on Dia de los Ninos Dia de los libros the El Paso public library and Parks and Recreation departments will give away free books to the city residents at Washington Park these expenditures serve the municipal purpose of providing educational and cultural activities to the residents and visitors of the city of El Paso which benefits the community and stills Community Pride and aligns with the vision of the city of El Paso now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that April 29 2023 be declared dear de los Ninos Dia de los libros in the city of El Paso will host an event to provide books at no cost to attendees of this event congratulations y'all hello Norma good morning good morning good morning mayor good morning Council thank you so much for having us here thank you mayor Pro tem for the resolution we are very excited to be back for the second year we outgrew Memorial Park last year so we're going back to Washington Park and we're very excited to bring this to the community we are excited for for the community to come out and support and I want to give a big shout out to all of our supporters this year the great Khalid Foundation the Children's Hospital Raising Canes phrase Federal Credit Union and our wonderful friends of the library thank you very much with all of their support we wouldn't be able to do all of what we do at the library I also want to give a big shout out to all of our employees all of our community um Dia de los Ninos community that that take care of all and putting all of this together and this week is National Library week so I want to give a big shout out to all of our employees for everything that they do for the librarian for the community thank you we also have a little token of our appreciation to you guys if we may approach to to give them to you guys and while y'all handing those out I will make a motion to approve again and I think one of your big I got to go to the the opening uh in the Khalil Foundation I'm sorry I didn't hear that the Khalil Foundation was a big supporter everybody else this year yes thank you thank you very much thank you there was a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Rivera and molinar on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you again thank you for your support item number 24 was also moved to the Forefront and this is discussion in action to recognize April 2023 as Parkinson's disease Awareness Month Parkinson's disease is a serious and life-changing disorder and the observance of Parkinson's disease Awareness Month unites people around the world in their commitment to improve the quality of life for those fighting the disease and this item was submitted by representative thank you Mr Mayor um as the group is walking up I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome Dr Brooks and all the Rocksteady boxers who in the old days allowed me to work out with him and that's how I get this pristine muscular body mirror yeah I know you're always asking but but Dr Brooks I found this quote this quote today and it describes you to the T and it was care and support doesn't always take the form of one treatment in the form of awareness like a pedal in the lake you Ripple outwards to serve the greatness of the whole so thank you for everything you do and I'm honored to to read this resolution whereas April's is a Parkinson's disease awareness month and this occasion provides a fitting opportunity to promote better understanding of health and issues whereas according to Parkinson's Foundation more than 50 000 Texans aged 45 and older have the disease and in El Paso an estimated 2300 people are living with Parkinson's it's second only to Alzheimer's whereas although more work remains to be done in identifying the causes of the disease and developing a cure a number of treatments are available to help symptoms including medication and various therapies Parkinson's disease is serious life-changing disorder and the obser the observance of Parkinson's disease Awareness Month unites people around the world and the commitment to improve the quality of life for those fighting this disease now therefore be it resolved that city council and the city of El Paso recognize April 23rd April 2023 as Parkinson's disease Awareness Month the city of El Paso encourages citizens to learn more about the disorder thank you Mr Mayor thank you sir good morning good morning good morning America morning Council thank you very much for helping us bring awareness to Parkinson's disease recently there was another study done that showed us that the numbers of diagnosis in the United States increased from 60 000 a year to ninety thousand so that tells us that either more people are getting diagnosed every year or we just needed to have correct numbers in the past the gentleman behind me are just a small example of the fantastic group we have in El Paso I'm just their assistant in trying to get the awareness out so I want to thank you very much for helping us because the more people we can get to learn about the disease and get diagnosed the faster they can get into treatment and seek the help that they need everybody else yeah I want to introduce yourselves good morning my name is and I was diagnosed six years ago I'm 51. good morning thank you good morning mayor and representatives my name is Ken Posey and I was diagnosed in 2017. good morning good morning my name is Leo Arriaga I was diagnosed back in 2013. and I'm still boxing good morning mayor and Council my name is Greg Fogle and I was diagnosed in 2013 also and I'm with Leo I'm still going to the boxing therapy [Applause] and then there's another gentleman behind me that's Kent Dillard and this is uh Greg's wife so thank you again very much thank you mayor with that I make a motion please [Applause] there's a motion made by representative Fierro seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 24. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you [Applause] there's a motion and a second to recess the city there's one more item in there all in favor your item anyone opposed okay the meeting is in recess at 9 51 a.m in order to take photos with this morning's honorees council members if I could get you all we're going to go ahead and take the photos in the lobby area and so we're going to start off first with the photos from Michelle ariende adamant day and then followed up by Las Americas today and then fabula Campos Lopez day and then Prevention of Cruelty to animals month and Then followed by the juvenile probation department recognition Dia de Los Dinos de los libros recognition and then last but certainly not least is a Parkinson's disease folks if we could start off again um with everybody in the lobby foreign yes um money I just asked him by yourself she [Music] all right let's um so are you gonna come over here too why aren't you not that hard yeah okay for me his wife no you know what you just have to eat the donut holes because calories stay at McDonald's here [Music] oh really okay you understand you want them anyways the Council of public to do with us because foreign that's okay actuator the actuation and um receiving me services I thought it was really good but it's free yeah you like that white car yeah yeah and it's free just in case because I was reading to see if it said it anyways Texas oh yeah years oh man the instructions it's always inheritance [Music] oh yeah because thank you right but he doesn't think congratulations um okay yeah yes yes thank you National community I'm having a day Jeff it's been a day no will you let these people know that we're gonna move on the municipal idea and so it's going to be about 30 minutes expensive an hour to 45. okay right to sleep [Music] during the day I'm gonna make a motion for me to leave representative Hernandez I think she's leaving Amanda's right there yes sir we can begin mayor can we please move 21 is there a motion to reconvene so much there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 15 a.m mayor Pro tem can we please move 20 I would like to have a motion of 21 up to the Forefront yes we can do that okay thank you mayor item 21 is discussion in action on approving a resolution to implement a city of El Paso Municipal ID program this item was submitted by mayor Pro tem Manila can we please take public comment yes ma'am we'll begin with a list of speakers that signed up for item number 21 the first person is Ellen lizaraga followed by Fernando Garcia Samantha Singleton Susana Herrera Wesley Lawrence Lisa Turner Irma Cruz good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning mayor good morning city council my name is Alanis araga I am here on behalf of the Border nerve Freeman rights to speak in favor of item 21 for the past few months I've had the opportunity of learning firsthand about the institutional embryocratic barriers members of our community face due to the lack of a government-issued ID I've learned from mothers who have been unable to pick up prescriptions for their sick children from college students who cannot open up a cell phone accounts and from hero households who cannot access bank Services which has led them into the handsome predatory check-catching services with high fee rates these are only a few examples of the heart barriers thousands of opasa residents face to Simply access essential Services most of us take for granted it is vital that we acknowledge the role of identification in our everyday lives identification is security and identification provides possibility and access to vital services item 21 will Kickstart a long awaited process to examine the implementation of a community identification program for the city of El Paso has proposed by the bnhr this identification card will provide access to a range of Municipal and private services including Library access identification for emergency service and financial services among others by doing so this car helps better identify City residents and provides them easier access to public and private Services helping make for a more connected more engaged El Paso as a council I encourage you to remember your duty to address the need to follow past the residents a community ID is a step forward to granting all Paso residents including veterans transgender individuals mixed legal status families and those experiences in home insecurity and victims of domestic violence the right to an identification the right to the everyday privileges of a community life and it symbolizes the privilege of local belonging as a community we can no longer progress by leaving others behind it is time that we provide an equal opportunity for everyone to participate in our booming Economic Development and equal share in community Safety and Security and begin fostering Community inclusion I am El Paso and I encourage this Council to vote in favor of item 21 and I support the creation of a community identification program thank you thank you the next speaker is Fernando Garcia followed by Samantha Singleton good morning you have three minutes good morning city council members uh for almost a decade almost 10 years we have been working on this essential issue and first I would like to express our appreciation and recognition of Representative danello for being there introducing this for the first time several years ago um we were almost there um things happen and now it's in the table again so thank you for that and also would like to recognize the leadership for city council woman Hernandez because also she's been a champion on this talking to us to the staff about the need of this of this program and the rest of you that actually had met with our members and our allies because this is an important issue uh it is is being never as important as it is today you have the thousands and thousands of members in our community and last count was was like 70 000 at least that they don't have access to to uh official identification and you know that that is the challenge I mean mothers that cannot pick up their skill the kids from school uh families workers that they can open a bank account and therefore they cannot be part of our booming economy and help them to integrate right people in homelessness status or uh transgender has been mentioned better and so I think this is for everybody in El Paso so we are uh we're really pleased that it's been this has been brought up for the discussion we believe that this is going to be good for our economy uh for our safety because this community would actually be recognized by Del Paso Police Department which actually is encountering with people with no identifications and it's harder for them to process people to to know who they are so in that sense anybody that is concerned about safety insecurity should be very glad that this is something that we can have it also has an El Pas once everybody myself and others could be proud of having an ID that has El Paso logos and also because worker have access to Services uh type two services so I think I believe that this ID has been successful in many cities already I think every city has demonstrated how this has been successful for economic interrogation and development so I really thank you all and I hope that we're going to have a positive vote on this issue thank you again thank you the next speaker is Samantha Singleton followed by Susana Herrera and Wesley Lawrence good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor good morning Representatives my name is Samantha Singleton and I am the policy director at the border Network for human rights as you all know the I am El Paso Community ID campaign is something that the Border Network for human rights has been pushing for almost a decade an organization who is committed to improving the lives of the community we believe that everyone has the right to proper identification when an individual is not able to get essential needs of every human being because they don't have proper identification they don't have a sense of belonging think about the individual who finally has the courage to get up and leave everything behind because they could no longer take the domestic abuse a community ID will give them hope and the strength they need to start over how about the person who's been overpaying check cashing prices because they cannot open a bank account a community ID will give them security what about the person who's been a victim of a crime and they can't report it a community ID gives them safety the person who cannot check out a library book because they can't get a library card a community ID gives them freedom a person needing medical attention a community ID gives them another chance at Health at life imagine being a working parent who cannot depend on family to pick up your child from school because they don't have proper identification a community ID gives that parent peace of mind after all it takes a village community IDs will improve the lives of our community so today U.S city council Representatives have the opportunity to do the right thing for the community of El Paso and pass this resolution make the community a better place for all El pasoans thank you thank you the next speaker is Susana Herrera followed by Wesley Lawrence Susana Herrera good morning you have three minutes yes [Music] identification is gracias gracios in support of the municipal ID program and she wishes to acknowledge representative anello for placing this item she says it's time that the city has a municipal ID program the next speaker is Wesley Lawrence followed by Lisa Turner good morning you have three minutes thank you good morning mayor and members of council my name is Wesley Lawrence and I'm a community advocate who proudly represents Texas Democrats in sd-29 today I urge you to pass item number 20. as you know Paso is a City of Hope and opportunity with a strong and vibrant culture that defines our people and now we have an opportunity to create a community ID program that will ensure that every member of our community has access to basic human needs it's important to remember that oftentimes IDs gate keep people from basic services such as health care registering a child for school access to libraries and banking systems and Reporting Crimes of the fear of harassment or arrest there are many vulnerable groups in El Paso that are in need of Municipal IDs such as unhoused people Youth and Foster Care Systems low-income individuals people with mental health illnesses and disabilities and formerly incarcerate individuals re-entering Society in order to come to get back on their feet Studies have shown that not only having an idfx primarily black and brown individuals as they are asked to provide ideas at a higher risk Than People such as myself in situations that are not really necessary such as paying a check or encountering the police all right thank you for giving the time for this discussion to happen and I hope the item 21 passes so that we can have a city that truly puts equality and inclusion first and last I want to add that as someone who deeply cares about this community I look forward to seeing this program implemented because it will ensure that no matter where you come from El Paso can and will be your home thank you thank you the next speaker is Lisa Turner followed by Irma Cruz and Enrique chavida Cantu good morning Miss Turner you have three minutes good morning again Mr good morning mayor council uh is there anything else reason God are there any reasons not to do this What I Hear makes sense but I'm not hearing anything else how it will be implemented what kind of Standards there will be so if somebody can get with me so I can understand it a little more I would appreciate it thank you Miss Turner this item on the agenda is to direct the city manager to look and study and bring back and that's when you'll hear what you're asking okay so that's your item on the agenda that uh to direct the city manager and to make proper and then look at proper budget items moving forward for 2024 and bring back within such as 120 days on how it would work and what needs to be done if so this item is just to move forward to do a study to bring back what you're asking all right thank you thank you Miss Turner our next speaker is Irma followed by Enrique Chavira Cantu good morning you have three minutes um my name is you know necessities identification municipal is also in support of the municipal ID program she's happy to see this item come forward she says it will assist citizens when they need to obtain a birth certificate for their children or assisting them with obtain a driver's license she also provided a previous experience with helping a citizen who was unable to pick up a prescription because they didn't have a an ID and she says over 13 000 people have signed a petition in support of a municipal ID program the next speaker is Enrique Chavira Cantu followed by Dulce Carlos Ruby Gordillo Patricia Martinez Enrique Cantu chavida I don't see him in the queue if you're in the queue star six hello hello Mr Chavira canto yes go ahead sir you have three minutes good morning my name is Enrique Chavira Cantu and I am the supervising paralegal of the El Paso office and kids in need of Defense also known as kind uh as we stated also in our submitted written testimony kind is here to address decision to item to respectfully request that the resolution be passed to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing and implementing a municipal ID card that is accessible by all El Paso residents which will greatly benefit our community since 2008 kind has been dedicated to providing free legal and social services for unaccompanied immigrant children who will arrive alone to the United States including here in El Paso many of the children I have worked with have reported being robbed of all their possessions or losing them including official documents that they are unable to replace some to no fault of their own are never issued by certificates about passports at all after release from federal custody to a caregiver or family member in the community most unaccompanied children lack coordinated Post Release services and face enormous barriers to accessing social services that are vital for their healthy healthy integration into the community we have clients who face language access barriers as indigenous speakers clients who are as young as three years old who cannot advocate for them themselves and many clients who have also suffered from high levels of trauma due to exposure to violence sexual assault and trafficking despite their eligibility for various services and benefits our clients are often turned away from these vital resources because they lack a valid form of identification other than their federal office of refugee resettlement verification of release form no child should ever have to go hungry be unable to attend school suffer and pain from lack of medical treatment or be without housing simply because they do not have an official ID especially when they or their caregivers are legally eligible for all of these Services as a recent American Academy of Pediatrics and migration policy Institute report issued in April 2023 highlights local efforts to create identity documentation for all community members can improve unaccompanied children's access to medical and Mental Health Care fine knows from experience and working in many other localities that have similar Community idea initiatives that these programs are successful and help everyone the community passing this resolution would be the first step towards improving so many lives of the children we serve thank you for allowing El Paso to appeal to be a leader in supporting the house safety and success of all of its residents and children thank you the next speaker is Dulce Carlos followed by Ruby Gordillo Patricia Martinez Angie armendariz muy buenos dias my name is gracias gracias Miss Carlos is also in support of the municipal like the program she appreciates City council's consideration as there are over 10 000 signatures were submitted in support and she believes there's ample reasons to implement the program the next speaker is Ruby Gordillo notifications foreign voluntarios this is also in support of the municipality program she says she struggled to pick up her child at school because she didn't have an ID and her child thought that they were going to have to stay at school because her the parent didn't have a an ID as required and she believes citizens deserve the right to have an ID in order to participate in programs and volunteer with their school's activities the next speaker is Patricia Martinez followed by Angie armendariz margarita arviso okay also needles Miss Martinez is also in support of the municipal ID program she says she asks council's help for in helping her obtain an ID and she says she struggles at times to seek medical to obtain medical services and testing as there are many places where they ask for an official ID from the United States the next speaker is Angie armendaris followed by margarita arviso buenos dias my name is [Music] is the foreign struggles with obtaining records for her children such as birth certificates or medication and she says there's several also asking for your support with this program and she thanks Council the next speaker is margarita recipes foreign Nosotros nosotross the community this is foreign good afternoon um because the train was advising that she has srid and she's in great need of one she had an emergency recently and she had no ID for this her meds were not provided for her to her due to this and her son had to use her ID and due to this is due to her consulate ID not being uh good for this matter um she advised them and he has supper of this issue and and they need assistance since they're part of the community and do they do need visibility thank you Mariana the next speakers followed by Rosa Korea Miguel Miranda Rosa Avila buenos dias the way um [Music] gracias has advised that she is part of the red from Teresa she also said that she has not been able to open a bank account she even went to a hospital once and since she overpaid a hundred dollars she was not able to to cash her check for those hundred dollars due to not having an ID this adding to the fact that she was unable to take books during the summer I'll take books out of the library during the summer for her daughters to be reading so instead of she had to spend the summer in the library with her daughters in there thank you Marianne the next speaker is Rosa Korea followed by Miguel Miranda Rosa Avila Michael Gutierrez buenos dias my name is [Music] pleasure says she was unable to enter to the IRS due to issues with her taxes she also hasn't been able to get records or documents for her children since her consulate ID has not been valid and even if it has it's her home address she says she has been having issues through the years with this no matter of her children's documents so she is asking for your help thank you Marina the next speaker is Miguel Miranda followed by Rosa Avila Michael Gutierrez Camargo and Manuel Guzman good morning foreign [Music] foreign gracious Mr read on the advice that he he has his son with disability at 100 due to seizures and he's in bed and due to not having an ID he's not able to get his meds he says that oh we uh all they want is to be taken as part of the community since they work hard and they do want to be part of this community this ID would help with the authorities also to identify them and they would be really grateful grateful if they get it thank you Mariana the next speaker is Rosa Avila followed by Michael Gutierrez buenos dias is foreign [Music] foreign she assists with the West Side Community she's asking for your support she has even had family members asking her to get her nephews and nieces birth certificate since the parents do not have a valid ID with a notarized um letter um also she has to keep in mind that people are not able to cash their checks or open bank accounts in order to start saving for their own children thank you Mariana the next speaker Michael Gutierrez submitted a statement to be read by representative mayor Pro temanello hello Council my name is Michael a Gutierrez a constituent of District 2. unfortunately I was unable to attend in person with my colleagues as I am a full-time student at UTEP but despite my absence I am writing to voicemail support for agenda item 21 as someone who strongly believes in the importance of inclusivity and equal access to resources I wholeheartedly support item 21. Municipal IDs have the potential to benefit a wide range of individuals include an undocumented immigrant homeless individuals and transgender individuals who may face significant barriers to obtaining identification through tradition traditional means by providing our Municipal ID these communities can access vital services such as opening a bank account accessing health care or even simply providing their identity to law enforcement item 21 promotes inclusivity supports marginalized communities and facilitates access to important Services I urge Council to support item 21. thank you Miss Prime thank you the next speaker is Betty Camargo good morning good morning my name is Patrick amargo and I am the state programs director with border Network for human rights I'm here today to ask our city council our city mayor to please support the process to create a mechanism for the city of El Paso to implement the ayam El Paso Community Service identification in a moment where our country has been so divided I am proud to be from El Paso a city that has always been welcoming and inclusive to anyone in our community you have already heard from my colleagues and the residents of El Paso why this community service identification is vital to be able to carry out day-to-day activities and how we can be a better community it's important to mention that the creation of this community service identification would be for everyone in El Paso to use it as a secondary ID to which could be linked to our city services but most importantly it would allow El Paso residents who are unable to obtain a state identification due to being homeless going through a transgender process or a survivor of domestic violence to feel integrated and be able to access those same services this is an important step for our city to show the rest of the State of Texas our values and principles of integration we know this is a good this is good for our economy as other states have already implemented it and has been nothing but successful I encourage for you to vote in favor of the city to conduct the study to examine and prepare a report of all the benefits that would occur by implementing and issuing a community service identification thank you for your leadership thank you the next speaker submitted a statement Manuel Guzman it says hi my name is Manuel Guzman and I'm a resident of district one I'm with Texas Rising testifying in favor favor of a municipal ID with many people getting denied Access to Health Care education and banking having a municipal ID will surely relieve many people of this burden not having IDs affect communities of color mainly black and brown we have seen in cities such as New Haven Connecticut that issue Municipal IDs have bolstered relationship between law enforcement and the people having a municipal ID will help the most vulnerable in our city please vote Yes the next speaker Adriana Cadena go ahead you have three minutes yes I um good morning um members of the council my name is Adriana Cadena I am the director for the protecting immigrant families Coalition it's a National Coalition of over 600 organizations across the country working at the intersection of immigration and access to public services um I am calling in today in favor of um beginning this process to ensure that El pasoans have access to a community ID I can tell you from the work that we do that there is a lot of need to ensure that families and in particular the parents of children are able to identify themselves so that they are one do not have fear in terms of access in public support systems or even for their children or even to enter into public buildings where identifications are necessary for us as a National Coalition this is an important step to ensure that children in particular and their parents are served but the services for which they are eligible in for which they qualify thank you for the time thank you thank you the next speaker is Carlos Menchaca foreign El Paso native born and raised and graduated went to college and then went to city council and joined the city council in New York I am proud of the roots that El Paso and the experiences that El Paso has given me to represent communities in New York but it was the El Paso experience that allowed me to see the needs that you are hearing today that allowed for legislation to be built in New York City in 2014 we passed legislation to create a community identification card I helped write it I help negotiate it with the mayor and the police department I learned a lot about that experience and then oversaw the implementation of this community ID card in our communities that card now is held by over a million people in New York City and it allows for us to understand the impact you're hearing the needs right now and this resolution which I'm in support of will allow for that to continue to be your Champion opportunity each of you and I know there's there's some Champions but all of you will be able to go back to your districts and really own this community card as a way to connect people I want to give one quick story about my mom and my family we live in a big status family and my mom I helped her clean the library in the morning but I never saw her use the library that was the kind of theme in my family that city services were not necessarily able to be connected this card will allow for an identity to be used to get into the libraries to be able to go into park and rec centers the biggest thing I saw in the negotiations with the police department were their incredible resistance to this that will come up in this study as well what I saw was the police department in New York City Grant incredible access to the card through their own initiatives so that the police can develop relationships with communities communities then started coming to local Precinct meetings and safety conversations began to change that is the kind of power and access that this card will give and that's why I'm in support uh the last thing I want to say is that the culture of the city is so beautiful I've returned since and I'm now living here and I'm loving my my time here there's new museums that are on their way the museum saw a massive uptick in membership because the ID card allowed for a one-year membership that's what we negotiated with the museums that allowed more families to come in that had never been connected to museums before Library use went up these are the things that have Community impacts and each of you will be incredible power uh powerful champions for your own districts and for you Mr Mayor I hope that you passed this that this resolution today and I will make myself available to whomever for any other support thank you so much for hearing the testimony of our community thank you and welcome thank you thank you my friend the final speaker submitted a statement to be read by mayor Pro Tem anello from Alexa carranco hi my name is Alexa carranco and I'm a resident of District Six I am a Texas Rising testifying in favor of Municipal ID I believe Municipal IDs are crucial to the well-being and health of people regardless of their legal status having a municipal ID will help the most vulnerable in our city including the older population without an ID my family members and my grandparents are not able to receive sensible health care and meds or basic necessities such as access to work benefits I've tried to help my grandparents navigate the system without an ID and it is infeasible my grandparents pay taxes and contribute to the economy therefore they should have the right to have a valid ID regardless of their status please vote Yes thank you mayor that concludes public comment on this item thank you we have Pro tem followed by representative canola Smith Pro Temp thank you mayor um it's been mentioned a few times that this was brought up in 2017 at city council and didn't pass I think about that item and that vote a lot those I think the first thing that I put on a city council agenda or the second I think there were two things that day this one failed and it was a real eye-opener for me I like to think that I've grown since 2017. some people might disagree but as you mentioned mayor we're doing this a little bit different you did already address Miss Turner and you read some of the the resolution to her but from what I've learned from representative Canales I am going to read the bottom part of the resolution to clear some things up um and it states so now therefore be it resolved at the city of El Paso and the city council I'm going to skip down to two and three which state that the city manager designee be directed to provide a report on the feasibility and benefits of El Paso City identification card program and include a plan for the adoption of such program as set forth within 120 days of the effective date of this resolution and three that the city manager or designated to make all appropriate funding allocations in the FY 2024 budget for implementation of this program within the first quarter of FY 2024 and so you know we're doing this a little bit differently this time there has been a working group set up and I want to thank representative Hernandez for kind of spearheading that working group with staff the county bnhr and I also want to thank Miss Dion Mack who has been really investigating this she helped with this resolution I know she has really committed to finding a program that works best for the city there's Ben talks about what this can look like and so while well they're you know we are not approving or we're not with approval of this resolution today we are not starting to issue the card or starting that program but I do want to make clear that this action today will direct City staff to do that so um while it is not happening today and there will be you know information in 120 days this is the action from Council to set forth this identification card um and I want to talk a little bit about we've heard a lot about the resources that will become available with this card I read in a statement that this will also help individuals who are unhoused it will help individuals uh you know have access to libraries which we know currently we charge individuals in the county right we want to be able to increase the education in this community but I think that the banking element is a really important part of this we know the state is coming down on some of our cash checking ordinances that we have in City we're being preempted from protecting our individuals from having their wages stolen and I think this is really the best time for this Council to stand up for this community and fight for them against uh you know against all of the odds including some of our counterparts at the state and and determined that safe and secure banking is something that will really help our constituents and will help this city and Community flourish so with that may I will allow other speakers and take any questions if there are any thank you thank you represent Canal is followed by represents Rivera thank you mayor um representative anello uh stole my thunder reading the the resolution out so I'll I'll spare you all from from uh my usual routine here um I I think this is a very important resolution and it hopefully will lead to a very successful program um you know I was living in New York at the time of the implementation of the municipal ID there and went through the process of applying uh it was accessible but also appropriately stringent right uh identity was verified residence was verified um it's it's not a process that is easy to abuse um and so uh I I think that we can Implement something similarly beneficial to the community here in El Paso uh and and that we can do so in a way that's cost effective and Swift and effective uh at providing people access to the services that so many folks have discussed today in their comments so I'll keep it brief here again I think the benefits have been very clearly explained by by the speakers by the resolution Itself by uh the mayor Pro tem who spoke before me and so I I will close by just saying that I plan to support this today and and I look forward to hopefully a very successful implementation of this program thanks thank you you're more and welcome to read it again if you'd like hahaha I'll pass this time whoever sends you better thank you mayor yes sir you know my concerns as a former police officer here uh first and foremost I'll ask what is the liability towards the city in uh in this Municipal card if you can answer that for me please and then thank you for your question Mr Nevada so my understanding of The Proposal today is to direct staff to come back with a program that would address some of these needs so we would be working with Miss Dion Mack and the rest of the team to figure out what the what the program would look like and then clearly not run a file of any federal or state loss okay so that then again I would like for that to be answered before I even implement the program I could I could vote for a feasibility study today but not to make an automatic program at the end of 120 days I think you should come back and brief us again and see if the council feels the same way then when they have that information as opposed to right now when we don't I need to know if what measures will be taken against fraud need to know if the police supports it I also need to know if the if there if there's a cross-functional team involved I need to know if they have contacted DPS to provide maybe a service from them through a valid Texas ID card those efforts will be made before Miss Mack answers those questions so it is my intention to have our group and and there's two lawyers that have been working with Miss Mack on this project and we've been watching it is Our intention to vet the program before anything is launched I think we're in the early stages of learning what other cities have been doing and we've mentioned some cities that have been doing it in other parts of the country so depending on what the proposal is we will vet it alongside Miss Mack to ensure that there aren't any legal risks to the city so then I have a problem within the 120 days effective of this resolution to implement the program that's what I'm having I'm sorry so 120 days would give us efficient time to come back before that to ensure that we're not proposing anything that would run afoul of federal state law okay and point of clarification resolution says a quarter one of FY 24 for implementation okay yes right Dion Mack Deputy city manager in order for the program to be implemented we would have to have um an act of ordinance and so our this action is going to allow us to develop the feasibility answer the questions talk to our Community Partners we've also been talking with the sheriff's department and other members at the county all of that comes back to you within that 120 days so you understand the full scope of that work we address any of the privacy issues and concerns a cross-functional team will of course include service providers State and County as well as practitioners in the field all of that work will come in late August back to you once you make a choice and decision about how we move forward beyond that point we will then be coming back to you with the introduction of an ordinance we would do our due diligence as we ordinarily do with any ordinance go out to have Community meetings have all of those discussions all of those will happen within a time frame as allocated here within the first quarter of 2020. thank you back and I know you you you're diligent about your work and so I look forward to those 120 days before we can actually decide on this I mean thank you a national program thank you so much thank you thank you sir representative Hernandez hi um good morning everybody when is the s umija [Music] um undresso fundamental I egress is and we all was trying to speak Spanish and I'm still trying to learn so representative can help um but I'm really grateful for you being here today and sharing your stories and to the Border Network for human rights I still remember um back when I was a city employee and and meeting Fernando for the first time I thought who is this force of nature um really fighting for basic human rights because absolutely having an ID is a fundamental right I have my son here today and I started to think about your stories and I started to think I would not be able to pick up my son this morning due to a medical emergency if I didn't have an ID the basic um you know just the basic needs and the basic privileges I have I certainly take for granted and today it was a great reminder of what we take for granted I won't even be able to take him to the doctor's appointment without my ID and so um it's it's incredibly important that we we talk about what can we do to help bring all persons whether you're a veteran unhoused whether you're an immigrant um how to bring you out of the Shadow so that we can make you part of our community sorry I'm super loud so I I don't know if the mic is on it still and we also all benefit by helping you achieve economic prosperity you should have your fundamental rights you should have basic Liberties equality every person in our community deserves to be part of community which is why it's so important for me to lend my support not only as a daughter as an immigrant but as a human as a person and to have a community ID will give you greater access to banking systems will give you greater access to access to your children to pick them up access for basic Medical Care and the hope is over time and in the state that we're in today with mass shootings happening every day you can't go into a school without an ID and that is the unfortunate reality of today is that without having IDs access or encountering law enforcement can be scary um even going into certain businesses can be scary and so we need to together this body we need to find a way a pathway to give you that access so that you can be part of this community you are part of this community we want you to be here we want you to come out of the Shadows but most importantly this will allow for you to prosper to have to cash a check when those stimulus checks were being sent out I had a number of people who called me that says I can't cash this check that the government just gave me I mean hundreds of dollars that are absolutely necessary with an expiration date a lot of people could not cash how unfortunate that is so incredibly unfortunate but I do want to lend my support to the B HR and to thank you you have my deep gratitude and support and it's it's so frustrating to hear how long it's taken and I think we're a step closer the County Commissioner's Court along with all of law enforcement men have really been great leaders including our County manager and then very big thanks to our city manager to Tracy Mario Dion and to our city attorneys because without your leadership we won't be able to get here so it's absolutely critical into our future city manager Carrie Weston Colonel Weston we we need your leadership we need your support so that we can provide a pathway and access to basic basic needs for our community those who live in the shadows and even those who are experiencing changes in their life um so gracias gracias thank you for all your hard work and I'm so excited today to vote Yes on this thank you representative [Applause] thank you very much mayor and so um to everyone that has come out and spoke here today thank you very much for taking out the time of your daily lives to do that for those of you who called in those of you who wrote a letter or an email to different Representatives thank you very much for that however I did hear a couple of times that this High Municipal ID would help veterans so um if someone on the call can kindly answer that question is how exactly that's going to help veterans I believe we have command sergeant major Paul Albright if you could help us out with that please thank you representative molinar for the record Paul Albright Chief military officer for the city um yeah we've definitely experienced problems with our veterans that don't have ID cards case in point is our homeless veterans a lot of our homeless veterans unfortunately lose all their documentation during the time that they're homeless whether that's through being uh you know subject of a criminal event like being robbed or mugged or just through the course of their time traveling they lose all their documentation when they lose their documentation it slows the entire process down really bogs it down a lot we have to try to find them in identification just to get them their basic Support Services started and we don't have identification it causes problems another case in point a repatriated veteran a deported veteran that becomes repatriated that comes back to our community wants to start a life here doesn't have an identification card it slows the process down it really hinders uh the issue a municipal ID could definitely help we can't even seem to get them processed through the department of the VA very well without an identification card so we've we've brought this up we've been talking with um with Miss Dion Mack and the team the city manager and um and and we're looking for solutions to this so I hope that answers your question representative molinar but definitely causes problems for veterans yes thank you very much for the two great great examples I was like to talk to someone from the police department Miss Mack referenced the process and I know where it's early on but still I would like some answers specifically I would ask in the process of someone and I assume it's going to be responsible to the police department to issue out this identification card so um no no sir one of the items in the resolution is for us to identify the department that's most appropriate okay in some cities that's a completely separate part department and so we'll be doing that research and coming back with the recommendation based on that we will also be looking at costs that are associated with how we we issue so that's also important all right so I accept that but I still like to ask Chief I see us something so Chief I see us um as our interim police chief for the city of El Paso having an identification is critical especially when you're out in the field making decisions on who's who and trying to find out who who we're talking to in a field call and a traffic stop or anything like that would it be your recommendation to that let's just say if the if it is a uh the I don't know who would do it it's just a public library I don't know who else what other department would do it not the not the police department to capture identifying data to include physical traits whether their body their weight their hair colors classes things like that any scars Marks tattoos and also to roll their fingerprints through aphis so I'm not entirely uh Peter Paseo syndrome chief of a police for the record so I'm not entirely clear on what your question is but if you're asking I'll make it clear of that so if you were charged with identifying making the issue into the municipal IDs would that process include enrolling the fingerprints into Avis automatic fingerprint identification system any scars Marks tattoos physical attributes whether they're um you know they have a their height weight color hair color eyes things like that so as part of this resolution and what I understand is uh occurring with this vote that you all are going to be taking is that we'd be part of the cross-functional team or the group that's going to be brought together so we would provide the information that we feel is critical to be able to identify somebody as who they say they are and there's various factors or matrixes that we would be considering that need to be able to positively identify somebody because there is a uh an issue across not just the state of El Paso but the state and the country with people identity theft for the short of it so we would make it a point to make sure that who we're going to be identifying as part of a municipal ID in this work group is that there is a matrix in place to make sure we're giving a card to a person who says they are who they are okay and this Carter would be uh acceptable at the city whether it be libraries uh let's just say your entrance into any City facility the county the state the Federal I couldn't answer that question at this point we need to be part of that okay discussion before you leave so um as you know and representative Rivera as well you know as police officers you're trained to identify a valid ID you know you can give your Texas driver's license or Texas ID card and I can without looking at I can feel it I can touch it and I can tell you whether it's valid or not and of course we're trained that way I'm not saying it has to be to that extent but uh it's I mean we're going to issue an ID let's not do it 50 of the way let's not do it 70 of the way I think that valid ID needs to be just on its face a valid ID that not only contains a picture because we have all these people here holding a sign city of El Paso and thank you very much whoever designed that because that's the beautiful Mexican poppies that are found on the Eastern Slope of the Franklin Mountain District Four that is now also a National Monument but I know that's not going to be covered on that but nevertheless I think if we are going to do do this that it needs to be done very well so that it fraud is prevented that it's acceptable at different facilities different levels of government and things like that so I do look forward to that information coming out thank you and um Mr representative Menchaca word where do you live now what district also called all right thank you close enough so thank you welcome back that's all I have you know and I think it's important that we know that the city and its team has been working on this and Ms Mack has been working on this and this is what needed to go to the next step to be able to continue to work on it so um and I did talk to Mayor potem and she did tell me that she's been working with the city team and this was really the next step to try to continue to move it forward and clarify some of the questions and hurdles that need to be answered with that representative Kennedy followed by representative Salcido shockingly enough I'll try to be short this is a question for the City attorney this item just approves the studying to come up with a plan and allocate funds for next year but it does not approve the plan itself correct that's correct sir it's only to get us on the track to start the program it's not this is the program it's going to be rolled out no it's not there yet I we don't know what the plan is so it would be hard in my opinion to vote no on something when you don't know what it is yet we're asking let's find out what it is what's the effect what's it going to do who's it going to affect and how and then we can take a look at it yes City match I think I can help you perhaps what's going to happen is whenever the information is put together and then brought back to the council you'll have to approve it because it's a policy decision so I think that should address your concern and maybe representative molinars and representative at us questions because when it comes back you'll have an opportunity to approve it it does say that it's a resolution to implement a city of El Paso Municipal ID program so I understand the confusion in that you read that and it says we're going to implement it and that's what your vote's going to do I think that with everything else that we do whenever it's a policy decision we'll bring back the council take another look at it before you approve it and I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of questions and I'm sure the community will as well and it'll be a good opportunity for us to share it with the community in a in a public setting at a council meeting so hopefully that addresses your question sir yeah and I'm relative really sure we'll have a plethora of questions and some of them might even be relevant but I don't know how you vote no for a program when we don't know what the program is I mean let's take a look at it let's see where it goes and then we'll come back and figure it out that's all I have thank you representative Kennedy and I think representative and chocolate from from New York said that they had some hurdles to clear and some things to overcome and this is our next step and this is exactly what we've been talking about that what is the next step you can't vote against something you don't know what you're voting against because it's still there's things that city manager and his team need to continue to work with and we needed to take the next step today and uh again I think the city came for where we've gotten so far in representative vanilla representative thank you mayor and uh thank you so much for the city staff that worked really hard on this is I definitely think that this definitely will help us integrate provide access to the community so for the basic needs that they have and I like as mentioned that we're going to really look at the process because I that is one thing that I'm very want to make sure that the process is handled the best way we could do and so we can prevent fraud or whatnot but that we have something that can really help the community integrate and be able to have the basic needs and the basics as access needed so I'm looking forward to that I want to thank everybody I actually think representative molinar was on a tour with me of one of those vaccine facilities where members of the public health Team said you know a community ID would have really helped us during this situation so I just I want to put that out there I also want to thank councilman Manchaca for coming and I want to thank you for your words because I think your conversation about Public Safety fee was really important it was going to be really important for this Council and this community we we always have friction over these things with Public Safety but I think that you remind us this is a great opportunity to really Bond those communities versus work against them so I thank you for that and I want to thank you again to be an HR for all the advocacy I know that you have all been here for years and you've done a lot of work meeting with people over the last couple weeks I'm Dion if you could remind the council because I think I'm going to not get the figure correct back in 2017 when we when this was first proposed the county had allocated was it five hundred thousand dollars they don't recall the amount they count five or three hundred thousand I think how much I'm not sure how much is it five so the last article I saw related to this was February of 2022 that the county had a conversation discussion regarding support of this in our meetings with the county they did uh talk about an allocation that would be available they also talked about um for uh providing at least a 50 uh cost match moving forward but I do not have the specificity yeah and I think Chief douglasino is correct it is it's 500 000 they have continued to allocate that in that budget every year since 2017 or 2016 I guess in hopes that the city would finally come to a partnership I think they've said they can't continue to do that and so really excited to to move through a budget allocation or RN to meet the to meet that match and to meet this goal and so again Miss Mack thank you for working so closely with Betsy on this issue and their office of new Americans you're the kid so does that mean 500 000 a year for six years they have three million set up no no it's just 500. oh just chicken yeah we could have worked that out better but unfortunately we didn't vote for it three million so with that I'll call the question hmm thank you do you have a motion representative motion to approve second yes members of the public that signed up to speak and I did not call them initially we have Ivan Diaz good morning good morning good morning I mean a lot of uh has been said already I was going to tell you about when I uh I didn't have an idea I didn't go to a bar until I was 25 because that's when I got my DACA but that's irrelevant um the thing is that many lives are dependent on this a lot of basic Services uh cannot be accessed without having an ID um not having an ID affects primarily black and brown individuals and studies show that they are ask for identification at higher rates even in cases when an ID is not needed and this is compared to White populations and I have the data in case I all need it and recently we have seen an increase of abuses of law enforcement so it is important to implement an ID in order to Foster these relationships with a lot of the communities that lack an ID and in a personal note my father has a very formal cancer and he has been been without treatment for almost two years because of a lack of ID and this is inhumane and these are the sad part is that his case is not unique I am also a former case manager and I saw many people go in and out of crisis in the hospital and hospitalizations because they were not able to access their medications after a discharge so I know that you have been talking about logistics if you think about it how many or how much hospitalizations and crisis and Emergency Services cost and if we can avoid having like people go to crisis every time that's money that can be saved and this is something that will benefit us people say like veterans our own house population and the most vulnerable so please I really urge you to vote Yes on this item thank you thank you the final speaker is Sophia abandmir foreign good morning good morning um hi my name is Sophia wamir I am also with Texas rising and I just wanted to say that our community has many vulnerable groups whose quality of life would be drastically improved by the passing of this item many members of our community are unable to find adequate Health Care schooling banking Library Services as well as other social programs due to circumstances beyond their control so IDs are a necessary are necessary to access certain things needed to stay alive and they also just make life easier for those wanting to access certain resources so thank you thank you I mean that Mr Prime we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Hernandez to approve the resolution on item 21 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor would you like to go to item 42 next yes 26. 42 is discussion in action to approve a budget transfer to increase FY 2023 confiscated funds and Appropriations a total of 750 000 in state and federal confiscated funds for your motion motion to approved there's some motion in a second so we do have public comment on this item from Ms Turner no she should say no no okay so the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 42 representative Hernandez can you come back for the vote yeah but it's hard we have a quorum go ahead go ahead Miss Prine thank you sir on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously Representatives not present sir the companion um Costa can you ask can you please um ask him the mayor the companion uh item was 41 also would uh there's 41 on the Russians yes may we ask the members of the public that are not attending the remainder of the meeting to please exit Chambers 41 and 42 yeah we just did 42 40 41 ma'am 41 yes yeah 41 then we'll do 26 last after this one item 41 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager or designate to submit FY 2024 Grant application for the motor vehicle crime prevention Authority move to approve second there's a motion made by alternate mayor Pro timolinas seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 41. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously Representatives anello Hernandez not present thank you mayor all right I'm 2016.26 is presentation on the city watch camera Expansion Project city council assistant chief Humberto talamantes if I can have a presentation please somebody from I.T yeah it this is item 26 please thank you thank you thank you good afternoon mayor city council um assistant chief Umberto talamantes today I will be presenting you with an update of the city watch camera Expansion Project that city council approved back in May of 2022 once uh fully implemented this project will greatly enhance the existing security camera Network that the city has for public facilities and other public venues first slide please as mentioned city council approved this project back in May of 2022 and decided to allocate seven million dollars from the American Rescue plan Act our objectives for this project are to enhance Public Safety for our community improve First Responders efficiency and safety augment investigative capabilities and maximize situational awareness to maintain security of critical areas and infrastructure this slide serves to tell you a little bit more about our city Watch program and what it entails it is part of our Fusion Center which is located at the 911 Communications building and as many of you already know our Fusion Center is the Hub of information sharing and coordination for First Responders and law enforcement and intelligence communities in our area of responsibility the city watch provides tactical decision and investigative support for all local state and federal law enforcement agencies and real-time critical incident assistance for all emergency responding entities in our city as part of our Fusion Center the city watch is also a 24 7 356 days a year operation that offers law enforcement access to public and private sector security cameras these systems include hospitals highways shopping centers and of course various types of other city public facilities our project will build upon our existing security camera infrastructure that will advance our city watch objectives which are to proactively mitigate all crime all threats and all hazards impacting our community this slide tells you a little bit more about our equipment and the type of technology that is required for us to implement this project since the project main goal is to improve Public Safety through the use of security camera technology we will accomplish this by using a variety of fixed mobile and aerial security camera platforms and of course procuring the required equipment such as servers devices internet infrastructure and the staff necessary to facilitate the real-time monitoring to support proactive crime intervention strategies at the beginning of this project a cross-functional team from various City departments was convened subject matter experts from El Paso Police Department Fusion Center the city of El Paso information technology department personnel from Parks and Recreation staff from streets and maintenance and from our budget and purchasing work diligently to strategically identify public venues and City facilities that wouldn't benefit from security enhancements this slide I'm sorry I got the wrong our team of subject matter experts used a data-driven approach to identify such locations data on crime Trends vandalism disturbances and other incidents were was researched and carefully evaluated by the team the voice of the customer citizens was also heavily considered When selecting these sites members of our team received feedback from citizens at Community meetings senior centers recreational centers and other public venues we've attended about the concerns of our citizens and needs when visiting these type of public places additionally consideration was also given to those venues that I highly visited by the public this was done to to help us reduce the risk and threats and Hazards associated with such locations if you can see on your slide to to the ride to the right hand a total of 44 priority venues were selected and over 300 security cameras are expected to be deployed for this project in this slide you can see the give you a better idea where the camera or security cameras are going to be located throughout the city it's important to note that this map doesn't reflect the existing camera infrastructure that the city has this are only the additions that we'll be making throughout the city in this slide we can see the different types of security camera technology that will help us achieve our objectives picture number one shows a large event as the ones our city commonly co-sponsors throughout the year such as parades marathons and entertainment events those events at large that draw large crowds mobile and pole camera platforms are ideal for these type of events as our staff can reposition them rather quickly and as needed the second picture is from an aerial camera utilized to recover a weapon that was used in a crime it would have taken a it took investigators only minutes but it would have taken officers hours long hours to secure and locate this weapon as evidence without using this technology the third picture shows a barricaded subject call and the camera technology we utilize to provide a common operating picture for all of our emergency crews that responded this was not only done for to increase their safety and awareness but uh but the safety and of the surrounding neighborhood and the public as well now pictures four and five those are of existing camera systems at the Cincinnati Entertainment District and San Jacinto Plaza this is just to show you the type of quality monitoring systems are capable of in fact our department has solved several high-profile crimes that would have gone unsolved if not for the leads that our investigators were able to obtain with this type of cameras now picture number six is of a fire downtown in which crucial and real-time information was shared with emergency crews and our fire department this helped our emergency crews better mitigate the hazards that they encounter that day and to quickly resolve the emergency scene this this slide shows you a different the different types of camera technology that we will be using for this project we talked about fixed platforms those that are usually attached to a building or a structure and about the pole and mobile camera platforms which are very versatile and easy to relocate so we have since we have close to 300 parks and hundreds of other uh public city facilities it's not possible for us to install cameras at every single location so the mobile camera platforms will be allow us to relocate these strategically throughout the city to address developing crime trends or any Rising criminal activity at any given location throughout the city now obviously we all know that all the technology in the world is ineffective if not without people so staff is needed to effectively manage Monitor and maintain security camera systems to capture any core critical evidence scanning video footage for any public threats and support the real-time emergency mitigation for our emergency responders but rather than have uniform officers pulled from the regular assignments we will retain civilians that will be fully dedicated to proactively and consistently monitor our City's extensive and growing security camera infrastructure now I will ask RIT project manager Joel Martinez to come up he'll be talking to you a little bit more about the Project's funding distribution the recurring costs and the project timeline good morning Joel Martinez with the Department of Information Technology Services here to discuss some of the logistics of this project as you can see the slide before you the majority of the expense or the majority of the investment is going to be attributed to the actual Hardware that will be procured to carry out this this large endeavor contingency is being allocated as well to cover some of the costs we're seeing changes in technology costs along with everything else that's been a factor of a lot of our technology projects like this yeah so as with any project you can imagine there's a recurring costs in this case we have two types of expenses both operational and replacement with operational expenses this is an annual expense that will be incurred and most of that's going to be comprised of paying for licenses maintenance for the cameras uh we're looking some uh that will amount to about two hundred and ten thousand dollars now with replacement expenses it is it's recommendation to continue to replace this equipment as it does age just with as does that every else piece of technology so um that is comprised of servers and actual cameras uh servers you're looking at a replacement time frame of anywhere from six to seven years and the cameras will begin to degrade uh in the seven to ten year mark and so obviously we make this recommendation to ensure that there's no degradation of services and also avoid any other technology-based issues that we uh foresee now the project is comprised of six different groups as you can see here the first two of which already been completed as Chief spoke there are two phases the first two phases comprised of mainly planning for this effort Gathering data and ensuring that we visited these sites and doing a little bit of analysis on the terrain and some of the visibility that we can provide for the parks uh after doing all this analysis we prepared somewhat of a an estimate to senior leadership met with senior leadership took their feedback and refined and finalized the plan for the implementation we're currently in phase three of the program to which we have about 18 months left to completion now you'll notice that within each one of these phases we have several groups that we're going to be working on in parallel and that's in order to stagger the efforts and ensure that resources are available to continue uh you know to drive this project to completion it also provides us with an advantage of making sure that we don't have any resources in idle and effectively completing this by our due date of October 24th thank you mayor city council um so we we are very excited about this project that you've all approved and uh the the team worked diligently to to make sure that we put this uh project uh to us on a successful path and we know that we're going to be reaching our objectives and uh we're ready to to move forward with it but just wanted to make sure that you received this update from us and Council I would just like to add that as part of the Strategic plan it's important that we not only hire more police officers you can have an item later on because it's very expensive to do that um but also look at the technology that's out there take advantage of it and then have them be forced multipliers again to help them solve a lot of these different crimes that the chief alluded to um the the very first time we started using the more in an enhanced fashion I think they were able to solve you know even a murder and the person lived up North so they otherwise would not have been able to do that so these cameras are very useful and they provide another tool for our Police Department thank you Chief I think you know technology continues to grow and if we want to grow we need to grow with it and I think this is perfect example or we can continue to make our community safe and that's our number one priority as elected officials that we give you the tools to continue to make our community safe so great presentation and I thank you for continuing the show how we can grow to make sure our community stays safe yes thank you mayor thank you city council are we sure we have representative um molinar and representative Libera both of them former police officers thank you mayor Chief talamante it's always a pleasure to see you again thank you very much for this presentation so um familiar with the technology on camera systems and things like that but uh I guess all of the um the resolution of the images so is that going to be taken into account of whatever and I'm not sure I guess maybe for the gentleman from I.T uh could ask that or and the K also number two the capability of whoever the person behind the camera that they can manipulate it to uh in other words focus in or narrow with the scope of what the whatever the image may be yes sir yes sir if you want to come up and those are very good important uh points that you're making sir so we are taking that into account that's uh we can be in the the subject matter experts and those are issues that we really took into account but I'll let you all thank you I'm all the technical I'm sorry could you repeat question one the first part was the resolution uh taking into account uh for example I want to say it was in Michigan where the shooter went to that University of Michigan and uh did what he did unfortunately and people lost their lives however based on their camera technology they were able to take a call it a screenshot or an image even though it necessarily wasn't the best but it was a good thing where they were able to capture let's say the fact that he had red shoes red tennis shoes and a certain style that they were able to make a quick ID and then shoot that out to different people the different officers in the fields through their cell phones and or their mdts in the vehicles and things like that would that be also be capable of that absolutely so a part of the lessons learned that we gathered before we began looking at the the sites is the current resolution of some of the video that we have out there we can't really move it into an investigative go ahead sir I'm sorry yeah we had a hot mic and so part of the part of the investment in the infrastructure is to buy cameras that are not only 4K but of the highest specification that allows for it but also the storage to store this video um and so that's why you see that investment in the servers not just the cameras to ensure that we have that high resolution to to support uh for further evaluation and so the operator would be able to manipulate it so that they could zoom in focus on whatever might be happening yes sir so part of the part of the analysis that we're doing is each camera site uh we're deciding between using a fixed camera or what they call a PTZ which is a pan tilt and zoom camera now this allows for whoever the operator is to pan around tilt and zoom the camera and have that control because we see often where technology is used but it's not the best technology like you said that everything has lifespan but a lot of times the camera angles are not what's best out there or there's a lot of um distortion on what's happening in not happening but thank you yes sir thank you mayor thank you mayor I just I just wanted to thank you all for that great presentation it's nice to know that Technology's taking uh a good hold of the department you know to cover our city in places that uh we can't be there or I'm sorry that police can't be there 24 hours a day and with that technology it just makes this even a safer city than before and again I thank you so much for the presentation great presentation thank you thank you very much mayor council this will really help us this technology improve our community protect our investments our Parks our recreation centers our senior centers a lot of City infrastructure that will really help us meet our objectives as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation thank you we are mayor Pro Tem sorry I know I didn't sit through the presentation I'm going to ask you questions no I just wanted to thank you I know that the the senior centers have been asking for this there's been a lot of meetings about it so I just I wanted to express my gratitude thank you thank you so much and the cross-functional team from Parks and Recreation Mr Pablo Deputy assistant directors here I.T Fusion Center a lot of departments from Street Department as well contributed to to the implement the success and the planning of this uh project so thank you all so much thank you sir mayor we do have public comment on this item from his Turner while I enjoy safety I have to question privacy as I sat through this Pro presentation the first thing I thought of was Amazon's taking video from ring cameras and sharing it with police without the use of a warrant without use of permission from the owner of the camera am I going to be on TV 24 7 even in my own house if I have cameras in my house for security purposes is my Police Department using facial recognition license plate readers or anything else I mean are we going to be a City that's safe or one that's under constant surveillance you know I know it's hard to go anywhere because you've got cameras on ATMs and cameras on stock yes you have to have cameras at your facilities but in this presentation we're talking about other things talking about pulling stuff in from elsewhere like if you have a camera on your door to see who's there that's what they're talking about these are the things I'd like to know these are the things that people in the city would like to know are we going to be a surveillance state or are we going to be a safe City you can't have both thank you Miss Kerner without miss Pray Kiss Me Or there's no action on this item yes ma'am pardon me I think we're back to number one where if we hold on I had it set up here we're back to numbers 17. that's correct mayor item 17 is discussion in action to direct the city manager and City attorney to contact state agencies as they relate to ongoing Public Safety legislation Appropriations to include any state efforts to establish a new Department of Public Safety DPS Regional headquarters in El Paso this item was submitted by representative Rivera mayor thank you mayor uh city council and and every and sweet leadership uh this is a proactive item that I placed on the agenda uh for the city manager and the City attorney to be allowed to compile this so Public Safety legislation or Appropriations to identify prioritize and position the city of El Paso for future Public Safety funding as we saw just now with the with the presentation before identify potential land or resources for proposed DPS Regional command which I understand uh is is in the works to to come to El Paso currently in the Appropriations uh they were in article 11 which is a waiting list but the takeaway here is that items on article 11 were not deleted and they have Merit Merit to to succeed to those communities and we're not defeated so with having an additional with a regional headquarters here in El Paso would be substantial for for not only for our local constituents and Community but also be beneficial for other law enforcement agencies besides our own El Paso Police Department other agencies to use that facility um I believe uh Chief uh wanted to say something on this you do now chief good afternoon uh almost afternoon Peter pacia syndrome chief police for the record so yes for several years uh DPS has been trying to establish their Regional headquarters here in El Paso as far as it goes uh Steve McRae the director of DPS is a native El pasoan Burgess graduate and they've been trying to establish this for several years they've already gone through one two three regional directors trying to get this established here in El Paso so they're a great partner the El Paso Police Department and the community anytime we've asked for assistance from when the pope visited in Juarez to any other major emergencies DPS has always been there to stand with the El Paso Police Department so we would support the regional headquarters for DPS to be located in El Paso thank you sir and also mayor and Council uh with this uh Regional command coming here it would uh grow the lab lab work that they have a correction the lab facilities that they have here to accommodate the agencies that actually use it and so uh would bring possibly at least but I hope what I'm hoping for is at least uh 100 DPS Troopers to to live here and reside here in El Paso which would be great for our economy so with that said uh I make the uh make a motion to approve this second okay that's okay well that's true we'll let you no thank you for that and I know that um I've had some conversations with uh local DPS and they are looking forward to expanding their headquarters you know they have a presence and you we've noticed the president has become even larger recently and they are looking forward to being able to do that ameriprotem so the I'm confused as to what the action is because the backup says direct the city manager and City attorney to contact state agencies as they relate to ongoing Public Safety legislation and Appropriations to include so you so we're just directing the city manager and the City attorney to what contact UBS contact no contact any Outside Agency that need to to uh and DPS included to you know have a list and and they're looking for for property to be uh so you want to sell property to the state for a location pardon me you want to sell our property to the state no no that's that's for uh our team to look at and see if it's uh they're allowed to you know they're they have the pla the land available to build their their uh DPS headquarters here city manager and the City attorney is is to file a list you want to let our support I know I just don't understand it's to be proactive on this so that you can get the regional headquarters here in El Paso okay I know they're looking to expand so right I think that just kind of I think would be what we're doing is proactive the talk to them see what we can do to help them move forward with their their wants and their needs so um I don't think we're going to give them we're not offering to give them land or anything like that we're just asking to see how we can work with them to help them and hopefully make this transition of expanding in our community a little bit uh easier and quicker right right because they do want to build one here in El Paso right Mr molinar thank you mayor um thank you very much representative for bringing this item to our attention I would recommend that if they do build a facilities that they build it in District Four as you know we're going to have a training Police Academy just give me a train joint police and fire academy in District Four we're going to have our new police headquarters in District Four that just kind of makes sense you do have access throughout us 54 railroad McCombs Trans Mountain Loop 375 and easy access to Interstate 10 so thank you represent Canales thank you sir yeah one more time I I kind of share some of the same questions as mayor Pro tem I just want to make sure this is then just directing the city manager and City attorney essentially to open the lines of communication with DPS and and then potentially other state agencies nothing more than that just to start the conversation correct okay understood thank you all right we have a motion in a second yes mayor we have public comment from Adam Pacheco how are you sir three minutes thank you uh good afternoon my name is Adam Pacheco executive director for the El Paso Association of contractors on behalf of our 150 members we are in support of item 17. we would like to thank representative Rivera for being proactive and placing this item on the agenda it places the city of El Paso in the in the Forefront to gain funding for Public Safety and the expansion for a new TPS facility furthermore this item is important to everyone in El Paso because it has Public Safety securing our community and can build capacity for construction opportunities across our city I thank you all for your consideration and urge our Council to approve this item thank you thank you sir yes sir mayor I'm sorry I did have more questions yes sorry uh yeah I guess this question is for City management Mr Gonzalez do we have ongoing communication with DPS and other state agencies about this particular issue I think the way this happened is the council members who went to El Paso days learned of this I know that we have the state delegation that's working on this I know that that was just a message from Senator Blanco referring to it so yeah once we were advised I know that Elizabeth tricks called me when she was in El Paso days if you remember we were back here working on the collective bargaining agreement during that time so it was it was nothing more than a general update from her to us and this item being on there will have Elizabeth and we'll have Sam Rodriguez and Yvette and on this probably work on having more discussions with the state delegation as well as other state agencies okay but we so to this point we have not had like formal proper conversations with DPS about the potential I don't know I don't know how many discussions uh Triggs had with them or has had with them but I'll I can find out we can certainly send that to y'all okay thank you that's all known representative Kennedy yeah I this is kind of like asking you guys to do what you already do I mean if somebody's looking for land we talk to them and I've you've been very aggressive at keeping open lines of communication with the state agencies so I'm trying to figure out why we're asking you to do what it is you do anyway but I mean you know you probably aren't ignoring if State comes and says we want some land and we want to build something else in town I would figure you're not blowing them off no no we we consider all different options I mean especially something like this that can be very synergistic with the public safety uh moniker that we're known for so yeah okay it would be a good partnership I was just confused this Prime will try this again we have a motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by a representative Molina followed by representative Salcido on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes five to two Representatives Kennedy Anella Bodine representative Hernandez not present the remainder of council voting item ocean does carry thank you Council uh can we take a call to the public ma'am yes sir the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all those citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at church 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 displace stability 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 uses 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 nine members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Ron komal followed by Karen Washington Lisa Turner Elizabeth Crawford Mr Como's topic is Animal Services good afternoon Mr Como you'll have three minutes good afternoon sir I'd like to read something to you I received last night actually uh the city of Weslaco did their homework on best friends and they refused to let them into their facility they have an amazing ACO and a consultant they work with after seeing the devastation they have caused and the mounting lawsuits and the suffering in the communities they decided there was a better way and not with best friends we uh we signed a contract as everybody knows let me read something that's very important about our conversations citizens not only have the First Amendment right to speak out against government policies and which they disagree they have a constitutionally protected right to demand that the government correct the wrongs are identified as the U.S Supreme Court has previously ruled speech on public issues occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of the First Amendment values and is entitled to special protection chronic versus Myers blah blah blah blah so so basically cities are supposed to be transparent because being transparent is how we protect the Strays the employees and the volunteers in our shelters we now have a problem because we have signed a contract saying we can't say anything about what's happening in the shelter does that mean we don't care about what's happening does that mean we don't care if our employees get hurt or our volunteers get hurt uh what exactly what is it that best friends is hiding that they have to have this non-disclosure agreement well they call it this marriagement clause I firmly believe that the person who signed this contract needs to be the person who signs the paperwork for the 30-day notice to remove best friends from the city of El Paso we've had enough of the Haas program we've had enough of people hiding what's happening in our shelter the shelter needs to become more transparent and it needs to become more effective we have problems in a shelter we need to come together and fix them but we need to do it without tying people's hands their mouths their eyes we need to know what's going on in the shelter we need the people in the shelter to be able to come to us and feel comfortable doing it we need them to be able to talk to the ASAC committee members so that the ASAC committee can do its job and recommend things to help get the shelter back in line that doesn't mean we get gagged it doesn't mean we get muzzled it means we speak out against what's happening if we see something wrong we need to report it it's our rights I want to remind everybody the ASAC committee is a volunteer staff we don't work for the city of El Paso thank you thanks speaker is Karen Washington followed by Lisa Turner Miss Washington's topic is animal services and Council you have a printout of Miss Washington's information um good afternoon everyone I have not been up here to speak in front of you for some time but I've I've had my fill Saturday morning as I was driving out east to rescue a husky that had been dumped in the desert with her three puppies I got a call from a young lady that lives on the west side she says I have found two dogs I live in an apartment complex and I cannot keep these dogs what do I do with them well our shelter is still not picking up healthy dogs did you go did you go through these pictures all these living breathing creatures that depend on us for their survival you all need to see these I think you're hearing it but I don't think it's soaking in there are hundreds and hundreds of dogs on our streets and you know what people are turning them loose the best friend's contract their focus is to prevent the killing of dogs and cats in the shelters Across America what about the dogs and the cats that are not in the shelters I don't know how this contract got gotten got put into place here it appalls me it appalls me we are the taxpayers we're paying Terry capsule's salary we're paying Animal Control to pick up dogs they're not picking them up and I'm here to beg you this has got to go we've got to rescind this contract and get back to doing what animal control is designed to do it is not the Public's responsibility to take in these stray dogs that puts their families at risk it puts their pets at risks this is ludicrous for a city this size to have this many dogs on our streets and this is why I printed these out you need to this is only a few days a few days of dogs that I took pictures off of social media this is only from social media a few days we haven't been picking up dogs since January so please let this contract be rescinded get best friends out of El Paso it has no business being here it's not working I'm begging you to rescind this contract the next speaker is Lisa Turner Ms Turner's topic is Proposition k good afternoon good afternoon Miss Turner proposition K y'all getting this stuff utter b s total lie I went to a little presentation it was called a veterans Town Hall but it was basically about proposition okay and in it I was I learned that our own people think about us like we were described in the Glass Beach study when we were going to do the downtown plan when we were going to remarket ourselves as being old lazy dirty Cowboy driving trucks our own people from the Chamber of Commerce Hispanic chamber of commerce the Border Plex I listened to the guy from borderplex he sang this song called the Gringos are coming the Gringos are coming the Gringos are coming and they're bringing Jane Fonda with him please save our money it is a piece of junk I understand the science I couldn't even get a straight answer from El Paso Electric this is bogus just as bad as the people who put the thing on the agenda too to be voted on it was crap pardon my French and I told him so it wouldn't work it'll get voted down but our own Business Leaders think of us just like the Glass Beach study how in the world can we progress when our own leaders in this city look at us like that explain to me mayor Council explain to me how we can progress when the very people out there cutting deals for the city giving away tax data taxpayers dollars think about us like that old lazy Mexican and dirty it's offensive it's like that witch that came down from Texas Gas felt the same way acted the same way I wanted to use the b word but I know it shouldn't and we let people like that walk all over us and we don't care well I do I don't find it acceptable I used to respect the chamber and the Hispanic chamber I've lost all respect because of this crap it's utter bold-faced lies and they know it thank you thank you Miss Turner the next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford Elizabeth Crawford Malloy calendar it's coming up right there Ms Crawford's topic is abortion good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes thank you good afternoon the opportunity thank you um I just um want to address the Safety and Security that's being spoken about um to the point where even we're talking about animals and pets I'm an animal lover so and I do realize that what's going on is a huge situation here um however I I think it's um far more serious what has gone on with the lack of protection for The Unborn children um and what has happened in El Paso over these past months um to not stand against Planned Parenthood um as we know we're right next to New Mexico and New Mexico has gone radically pro-abortion to the point where they will do the late term abortions Etc I was in Albuquerque passing through last summer and someone pointed out to me this is the Abortion Center that's the hotel where the girls stay overnight for the late term abortions and that's where they do research on the body parts that are um confiscated from the abortions what has America come to it is barbaric I wouldn't let a dog be killed in the way that babies are being slaughtered if you think I'm exaggerating I would just say watch an abortion go online watch what the procedure is and for us in any way to be standing with Planned Parenthood is is Unthinkable no they don't do surgical abortions in El Paso however we know that they are in with the abortion industry we know the abortion is right across the border in New Mexico God's word tells us know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that has made us not we ourselves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture God is the creator of life God is a creator of life in the womb the life of a human being is infinitely more precious than the life of an animal the light is a person is created in the image of God and we have absolutely no right no right condoning what Planned Parenthood stands for and God's word commands us to repent and believe in the gospel believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we have no business with that we we need Christ and we need to stand for righteousness thank you thank you the next speaker is Malloy kelandine Miss callendine star six to a major telephone Malloy caledine go ahead you have three minutes see um [Music] foreign um that instruction is foreign [Music] words [Music] Kentucky no in business [Music] foreign [Music] Miss callendine's comments were similar to Miss Crawford regarding abortion and she read a proverb from the Bible the next speaker is Efrain Salcedo Mr salcedo's topic is how to get better health in the city good afternoon Mr Salcedo you have three minutes here I thank you very much good afternoon good afternoon how you doing finding you sir how you doing Joe okay uh programs now uh I'd like to thank you guys for all the great job that you guys are doing we have to do our part okay like uh the guys from the dogs and stuff like that I have suggestion for them get a non-profit organization 503 nice one and put the number and then we get a lot of money okay so my topic here is that I want to help my city healthier okay and I'm gonna ask you one question all of you guys and I tell you what kind of system do you guys hey okay I'm fighting with the mic okay uh all they are all of you who hear noise and then you guys wake up who are you do you understand my question when you're sleeping and then you hear a noise let's say you hear a car running around your block without my place do you guys wake up or you'll wake up who wished up you may Elizabeth okay the ones who wake up like that they have a accelerated system okay so you didn't tell me but I'm gonna tell you you get mad real fast like this you can met okay the ones and you have to control it because you have yourself a certain system you take care of yourself you're gonna die from cancer the ones who have a passive system that you guys don't wake up stuff like that that's very great because you can eat anything the accelerating system we cannot eat red meat and my job you have a fat liver and also my major and you need a lot of vitamin D I don't have time to tell you how to do it but after this I I can tell you how to do it and you can do it in less than three months okay now I promise we are gonna get my city the most north city in the United States I love my track I like my country thank you I bless you guys God bless you thank you you too sir the next speaker is Martin Pena his topic is the star on the mountain hello good afternoon sir um the the flag we got the star that's on the mountain we got the flag we got the ax and Juarez but it's a Waters but why not do the star might make it in the daytime we look at it at night and it looks nice we look at it every day it looks nice but why not do in the daytime well we can do it in the daytime we can do it by having the we call it the we can have it by having the solar panels and the people will come in as well but that's besides the topic but first of all the the star needs to be done and it needs to be done in the daytime when you drive by you'll see the star you know you'll say Hey you know that this starts going on you know you know we look at it during the day and I I mean I'm sorry at night we sit at night but we don't see it during the day but that's what I got to say but what we have you know going in what is the flag the X we have that going on but what do we have here we don't we don't have but at night oh yeah it looks nice at night but not having you know in the daytime but that's all I have to say thank you thank you sir the next speaker is Steven Strummer followed by Marilyn Ortiz Mr strummer's topic is Memorial Day and patriotism good afternoon Mr Strummer good afternoon city council how are you sir thank you for asking I am asking you to remember those who served and Faithfully served their Nation far overseas in the foreign lands and here in El Paso and Texas throughout this great nation the 10th ultimate day for me is Memorial Day this is my belief I am troubled truly troubled over so many Americans who choose to frolick and flaunt Liberty on this day Memorial Day is a holy holy day of enormous proportions of a vast deep epic size it is my prayer that El Paso Texas would return back to honor into repentance of those who have given their lives in service Memorial Day is not a day of restaurants swimming pools and malls truly this is enormous disrespect to those who have served 98 of businesses should be closed for the day it is a day of church worship dedicated to those who said thanks to those that served service members all of our service members it is the enormous flag held hoisted up by veterans on Dyer Street Joel by the fire on the fire department 38 foot high a huge 18 foot or longer star flag on Dyer Street it is Cinemas should be closed we must teach just teach this lesson across this city to our youngest youth across all neighborhoods colleges University now we'll face grave consequences these no small matter of reverence and repentance gasoline stations should fly our flag hallowed flag outside their businesses it is a day of deep somber prayer in tears for our service members no exceptions the cable and news outlets must honor our service members Faithfully as service films and discussions only this is my prayer this is my belief I thank you for hearing me today thank you sir the final speaker is Marilyn Ortiz Maryland Ortiz if you're in the Q star six Marilyn Ortiz I don't see the phone number in the Q mayor that concludes call to the public yes ma'am I'd like um I'd like to take a recess till one yes sir is there well you moved them all up in front of them [Laughter] oh you did all right we'll do that we'll do that item 20 is discussion in action to direct the city manager to implement a city program to provide free menstrual products in All City facilities this item was submitted by Representatives anello Salcido and Canales yes I'll be really quick um can we hear public comment first though so yes thank you yes the first speaker is Wesley Lawrence followed by Jocelyn Molina Lisa Turner legaza Turner Sofia about Meer Yvonne Diaz and Michael Gutierrez Wesley Lawrence good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon mayor council it's good to see you again I think you know who I am Wesley Lawrence representing sg29 for the Texas democratic party um I urge you today to support item number 20. it's long past time that cities throughout the city of Texas take this historic step forward toward destigmatizing Administration and we ensure that everyone regardless of their associate economic status should have access to these products without the fear of being judged as someone who has young nieces I often take them to the store to get their stuff and um as a male buying this for my niece it is is quite stressful and quite odd and embarrassing at the checkout counter if they had access to this at a local city facility whether that's a park where they feel safe to access these products and not a store where they might not feel as safe getting these products plus they get taxed on top of that it would just make our community a little less stigmatized toward menstruation and lastly I would just say that having access to these products is not a luxury it's a basic human right and that when we allow City facilities to offer these products free of charge it really helps that and I want to also let people know that poor menstrual Health has a severe impact on a woman's physical and mental health whether they be cisgender or transgender and when we promote equality and inclusion in our city facilities we ensure that these issues don't impact our community health care is something I deeply care about especially with the tragedy that is the 88th legislative session and in the state of Texas and they're going after that harder than they ever have been past sessions especially if you're a transgender youth so once again I ask you to take this historic step forward by voting yes in item 20 and thank you mayor Pro temanello for putting this item on the agenda the next speaker is Jocelyn Molina followed by Lisa Turner lajeza Turner Sofia good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon greetings council members I am Jocelyn Rachel Molina and I'm an economic student at the University of Texas at El Paso YouTube and today I'll be speaking on behalf of disa words and I'm here to testify in favor of item 20. um so I would like to clarify that I'm not speaking on behalf of the University nor Student Government Association menstruation is a natural body function that many people experience unfortunately it induces financial burden on an aspect out of a person's control therefore providing freelancer products in the public spaces would possibly impact the lives of those vulnerable to period poverty in a system in their time of need in my experience leading project period period a project initiated by UTF Student Government Association which provides free menstrual products in the women's restrooms at 20 buildings across 20 buildings across campus the products are replenished weekly and the products range from pads of various sizes and tampons this initiative started in the spring of 2022. and continues with increasing demand from the student body the positive impact of this project is has influenced similar projects across universities of the UT system if the console approves this ordinance it could really impact the community greatly assimilarly as a similar initiative is being done in the University I have first-hand experience of the full impact this initiative could potentially have in the great city of El Paso we have seen positive results in combating Project period poverty surveys and feedbacks from students show there is a great demand and a bus number of replies from students expressing their gratitude for this project I have full confidence that implementing this resolution in El Paso will have positive results that this initiative will bring to a community together and Spark generously in the lives of fellow pastowans project peer period is a small example but item 20 could have a greater impact in providing menstrual products to the city of El Paso it is for these reasons that I encourage the council to support item 20. thank you the next speaker is Lisa Turner followed by lecheza Turner Sofia Ivan Diaz Michael Gutierrez good afternoon good afternoon mayor council this is a no-brainer okay y'all have never been served up something so easy to vote Yes on especially when you consider the city is over half female it would be a smart move on your part but this is just the beginning of the issues that many women face are clothes that we buy there are higher tariffs on our clothes than what you all have to you guys have to pay we may pay have to pay 13 for a pair of underwear you get three pairs of boxer shorts for nine bucks there's a huge tax on being female and at some point somewhere along the line you know everybody is going to have to come to realization that it's not fair but let me tell you I'm in full support of this and it would be silly to vote against it thank you the next speaker is lajesa Turner followed by Sophia vonmir Yvonne Diaz good afternoon good afternoon mayor and city council thank you for allowing me to be here today I am ladiesha Turner the social equity and empowerment coordinator for YWCA El Paso I stand before you in full support of creating a city program that will provide free menstrual products in all city-owned buildings all restrooms were created equal but they should have been created in equity for much of their lives nearly half of the population constantly carries tampons and maxi pads on them at all times in hopes to avoid the embarrassing and sometimes inevitable unexpected start to their period somehow someone decided that public restrooms should be stocked with free toilet paper soap paper towels and even toilet seat covers so why do we draw the line in menstrual Health Products just as we all expect there to be toilet paper in public restrooms we should expect the same for period products menstruation is a natural occurrence and should not not be treated differently than any other basic bodily functions it is unhygienic to not have access to menstrual products no less than the lack of access to toilet paper according to the Journal of global Health reports 16.9 million people who menstruate in the United States live in poverty providing access to menstrual products in public spaces lightens the stress of the financial burdens caused by period poverty it is unethical for women to be profited off of because of the lack of access to basic care and the failure to consider menstrual needs is the form of six six base discrimination that disproportionately affects women Industrial Products are vital to the participation of women and girls in all aspects of our community in equity regarding menstrual Health has been able to Prevail because of the stigma that surrounds the natural bodily functions of women today I am asking you to help change negative taboos surrounding menstruation and bring us one step closer to ensuring that everyone who ministrates has access to menstrual hygiene making these items more available in our community is just one way we can create a more equal Society menstrual health is a matter of Human Rights and everyone should have the right to the Dignity of menstrual Health thank you the next speaker is Sophia avantmeier followed by Ivan Diaz Michael Gutierrez good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon my name is Sophia vonmir and I'm here with Texas rising in favor of this item everybody deserves to have access to menstrual products our community is very vulnerable and I have witnessed so many people unable to pay for their own products spending my adolescence and now early 20s here I have witnessed friends and even family members make makeshift pads because they couldn't afford to purchase their own products and um doing that is neither safe nor sanitary nor comfortable um so please don't favor this item because uh menstrual health is a human right and we should be able to menstruate in peace thank you thank you the next speaker is Ivan Diaz followed by Michael Gutierrez Nicola siaccio good afternoon good afternoon um Texas Rising I want to speak in favor of item 20. uh thank you for introducing such an important item for all of us who menstruate this is a step forward to reduce the stigma and taboo around the topic uh it should not be hard or shameful to access menstrual products especially for the ones more vulnerable I remember my days in college I feel like you all know a lot of my life already but it's been hard so I remember my days in college before they uh they had the menstrual products uh program in the restrooms my friend and I used to give advice to each other to use less pads or tampons so we will actually drink lots of water excessively so we can go to the restroom and pee and like we will have to not use menstrual products and and other things that we used to do we will exercise for a couple hours because our period will last three days instead of four and that was one day less of using menstrual products and there's a lot of people or I can continue going on and on about the things that we used to do to avoid like using a lot of menstrual products but um yeah we had a a lack of resources and um and I wish I just wish that people didn't have to go through like these measures to actually like uh not having to spend on menstrual products I lost my train of thought here because it's actually like I didn't know how triggering it is to remember that and to think that a lot of people are actually going in the same situation like me or like my friend like when we were in college so I think uh voting in favor of this item it's super beneficial for the most vulnerable populations and uh for uh people demonstrate and do not do not have the resources to buy menstrual products thank you thank you and Mr Michael Gutierrez submitted a statement to be read by mayor Pro tem Manila good and provide written comment a minute oh sorry that's wrong part hello Council my name is Michael Gutierrez a constituent of District 2. unfortunately I was able to attend in person with my colleagues as I'm a full-time student at UTEP but despite my absence I am writing to voice my support for agenda item 20 at UTEP our Student Government identified the same problem that the council is addressing in item 20 period poverty exists in our community and is an issue that must be addressed we have witnessed a reduction in stress among our fellow students after providing period products and campus facilities at no charge I believe item 20 is a policy proposal that will have similar beneficial impact on our community and I encourage Council to support item 20. thank you the next speaker is Nicholas siaco good afternoon you'll have three minutes hi my name is Nicolas I am the President and a campus organizer of Design Awards at UTEP the UTEP chapter um we came here to present this resolution um because menstrual equity and mental health is a human right one in six women here in Texas above the ages from 12 to 44 live in poverty line and spend about twenty to forty dollars per menstruation cycle which adds about to eleven to eighteen thousand dollars in a lifetime for one person that is insane I believe this is a resolution that can easily be implemented and is beneficial for the community and Improvement of our health care and also uh I grew up with a sister and she's Incredibly Close to Asia I mean she's a year and a half younger than me and I would have to see the amount growing up poor I have to see the amount of money just spent that my mom would have to spend on menstrual products along with my sister that is all I have to say thank you the next statement was submitted by Manuel mine and it reads hi my name is Manuel Guzman and I'm a resident of District 1. I am with Texas Rising indeed's not worth testifying in favor of providing menstrual products in All City facilities menstruation provides a heavy financial burden to the person with people spending over an average of twenty dollars on menstrual products per cycle this cost to masses to an estimated nine thousand dollars over a lifetime item 20 would combat period poverty which affects black and brown communities research published in 2019 by the Obstetrics and Gynecology research journal in St Louis Missouri states that 20 percent of low-income women couldn't afford products every month and 50 stain it stated that they had to choose between products and buying food there are multiple cases of government programs providing menstrual products since 2017 five states have passed the legislation requiring schools to provide free products to great success even here at El Paso with period project projected a student-led initiative to provide free products and bathrooms across UTEP which I am part of this initiative has seen great success from the student body with great appreciation and approval item 20 will be extremely helpful to many people who need these products and relieve this burden from many people please vote Yes the next statement was submitted by Alexa carranco and it reads hi my name is Alexa carranco and I'm a resident of District 6. I am with Texas Rising testifying in favor of menstrual products in All City facilities by implementing items 20 visitors in city hall or any city-owned building will have access to period products I'm in support of item 20 because it is crucial to implement and promote menstrual Equity not everyone has access to men's store products and aside from that they are sometimes inaccessible due to the pink tax as a student at UTEP I have seen the benefits of the implementation of period products and restrooms many students cannot afford to buy these products every month or sometimes every two weeks all people with periods including women and non-binary people should not have to scramble for menstrual products during an emergency we should all have access to health supplies regardless of whether or not we can purchase them please vote Yes mayor that concludes public comment on this item thank you I'm gonna go in there protemp followed by representative Canales thanks mayor words for helping draft a lot of this resolution um it's always great to see our UTEP students interacting with their government and for waiting half the day to come testify I want to talk a little bit about why I'm bringing this up so I was actually inspired by the city of El Paso so in 2019 it was right before the pandemic we opened the new bathroom downtown the first time I went there there was a bowl of menstrual products then the pandemic hit and I kind of forgot about it and now every time I go into a city facility I look for them but I've never seen them again and actually I.T can you pull up the images that are on the backup and so then I was in the Dallas airport recently and I saw what they're going to pull up but I'll talk about those in a second and I thought that this is really important for us to do and I I met with some of the Deeds students in Austin and they told me that they were working on this so happy to present it um part of this resolution talks about the budget you want me to just read it should I just read it representative Canalis there'd be it results I'll just read it the city council the city of El Paso directs to City manager to create a city program for providing free menstrual products in all city-owned buildings at all times including during emergencies such as natural disasters and public health emergencies and will allocate all necessary budget allocations for this program in FY 2024 budget for sorry I'm going to skip down so it says that the city manager needs to come back and present the plan for this program on the city council meeting that would be held in July 2023 including presenting a proposed campaign for advertising around the city and so if it can pull up those images do you have them atrium part of this is and you'll see in these images so it's not enough to just have menstrual products available in designated women's restrooms there are also individuals who do not identify as female that menstrate and it's also so if we can scroll down to the next image that one yeah so having it does not have to be this it does not have to be this program but making sure that if it's in a library or a Rec Center there are menstrual products behind the desk that individuals can ask for if it is not available in the restroom that they identify with I think it's going to be really important as part of this program thank you Adrian I appreciate that image um and the last thing I wanted to talk about so a lot of what has been spoken about is extremely important um as someone who has low had grew up low income it is a real expense to be able to afford these products but I actually received a phone call after placing this item um from an individual and it was something I hadn't even thought of but um he shared with me that he was a single father with two daughters between the ages of 12 and 15. and when they need to go to a Rec Center or a library you know it's something that he doesn't think about and then suddenly they don't have the menstrual products that they need right and so it's really important that they were remembering that this is an impact on families as a whole not just financially but on the stress that it causes to parents um with for their children and for themselves I imagine if you're a mother and you're at a city facility with children you may also forget your menstrual products and then when you need them they should be there for them so as a city who is providing Recreation and educational activities for family we should be making sure that covers health Equity as well and so with that man I will make a motion to approve but I know that representative Canal is also on second there's motion and a second and representative Canales will speak followed by representative thank you mayor I'll keep you really brief uh this is an issue of equity uh the huge segment of our population comprised of people who menstruate pays one amounts to a monthly fee for their biology uh it's a financial penalty for something that's totally out of their control and this penalty of course disproportionately impacts those who are low income or who otherwise face face barriers to accessing proper and very necessary menstrual products so the goal of this action today is to help alleviate that burden I hope that this is just a start when it comes to the provision of menstrual products by other local public entities here in El Paso in particular I plan to speak with my colleagues on the episd school board whose districts overlap mine to better understand how I can support similar uh efforts in our schools I challenge my colleagues here on the council to do the same so that hopefully we can move the needle on on making menstrual products available free of charge in schools as well for El Paso students who need to access them uh thank you again to everybody who spoke to everybody who helped with the resolution um and to Mayor Pro tem anello for her leadership here and uh I plan to wholeheartedly support thank you mayor thank you representation thank you mayor just want to start off by saying that reading is a basic fact of a human existence meant straight menstrual hygiene products are necessity not a luxury and should be treated as such many people lack access to resources if they cannot afford menstruation product girls women are more likely to miss school or work during their periods these products are essential to our health and our well-being everyone every woman knows that we must normalize these conversations and offer effective Solutions so my goal with this item is for us to really look at possible grants that we can get so that it could facilitate and pay for for this initiative as well as figuring out ways that we could implement it in the budget work with the school districts as well but this is just definitely an equity thing that we want to address thank you thank you ma'am Miss Prine yes mayor there was a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Canales to approve item 20. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present now we're going to research till 1 15. is there a motion thank you everybody is there a motion second there's a motion in a second Teresa is a city council meeting until 1 15 all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess at 12 52. p.m and we'll reconvene at 1 15 pm on the board yeah honestly foreign foreign thank you right now foreign there is a snowball s well especially thank you how about for your meetings are you finished sir all right can we return to our seats now can we come back we don't want to take up your space I'm busy here please Hollywood remember your Chemistry my camera listen I did it I moved it up representative Fiero you're ready we have a quorum ma'am yes we have a quorum and we can begin do we have a motion to return second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1 20 pm mayor would you like to go to item 22 mayor petem can I go to 22. thank you ma'am yes ma'am thank you item 22 is discussion in action to direct the city manager to have staff Supply each representative with a monthly report on general fund discretionary fund and gas card usage for the transparent use of tax dollars and financial management this item was submitted by representative piano representative Fiero thank you mayor members I put this item on the agenda and I I my plan is to continue to put items on the agenda to improve the onboarding process um I was elected January 3rd and since then there you know there's issues that we can make it easier and better as more and more as as we're going to change we know that in 18 short months there's going to be two represent two at least two new representatives and a newer a new mayor so it's important that we we have an onboarding process that makes it transparent and and we hold everybody accountable um we have uh today I um I'm asking the city manager to direct staff to supply each member of this body with a monthly recap of their gas card expenditures their P card expenditures and a monthly budget uh their monthly budget recap and with with the correct descriptions and codes and the receipts are accountable for the for the items I unfortunately had a situation that took 90 days to overcome and and that's why I think it's important that we address this as a body and we ask the student manager to come up with a policy um I again we need to make sure that we're transparent and we keep um uh the public uh um informed on what's going on now do you want to see each representative to have a monthly reporter you wanted to come in as a notation no I I I'll give an example um I served four years in state every month on the sixth we receive an email with our constitutional budget and our office budget each month we knew exactly what we had moving forward and how much we spent or did not spend the previous month I think as as representatives and and my understanding is some or few people up here are are receiving this again it took me 90 days to find out that that was available um I think we need we hold it we owe it to our constituents to be accountable for our budgets and so no I what representative Rivera spends is is not my my concern what art spends and to um for the of the constituents of District Six are my concern well you got this discussion action that I'd like to see also in motion hopefully brought forward that um prevents us from having unlimited usage of gas cards I think that that's not uh the best way of using the gas cards that uh elected officials and other officials have unlimited use I think they should when I left off his last time we had a hundred dollar uh limit on usage because it needs to be used strictly for City use and business use only and that doesn't mean going to work and going home it means actually doing some type of work so I would like to see in this uh Amendment As you move forward represent Fiero that we do limit the usage and the amount of those cards mayor there's item 23 which addresses the the gas cards we can yeah I'm fine with adding it onto here or waiting for item 20. we can wait for item 23 that's that's a good point but it was all in here but we can move the because I do I think we need to limit the usage and the amount of usage that unlimited is uh it's not the right the proper use of a city fence thank you mayor thank you without do you have a motion sir uh I yes I had a motion and we have a second we have a second first but yeah yeah sure good afternoon uh members of council Carrie Weston I I just wanted to come up on this item representative Fiero to tell you that the CFO has already instructed the Comptroller to put together an accounting report of the expenditures in the Chariots in each of these areas and you'll you all will receive that monthly I'm sorry mayor it's the mayor's show I'm sorry thank you sir we have a motion in a second yes mayor we also have no hold on we have representative uh molinar well that also include the information for the general fund for our offices and to include the discretionary funds as well uh yes sir everything that's listed on this item will be a part of the accounting reported the expenditures that you'll receive and you have a is it going to be like on the 20th of the month or the first month I'll get with staff I don't have a I don't have a date but we'll make sure that there gets to be a routine and when when you should expect that good afternoon Robert Cortina so the opposite of the Contour typically closes each month by business days after the end of that month but we'll set a date going forward we'll give them a couple of days just to make sure if they run into any issues but we'll we'll set a date going forward typically it takes five business days for them to actually close after the month of course the same thing I of course saying whether it's a holiday or a weekend or anything like that that's we accept that part as well or if we run into I.T issues unfortunately that does happen every once in a while but typically it's within five to six days Mr Mayor I have a question for Miss cortinas please is out of the description that I have put there on the item is there anything that I'm missing that we need from a budgetary purpose to be accountable and transparent for our offices no and you you mentioned the delay and I believe that that delayed may have been caused by me some communication as to what it was exactly you're looking for and so what we need to to work on is the office of the management budget we'll have to work with the streets and maintenance departments since they administer the fuel cards they're the ones that do all the processing they actually deliver the fuel cards they're the ones that handle posting those expenses and so we'll make sure that we coordinate with them so that we have all of that detail whenever we provide you all of that information it was more than just the the gas card there was also issues in regards to the the usage of the P card um being in a monthly format um the first the first um documents I received were not in the monthly format they were they were in fact we ended up starting with a 14 year old budget so hi representative Piero Nicole Cody director of management and budget so I just want to clarify so when we did meet in person I want to say it was the beginning of February and I'll be able to provide you with those dates we did provide you with that monthly report you requested and then you had asked specifically for additional detail so I apologize that we did go back as far as we did but I know we wanted to make sure that we're being responsive to your requests regarding all the detail I just I just want to just wanted to be able to clarify thank you so every P card holder has on a monthly basis the requirement to go and do the reconciliation for your card for all of your expenses so you have access to those I'm sorry to interrupt Mr cortina's but that's not true the information I received was a date an item in a name and an amount it was not art purchased on the 12th art purchase paper for anything it was just the date the item the person who purchased it and an amount we'll have the Consular staff get with you to make sure that you have access to that Wells Fargo system so that you can see every transaction that occurs but it should be on a monthly basis you do the reconciliation you see all of the charges you can print out that report and have access to that at any time not only for yourself but for your stuff okay but I'm just sharing with you the information I received after requesting it from the city manager and Ms Cody kin my office and gave us that information and at that time I brought it up also okay thank you Mr cortina's I'd just like to ask I'll save you some paper can I just turn in the gas card I never I have never used it I never will so so we I believe all of the members of council and I know the members of full act know that there's currently a not going on by the internal auditor and so out of that whatever comes about or any recommendations we've already started looking internally to see what we can do to make that a little bit easier you talked about putting a possible cap on that we have some other ideas on how we can limit the use of that field cards right so that's something we're already working on to bring forth some recommendations to that policy and makes it a little bit a little bit tighter and and I do get the uh do you know when um when the cap has changed because like I said when I was in office uh last time and I took a vacation for a couple years we were at a hundred dollars now we're at unlimited usage I don't I don't know if Richard Bristol are on the line that I'd like to know I'd like to know when that happened and how it happened please but yeah to just complete it I I do get a monthly report with the key card expenditures in the details so thank you on that appreciate that but the gas card I don't use it now the gas carts are currently distributed through the city manager's office I think Camilla was the one Distributing the gas cards is that correct statement we're not sure that's my understanding is that street domain is delivered to Camilla and the community delivered to the individual Representatives okay thank you and also yeah we could do the gas card either way because you did put on item 22 gas card usage so we can do either whatever you want I'm fine with I just want to make sure that we do bringing back a limit so you want to wait for item 23. all right thank you well pardon me I think maybe in this next item but the answer to the question okay thank you with that we have a motion in a second yes mayor we also have public comment on item 22 from Ms Lisa Turner good afternoon good afternoon the more I listen the more concerned I get I thought this was just an attempt at micromanagement now usages have been gone from a limit to Unlimited I was always under the impression that my city had rules and regulations in place correct for the use of all this okay uh so is there anything here that needs to be done outside are we duplicating what we already have in place is basically what I'm asking well I think in response There are rules I think I think that what this is going to show us through the audit process will be recommendations in terms of what we do from a specificity standpoint and improving the policy the the antenna the policy even though there isn't a cap set should always be or it's supposed to be that you're utilizing that fuel card commensurate with the business that you have to go and drive your vehicle to in official events part of the city and not for personal usage now based on how that policy is written right now and the report that we'll get back from the auditor in terms of the findings and recommendations we'll Shore that up but that's the intent of the usage of the fuel card and like again we still don't know who changed it and hopefully somebody had the authority to change it thank you go ahead thank you Miss Turner so we have a motion requests uh yeah I just wanted to hopefully put Miss Turner's mind a little bit more at ease even in that there are a lot of controls and for example every time one of those fuel cards is used by representative or by anyone else who's filling a city vehicle for example uh the the odometer reading has to be entered into the into the pump to track to make sure that it's only used for the one particular vehicle and so the usage can be tracked over time so there are other controls like that that are in place to ensure that people are using these properly um I I just separately from that I wanted to uh commend Miss Cody and her team uh I've never felt like I didn't have access to the information about uh the the financial state of the office uh whether that's before as a staffer or now as a representative you know we've periodically requested a status update on our accounts and and have always received that very quickly and and in a manner that was very thorough so thank you and um we again we we have access we we have to have access to all that information because we have to reconcile our RP cards internally within our office our purchasing cards um month to month and so we should have a you know a good idea that's why I only ask you for an update every few months because we have a good idea of what we're spending month to month and you know we can just subtract so thank you for the help you've provided over the years and and to all of your team and um you know I don't think it hurts to receive a monthly report here um but I hope my colleagues understand that's always been available to us on request and I've never had any delay in receiving that thank you thank you representative um thank you mayor represent canals you're welcome to see the information that we've received and receive it the same as yours is it took me 90 days to find out that we could ask for this on a monthly basis and that and Miss Cody did did offer to come and sit with us once a month and go through it with us but it took me 90 days to do that as we as we're turning over to adding new members to this Council I think we need to have an onboarding process that when they they get to their office they're able to see what happened before and what and and so they can plot their plan for the future so I I you know I I'd love to see what you get versus what I got thank you and we'll make sure that that's a standardized report that goes to everybody consistently the same now you said a little bit uh Colonel about that uh the rules and laws were not as clear but when we take oath there are some penal codes chapter 39 that kind of gives you what you will and a lot about by this by the state and the law so I mean I know that Ms Neiman I know that uh I've read it and and I I kind of think that a lot of the things we should do as selected officials kind of fall into that that law yes sir I Concur and I and again I think it goes and I shared it with you and had this discussion with you yes sir it goes back again to uh your official capacity and if you're utilizing funds public funds for your official capacity it should be commensurate rather with the the uh the amount of of work and travel you're doing with with uh the funds that you're going to be using for the field card so it's not to utilize a fuel card fill up your tank use it for personal and use it for business so that's incumbent on anybody that uses that fuel card is to make that estimate based on what your official capacity is going to entail in terms of the use of that card that you're doing the right thing thank you sir a representative um mayor Pro Tem foreign I was going to make a joke about how I don't do anything outside of work so that's easy for me but the actual statement that I wanted to make is that I kind of into the conversation you were having is that we are given a set of rules when we got our our cards we are well aware of the activities that we could be using them for the vehicle that we should be using them for I mean all of the rules that you know Miss Turner had had questioned those are laid out um I think making sure that we are following those rules is is another conversation but I just wanted to say you know I was a council member who received a gas card received a set of rules with it and have followed those accordingly yes ma'am that's right thank you ma'am representative molinat thank you mayor so um Colonel what you just stated is absolutely correct the two things to come to mind really quick for me is whatever happened to good common sense yes this whole body we're all elected officials here but you know there's one thing to say this is the law there's a line and you cross that line and guess what it's bad all right so good common sense says hey I'm going to gas up that foot my car my personal car and yes I'm going to drive to work I'm going to attend a meeting whatever but there's going to things that you know you you can't take that gas out so you're going to have to drive someplace if I go choose to go some other place on my personal time for me specifically I can tell you I spread the date that I fill up to the next time I fill up because I do compensate that hey this is my car and I do use it on weekends but I also work on weekends as well I work at night and I and I can tell you so one of the times when we were let's just say 2021 I was one of the few city council representatives to include the mayor that came to work that we're literally here in this building working others opted to work at home which is that that's their right that's their prerogative but that's fine representative he doesn't have never used the gas card never will that's fine that's good Common Sense on his part but the thing that's very different when you abuse that card actually abuse that card now I know Mr Neiman you're going to tell me this is the item this is my next conversation is not on the meeting agenda but what happens when you get a car allowance for fuel a monthly whether it's maintenance whether it's fuel oil changes or stuff like that and you don't do those oil changes you don't buy new tires you don't change the windshield wipers you keep that money you don't return it to the city so in essence what you're saying we need to what do we do or what do we not do how do we compensate for that because some people are getting monthly car allowance period And if you don't return that money you're keeping that money what happens on that car I think it goes back to what you were describing earlier which I agree with is you're you're looking at this from an estimate of the the professional business work that you have to do no you can't drive a car and say I'm just going to drive it for business and that without obviously on that tank of gas having to also do personal things so I think it goes back to a process like you're describing where you're really looking at you know how much should I utilize it in terms of an allowance we're talking about that and we're talking about what would be kind of a potentially an equitable option in looking at this that makes sense based on the the kinds of things that U.S council members have to do on the business side or from the professional side and some months they're not all created equal you know you're going to have some months where you're where that that's going to be higher in some months where it's not so trying to find a balance in between just doing the right thing and being ethical and honest about you know how you're applying these kinds of these kinds of funds to the city business and I'm glad you said that we're ethical and honest because here's the thing how many people in the city uh starting with Mr Gonzalez on down receive a car allowance that impacts our budget tremendously and if it's for one fiscal year I get it but when you start multiplying by five you start multiplying by 10 that adds up we're facing fiscal challenges every fiscal budget year and so we need to really look into that to say where what what can we cut back on that thank you sir thank you representative Kennedy um since we're all comparing use I've never used my gas card I have an electric truck so I think I use gas for as my lawnmower you won't see any four gallon Phillips okay um I was going to say a couple of things real quickly first of all as you mentioned there some of these are being audited and the final report is not in but will be coming to foak and we're looking at possibly mid May we were checking schedules to see when it would work don't know if it will be finished at that time but I'm presuming it probably will be at that point I know we'll be making some suggestions from our end on what we think I was just going to say having had at some of my previous business activities a company car where you're logging miles to make sure to and from work doesn't count but those are all IRS issues not City issues and I was going to say that one of the things about having car allowances businesses a lot of times will find out that car allowances saves them money because when you have somebody that is driving extreme miles in their job it's sometimes easier to say well instead of having all the hassle of tracking it we're good to this point and so you know that's kind of a business standard I'm not talking about City I'm just business you're also putting wear and tear on the on the vehicle for the use of City business and city right so there's a lot of different things just a matter of what what should that level look like and I agree I mean if there's a general view of all the policies there I think that makes good sense and I think that once the the auditor brings back from the legislative side foak will be taking a looking at it see what recommendations we might have sure and then once we get the final recommendations as we do on all the all of the audits that we receive once we get final recommendations and findings we will put together a plan to implement that and then this because of the nature of this we'll bring it back to the to the city council and tell you what changes we made to the policy based on the audit recommendations and I look forward to working with financial and you know city manager once this comes back where we can sit down and start taking a look at ways to make things better as we always try but I would suspect we'll know more by mid-may yes sir just a couple of comments um number one we do onboarding and I'll resend that to the all accounts that was sent to y'all when we were doing the onboarding and we've made adjustments to it but I think representative Fierro makes a good point if we can make adjustments to it make it better it could always get better and then with respect to what you brought up Miss Kennedy that was one of the things we looked at whenever this was brought to our attention about you know a car allowance would would maybe uh address the is this issue so it wouldn't have to be so tedious so those are some things we're considering but we didn't want to get ahead of when the audit gets completed so we're again waiting for that to be completed I think I think Linda's out of the office this week and so once that's finished uh then obviously they'll get brought back to the foak thank you sir representative Ronaldo thanks mayor I just wanted to um representative molinar's Point prior to being on foac one of the audits that I requested that's being done this year is on fuel usage I do an open records request found that there are duplications in City vehicles um car allowances reimbursement so I know that that is being done in this fiscal year so just to address some of those concerns as well which is kind of separate from what we're talking about representative um you're done I'm sorry representative Canales uh yeah I want to ask these questions for the public but also just to make sure I I understand that the true purpose of the of the fuel card essentially the city has a limited supply of fleet vehicles correct and so the provision of nine fleet vehicles for the mayor and Council would be pretty burdensome um and then uh employees who drive their personal vehicles are entitled to mileage compensation that the mayor and Council are not able to receive as as elected officials correct and so this the gas card is is kind of the vehicle so to speak the mechanism by which uh the the mayor and Council can use their personal vehicles for City business and then not have to incur those costs personally is that yes is that the correct interpretation is accurate okay and so I mean again I think it's reasonable to have some sort of cap if folks want a cap implemented I would hope that nobody is abusing uh this you know we as folks said it it when you receive the card it came with a set of rules and more than just a set of rules it was a document that we had to sign agreeing that we would abide by those rules and so I think um you know we we find a mechanism there for if there's wrongdoing I think as we can point to that document and show that anyone was was aware uh you know prior to their use of the card if if this audit should turn up any impropriety in the use of the cards thank you that's all I have to say thank you thank you mayor thank you Miss Prine yes mayor there was a motion made by representative Fierro second if I alternate mayor Pro Tim willing enough to approve item 22. on that motion call for the vote thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present the next item is number 23 and this is discussion and take action to direct the city manager to clarify whether City Council Members gas cards apply to the city's lame duck policy including an explanation of the procedures and a summary of the guidelines if no policy currently exists direct the city manager to develop a policy this item was also submitted by representative Pierre representative thank you Mr Mayor members I put this on here because I was able to find a lame duck policy for board appointments and it's very clear it's black and white I found a lame duck policy for uh RP cards again that states it all there after numerous emails and phone calls I have been unable to find a lame duck policy for gas cards so if there is no lame duck policy for gas cards I think we need to instruct the city manager's office to produce one as quickly as possible yes sir and again I think we should put a limit on which I think we kind of covered on the last item but I think you had to put that in your motion to make sure we do come back with a limit you know in most most City reps when they go to the community meetings I would think they're within their District since so I think we need to take that into consideration yes sir and in response directly to your question representative Fierro so the the use of fuel cards does not apply to the lame duck policy as written only the use of discretionary funds falls under the lame duck policy I would think it would apply more to to the gas cards because you're campaigning you're knocking on doors you're you're really out there so but just my opinion if they're that's and that's fine I guess we need to we need to put one in place and and move forward well I think that that kind of goes back to once we once we're able to take a look at what the overall audit findings and recommendations are and then here are the also some of the input from you as a body of council we are going to be putting putting together making adjustments to that policy based on that not only that feedback but also the specific audit finding reports bring back to council thank you thank you for that Mr Prime can you add the mayor's addition to um we got a representative Kennedy and then we'll have by you move with that sir no no I was asking Miss Prime to add your addition to the motion all right representative Kennedy yeah I I was going to say this might also be something that when we look at the audit a recommendation may come out of foec but I would say if we're looking at discretionary funds and gas cards we should probably also look at P cards anything that is in expenditures through the lame duck time period um and I um we may want well that's for a full acne we may want to ask that people look more particularly at campaign season because campaign season I know that there's many more miles driven in things along that line but I think that that once we get the audit back we may have it but I wouldn't want to make sure that we also include because you said discretionary is included discretionary discretionary funds are only included in the lame duck policy I think if we expand that and beef that up to have any of the expenditures that could come out of a representative's office or a mayor's office you know anybody where you were on the you're on the clock thank you mayor Pro Tem you all keep referring to this lame duck policy where is it referred is it in the charter is it in the and the budget resolution every year so there's an item in the bud resolution that we added I don't remember how far back maybe four years ago and so in that in that item I believe item number 68 in that item in the budget resolution it states that city council cannot have any expenditures from description refunding between the lame duck policy which is now let me clarify if I say it incorrectly this clarified or defined as the election date until the new member takes office yeah that's right and there's nothing in the charter that defines lame duck so there's a different provision in the charter regarding appointments so the lame Doug period is the same from the first day of the election to the day that the council members are sworn in but it only applies to appointments so the lame duck provision in the charter is to board appointments which are prohibited during the Linda and so there's nowhere that it just says lame duck and fine I mean that at least but this goes back to our representative molinar is saying it's a common sentence a few so that item in the budget resolution was added specifically for discretionary funding because city council wanted to avoid having an outgoing council member go and spend all their discretionary funds right before leaving office to do yeah so that's why that item specifically called out in that I remember that one it's been at least four years maybe 2017. I think we think right there yeah I really got brought up in 20 right when Mr Robinson was leaving yeah he had a real big issue with what had happened to him so I think that's when the discussion was had it might have been 14 or 15 2014-15 but that's where that's what I remember where it was just born six what's that it was four and six who brought that up to you remember yes sir but what I was saying I remember it from Mr Robinson uh way back then and then there's been additional council members that have brought it up since Professor Canales oh you're not done okay you asked a question mayor said I'd like an answer what was that question oh no I asked many questions when uh was it today when the gas card policy had changed yeah can we get that answer and someone's gonna know that just texting Mr Bristol right now I believe that they may have somebody on Renee are you on the line if he's not we're good yeah I mean when I came in there was no no cap and so I don't know when that changed there was no what it was a credit card okay I'm not aware somebody had the authority to change it yeah I mean if it changed sometime in after 17 when did it change and why did it change and who authorized it would be really something important because I mean we had a pretty good policy when we had it at a hundred dollars so we'll go back and look mayor thank you there was a if there was a cap of What Not I mean it's just um it was a council item um and so I I'm not aware of who has that information but that's the reason the audience being done as soon as we get more additional information we'll share it with um with the with the council but the audit is taking place so we're really kind of deferring to Mundo to have him answer all these questions that y'all have we had a lot of similar questions um so so yeah we're waiting for him to finish it I did ask when it changed and the only answer I got was from 2019 from whom he I was told it was in 19 uh the auditor okay but was that because it's only 19. no we changed companies just recently but anyway it could be but it was in 2019. we'll get that information to make sure we clarify I don't want to say anything that may be different from what you may have been told we'll send you the information um yeah just in response to some of the discussion before I think part of the difference is that the lame duck period uh the portion from the charter with regard to appointments and then the portion from the budget resolution with regard to discretionary fund spending both of those exist because they impact the availability of funds or the availability of board appointments to fill for for the predecessor right I mean sorry for the oncoming for the incoming council member and and the fuel card is because it's not an expenditure necessarily coming out of the offices account that doesn't necessarily impact the the availability of future funds for the next council member correct right well so I mentioned the original intent behind that item in the budget resolution to have that Lambda policy right I believe and again that I believe at the time that it was intended to address that issue if you think about the lame deck policy the covers from the election date to when the new member takes office almost a two month time period so obviously the representatives still have work in business to conduct during that time frame yeah and I think it's worth pointing out the lame duck period applies to the entirety of the council right not just an outgoing member or someone who is up for re-election and so there could be someone in the middle of their term who still has to conduct their business I'm looking at it in the budget resolution it says a city council members shall not expend funds from their discretionary accounts during the lame duck period which is the time period from the date of any city election until inauguration of those elected um and so I remember this impacting uh the office I was working in in the mid-year last name duck period I asked for legal clarification and we were told that's not the case that's just why I brought that up just for those that are up for election in that year okay I'm just saying that in in this was this would have been uh several years ago I don't know in in the mid the the off term in the office that I was working on was so you know two years into the term essentially it was our understanding that we were prohibited from spending during that time as well and we did refrain from doing so um I I think maybe that's warrants some clarification um how it's written it seems to me that's it applies to any city council member um okay that I think those are all my comments not really any questions here but um I was going to say that that I think that the time to do this would be as a single item if we're looking at having an audit come back potentially with some suggestions would be the time to also probably clean up some language which we you know work with the city attorney city manager yeah folak internal auditor and have clean language that's easily understandable so there's not and I agree the way it's written could very well mean during that election period it's a lame duck of course you're not a lame duck unless you're going out of office so this would be a time for us to go through and touch all the bases and make sure we clean everything up policy and everything else and then just move forward from there and we're all kind of pending the the final report from the auditor um and like I said we're looking at 17th of May to have a faux meeting where we take a look at it and then obviously bring it to council and hopefully they'll clean up more than some languages yeah yeah seriously processing languages will be obviously going through fairly extensively at that point yes yes sir mayor I've spoken twice can I just read the language just so we hear it one more time the language this is the the portion from the charter about the appointments it says uh lame duck elected officers not to make appointments it's the subject the section header from the date of any City general election until inauguration of those elected neither the mayor nor the city council shall make any appointment of a city manager or any appointments to any standing or special public boards commissions or Committees of the city so I think that one clearly applies to everybody um I think the other one does as well in the language but we can we can I think that's one for faux to look at and clear up thank you sir for that do we have a motion in a second Miss Prime I have a motion from representative we have a second and mayor there is public comment from a turner on this item Ms Turner you're getting your exercise today Miss Turner oneself out yesterday ah the more I listen to this the more I start shaking my head uh I'd fall out of my seat laughing if it wasn't serious ah lame duck is an elective somebody who's filling out the last days of his office I don't think that needs further definition and I don't see how one person being a lame duck will affect the rest of the council if they haven't uh quote unquote run for a lot election in lawsuit what do you need to set the P cards not to P cards but the gas cards at one hundred dollars do you need something on city council or or just tell the city manager to Institute that big ass cards you were talking about unlimited versus the way it was at a hundred right it was used to be a hundred now it's unlimited usage so what does it take for city council to change that another something on the agenda yeah that's what that's he added that to the amendment that's an amendment to his motion right now so that will be in two weeks then right all right thank you thank you representative thank you mayor in regards to representative Canales yeah thank you just for clarification I have an email that says that the gas card comes out of our discretionary funds Brian can we take a vote Yes the motion was can I get a clarification he said set it at a hundred dollars over what time period no 100 a month oh okay 100 a month so I'm sorry Nicole Cody about the it comes from your the fuel card is charged to your general fund so we need to I think we'll we'll allow on the motion to bring it back to whatever the average based on the audit yes I think that would be better than any amount today so I think that on the amendment we can put on there that after the Auditors completed that we can look at the average usage mayor would you know as I said keep saying the audit is not complete but just one of the things that came to mind is I mean it would be cleaner would just have a car allowance for the council so that you don't have to keep up with a card um so that it's like you said an average uh so again we're waiting until the audit is complete um I don't know when it's going to be finished I know that I signed Kerry West into it with uh Mundo and and Robert so that he can report to uh Carey so if there's any questions you all have you can refer those on the administrative side to carry or most likely to uh to Mundo we can do whatever the average may be and then put that into a car Lounge just a number our elected officials look at the average and not make it above well that's what we're looking at so we don't we haven't come back we're not coming back yet with any recommendations or any you know discussion about that just yet just telling you that those are some of the principles that we discussed with respect to how can this be made easier for the council to use so that these questions can be avoided in the future so that you have something that's a little bit more directly aligned with what the average might be yeah I'd like to see that recommendation based on average usage and by the body all right with that Miss Pine yes mayor the motion was made by representative Pierro seconded by alternate mayor Pro timolinar and this is to direct the city manager to clarify whether City Council Members gas cards apply to the city's Linked UP policy including an explanation of the procedures and a summary of the guidelines if no policy currently exists direct the city manager to develop a policy that includes a limit on gas cards based on the average usage identified in the internal Auditor's audit is that correct yes ma'am thank you on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item number 25 yes ma'am and this is discussion in action on a resolution declaring that the expenditure of discretionary funds from city council District 2 to fund the registration costs of the 2023 National neighborhood USA conference for the presidents of recognized neighborhood associations in District 2 serves a municipal purpose this item was submitted by mayor Pro temanello we'll approach him move to approve there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina to approve item 25 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Vision on this not present that brings us to the first reading of ordinances these are items 27 to 30. move to approved there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by alternate mayor Pro temolina to approve the first reading of ordinances items 27-30 on that motion call for the vote representative Peter where you're going to vote on this one thank you in the voting session and the motion passes with six affirmative votes representative Pedro and Hernandez not voting the next item is 31 and this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2023-0232 cleaning services for public art sites to Edith castanon DBA Senor clean there is a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by alternate mayor po temolina to approve item 31. on that motion call for the vote voting session is open in the voting session the motion passes six of perimeter votes representative voting item number 32 is the award of solicitation 2023-0373 Modesto Gomez Park improvements to Keystone GC LLC second yes there is public comment on this item from Dora Villanueva Doro Villanueva I don't see her in the queue or Ana Dominguez I don't see Doro Villanueva or Anna Dominguez in the queue they requested to participate virtually however their phone numbers are not listed in the queue at this time eruption of okay okay you go first if you want huh you want to go first sure I just quick question when will this project start do you know do you have any idea yeah it's summer uh it's gonna start next week right like I'm really excited it's gonna get it done it'll be done by August 1st we're super excited because it was The Unofficial answer yeah I haven't grown up in that area I'm getting a call purchasing and strategic sourcing Department moment so after work the contractor have to they have to submit PNP bonds and insurance so that takes about 14 days plus the time we take to execute the contract so as soon as the contract is executed CAD will be issuing ntp thank you Claudia thank you we have a motion in a second I still have a problem huh I thought Terry hi Jerry I want to say thank you I just want to take this second to thank you for all of you who don't know Jerry has spent a lot of time in the last year that I've represented the area he's met with these constituents every three months it's been a lot of work I know that some of you are familiar with the the situation with this park um I just want to say that you know I'm committed I hope Jerry's committed that this is just the first phase of improvements for this park um you know we all kind of inherited this this was part of the 2012 Bond uh decided by councils before us prices have elevated since then but this community deserves a lot more than what they're getting that's for sure um and this is really a Band-Aid on a much larger conversation about how uh predominantly low socioeconomic communities of color have been treated across the city and I think that you know this is a great Improvement for now but there really does need to be a commitment from this Council in enhancing this park and this neighborhood so thank you and I didn't know you grew up there representative Rivera I would have made you come to these meetings instead of Jerry I'm just kidding okay just kidding thank you an episode Canales yeah I just want to Echo the thank you to Jerry I know uh the mayor Pro tem said you've met with the residents a lot in the last year but you've met with the residents a lot in the last half a decade I think um you know this was a project I believe it was originally programmed for uh 2022 into 2023 uh one of the last projects in the rollout of the 2012 quality of life button and then my predecessor Ripley Saturday when it was this area was previously in District 8 accelerated that project to 2019 2020 and then the pandemic happened and then the first contractor wasn't able to to complete the project and so it's kind of been uh hurdle after hurdle since the start of the pandemic it's great to see this is finally getting awarded and hopefully the the community there can have a a good project and a good platform to build upon at that location thanks again Jerry and to all of the CID team who's worked on this thank you over the years thank you thank you and I and I've played a lot of softball in those parks and there was no offense so once you got in the Gap you were able to hit a home run so I know that's what I'm saying no I thank you all I like I said back in the 70s I enjoyed uh playing a lot of baseball out there on Sundays thank you for that we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 32. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 33 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-03-11 Blackie Chester Park storage facility improvements to a black stallion contractors incipro there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 33 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 34 is the annual presentation to Council on the stormwater utility good afternoon mayor council Gilbert threco vice president for operations and Technical Services for El Paso water I'm here this afternoon to present on the annual report on the storm water utility so there we go I'll be brief for the presentation so I could have allow ample time for your questions and answers presentation highlights include just a brief history on The Guiding document behind the projects that are completed by El Paso water storm water utility a list of projects that have been completed for construction and construction and are planned over the next year as well it's a matter of History the storm water master plan was approved in 2009 after the storms of 2006 here recently in 2017 a steering committee was put together comprised of a business Community the commercial development community members of the public service board and the homeowners associations around the city and they updated the master plan to re-prioritize their projects to have a fair representation of smaller localized projects but also some of the larger infrastructure infrastructure projects that are needed around the city since the implementation of the stormwater master plan we've completed just short of 270 million dollars worth of projects all across the city with the encouragement and support of council last year the Public Service Board voted to accelerate the rate at which we are completing the capital Improvement program for the storm water utility there in the center graph you'll see the impact of that policy decision in terms of how much work was completed just short of 50 million of the 70 million dollars were committed and his work in progress and currently working for towards achieving the goals of the of the utility projects completed across the the city so last year fiscal year 2020 2022 2023 the map shows uh projects completed all over the city here's a list of projects that were completed this is not all of them but roughly around 20 projects were completed last year um you'll see 10 of the most representative ones here on the screen I also want to highlight the corrugated metal pipe program that took into effect last year so over the last two years we've completed the assessment of 18 000 linear feet of corrugated metal pipe underneath city streets corrugated metal pipe as you'll see in some of the photos corrodes and that could cause Street failure so this is a very important project that we've commenced we've identified 39 projects seven of which were completed last year but we continue heading into this program so we could um finish them and and ensure that these pipes are rehabilitated here are some other projects and photos of the of the projects we've completed last year Carolina I drive this helps or reduce flooding in the Alameda and Carolina intersection with the completion of a pond Old Spanish Trail there is a flume that removes water off the street and conveys it into an Arroyo Lafayette Channel Improvement again lots of channels across the city this one in particular had failed you can see the joints Fair have failed um the channel was rehabilitated and renewed here's a good picture of corrugated metal pipe this is at one point in the history of of the city this was the type of pipe that was installed to convey stormwater underneath city streets and in the command system you can see the corrosion that occurs along the walls we use a method that we use this pipe without digging it up so this has been proven to be a successful program for us and and again we have several more thousands of these that need to be completed over the next several years Moorhead Dam so those are some of the Moorhead dam is one of the larger projects that was completed last year not only a detention Basin to capture any large rocks and sediment but then to convey the water in a slowed with a lot in a in a slow controlled way Memphis Dan does the same thing construction of a of a sediment Basin and then able to slow the water down as it as it's coming down the mountain and then conveying it in a controlled manner along its path kill Carney pond in the Eastwood area again just another structure that seems simple but does a is very effective towards removing water off of city streets and into our ponds Thunderbird Channel this is a more severe case of a failed Channel I showed the image of the Lafayette Channel this one on the west side when the joints fail water gets underneath through the and underneath the concrete and completely destroys the channel there are several of these instances across the city that we work towards renewing again we finished one of these larger segments last year projects currently under construction the map shows again a fair representation of them across the city these are 15 projects that are currently under construction so they they were awarded last year and are currently underway Omega pond again a on the east side a flume and a structure to capture water off the street and convey it safely into the pond you can see the destruction that is caused when there is no Flume in place prior to this there's just a pipe that would overhang into the pond and it causes constru this amount of Destruction when there's large rain events Yandel and Boone a lot of erosion occurs along our ponds want to protect Yandel street so this erosion control using concrete is an important project as well Fort Bliss diversion access boxes I'm going to spend a little time on this one because this is extremely important project so the mountains impervious surface very much like a roof on a house the water hits the mountain and just rushes down these channels we have 372 390 inch pipes actually that capture water off the mountain and convey it down into a low Lane area depressed area known has the Fort Bliss sump these three large pipes you could tell by the size of the workers there next to them extremely important but every time that it rains these large 90-inch pipes all three of them get filled with sediment as you're seeing in that middle picture once they're filled it's you can they lose capacity you cannot convey the water through there anymore so this is an important project in order to be able for our crews to access these pipes and clean them out after every large rain event upcoming projects this coming year um again shoning yellow on the map we have 13 projects planned for construction this coming year they were planned to be let out the the design is complete or near completion but this year they will be let out for construction I'll be highlighting two of them the will Ruth Pond is one that has been going on that is a a I describe it as a classic stormwater project because it just about has everything uh several phases to it from land acquisition to environmental cleanup of the land that needs to be used for the pond now it's moving into the construction phase the design is complete we hired a construction manager at risk so they can start on the project while final design details are being figured out this is a delivery method that is effective so we can get moving with a project without these last final I'll say 10 of of details that are needed to to finish it up so again this is an important project for the Northeast the the Northeast municipal court and the regional Command Center are going to be protected once this Pond is in place another good news for more good news for the Northeast residents 600 Parcels will be removed out of the floodplain as part of this project as well and we did receive a five million dollar Grant from the Texas water development board to help with the construction of this project the other project I'll highlight that's moving into the construction phase is the Palisades storm water system and Trailhead improvements this is located right off Robinson Road in the current area so the importance of this project can't be overstated so frankly it protects the University of Texas at El Paso it protects Mesa Street Stanton Street Oregon Street a very important project that this that this Pond will do again it'll be a dam that is constructed up in the mountain hold the water and it could be released at a controlled rate to avoid any destruction Downstream upcoming projects for next year I just went through what's going to go into construction this is projects that are going to be that are entering the planning and the design phase again shown on the screen with the orange dots there are 15 projects that are planned for design this coming year I'm sorry let me let me highlight these right here so 15 projects that are planned for design I'm going to high the ones in southeast El Paso there are several ponds that are needed to protect public and private property on in the I-10 Loop 375 area right off of the sac we refer to them as Sac Pond one sec Pond two these are also very important projects to protect that that property Downstream and to protect I-10 itself here at the I-10 and and Joe Battle in totality these are all the projects that have been completed over the last that are that have been completed in construction or planned for design here in the next in the past 20 months and moving forward a total of 104 million dollars worth of work money at work using uh storm water fees that are collected um from our customers here they are in totality there we go so fair representation parts from all over the city are represented with all the projects that we're working on a quick mention of the upcoming Monsoon so from the national um Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from NOAA they have notified or have made the notification that we are moving from an El Nina type Monsoon to a Nino implying that we're moving to much wetter conditions with warmer temps here in the coming summer they did make note that we ex they expect the monsoon to come later this summer versus spread out more through the traditional monsoon season that runs from June to through September now that was the report on Capital Improvement projects now operations from an operation standpoint these are El Paso water Crews working to maintain all of these structures that are in place last year from all the ponds that we have so we have just short of 1900 ponds across the city here you see 362 Acres of those ponds maintained last year 19 miles of channels and levees 30 miles of agricultural drains 1.6 miles of storm drains these are the storm drains direct underneath city streets or adjacent to city streets on the right-of-way you can see 5800 inlets cleaned and 434 Acres of dams that have been made have been maintained by El Paso water Crews so just a minute so in addition to some of the cleanup that our crews have to work on there's illegal dumping remains an issue for our cruise and for the storm water system this is just an example of the type of debris that we encounter in our larger channels this one in particular is a Crossing underneath us-54 just a reminder for the councilman for the public that illegal dumping is illegal and it does cause uh havoc on the stormwater system and does cause flooding simply because capacity in our channels are taken up by the trash and debris the last year 30 000 sandbags were picked up and used by customers all across the city we have three locations in the Central Northeast and West Side parts of town the storm bag I'm sorry these sandbag sites open up in July and our customers are free to pick them up through September 30th and they are free to the public brief mention on Partnerships and collaboration so I have a slide here where we collaborate with the El Paso County Water improvement district so this is the local Irrigation District we use their infrastructure to to uh to place stormwater into their system we have a program with them where we will we will enlarge Crossings underneath roads to allow for storm water capacity they were originally designed just for irrigation purposes or agricultural drain purposes but we have a program in place with them so that more capacity could be added to those Road Crossings to allow for the storm water the other mention on collaboration is of course with the city streets and maintenance department we coordinate with them closely so as they are going to repair or reconstruct the street we go in and put in either new stormwater infrastructure or we repair stormwater infrastructure so that type of coordination is always going on with the city streets and maintenance department as well and we are always actively pursuing funding to assist the construction of the of these large projects and to lessen the burden on our customers so last year we achieved 15.83 million dollars in Grants that assist with construction of these uh this Stillwater infrastructure and currently we have a request in for 10.5 million dollars of additional grant funding with the Corps of Engineers and the Texas water development board we will continue our campaign and awareness for again for the public not only the from the legal dumping part of it as I mentioned causes Havoc with the infrastructure and causes a lot of flooding across the the city not only with the large debris in the channels but just litter and debris that clogs or drains causes a lot of localized flooding that really shouldn't be doesn't need to be happening as long as we keep our streets and cleans and folks who do not litter our public service announcements you'll also see as we enter the monsoon season the um turn around don't drown public service announcements that we work jointly with the National Weather Service and the office of emergency management as well we'll continue with radio spots Billboards bus displays and we encourage everyone to adhere to to These Warnings when you see a water flowing on the street do not trust that you can drive through it it doesn't take but six inches of water to for a car to get caught up in the flow so during flood events of course you can call a customer service residence and customers affected by flooding can call our customer service department at 915-594-5500 we have customer service agents available to help them there is a with if there's less urgency or just giving them another option of contacting us we have the Storm at epwater.org email as well we have folks that are always checking that and responding so that's another way to get a hold of us and of course if it's a matter of health and safety and an emergency please call though it's best for them to call 9-1-1 and there's also the option of 311 for a non-emergency reporting and that all that information gets to us as well and we'll be able to respond to the issue that they're reporting so we include this help because storm water as I mentioned whether it's the illegal dumping or the littering everyone can help and the council can help as well so of course spread the word of the public service announcements in terms of the turnaround Don't Drown that that will always be helpful uh for to protect uh people's health and safety the next one I'll mention is the update of the city streets and drainage manual so the effects of climate change are clear in terms of the rain intensities that we get here in El Paso much stronger rain events of intensity and duration throughout the monsoon if we do not update the city design manual that controls what size should our infrastructure be will continue to design our infrastructure undersized for the capacity for the type of rain events that we now see we're working closely with the city's planning and development team Mr Philip betzwein so that we can update this manual so we can start building infrastructure to reflect the size that's needed for the intensities that we see uh support for the storm water fee increases so again as I mentioned earlier there's a plan in place to accelerate those the rate at which projects are being completed that requires more funds collected from um from our customers your support in these increases as needed so not only as not only to build these larger structures and all the structure and complete everything that's in the storm water master plan but with that comes more maintenance that needs to be done as well so we the fees will also help with the operational costs additional staff equipment that we need to keep up with the additional maintenance of these structures and finally I want to encourage and support and asking for your support with green infrastructure so green infrastructure is proven to be an effective way with low impact environmental impact to control hold store storm water we do have nine pilot projects for green infrastructure going on around the city right now and we are tracking them they're constructed we want to see how they work and how we can adjust them and for here for the types of rainy events that we get here in the desert Southwest with that I'd be happy to answer any questions that you all may have representative thank you for the presentation thank you mayor Mr the 915-594-5500 and maybe you said it I just wasn't listening because um my neighbor here was talking but is it is that 24 hours a day that somebody could call and report somebody so we have we have agents during the day we have agents in the afternoon uh as well during the monsoon we'll ensure we have agents available oh great okay and then the other thing can you see or uh Mr Young can when do you send us information on the nine projects agreeing with um yes you would like information on that yeah please okay thank you all right representative thank you very much mayor Mr Trejo thank you very much for your presentation great job for you and everybody else that put that together from EP water I'm going to call your attention to slide 21. um depicts the before and after for District Two the Fort Bliss Divergent access boxes but uh shows different employees and you mentioned the size of the the tunnels there the pipes but are those EP water employees or like a subcontractor that are cleaning that out those are contractors building an access box that those pipes will run through okay thank you also um on slide number 25 I believe it is where you talk about the the pond out there will Ruth um I know it's completed the backup says startup in September of 2023 is that still on schedule so this is on schedule yes okay but I'd like to ask you if you or whoever from EP water could be one of our guest speakers at one of our meetings for district four in the community meetings we get a lot of calls a lot of input a lot of questions about the will Ruth Pond when is it going to start what is it going to look like you know they've been at this for quite some time and things like that so I'll reach out to your office if you could help us with that that'd be great we'd be happy to thank you think about that yes Miss Turner signed up to speak on this item yes ma'am no [Laughter] it's McRae down there where it intersects with I-10 still flooding I-10 and and we're correct oh so I'll answer that question and if someone operations manager on sweat on she can but so the flooding that occurred at I-10 and McRae was was caused by uh littering so it was it was a result of um of litter and trash collecting in the inlet there are inlets that are there but in that particular case when it flooded it was debris that caused that type of flooding and it's been flooding since 1981 that's why I was asking if it's continuing to flood and are you all going to do anything about it so that um those though that those catch basins that are clogging up those are also happen to be a tech stock they're in Tech stock right-of-way as well so we'll work with the state on it and I'll ask Nino to add some more detail on that answer good afternoon chief operations officer for stormwater that is correct um that um I-10 and McGray they are both uh text at um streets so they are responsible for the maintenance of those structures we we are looking into doing improvements of streams that can catch that water before it gets to that point but that's something that we we are looking into yeah we need to work with them to not have that because at the end of the day may be their problem but it becomes harsh after that happens yes sir we end up it becomes more expensive for us so yes thank you and with that there is no action item so thank you next item is crunch the next two items I don't know if you want to take them yes please found and briefed everybody on this yes we did thank you so we have a couple of items for for city council to approve the first one is for water and wastewater bonds the series 2023 and just to remind everyone this is not taxpayer debt These funds are paid from the rate payers from El Paso water and why do we need this this funding for we need this funding to improve infrastructure that's the main the main thing that we use in this this funding for is for improving infrastructure what we're seeking is approval of 192.215 1.25 million and this is for water and wastewater bombs and what we're going to use this for is 150 million it's going to be used for cap projects 40 million is going to be used to refund notes from our commercial papers and the rest is going to be for each wins cost now the board approved the budget and with it is on the CIP this 430 uh almost 433 million dollars that was approved for Bond funding and there's four projects that are included the main one is Bustamante plant mustamante plan serves the East Side uh part of the city and this wastewater treatment plan is going to need improvements over the next five years of over 700 million dollars so this funding that you see here is going to last about a couple of years and the war and the work has already been underway the the Bustamante plan needs to be expanded the current capacity of 39 million gallons daily is going to be increased to 51 million gallons daily this is tcq requirements for us to operate the plant and this is due to the increased growth in the east side the other one is a Frontera Force main this is on the west side and this one is to complete that line that Force main on on Wastewater and that that would give us a lot of safety for that area the other one is the headquarters for the main building uh for on Hawkings we're doing a new building that's the we we are growing that building is a very old building so we need a replacement on that one and the last one is on the jonty Hickerson wastewater treatment plant and this is on the west side and the same thing we need improvements for infrastructure so those total fundings that we need on bonds we're only asking for 150 million dollars 150 million is what we expect to spend in the next 12 months the rest of it 282 million will come back to city council for approval next year so what's the the debt for the utility currently on an annual basis we spend about 98 million dollars on principle and interest payments with this additional debt that we're requesting it would add about 12 million dollars a year so our 10 is going to be about 110 million dollars a year on the next uh four to six years now some questions on the rates so all this that you see is already been approved by the board and and and the rates already including this new debt that you're that we're seeking So currently the the typical customer pays 76 dollars now on the water side one penny equals two gallons of water so for every penny that you see our typical customer gets two gallons of water now on average is if you get the water Wastewater in storm water is for two dollars and fifty cents a day you get those three services customers that are low users those are the and that are consumed three or less ccfs about 22 2 400 gallons a month and there's 48 000 uh residents or customers that we have on a monthly basis that consume three ccfs or less those ones pay um 42 dollars on average and that equates to a dollar and forty three dollars a dollar and 43 cents uh per day for the three services one of the main things that we we look at the utilities affordability we want our race to be affordable now the challenge right now that we have is implementing uh plans like the the ones for waiver or fees such of if you're a low user you're gonna get get a the fee wave and that's 14 that we're using we also increase the minimum from four ccfs to five ccfs that way customers are are those customers that pay in the use less water would pay less that's the the things that we're doing on affordability for the utility now what we're seeking is the approval for water and sewer revenue bonds series 2023 the delegation the parameter authorization that we're seeking is the delegation of pricing to be for the president and CEO for the CFO and for the vice president the we're also asking for a maximum true interest cost of 5.75 percent that's a hundred basis points or one percent more than the current market and the amount not to exceed 192.215 million the total the final maturity is on 20 20 49 which is 26 years that's the maturity that we want on this month and the expiration within six months and who's going to be selling those months we have Underwriters Stefan Nichols RBC Frost Bank and cabera and capital those are all uh firms that have been approved by by the city to be Underwriters so the next the next step if approved do our tentative uh we'll we'll do the pricing on on the week of May 17th and to complete the pricing and and the deal closing on June the 14th and with that I'll answer any questions you may have thank you must have done a good job briefing there is no questions do we have a motion is there a motion question mayor only number that was only the presentation for number 35 for the sewer revenue bonds correct yes sir I think both were read into the record the presentation for the second one I think that will of the council was to take them together yes okay you want me to go through yeah go ahead okay even though you've briefed them all go ahead that's fine okay so on this one so we have a line of credit on the storm water utility and the current amount was 25 million dollars on that line of credit now what we what we're seeking is that line of credit expires on June 19th what we're going to do is just pay off the balance that we owe the 25 million and that's what these funds are going to be used for this is for the storm water utility and this is used for CIP projects the current annual debt that we pay is about 12 million this is going to add another 2 million dollars a year same parameters as what you just saw the only difference on this one is instead of 26 years this is for 20 years this 20-year debt on the storm water utility same same underwriting team and same closing and pricing so with that I conclude the stormwater Bond presentation if you have any questions move to approve Mr Turner items 35 and 36. yes yes on item 35 in the backup it says that uh in 2022 you all borrowed 441 million dollars and in less than a year you're back for another 192. now 40 million 40 million of that is to go into their commercial paper fund which will give them back their full 80 million dollars usage which if I'm not correct in 270 days that's the limit on Commercial paper so got a problem with that because that just means we're going to spend more money and on 36 I was reading that uh we have to carry 1.25 times the average annual Debt Service plus which means higher rates money sitting around in a bank not helping me and lowering rates in article 10 section J it said that the PSP basically has control over you when it comes to uh extensions or growth and then I find unacceptable that's your all's prerogative that's City Council and my also was questioned under this same article this same paragraph is does it limit growth can we not grow any further not add any more subdivisions not anymore customers because that's when I read that paragraph that's what it said I don't see anything that tells me that we can continue to grow and add on there can't be any extensions so what is that true can somebody help me understand that I guess on the comments for this is needed infrastructure that service coverage is is something that we have to be meeting and something that the rating agencies look at so we have to be making enough Revenue to cover that service payments as far as the controls the city council gave the control in management to El Paso water for the storm water utility and and the water and sewer utility uh I don't know if there's any other questions representative Salcido just public um benefit I know that I was briefed and they mentioned that something was already voted in regards to the rate that these uh what's in front of us to vote on is not going to increase the the rate correct so the the Public Service Board during our budget process engineering approves the budget so those rates become effective on March 1st 2023. so all this debt expenses for operations those are taken into account in in calculating the rates so the rates that I that I showed were the rates that our current rates that are affected March 1st okay thank you so all the current debt is already included into the water rates that's correct thank you yeah you're right thank you for that and that's no additional coming do we have a motion yes the motion was made by alternate mayor Pro tem olinar seconded by representative Rivera to approve items 35 and 36. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to one representative the remainder of council voting I representative Hernandez not present the motion does carry thank you thank you for that thank you everyone that brings us to item 37 and this is a public hearing on an ordinance granting a special permit to allow for a governmental use at 10832 Ivanhoe Drive there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 37 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote voting session is open in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 38 is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning from M1 light manufacturing to AO apartment office at 5649 Beacon Avenue yes ma'am go ahead um in the backup it says that there's one call and two emails of inquiry was there any official opposition good afternoon that was all the communication from the public that was received okay thank you I'll move to a proof there's a motion made by mayor mayor post second it by representative to approve item 38. there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item 39 is a public hearing on the Northerns changing the zoning at 1901 Grandview Avenue from R5 residential and c1c Commercial condition to SDC special development conditions imposing conditions and improving a detailed site development plan move to approve there is public comment on item 39 from Ms Turner pardon me I love talking Finance item 39 Miss Turner [Applause] parking will there be sufficient parking for this yes ma'am um this development complies with the Prairie parking ordinance uh providing the minimum number of parking spaces okay thank you thank you you're welcome Canales yes and Mr I don't know if you were able to see the the drawings in the back of the renderings But it includes a parking structure um in in the plans um I don't know are you able to pull up maybe slide 10 in the presentation shows the the parking structure yes I'm gonna go ahead and show my screen sure so as we can see here yeah again that uh upper level um additional parking structure is part of this request as well as the addition a building addition to the existing Hospital building thank you Ro thank you there's some motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by representative Canales seconded by alternate to approve item 39. on that motion call for the vote in the Boating session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present next item is number 40. and this is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 1820 Myrtle Avenue from M1 light manufacturing to GMU General mix use and improving a master zoning plan with reduction to minimum District area required and 100 100 parking reduction to approve there's a motion made by representative Carnales seconded by alternate mayor Pro tem Molina and there is public comment from Ms Turner yesterday I heard reference to some kind of entertainment center being here too yeah so how can you have an entertainment center and no parking where do people Park bro yes sir yes sir uh no let's see again playing inspections so this is a resulting to gnu Journal mixed use uh for part of this development does include an outdoor event space and uh also part of this request was a parking study that was performed and established uh that there are enough parking spaces on street street parking spaces to go ahead and serve this this development on-street parking spaces now I'm having questions because I don't I don't I don't know how many people are you talking about in this entertainment outdoor entertainment area will hold 100 people 200 300. it's ma'am so the the parking study that encompassed an area of 300 feet on surrounding the property lines of the of this property and again the the study uh involved going out on hour by hour uh counting the number of spaces that are available and again based on on the results of that study um it was established that there there is enough available on-street parking to service this this development which is in our older part of the city it is our G2 traditional neighborhood type area um again uh with with available Transit lines uh bus routes uh Sun Metro routes and again establishing that there is enough parking on the street and nobody you said it was residential and nobody in a residential area complained uh so this uh there was a notice that went out to our property owners within 300 feet of this property and we did not receive absolutely no no communication from the public well I can guarantee you all the parking it won't be in that 300 feet as we've seen up in Cincinnati in that area and the problems that uh not making her arrangements for parking and ignoring it and that's when I'm you know that may be what you're trying to create down here but you can't have something that's going to have outdoor entertainment and expect to have sufficient parking in the neighborhood then you're going to have people who live there complaining about they can't park their car can't get to their house I think this one needs to be looked at again thank you checking all this yeah Miss Turner I I roll you may have been spoke or I may have misunderstood this is in G7 industrial and rail yard and it's surrounded entirely by M1 manufacturing District and so that that I I know but I'm looking at the report right here in front of me we can pull it up for you if you'd like the parking study showed during the times of 6 pm to 1am when that entertainment venue would be open uh there were 61 total parking spaces that fell within that 300 feet and 60 available uh during those hours so on average one one occupied space this is basically we Cincinnati when it was being developed and all the bars up in there and all those issues up in there oh there's plenty of parking there's plenty of parking and you still have the people up there in Kern raising bloody cane because you've got people urinating their yard throwing their garbage in their yard the same thing is continuing to happen the gentleman said it was in resident in a traditional residential area so I mean role can we pull up the map so we can show the well I know what it is both from the uh future land use map and the zoning map because again it's it's a G7 industrial and rail yard and then the surrounding is all zoned M1 manufacturing it's not residential it's very different to the situation why did we hear traditional residential correct so for clarification what I mentioned is it's traditional neighborhood which applies to our older areas of the city whether they be commercial manufacturing or residential or like in this case uh really when you zoom out it's a mixed use area yes uh the majority of the area is zoned manufacturing however there is other order um many commercial businesses as well as some non-conforming multi-family within the area again uh in line with this proposal for a mixed-use area and I'll go ahead and bring up the sure but Raul that's that's not within the 300 foot radius for the parking study correct as far as I can tell that's entirely encompassed by M1 manufacturing Zone correct um in terms of zoning yes sir but again there there may be some existing uh non-conforming uses as well as commercial uses within those those 300 feet but yes again the the property here um is 1820 Myrtle which is you go to highlighted this property here um again uh with the study encompassing the the 300 feet area as Mr Canales mentioned the the study did established 60 on on average 60 spaces on a daily basis available um for for parking and again as you zoom out of this area there are other uses uh in this area lending itself in line with the mixed-use um um context of this area which aligns with the current request and mixed use is it does include residential correct yes ma'am uh General mixed use would allow residential however in this case uh uh the The Proposal is for the event center um as well as as I believe in office space but again as you zoom out of the area you see many types of mixed mixed use uh type of uses role can you please pull up attachment five in the in the packet no you don't have to try to convince me um representative Canalis uh just understand I mean the complaints come in I will come up here and remind you of this understand understood In fairness Ms Turner you said this one should be looked at so I'm trying to look at it I don't forget these things okay I understood thank you will not miss Prime we have Motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by representative Canales seconded by alternate on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item number 43 on the agenda and this is a presentation discussion in action of the second quarter financial report adoption of the revised state of El Paso budget policy which allows for the establishment of a pay for futures fund to solely support police fire and civilian compensation increases and authorize the city manager to allocate 50 million in sales tax revenue Surplus from FY 2023 for the fund mayor I'm going to ask that we postponed this two weeks and we'd be briefed individually I have some questions some of them are involving a lawsuit we've been briefed in an executive which I'm not comfortable asking publicly so I would like to make a motion to postpone for two weeks I also just think for things like this maybe we should be briefed in general before it comes to council because the council directed yeah absolutely I'll move forward we've got a motion a second to postpone the item yes mayor the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by alternate mayor Pro temoli Nar two Post phone item 43 for two weeks on that motion call for the vote that may make a quick comment I'll let you vote but the reason why we're bringing this forward is part of the budget development process one of the reasons why we have the recommendation to amend the budget policies and to have this additional savings to the second quarter be put aside into a separate fund is to again address the impacts that we know we're going to experience with the collective Bargains from not only the police department but the fire department and then the item of trying to get to the 15 an hour by 2026 so this is going to be a financial toll of allocating these savings reinvesting these back into the budget to help offset some of the impact on the on the taxpayers but yeah but again I mean I'm not against that I just got a lot of question about the data points that are in the backup sure if there's as much of a surplus we're not hearing about it till now what the actual impacts of that collective bargaining but we're excited to talk to you next week about them let's take a vote the voting session is open Council thanks for letting us the voting session is open to postpone for two weeks representative Rivera thank you in the voting session the motion passes six to one Representatives the remain remainder of council voting I representative Hernandez not present the motion does carry that brings us to item number 44 and this is presentation and introduction to the 49th year annual action plan for the following Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD entitlement grants Community Development block grant cdbg home investment partnership home housing opportunities for persons with AIDS and emergency Solutions Grant programs following this introduction a 30-day public comment period will commence motions approved oh if you're going to be a president there's no uh there's no action so it'll be a very quick briefing okay then I'll second it actually you do need a motion to introduce the plan and commence the 30-day public comment period I already did there is no action huh oh there is action okay I apologize to our translators over there in the corner we all start yelling at once can we have Motion in a second I have questions comments if you will Abraham someday we're going to move you up to the front of the agenda because I don't have the energy for this but you and I discussed this um I'm really excited to see uh this I think it's a total of 6.3 million dollars for the Housing Authority um for now I'm going to say no Western New York because I couldn't remember that name yesterday um Salazar Salazar I think that's a really important um facility for the community I know that you and I and many people met with the regional HUD directors um and the community members about doing this and I think when I see the city putting this much money into a project like this it makes me think about what kind of project we can get I know you and I talk I kept saying Denver but actually I went to a facility in Chicago last November where the city put money into a Housing Authority development there was Workforce training there was transitional housing all of these things kind of in one building and so I would really like to look at what our options are with that I'd like to see if we can get kind of the best product out of this I think you know Salazar is extremely important I see Jerry walked in I'm going to thank Jerry because I know about a year ago I got on him about the 30 Ami and I know that that is what this project is so I'm glad that we are doing that I am appreciative of that um I say that because I know he thinks I'm angry at him I am very appreciative of him but I just want to see you know what are our options with this you know um there are a lot of cities moving out of traditional just housing and and creating more of wraparound Services I'm not asking the housing authority to provide any of those services but how are we partnering with those and I know Jerry's been doing that with emergence as well right but but how are we as a city utilizing all of the Investments that we're putting in and getting you know new state-of-the-art products that we're seeing across the country uh May every time that's that's a very very good comment uh just so you know from our position it's always about the value added and so when we are looking at applications not just for affordable housing but for homeless services for other different services that we might offer under these funds and they're very limited and inflation is certainly uh hurting a lot of these dollars we look for that dollar added to your point we've we've been to that community in Denver I think you're referring to I'm not the one in Chicago and it's been a very very useful experience because they have you know on-site job training they have all kinds of education for their individual health care but one of the things that I I can add in regards to the uh home Housing Authority application is that these folks are really leaning in in regards to transportation for the clients uh you know annual income tax preparation there's food pantry and I'm sure that their CEO can probably speak to that better than I can but we wouldn't ever just take an application for someone to just build an affordable housing units or they're someone's just doing something a single thing it's all about that Bell added and I think with the guidance of this Council it's about increasing that competition so we'll continue to do that that will be part of the agreement too because I think it's important to make sure that folks um uh are accountable for these Services the community but that's a that's an excellent point and we'll make sure that we're not in that great thank you and I'm happy um we already have a motion I think I made that second I'm very happy to support this entire project I think it is or uh it's a great great funding year for you all thank you very much Miss Prine we do have public comment from John Martin on on this item good afternoon good afternoon I want to First say thank you to the mayor and the city council for allowing me to speak and really my purpose here today is to complement the staff and the leadership within the community and human development department for the process that was put into play this year which is a needs-based process and so we're very pleased with that we hope we move forward in the future and if there are any questions with regard to our piece of the pie I'll be more than happy to answer that but I just simply wanted to say thank you so very much and thank you and I know you've stepped up and worked with us really well and I want to thank you for that and the time that we've needed your support you've done a really good job and I thank you for it we appreciate that but we're not alone we've got a good team so thank you very much thank you sir with that Mr prayer yes the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by mayor Pro tem anello to approve item 44 the introduction in commence the 30-day public comment period on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present so we did omit home right Jerry walked in right at the end when you were talking I just want to make sure that's what you yeah I think we cut oh okay thank you I just want to make sure you walked in at the end I want to make sure he was fully informed that brings us to the end of the agenda second there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is for Tuesday April 25th 2023 is adjourned at 3 13 pm thank you Council I'll send them the money they just got to do it I'll set up for the company yeah they just got to give me the number thanks okay Pam why didn't even see I didn't even know you're in here you know it's just like it's such a big deal where it's like a weekend I did receive it yes I have to run video Take Care thank you okay okay okay and then um I knew we could figure out if I could order and I know that with him or something