to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep One Nation God and justice for all thank you we'll start with where we left off yes sir I believe that would be with the next presentation is from high performing government goals five communication and goal six sound governance good morning mayor and city council if we can get it to bring up that presentation please okay so this is the final number four Vision block presentations coun I'm sorry we have a quorum now Council may we have a motion to reconvene the July 8th special meeting there's a motion in a second to reconvene July 8th special city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 9:01 a.m present is Mayor liser mayor protim Kennedy representative aavo alternate mayor protim molinard representative salido and representative Canales Representatives Fierro and Rivera have requested to be excused from today we now continue with a high performing government presentation with goals five communication and goal six sound governance please continue Mr forez good morning again mayor and city council so I'll be covering the introduction of the presentation I'm going to be followed by Miss arel liera we'll also have Miss Margarita Marin and Miss Maria pus also will cover a portion of the presentation as well so as mentioned this is for the high performing government this covers two strategic goals goal five and goal six goal five related primarily to communication goal six relating to sound governance and fiscal management you can see the Departments listed here we have nine City departments that fall Within These two strategic goals you'll see here the list of the different strategies related to goal five primarily related to the use of Technology Communications whether it be with our city employees or through the community outreach goal six really centered around the workforce and investment in not only wages but benefits um there's a couple of strategies related to minimizing risk risk continuous improvements in how we deliver services and then obviously financial management budgeting and financial reporting and as well as legal representation as well as important piece of this strategic goal you'll see here the pie chart so this particular Vision block High performing government makes up about 23% of the overall $1.3 billion City budget you'll see the orange pie chart off to the right hand side there of that 308 million 74% of that or 22 7 million is non-general fund and I'll talk about that here in just a slide coming up that outlines what makes up that non-general fund portion and then of that 81 million. 7 81.7 million is general fund and again just reminded there are nine so this is a very very large Vision block a lot of City departments all of the support service departments within this strategical this slide here is the breakdown of the source of funds and so you can see here again the a similar presentation of what we've shown in the last couple of vision blocks here you see the general fund portion 81.7 million and then all of the different fund Source types and so I'll point out a couple here because there's some pretty large ones here and so representative Dr oo you mentioned yesterday about what makes up for example this one is 308 million and so if you look for example in The Debt Service and non- departmental on this slide that's 121.5 million that is our debt service payments and so that's the amount that we need in order to make all of our payments for the upcoming debt all of the debt that we've issued over the last several years so that's a very very large portion um another large one you'll see on the far right hand side second to the last column on the right hand side internal service 82.9 million in the human resources department that is the self-insurance fund as the mayor mentioned yesterday the city is self-insured and so included in that is our health care our workers comp and our unemployment so again a very very large investment and of that about 74 million is for healthcare um the others are relatively small you'll see a non- departmental on the special Revenue that 19.6 million that's made up of the tzs or tzs the destinational Paso amount that's collected through a hotel occupancy tax as well as a motor V rental tax that is collected as well on the major Varian is again very similar to what you've heard already a lot of the increases will be due to the compensation increases in the current year and what we have scheduled for next here um you're going to hear in this presentation the information technology department and no different than what we've seen in the last few years we continue to see pretty large increases in our city-wide contracts related to Information Technology not only do we have the inflationary impacts of costs that are being passed on but one of the significant Investments and we'll talk about it at the very end and it's very very important it's something actually that the foak took action on with the internal audit function this past year was to invest more money into doing audits related to cyber security so Ernesto adola is here he's our ciso our chief information security officer and so it's important that we continue to invest in the it particularly related to not just keep um only keeping our equipment updated but really from the cyber security standpoint to sure we're investing in our Network and our data centers as well um some of the other large increases you've already heard city clerk has the increase related to the election that will be taking place this November in HR you're going to see the large increase related to the Self Insurance Fund and that's again being driven by the increase in our health Healthcare and then in non- departmental this is where we have our transfers out you've heard the large increase over $2 million increase for the transfer for Animal Services as well as the increase we're seeing from the appraisal district on Appraisal Services and the increase in property insurance this slide is showing you the breakdown for the general fund by Department again comparing the prior year budget to the FY 2025 preliminary budget you will see the variance there the right hand second to the right hand column again the IT department is gr up by 1.8 million again being driven by compensation increases in those contracts city clerk is the election and then in non- departmental there are increases but you'll see an overall decrease and again that's related to what Miss Cody pointed out yesterday is that late in the budget process last year we did do the pay raises effective in September as opposed to splitting it September March and so we're backing out that uh one time lump sum that we have built into the Celler Reserve to cover those increases effective in September this slide is breaking down the general fund expenses by category and so again same explanations you can see here the personal services is the compensation again that salary reserve the contractual Services again is the elections and that's where we have our it contracts budgeted and then you will see at the bottom there the other sources this is the uh transfer to the animal services department to fund their operations and their Staffing we looked at the expenses for the non-general fund by Department again the the large one here is in the human resources again that $7.6 million increase again that is related to the self-insurance fund which covers our Healthcare increases as well as our worker comp and our unemployment this slide here's the non-general fund expenses by category uh contractual Services there again you'll see is that's where the healthcare services prescription uh benefits and our benefits Administration for our healthc care is budgeted in that contractual services and then the other uses is the again related to the transfer for our workers comp again included our self Insurance Fund as we look to Staffing again some very very minor increases we've got one new position within the IT department for support Ser Support Services specialist we've added a couple of new positions into the city attorney's office to help on the paralal side and the open records um volume that they're handling and then we've got a couple of new positions in office of the controller and purchasing and again that's really to ensure that we've got the succession planning and really in the purchasing department it's really developing starting with purchasing purchasing Specialists to allow them to be able to vote in advance and be able to move up within the purchasing department he knows to do something ahead of time and so with that I will now kick it over to miss arela who will cover strategic goal number five and for the record representative ernandez joined the meeting at 9:07 a.m. good morning ma'am good morning Adel Gerra managing director for information technology services today we'll be going over our fy2 planned activities for our go team five so as Mr courtine has mentioned our cyber security continues to remain at the Forefront of our Focus we understand that there are a lot of different softwares that we utilize throughout the city but also including educational information for our employees ensuring that they understand how important it is that they also remain at the Forefront of being safe in all of the activities that they take when they're here at the city so we also with that we know that we have a lot of it equipment upgrades that come along with improving our cyber security not only from the personal computers that you're using to service the um citizens but also upgrades data center um Network equipment there's a lot of different pieces that need to be upgraded along the way along with that we also leverage Cloud platforms when possible they also come with additional security that sometimes is better than the one we have as well and so that's also something that we like to leverage ensuring that we're able to save funding when we're able to do that as well the other two priorities we have coming up are data governance and generative AI initiatives this has been a conversation that continues to keep coming up I know in February when we all met and we had our strategic planning session this was a very important Initiative for the council members ensuring that we understand what data we have available throughout the organization and how we're able to solidify that ensure that it's organized that it's safe to utilize and then once we have that done we are able to roll out pilot programs for different uses of AI as we come about some of our planned accomplishments again going back into the initiative for an implementation of a data governance framework we do need to understand what data we have available how can that data help us make decisions internally and externally for our citizens but also the collection of the data ensuring that it's standardized that it's clean so this will be an enormous effort along the entire organization working alongside different departments in a cross functional team effort the other item we have listed and has been a continued work effort is our EP 311 application not only ensuring we're reviewing the processes and how citizens are able to report these issues but ensuring that the technology that we're utilizing is up to speed with what issues citizens may be having so we are reworking that application we will have further updates for you in the coming months about the progress that we have made and what we've been able to find on the cyber security Forefront again expanding on our security awareness program offerings our employees and all of you are greatest asset and Tool in ensuring that we maintain secure information across the organization and then also implementing those cyber security risk assessments ensuring that all of our equipment is up to speed that's supported and it's patched along with the latest updates and then back to our fy2 um FY 2025 toye action plan that we spoke about earlier again just focusing on creating that data governance framework making sure we have a committee the support of our leaders across the organization but also involving the rest of the organization so everyone knows where that data is how we going to collect it how we standardize it and then rolling out a plan and then moving on to the AI Focus you know adopting emerging Technologies has been an important topic across not only the city but the country ensuring that we're being safe and secure and that we're utilizing these as pilot programs where they're available and where they make sense partnered with our information security Assurance program and with that I'll go ahead and turn it over to miss basas and she'll get started on Go Team Six good morning ma'am actually Margarita Marin controller presenting for goal six I'm governance and fiscal management good morning um I'm going to be walking you through this presentation through our priorities for the upcoming budget year and uh what we plan to accomplish with the budget in order to continue to support our organization in delivering exceptional services to our community so this strategic and legislative affairs function as you recall was created in 2024 to secure more resources for the city to state and federal allocations grants and strategic Partnerships uh part of the accomplishments that there are set to um to have next year with the budget is to implement the legislative agenda for the 89 Texas legislative session and also implementing a new federal legislative agenda for physical year 25 um this function also targeting a $5 million in savings for the city that will be achieved through strategic Partnerships with agencies including El Paso County Workforce Solutions and government agencies in Mexico also targeting a minimum of $50 million in state and federal funding in the form of Grants Appropriations and writers uh for the city cler's department and you'll know that um there several seats in the ballot for the November selection so we have the mayor District 2 3 four and seven there's also five Municipal Court judges and one Municipal Court of Appeals and there's going to be um a runoff election that will be held in December based on the November results so they're preparing for that also happening in 25 they're going to be concentrating um there's going to be two trustee employee seats in the ballot for the April election related to employees retirement trust and uh previously this election was conducted electronically so um considering that that has improved the Border turnout they will continue to work with the standardization of agendas and minutes across City boards and commissions the city attorney's office uh concentrating their efforts on legal support for the city and trying to work on recruitment of new lawyers through low school job fairs in the last four years this office um has grown inhouse expertise and utilities and they plan to continue growing expertise in civil rights and the use of force cases um the city attorney's office also identified training areas for specific departments in order to reduce risk that can improve um in turn improve the community service the services to the community that we offer and also supporting intergovernmental affairs as they are beginning to prepare for the next year 89 legislative session for the internal audit Department there is going to be a new Global internal audit auditing standards from The Institute of internal Auditors uh becoming due on January 9th of 2025 and the internal audit department will update their audit Charter policies and procedure manuals to reflect the new Global standards they're also going to be conducting an assess M related to their peer review that they undergo every 3 years to make sure that they remain in compliance with International standards for the professional practice of internal auditing government and the government auditing standards and very important as arelia was mentioning is the cyber security for the city so the internal audit department will be C sourcing the cyber security audits of the city's Information Systems applications and and networks and the these audits will help us enhance the current cyber security efforts performed by the IT department Office of the controller um as part of our goals 30 by 30 we're continually working with our CFO and external actuaries to develop a funding policy sort of a plan to address our long-term liabilities related to pension and opep uh in order to kind of reduce the burden that we have with those Li abilities also working with the learning office to deploy a training for all um Financial software users in order to standardize the way that we record transactions and make sure that we keep uh internal controls in place next year we're going to have two implementations that are also big implementation related to compensated absences and how we account for that liability and then related to statement 102 is certain risk discl closure with um really um calls for us to look and see our concentrations and constraints of risk and how this can impair the city's ability to meet the obligations as they become du so two major things for us in controller's office om uh as you all know they have the EP budget module that they've been using to develop the budget and they're planning next year to utilize the same module to expand its function and provide um to formulate annual projections that can help the department to plan better they will also be working on submitting their budget book to gfoa for the distinguished budget presentation award and um considering the success that they have had with the chiming uh process they plan to continue with chiming in focus groups in the year 2025 regarding purchase and strategic sourcing department they are also as as we are working on the on demand trainings via EP Learners to try to um teach the staff how to work on the scopa work independent cost estimates apep Marketplace to standardize processes also very important is that they're going to be conducting a dispar study and the dispar study will provide data about Marketplace conditions and any disparities in City contracts as well as inides and businesses repes Representatives on ways to improve procurement practices Texas based study member customer research international will survey firms in the region to identify companies available for contracts within the city this study results will help the city of Al Paso aset its current Equity efforts and identify any new measures needed to encourage the participation of diverse businesses and his contracts also um om going to be working on achieving the 11 achievement in excellence in procurement award through the national procurement Institute they will deploy a purchasing task force to identify opportunities for improvements across the city and upgrading their procurement requirements Information System Manager the prims which will provide a two-way communication from the end user and also for the purchase and analyst to serve as a better reporting tool for Department directors to make appropriate decisions for the city the human resources department um again going back to our focus on Workforce they're going to be partnering with specific high schools colleges and vocational schools to expose individuals to city government jobs and create future interest including Partnerships with military veterans um also continue to invest in our Workforce by offering educational opportunities and targeted trainings to provide growth and advance and advancement opportunities within the organiz ization um also participating in the diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility initiative to provide awareness and promote and promote this culture through robust training programs and updated processes finally related to our benefits uh for our Workforce through our Wellness programs Human Resources departments will provide an increase attention of mental health as well as highrisk conditions by providing targeted resources through a pilot program HR will also enhance the shaper up program wellness program by implementing a digital Wellness platform to a streamline Wellness omissions and data collection and now I'm going to pass it to Maria pases thank you good morning good morning mayor and Council this is Maria pasas I will continue excuse me to report on goal six planned accomplishments um in regards to Enterprise risk and safety key initiatives include in-person workers compensation training for supervisors and police officers along with quarterly workers compensation file reviews these items are crucial for ensuring timely injury reporting reducing high cost claims and streamlining the handling of minor claims for the city of Al Paso furthermore the development of a comprehensive safety policy establishes guidelines to safeguard the health and safety of employees employees residents and visitors and creating a secure environment across all Municipal operations the 2025 planned accom accomplishments for the transformation are to implement Leading Edge practices for achieving quality and performance Excellence by focusing on the community and Workforce in 2025 the Community Focus will include youth job corpse internships nip which are neighborhood Improvement program and youth Autism Awareness quality of life programming the learning team has also implemented a public learning management system with a focused effort and provided targeting learning for City Services throughout the city in regards to the workforce a continued focus on Innovation training specific to human Center design will assist employees with the Improvement of customer service delivery the learning team will continue to create and curate content for the delivery of training courses internally and externally the leadership development program for leaders across the organization will continue to roll out for all leaders in the city to meet goal six 2-year action plan Workforce Focus the HR team will be issuing a survey to identify what the key benefits are for City the employees and identify the gaps in our offerings this effort will assist us in listening to the voice of our employees and we will be using their input to update and create an alternative benefits package the HR team is also developing a communication plan and updates to the service time recognition program which will celebrate employee Milestones within the city continuing with the workforce Focus the creation of a new emerging leaders training will focus on succession planning for those wanting to step into a leadership position throughout the organization the lead team which stands for lead Empower and develop and also the trade skills in-house training program and targeted cohort training programs are all in progress to address the two years action plan in regards to customer service experience and Civic engagement focus a cross functional team has been exploring the identification of 311 or 311 processes that can quickly be updated this is taking place along with the technical improvements of the 311 application to streamline the ease of use utilizing user experience design next is Robert cortinas to discuss the ongoing Investments for goals five and six so I have two items here and so similar to what you've heard in some of the other presentations really looking at those items that the city needs to continue to identify a long-term sustainable funding source for my two items included in this Vision blocker related to the grant match which we had an item on the agenda last Monday to approve the use of the seller proceeds from city property to go towards the n match for this year and for next fiscal year however we know that that continues to be a area that we're going to have to address and find a long-term funding source for as that's going to be an annual need and then on top of that um you heard Miss gut mention a little bit about the it Investments that are going to continue into the future currently we do not have money built into the annual budget to invest in it capital and so again really invested in pretty significant areas such as our data centers our Network um they've identified they have a CIP put together um that equates to about $4 million a year in need that they currently have identified and so again just two of the additional items to build upon some of the things that we've discussed already I wanted to make one of the quick points so that concludes the presentation but I wanted to make other one other quick Point related to cyber security and so oresto has done a fantastic job of really building out that program not only adding the additional staff but just helping to identify areas of need and investment that we need he's actually um applied for and got CA to actually come in and do a um thirdparty review of penetration testing um that's on top of what Mr Kon has planned for um the very very near future and again we've been doing that on an annual basis to help us identify areas of weakness and ensuring that we're being proactive and addressing areas that may be identified and so not only did they do that third party penetration testing but also we have something that we've never done before and I'm very very excited I'm a little scared as well because on July 23rd and July 24th we actually have cisa coming in the FBI as well with their cybercity team and we're going to do a tabletop exercise so we're going to sit down with it's going to be three different groups we're going to sit down with a lot of the Departments that we covered in this presentation um we're also going to look at a lot of our large operating departments and then we have a third group on the following day to come in as well to really ensure that we're capturing all of the city Department that could potentially be impacted if a situation were to happen and so again this is an exercise that again everything that we talk about is ur us that we can be proactive and really look ahead and identify issues in advance and really to start to develop and build out Chief dooso has talked a lot about our coups our continuing operation programs that we have and we do those every year with the operation Emergency Management Center um Center however we really need to start focusing on the cyber security efforts and so again very very excited um Ernie did a fantastic job of getting cesa to come in and do this exercise free of charge which is even better so with that that concludes our presentation and we'll be happy to answer any questions you all may have Mr cortinez I think that um you're right on when you talked about the mo match and the money that when you start using one time money next year you don't have that money so I think you really have to search and and find a more sustainable revenue and Avenue for something like that as the N matches will are forever so I think you're right on when you say that that that's a big weakness that we have and I um I hope to see something different moving forward because that's that's really a weakness for us right now so thank you for that for pointing that out because I think you're right you're you're right on that that's really important so thank you for that and with that Mr oo um do lot of information thank you for providing it I um was thinking about 311 I feel that we're getting to about 6 months since we did the Strategic plan in February and um maybe it might be a good idea to give councel an update of where things are um I I I feel that um we haven't really talked about that or if you have a small update right now other than what was in the presentation um cuz I was also noticing that the the 311 quality assurance manager was not approved um line item 64 and when I saw that I was thinking we I the the full Council made 311 such a a takeaway from the Strategic plan that that was a little weird to see but I don't know if you're still in the planning phase and that's what's going on or or what's happening there yes sir I can answer that so we are in the planning phase we do have a presentation that's ready to go to council for an update and that will be coming forward in about the next month it's just a matter of reviewing it with leadership and making sure everything's settled and as soon as we have it we'll let you know and come back okay and that's why this one wasn't approved yet or you don't know where you're going with it I don't know like you're still in that planning that you're not ready to say you need this or you so we have a a cross functional team that we set up and so we've already identified some quick wins and so we'll provide that update one of the things we're looking at as well in our transformation office is how we have that office set up right now so we have a a learning team we have the transformational team that's really focuses on continuous Improvement but one of the things we identified is we're missing that data piece and so miss attended a conference recently it's an area directly related 311 and having somebody that's really focused on looking at the data the city has numerous systems We Gather so much data but we've always struggled with how do we centralize all of that data and collect that data and be able to report that out and so we've had some discussion about potentially looking at an existing vacancy potentially retitling that and bringing in a we haven't identified the title yet but a chief data officer or something that we've kicked around to really help centralize again that function I think you know Colonel Wesson's done a really good job with some of the realignment some of the transformation that he's done with different functions Omar nean I think is a perfect example of how bringing those things closer to the city manager so that he's got eyes on those things and can really help Drive the direction and so we have made 311 point of emphasis and so yes we do owe you all a report out and we'll be bringing that back in the near future yeah it's really a function right now of and and as erelli just briefed we're close to bringing it back but it's really not only aligning it from a data standpoint there's so many tie-ins to 311 but what I also don't want to get lost and that's at the core of it is customer service and so I want to make sure that we've got all that buttoned up before we actually start really kind of looking at the Quality Assurance piece and where that will exist so even though that's not that specific position isn't funded to Robert's point it will be funded in this budget and it will be put together in this budget we just have to get the underlying pieces of the 311 system to the point where we really feel confident that um we not only have um a good system in place for Citizens that actually make a make an issue or concern and and call it in but that the feedback mechanism and loop is in place and so we're working through all that now and and I'm happy to hear that you're you're thinking about data cuz I think you could have all the data in the world but if you don't know how to tackle it or just start getting through it then it's just kind of sitting there right and you're not really using it to move the needle forward so glad to hear that and then the other question I had was about human resources these three positions that are are here um I I was seen it's $275,000 for three positions average out to about 90k um what are these positions going to do and then the second one was what is the average salary that um somebody in HR makes so the the three positions one of the positions is um is for a classing classification and compensation manager um I I think in the last two days you you've heard quite a lot of information about you know struggling to be able to fill our vacancies struggling to be able to find the right Talent um so one of the things that we want to do is we want to be able to review our classification and compensation system especially as the Department of Labor is making the upcoming changes and things that we need to be reviewing this position is going to um it's a executive level position so it's going to be having a more of an oversight and trying to drive uh where those positions need to be a lot of the positions we we can't fill what we're having to look at in order to be able to fill them is maybe that's not the position that we need to have maybe we need to combine two positions we raise it up to a different level position so whatever we need to do to be able to fill those vacancies for those departments so that's what one of the positions is designed for Mar if I can just add on that one that this position is very important because the HR department performs probably hundreds if not thousands every year we've heard some discussion yesterday some questions about position titles changing from one year to next year and so what departments have been doing and it's very smart we encourage them to do this is look at their existing positions that they have and really identify what it is that they need to fill that role and so it's in some cases it's changing a title and some cases it's upgrading a title but with that or creating a brand new title that we currently don't have and so with that comes the HR process where they're creating job specs they're looking at what the salary should be so there's a lot of work that goes into into that process and like I said they get hundreds of these every year if not thousands and so having somebody that's specialized in classification and compensation would really help sort of alleviate that burden on the current staff right so so for an example to add just a little bit more whenever we you know somebody makes a recommendation we don't just go in and and make the change we go out there to our comparator cities we make sure that whatever we're doing we're benchmarking against our cities we're making sure that we're comparable an example would be you know as things are changing constantly uh streets and maintenance you know one of the things that Mr Bristol is requested is the way we do our like um and sorry Richard but you know our air conditioning systems I think but I mean we're needing to go more to AG so the way that we have our job specs and what we've been recruiting for no longer works for us so we need to change the job specs and we need to start you know going with what's more modern and and Robert is right that is a constant I mean at any given time we have an influx of all the Departments wanting to um change their job specs and of course I mean everybody you know needs it now because everybody needs their positions filled but whenever we do it we want to make sure that we're not just putting Band-Aids on something to get something done we we're doing it methodically and we're doing it you know uh in tandem with what's going on out in our communities and you know in other city so that's um that's what we're looking for in that one for the other one what we're looking for is a quality assurance and this one's going to be for our benefits area and so you know as we continue we've had many conversations about the rising cost of Health Care we've had many conversations about things we want to add to Health Care we've had conversations about the rising cost of prescriptions and whether we're going to pass on expenses to our employees all of that um in order to continue I mean the city cannot continue year after year to uh to keep funding you know all of the added premium so what we need is someone to help us to evaluate how our system is to evaluate how we can be more strategic and our are we covering the right thing should we be covering other things how how can we you know um be better stewards of our money uh what other programs so part of our shape it up one of the things you saw on there is we want to add some pilot programs and because we received that increase in funds um with our new award to uh Etna we have higher Wellness funds and because of that we want to start doing pilot programs um so that can Target specific high risk for our employees by doing those pilot programs that is going to be able to help drive down cost I mean a lot we have employees who have hypertension or diabetes but you know maybe they don't know some of the things that they can do that don't cost a lot of money to be able to help them to to Target some of those so we want to bring in programs that are no cost to the employee to help start educating and help them get those things under control so this position is more to help us be able to to monitor to be able to work with Etna to make sure that we are um that we're being competitive with what or other organizations have and also to work with Etna to make sure that the providers that we have we want to make sure that we have a um a proper saturation of providers in the area for each so one of the things this um person can do also in working with Etna is let's say we have plenty of Orthopedic but I mean let's just say a neurologist maybe let's say that we only have like three or for neurologists that are under etus um coverage well maybe that's not enough I mean we're seeing that our our employees are going and we're having they're having a lot of out of network expenses well why is that so it's evaluating all those things and then working to try to help get other providers that will help join atus our employees aren't paying out of network so it's just helping us to be able to manage our um our Healthcare expenses and be better at that the third position is a quality assurance um in hras and so what that is for is in that position um Human Resources information system that that is when employees are hired and we're on boarding and so it's making sure this position is making sure that as the data is entered it's doing a quality assurance to make sure that everything that's entered is correct it's also making sure when one person enters then this person is doing a a quality assurance it's also to ensure you know for um how do I say it to make sure that things aren't entered incorrectly it's also to make sure that we're we don't enter bogus in people is to be able to show you know when Mundo odds us that we can show that you know we have a second level security that we go through that no one can come in and enter you know fake people and we pay fake people we have that second level to make sure that who we're paying is accurate and that the data that we're entering is accurate um on that so as far as what an average person probably pay tell I got thank you Robert for the general service level so this is we have three levels we have executive professional managerial and general service level which is more entry level type positions for the GS level just under 42,000 so 41,8 73 for the professional managerial just over $60,000 so $ 6,90 and so the executives are at 128 which includes thank you for that ask what the question was for a minute yeah um so no thank you and and for the the classification compensation manager or is there a cross functional team that has been set up for this as well uh we don't have a a a cross functional team we have a team right now where we have a human resources manager and I believe it's a senior analysts that are handling all of those incoming I know that the uh HR manager working closely with several of the department heads um to try and you know be strategic about you know how they're handling going forward we also hired um uh I forget their titles but assistant director a deputy uh HR officer um in February I believe it was or January and and so she has a lot of classification and compensation EXP experience in fact that's her passion and so Monica's done a great job working with us she came uh from another city in Texas as well so she's brought a lot of value a lot of information you know from there that we're able to um to use now one of the things we also do is we uh surveys you know I mean we answer a lot of surveys and then we also ask surveys so that's how we get a lot of our information as well from other cities um surveys are sent out uh benchmarking and then when we participate in the surveys then we get the an we get all of the data back you know so that we're able to manage you know as well the data and see what other cities are doing but as far as bringing in to a table from different departments we have not done that and I'm I'm just thinking about that because I've been seeing the the commercial airing on the 10:00 news this last week and so I I feel if there's more communication I'm bringing people together then the goal could be achieved in in a different way right and and I I think this is a a good position for for that and the the other thing that it makes me think about if you're going around and asking people what they need or if they need a different um classification compensation whatever it is has there been a study done for compensation classification when when's the last time that happened 2018 I'm going to say was probably the last one that was done um we did but but I wanted to make sure that that because those changed so rapidly too I wanted to have somebody in house that could have the expertise because they're expensive they're they're long in in uh putting them together and quite frankly looking at the cost benefit of it while it's important and certainly we are always challenged by class and compensation issues at the city and the competition we have getting the in-house expertise which is really a good step with what we've done this year I think is will probably reap us better benefits so then we can really start looking at targeted areas where we're having problems and working through that in house with someone that's got the experience to do it and and I'm just thinking about that cuz I mean that kind of makes me think that it's a little overdue but then I'm also thinking that this person could take on that role um almost a decade ago when I was at the county they they embarked on a three-year process in house to look at all the Staffing across all the different departments and it really yielded great results for um many of the Departments like for example the commissioner Court um staffers they were um senior administrative assistance but they weren't really just doing calendar and stuff they were doing policy work and research and it didn't really capture the position that they were doing so then they came up with senior policy advisor and and stuff like that and so I think um that's where I'm coming at it from and I I feel like some of the other departments are like you know I don't know this is a very general um and Administrative Assistant one and two or and you know and really bringing that to the table and understanding what the needs are that's that's really good and I I think it makes the the organization more efficient I agree you know to that point it's really important I think the colonel Neil did right there when he was talking about that we need to keep it internal and then continue to watch it grow because if you don't then at the end of the day you stay focused on this and then you end and then you don't come back so internal you always have it working and then you can grow to different departments and different areas and then have them work together so the way we're doing it right now and the way the Colonel's talking it will continue to help us grow and and see whether strength or weaknesses and then put them together so that that's really an efficient way than they have one time shot and then talk about it a couple years later and said hey we probably got to do that again well the thing is it's a what I call it it's a shot of adrenaline and then when the adrenaline's gone everybody goes back to sleep and we don't want to do that right yeah internal is good that's all I have thank you thank you Mr cortinez oh yes ma'am I'm sorry on this one um Mary Michelle thank you thank you all for your presentation today um the ruling the final ruling on extending overtime protections do we have a like a because it was supposed to go into effect July first so we did an update to council I don't know about a month ago we what I'm asking is has there been any challenges to that litigation as as we've experienced in the past um and so did it like actually go into effect it did go into effect it is into effect so we did Implement phase one which took effect on July 1st it impacted about 180 180 employees we moved all of those employees who were part of July 1 exempt from overtime they've now become non-exempt um however there's a phase two that takes effect January 1st and so that will impact a larger number of employees it's about almost 900 over 800 employees and so Mary Wiggins and the HR team has gone through met with all the Departments to identify U is it a high overtime type position um is it a high salary position and so we've got recommendations looking at what we're going to do whether we're uh changing job classifications not necessarily changing salaries but changing job classification so the entry level pay will increase in some cases actually increasing the salaries and some cases it's moving a majority of them to become non-exempt which creates a little bit of an issue for us and so uh we'll have some of those discussions when we go into executive session on this item okay um and the reason why I bring brought it up and I brought this up on we one-on-one the some concerns from um some employees about equity and I'm not sure there's been changes to their overall wages or their impact to their overall take take home and so that's what I'm really trying to understand because I've heard within some departments oh sure sorry I thought I was loud enough within some departments there are um there have been some of those changes and then when those changes happen there was conversation within employees like hey my salary went down or hey their salary went up and and so I don't know if it was a result of this overtime changes and the reclassification um those are those are concerns that are surfacing and I wanted to try to understand what changes happened to their wages so phase one nobody's salary changed we didn't do any job classification changes we didn't change anybody's salary all we did was that first group of 180 employees prior to July 1 they were exempt from overtime when this took effect on July 1 they become nonex so now they're eligible for overtime andum is their I guess their takeaway from the changes now I get overtime and now I get more money whereas some don't get overtime and then they don't they're exempt so they don't potentially yes and so some of the things that we've heard and and not just for what we're hearing but I mean if you Google and look at different articles is that it's a perception issue so we have a lot of professional managerial that at that midal manager level where prior to July 1 or prior to January 1 were exempt from overtime they're professionals they're salary employees well now with this change and the salary threshold a lot of these employees are going to become non-exempt and so that means before they didn't have to clock it out that means starting January 1 if it stays in effect they're going to start clocking in and out and so unfortunately it's a perception issue where some of these employees are saying hey why are you demoting me or why are why is my job classification changing you know I was a professional why do I have to clock in and out now right although it does make them eligible for overtime and that's the intent of it is that to ensure that we're not overworking that they're not being overburdened that they're getting paid for the time they're working but there is that perception that in some ways they're being punished or demoted because now they're being asked to clock in and out okay so I mean just in response to that and I know you all have been you working with your supervisors to have conversations have are you all doing like um Citywide email blasts to notify everybody of why changes are occurring so for the first phase what we did we had four um sessions we had two in person and two virtual sessions those were uh sent out like to the employees that were involved you know for those 180 as we move forward for the next phase too as we get closer to it then we will um we'll have sessions again for all of those employees and and those sessions are voluntary we also send out emails and explain everything but um we haven't announced it to the phase two yet cuz we're still working out specifics whether we're going to change any you know classifications so we want to finalize all of that before we start communicating but as it gets closer we'll have those sessions it explains everything it explains about clocking in um as I'm meeting with each of the department heads and going over this I mean what uh Mr Cortina said you know I am stressing please help us with the morale of the employees you're still professional but um all of that will be communication once we notify phase two but phase one has been notified we had individual um emails that went out went to their home we had uh sessions they could attend and so forth okay so my so thank you for the response I think that over time with the phase two there's more employees so then you can expect to get yes um a little bit more feedback yeah we we didn't want to like you know blast it too much yet we were kind of hoping that what was going to happen you know with the with the you know the ruling you know so we didn't want to say anything until for sure so I think that's why we only send it out to those 180 affected you know right now and I also as Miss Wiggins to reach out to Mr guzma from the ask me okay because obviously I know he's going to be very interested in what the city decides to do and so I told her let's you know schedule me with them we don't have to tell them what all the recommendations are yet but we can let them know what our process is and what we're doing to ensure that we're implementing the changes okay thank you for that proactiveness because that's who we're going to hear from um and then related to you know your department itself um is the equity department or the equity office CU you mentioned di Dei and and other trainings specifically City council's request was to ensure that we did have an equity officer and so I'm trying to understand where in the Staffing tables is this located and then now that that um former employee is no longer with us who has that role and I want to make sure we're taking this seriously cuz it is a question that keeps surfacing from the public yes we are absolutely still moving forward with the plan and so yes we had the unexpected resonation from Mr Mcdonald Denise AA from the transformation office is leading the deia cross functional team we're actually sending out an email blast today to all city employees to get their feedback related to um some questions just to gather some feedback on current situation environment with the inity of AP Paso and how they feel um that is continued to move we've already started preparing the presid ation to bring back Council to provide you all an update on where we are yes we will have that position funded colon won has had some discussions about the timing of that recruitment where that position is going to fall who it's going to report to um we've had discussions about will it report directly to the city manager I think we view it as a you know a high level position that's going to need some authority to Ure we're carrying out the Citywide initiatives um but as of right now we've not opened the Recruitment and again it goes back to the discussion we had with the purch director right now it's a very very challenging time for the city of Paso to try to recruit high level Executives um the purchasing director we've gone through two interviews or two rounds of actually National recruitments this last one we had an individual we had identified unfortunately she called me and said um you know what I'm not going to take the position um I'm going to have to withdraw there's just too much uncertainty going on she was from New Jersey there's too much uncertainty and I'm not willing to take the chance right now and move my family from New Jersey to so when you have an interim city manager you have a mayor who's um Turing out you have change over on your city council we had just lost two Deputy city managers so recruitment right now if it's not going to be internal from Al Paso is going to be very very challenging and so we've had some discussions about the timing um I think we're at a point now where we're getting to that transition phase and I think that now may be the right time but again we to talk I think I mean I think all that's fair and I think that we're getting into a point now where we'll have more clarity in terms of uh not only this position but the body of the council where I think it's going to be a little bit better for us and I mean let's let's not kid ourselves those are those are big factors for these kinds of positions when people are coming in and so that's uh that's what happens when there's when there's a lot of transition that's occurring within any big organization like ours and so I think we're getting to a point where the timing will be right for us to put these recruitments out and I think we'll get some track action the only thing I heard there was a little concerning is that the mayor's tering out term terming okay and and in the HR um line items uh there's pretty significant uh variances year-over-year specifically um outside contracts uh and and so I'm trying to understand is this related to your recruitment efforts investigations is the Big Driver and so the human resources Department in conjunction with the city attorney's office they've got a line item in their budget to be able to do outside investigations um there's situations where either one we don't have the capacity in house to be able to do an investigation or maybe a situation where we don't want to have an internal we want to make sure that we've got a third party individual that can handle um whatever type of situation may arise with sexual harassment hostile workplace um situation and so unfortunately we have seen a little bit of an increase in that so we need to make sure we're right size in the budget so we have capacity to be able to do those in a Time any manner yeah no so so the public is aware these um it's 77 a 77% increase and and I want the record to reflect adequately here so specifically that line item um is going to increase from 2.1 million to 3.7 million and so when we think about fiscal Prudence um be cognizant of the um manufactured crisises that seem to be uh coming up from nowhere um but also 5% Professional Services is that also for head hunters or recruitment efforts and this is under the HR line items yes ma'am so you're looking at the all funds so when we look at all funds it's go both including your general fund which is your tax supported as well as is the uh self-insurance fund so that also includes our what we pay for healthc care workers comp unemployment under Professional Services yeah it's going to be all it's all together with is that coverage sheet that you're looking atre that you're referring to in the book is all together it's considered all funds and so um we'll get you that detail breakdown but I just wanted to make sure you understood it's everything together okay no no that's understandable so 77% outside contracts equivalent to $1.6 million um and then if I may rep Fernand that's the benefit administrators so that's $1.4 million increase and that's in our self Insurance Fund so it's the healthcare benefit administrator the you said the transformation office uh Denise Denise okay yes I'll reach out to you Robert because I'd like to have a a meeting to share my insight on that um and then as it relates to um uh we have talked in the past about onboard in employees and potentially doing some form of study has is that already in the works do we understand what it takes to for an employee to apply to go through the the bureaucracy to get fingerprinted and then finally onboard it what is the total time on onboarding which has been a significant hurdle um over the my tenure at least very good question actually uh that was addressed in two separate lean Six Sigma projects over the last year or so uh so we we we did try you know with the um with the charter amendments we tried to help you know to eliminate the testing which that would have drastically reduced you know the amount of time to um be able to onboard but we weren't able to eliminate that so we still have the testing component but we're still trying to make that more manageable as well um we're getting creative on on trying to get that timeline but the other thing on the fingerprinting um now uh we're only fingerprinting for the specific required departments so for example you know uh certain airport ones uh Parks departments that are working with children um police and everything so the ones that require it we are doing the fingerprinting but having not having the masses go through is you know um eliminating the time and then on reference checks uh we were doing that through the police department and now we are using a a third party to do the the reference checks so those turnarounds are happening within 24 48 Hours as well so the time to on board has drastically reduced from the time from what it used to look like repap oo I think can can attest to that I mean we we we turned it quickly you know so yes um do you have the time like the time between I do so for a non-continuous recruitment the timeline is 51 days it dropped from 75 when this was first started back back in 2020 so the time has been dropping when we have a recruitment open for a longer period of time and it just is on the website for a long time that prolongs the timeline and how long it it marks the time to get an employee on boarded but for something that's posted immediately filled or immediately closed once we have enough applicants then it's 51 days and like I said it was at about 75 days prior to that so some of those process improvements have helped cut that time down happy to hear see if we can cut it down and again um I have questions related to a quick question on on purchasing uh Mrs Cody uh I see that there's an increase overall to your Staffing tables um and I'm trying to understand because there's been some changes up and down you're removing project managers purchasing agents purchasing Specialists but you're increasing in other areas um but I recall we had a conversation about hiring it was a nine or six new Specialists okay they're they're under specialist um are is there reorganization happening are you reclassifying them or can you just explain a little bit about what changes are happening in purchasing absolutely so we're actually transitioning um as well so we're reclassifying positions from classified to unclassified um it also allows flexibility uh for us to be more competitive at a market comparison on pay so we were having difficulty initially recruiting and then uh with leadership support we've been able to now create that uh Career Development so we want to be able to really um not only grow and develop our team in house because we were having difficulty being able to recruit from the outside with primarily governmental or Municipal experience in procurement it's it's a very uh unique area as you know and so we want to make sure that we're able to retain our talent and so was happening is they'd hit senior procurement analysts and we'd lose them we lost them to UTP we've lost them to the county uh we've lost them to uh the Mick and and Fort Bliss we were losing our talent and so how do we prevent that from happening in the future and so it was developing with hr's assistant of course uh the job specifications to really be able to do that Career Development and so you'll see new positions and you might not see um all of the procurement Specialists listed but we're under filling so what what that allows us to do is when we're ready to promote when they've when they've gained the experience and we're at that point of being able to open up the procurement analyst or the next position we're able to easily do that uh within our structure without adding a bunch of FTE that still remain vacant okay does that help no yeah absolutely and then we've talked I've talked at nauseum about um some form of protege mentorship program absolutely do you need resources in the department to execute that or is it a matter of policy dire C so and no ABS we are um I think we've got a great team I'm really proud of the team uh We've really come together to be able to not only um constantly be working with the with the with the new recruits asking I say new recruits but the new um procurement specialist to find out uh what is the training that they need what are the skills that we need to help them build in order to stay within the department and then also be successful of course right we want all of our teams to be successful and so how do we build that success um one one has been the support with the positions and then these new additional two positions that we're adding it's just we're seeing a huge increase um from the Departments which is great right so as we increase funding there becomes a requirement on the procurement side to ensure that we are still processing U these contracts that we're able to award that we're able to keep Pace with the department and as you've mentioned in the past that's been one of our challenges and so I really believe the addition of the two positions the way we've been able to work together and implement the trainings that we've provided now Citywide um we've had we started since March we've been working with the Departments to identify where are those gaps we have a lot of new people new business managers new program managers and so there's a great opportunity there to ensure that we're also providing that procurement training so there's clear understanding of our roles and responsibilities between the Departments and what purchasing does so the Departments are the experts the Departments know what they need they know the goods and services we are just that conduit to provide a competitive and fair environment so that way we're able to award for the goods and services that they need and so um I really appreciate the opportunity but I I think with these additional positions and what we've been doing for the past 18 months I think we're we're we're we're getting there so you're you're establishing your team right and then training are you doing external training we're doing external trainings and we've ramped those up as well and so it's also from your feedback um just knowing that the vendors that we work with there's an educational opportunity there too and so as you mentioned yesterday I think the survey that Supply El Paso did has helped that it's helped bring that to the Forefront especially with our partners and so when we kick that off I'm pointing to you Ernesto but it was Karina had talked about um our our role and so it really is a partnership with them in Economic Development and how we continue to develop not only our small business Community but how they do business with the city and once your team is established fully trained then your next step is to try to implement some of these mentorship Protege programs absolutely well and and not only Implement those those programs but then also we're looking at it stakeholder wide so um through Supply Al pass so we're identifying those platforms so we can be on the same platform so we can make it easier for the vendor to do business with us and so we've identified those three areas specifically to be able to do that and tie it somehow to boss the bo right yes it was so they become our ambassador as we continue to work with all of our partners um and I point to vetto because ver Veronica Gomez leads that team to be able to I didn't bring my water um to be able to Ure thank you to be able to um to really ensure think thank you so much to really ensure that we are getting the word out right it's our responsibility to be able to train the vendors train the contractors to be able to do business with the city I'm looking forward to that transformation in in the department and I know and I and I hard I'm get concerned because you're you have a lot of responsibilities like a lot of responsibilities and I get concerned when you're burnout um so thank you for being such a valued employee to the city of and I think part of it also is sometimes when you look at some of these departments I think one of the real important pieces was the whole retention and the leadership development component and sometimes we can lose sight of that and so the structure of the department is really important and having the ability to be able to grow within the department someone to be able to come in and see that they've got a path and I think that adds a whole lot and so look these kinds of things take some time and when you put these into position that doesn't happen overnight even when you have the people but when you can start establishing these different levels of leadership within the department um obviously the the the effect it has on the the more Junior people coming in um makes a real big difference so I think there's a lot of positive things that are happening in terms of how we're looking at the the department and how we're we're kind of realigning um with some of these positions thank you um you talked earlier about Workforce I just do we have um matter cards budgeted this year yes okay yes thank you I think it goes a long long long way um for Aris uh for it um I'm excited about AI so thank you for listening because I know that I think representative canalas and I we super geeked out in the strategic planning session um and are there any municipalities um in Texas that are already utilizing Ai and are you able to like go and do some shadowing to see what they're doing actually not in Texas but we were just recently at a conference in Dallas so we did connect with a gentleman from Boston and or Pennsylvania I believe yeah Pennsylvania so he was able to sit down with us for over an hour we had a good session with him asked him a lot of questions sharing a lot of good um feedback standard procedures that he has a white paper so we have a lot of information and it also is the same information that we collected from other municipalities there are some in Texas that we connect with immediately but at the the specific conference we were able to to get that information from him okay can I make one more comment on on AI I think the other thing we got to look at not only is it is it uh to your point really cool in terms of what it can do but I think from a security standpoint we're going to have to really take a look at this also on how we see the prevalence of AI and what that means in terms of resources we need for cyber security going forward so we've had a lot of discussions already I know about uh and I know that uh I'm I'm glad we've got our our security expert here Ernie AR with uh Chief Information Security Officer so I I I think AI you know it touches a lot of things with so we talked about data governance and and centralizing the data that's probably like the foundation uh we also at that conference we saw uh I think Arizona was was starting off and and they're probably a few months ahead of us and you know we learned a lot from them um but uh trying to understand what the use cases are and then baking in that security and you know making it a standard for for the organization I think that's very important uh we already have a draft policy uh that's being finalized uh it should be finalized in the next few months and hopefully we can get that signed off and then we also have some AI training specifically for employees so when they start utilizing that that technology they have some baseline you know security awareness what what they should do and not do and and I think that effort you know going out of my department at least for the training and education I think that's going to be important and a foundation for for AI the policy what is the subject of the policy artificial intelligence yeah like usage how to use best practices what not to do okay that's exciting yeah thank you thank you all for being very proactive with that um and and just as a um I I was at an speaking at an event two weeks ago I got a lot of um complaints about the Sun Metro app that it's not working um and so I just wanted to bring that to your attention like sometimes it works and like it freezes and then um so I just wanted to to to bring that to your attention cuz I don't know if it's um because I think we have a third party software correct or if I'm not sure if we're doing yes we do we have a third party managing that I will work with Mr deiser to ensure that whatever issues have been coming up we can and I have the and I have the contact information um of of at least one individual who brought it to my attention and I'm happy to share that um please thank you and others just were just saying on Metro app sometimes doesn't work and it and it frustrates them so they call I mean that's the alternative but it doesn't work they'll call um and uh the tax office or um in the Consol I think it was the office of consolidation there was a there was something about the pension funding policy and I just wanted to ask if you can elaborate on what that is com troller okay yes um so part of the Strategic goals 30 by3 is to reduce the pension liabilities in the opep as of last year we have a significant increase in pension liabilities um something that we cannot really control because it's due to the market conditions changing um so Robert and I've been working with the actuaries trying to determine what is the best um option for the city to reduce those long-term liabilities or at least maintain it within an amortization period that is doable that is within the best practices which is which we are and also um having a funding ratio that is acceptable to the resources that we have as a city and we're still working with the actuary um it's taking us a little bit because there's a lot of research to be done see what other municipalities are doing and again trying to make the best decisions on behalf of the city Robert do you want to add anything to that well when you add um what is the current balance of the pension um restricted as of the end of last year we have $710 million across all City funds that that's a liability that's the liability and and of course um this is a snapshot at that point in time and so the next day the next minut it can be less you know less than that it's very fluid I I totally get that um and to rephrase my question what is the pension liability restricted budget that we set aside funds to is 26 million in the pension stabilization fund we've not utilized that we wanted to make sure we were doing the Actuarial work first for first to try to identify some scenarios and potential options to begin to address the unfunded pension liability and really develop a a sound policy and So currently both Pension funds police and fire pension and our employee pension fund has a policy in place they're required by state law to have a policy in place however it's a very vague very generic policy that they have and so miss Marin and myself have been working on with the extra third party to help identify what are the things that we need to include um again trying to minimize the impact because obviously we know we're limited on resources financially but having a very very clear policy on what the city is doing to address that unfunded liability because it is a very significant amount that we report out every year on our annual comprehensive financial report um $700 million is a very scary number that's unfunded however both of our Pension funds are very very healthy they're both funded at about 80% MH um however we need to make sure that we're being proactive to ensure that we don't fall into a situation where we continue to see that decline over the next few decades okay and so the the new Pol the policy would be a reiteration and then it would specifically address the actuals and how that growth is continuing and how we fund it through the stabilization fund or do you I I just don't understand like what the overall methodology is with the policy is it just to to continue to add money to it or is it to demonstrate to bond Raiders that we are actively addressing the liability it's both so one is having the policy in place will be very helpful not only for the city and how we operate but also to demonstrate to the bond Raiders that we're being proactive about how we're addressing our unfunded pension um so how it's going to be funded ideally yes we would utilize the pension stabilization fund um there's a couple of different Alternatives that we have as far as what we're going to recommend to include in that policy so we actually have a a meeting with the vendor who um been working with us over the last few weeks to get that finalized and then that'll be coming to council probably in the next couple of months or so okay all very exciting I remember we didn't even have a like a policy of stabilization fund or anything so now we have 26 million and the 710 million is for all three retirement funds okay MH and and just know that we're not the only one municipality going through this is everybody so but I think we were very proactive um once absolutely what you call the gas gas feed gas the changes right yes ma'am we are okay gas feed changes yes um I do have some questions for uh is the City attorney is this part of your presentation too you're going to do a separate one no okay the it's part of the slides that were I was just I just had a question on um your Staffing because I always you always asked for more cityan attorneys and then I saw that there was like more paralegals right um and then but then there was a reduction in City attorney one or two and there was increases what is your overall like new new attorneys that you're adding so historically we were adding more City attorneys or assistant City attorneys we've seen the need to grow in the open record section so we did add another another uh person to that Staffing table this year and we're asking to add two more next year and then another pargal so we'll be growing on the support side of the house and not the lawyers okay and and that's and that's what you need yeah it's been very difficult to recruit um for new lawyers so we still have some vacancies that we're you still need to fill the vacancy so you don't need lawyers correct Staffing for that um and then the public records coordinator is what is that for the body cameras the public record coordinators is the title for open record people the open record um coordinators are called public record coordinators and is there like an increase to open records is that way we're adding another way yes so um year to date we're at 11 ,000 open records last year by the end of the year we were at 11,000 so we're ahead of that total by 2 months so I'm anticipating we'll probably get to 12 or 13,000 by the end of the year okay so like in 2018 we were at 6,000 so as you can imagine the number of open records have doubled in that time period understood um and there was reductions uh in your overall budget um what happens with the um what happens with your like let's say settlement lawsuits and stuff does that that number that number has been static for several years um I think it's at is it it's three 400,000 and then the outside Council we have money budget budgeted in the city attorney's office and we also have money budgeted in non- departmental to help augment oh okay those a low number those numbers have always been static for for many many years I think think 2015 that number has remained the same okay yeah no thank you I was just curious about the every year you ask for more attorneys and so I wanted to make sure that you were getting what you needed um and Mr ctin is this question is for you I I have um under the audit uh Department there's a 75% increase to travel can you give me a explanation of why we're increasing the travel budget by 75% or 3,000 and who approves uh the audit Department's travel okay so I'm looking at internal audit so his travel is going from 3,000 to 6,000 but overall his budget's only going up by 16,000 so he's utilizing vacancy savings attrition savings to help offset that impact and do you approve um the audit departments travel no okay I used to but not in any more okay thank you um and then uh the thing I wanted to mention about the city the city manager and uh and the and the changes um there and and I've and I've talked about it with some employees um related to the uh recruitment of the city manager you know I have to express you know again that I have some grave concerns with making those changes under uh a council with perceivably six vacancies um and then the when we make when we make that decision we're going to make it right before lame duck period And I want to be crystal clear with the public that the city Charter prohibits a city council to appoint um a city manager during that period however it seems like that window has passed and now it's prudent that a new city council make that decision again my opinion but my concern is is the overall cost um when you're when you're on boarding a city manager the cost for the Recruitment and of course having all of these folks you know wait um you know I'm a outgoing City representative I would love the incoming City representative to to hire that city manager and the cost associated with that including the savings related to our outgoing Deputy city managers I've see that reflected in your budget line items that there's reductions by I think 6% if I recall correctly and you know I'm I'm just I'm I'm not I don't I don't feel comfortable I don't feel comfortable with this appointment and in the spirit of the city Charter you should not appoint a city manager so close to a lame duck um period which is why there's a Prohibition not to appoint a city manager during that Lan duct period and so if you do it two months before I mean it's it's the same thing it's the same exact thing um and we are violating uh through through the spirit of the city Charter by doing that the window has passed that window was less than 6 months after the departure of Mr Gonzalez it's been a year and a half later and so now we're trying to force this decision here are the consequences with that you bring in if if this political body appoints the next city manager under this Administration you've set up that City Manager for failure Lessons Learned From the Past your new city council will certainly have problems with trust with that city manager they're not going to have that um connection about yes I chose the city manager under a new Administration under new leadership and so I I do want to express my concerns with those expenditures and the expenditures with the head hunters as well as the applicants who would go through this process and then you know maybe we do the interviews we do the public vetting and then we wait to the new Administration to make the final decision um but you know I just I I want to make sure that um we're not using all of these resources for a decision this political body should not be making um so close to the end of the election again uh my opinion but I also think that it's um it's important uh to demonstrate to these new candidates um and new elected officers to have a role in their in the future of their government um and and that's why I wanted to better understand um you know what so we paid out a million dollars for the departure for a a a termination without cause without cause termination expenditures of a million dollar how much are we paying um for the uh Baker Tilly contract is it 35 42 I'm sorry it was 35 and then we waited so long and now it's like 40 over $40,000 and then is there any additional expenditures related to the search of the city manager the only additional amount that I can think of uh will be whenever we put on like the formal meet and greet at the very end I mean that will be an additional expenditure but everything else should be encompassed in that fee okay and then there are there are wage savings from the city manager's position as well as the deputy city managers where are those going because overall the budget for the Department of city manager I think increased um very slightly where are those savings going salary savings it's a decrease of 5% yeah are you putting it back into the general fund or it's included in the attrition savings that we discussed yesterday yes ma'am so it's prated based on an anticipated hiring date and so do we understand what the total savings are and and the reason why I'm asking is because I'm trying to have a better understanding of what the employment package um like for travel and and those type of benefits that the city council can offer if they do decide to appoint a city manager right before a lame duck period which is uh against our city Charter I just want to make crystal clear to the public which is why I'm going to keep repeating it I don't know if Colonel Weston or the mayor want to answer that question I mean I think that's a negotiation that the council's going to have with your selection I don't think the budget amount I won't be able to negotiate if I don't know the numbers so again I'm looking strictly at the numbers because we're all going to have a difference in political positions and so I've stated mine but now once we go into this upcoming fiscal year we're going to need to understand what dollars have you set aside for employment recruitment relocation if necessary and and you know there's a there's a myriad of things that you need to put together and I want to make sure the city council has a budget where we can understand what those negotiation proceedings would look like so do we look to the attrition savings and we can come up with her own I'm sure the budget office will fund whatever it is that the council decides on that negotiation with the selection of the city manager position and I don't think that'll be really impactful we've realized we've realized pro-rated savings from me making the decision not to uh rehire two Deputy city managers and go back to the structure we had several years ago with the with the dcms we have in place and I can't see that it's going to have a huge imp even if if you decide and obviously the contract who knows what that's going to look like that's going to all depend on on what you do but I can't imagine that that's going to that's going to be so broadly different in terms of the amount that it'll really have an impact on this budget and having to set set aside funds I think we've got this uh covered within this budget to do that just fine yeah no but I mean for purposes of transparency we I'm I'm trying to understand where are we going to get those dollars from is that the city has a salary reserve of 250,000 and we also have a contingency fund and non- departmental that we fund every year that we can utilize for non departmental um is the 250 under the city manager's budget it's in the non- departmental the 250 okay yeah I think I think I think when you look at the offsets I think we'll be just we'll be just fine within this budget to be able to to handle this without any any issue regarding the budget okay I don't know um if you want to address uh the the lame the lame duck provision but that's not till November so so the lame duck provision in the charter begins on um election day the election day and it finishes on the inauguration of the newly elected members of council so it'll be November 6th through I think January 3rd that is the lame duck period in which council is not allowed to six but it's actually is it January 7th excuse me well um the 6th or the 7th in the morning they take over so it's November November 6th through November 5th this the election January um and hopefully we'll have a new city manager by August so we're quite a way away unless we don't come to NE right so but my point is it is weeks before lame duck period the intent of the L of the city Charter is that you don't make those drastic decisions about your leadership you wait for your incoming Administration and and there are growing calls from the public that those decisions should wait until a new Administration comes in and I am one of those who are supportive of that um and it's not just a matter of making the appointment of a city manager under an outgoing Administration it's really setting up your city manager for success with your new Administration and and that is my key concern and component here is that you don't want a city manager mirrored with controversy because a previous administration that was outgoing made a a critical long-term decision for a new Administration um and like I said six potentially six vacancies U five for sure and so now um they're that's the number one thing that I'm hearing from the public we should not be appointing a city manager under this Administration um and so now that I have my answers about the budget I'm better informed so that I can communicate on what the if city council does decide to violate the spirit of the city Charter um then we would have this 250,000 uh fund for negotiations of an employment package for onboarding and there's another 689 th000 in the contingency fund contingency fund is that under non- depart non departmental as well and so we fund that contingency every year just for unexpected expenses throughout the year okay um thank you all for is this the last goal okay thank you are you done ma'am you're done okay thank you and I think that um you know Colonel Wesson kind of I know the lame duck starts on first day of election which is in November and it goes through till the new Council takes over so and I know that our savings from what Colonel Weston was talking about which is the Deputy city managers have not been reappointed and also the difference in salary between the current city manager and the former city manager and also the backend which was a heavy backend there was through 2027 or 29 I can't remember 29 2029 which was still another 5 years which would have cost millions of dollars so you know and that was something that we had to continue to ur and at the end of the the term that was going to be paid one way or another so that's something that uh would have been paid now or quite a bit more at the end of 2029 so that's you know when we're talking about transparency we do need to make sure that we give the full picture and also miss Neiman why are you hiring more I haven't seen anaan open records request which is one that really was overabundance of I thought that the open records requests have gone way down so so the amount of open records requests that we received mayor are primarily for PD and we continue to see an increase due to the body camps so now we're seeing additional requests for open records in that area okay but the ones Anna one and the ones for city council have gone down yeah we haven't seen those uh in the last couple of weeks no okay thank you for that and so that hopefully will give us a little Savings in that area with that representative Salo followed by representative molar thank you mayor and good morning to everyone it's a really great see a a woman panel in front of me um gets me yes yeah oh okay great great I really really really great to see that um and along with every everybody else that's here um I want to thank you all for your presentation um I get really excited about AI right so I have a degree in in computer information systems so I get really when that topic comes up so atly um a couple of questions are for you um in regards to AI um what are you doing in regards to to privacy then and also security are you all so the policy that Ernesto spoke about earlier that generative a AI policy will definitely address the security concerns and there's an outline in there getting feedback on my microphone a little bit um so that will address some of those issues and concerns um around data that's the other thing that we do need to do let me just swap it out so those two areas will help us understand what data we can share and what are are we doing with the data that we tend to or we plan to use for any AI items we are also looking at the educational piece that's big for security understanding what it is that we want to do with AI how do we want to utilize it so all of that will be rolling out with the security policy along with the training oh okay I think that was a little bit of the feedback there we go um so I went to the Neo the national I think it's the National Association of Latino elected appoin uh conference and they spoke so much about a so just like you you you're very well aware it's very fluid and creating policy very fluid they mentioned it so um there was a one practice that North Texas is doing currently um they um implemented a I guess AI program called worldly to make sure that all languages are addressed at city council um I we shared contacts so there everybody's just practicing right and and everybody's kind of learning as they go so um I'll share that contact with you all um um but again they mentioned creating that policy is going to always keep changing because AI keeps changing so I'm looking forward to working with you all on that on that policy and seeing how we can definitely Implement some more more solutions that are going to make us more effective and more efficient in the way we conduct business um so that that's one one topic there I um wanted to ask you all on the do you all have an allocated budget for that like a certain amount as Solutions arrive that we will be able to use well fortunately we we don't have anything allotted currently we're because we're in that planning phase we are working with a lot of different partners um for example I know we're working through the legislative affairs office they brought on a a pilot program project that we're looking at so that won't immediately require any dollars we're also looking at what other tools can we utilize in the meantime until we can grow the program a little bit more and then we'll have a more set budget for that but there are plenty of free tools that we can utilize that don't require a planed budget for that just yet on that right right now did you say you have different allocated monies in different different areas is that kind of for how you're addressing it or well know what we have currently is a software team and that software team has different tools that they can use and some of those are free of use so they don't require any any specific budget as far as resources that team and the same team as the security team are currently working on those initiatives so we currently don't need additional resources it may change in the future as we establish that policy establish a training program but currently we haven't identified additional funding that we need for this initiative okay and just kind of like for us to work proactively I would like to see if you could kind of go look at what would be a conservative number just so that we have it in savings because we know the solutions are are already they're here already and just maybe we're just going to hear about one that way we can go ahead and implement faster just wanted to Tas you if you all can just kind of look at what a conservative number I would love to be able to give you all the budget so that we're ready whenever that that solution presents itself we can just execute um but that's one one I my suggestion thank you um but thank you thank you for that and um I also have questions for for for Mary Wiggins I know that you mentioned about the out of network providers um and that you're going to be looking at more solutions than regards to making sure that everybody's cohesively when you're doing your your charge when you're looking at that are you looking at um each company individually how you how you kind of looking at that information so we would have to work with Etna Etna is the ones who have to secure the contracts with those providers so what we would just be looking at to see is where we may have a deficit or where we could definitely have more saturation of positions that are covered um you would be more looking at what are the types of benefits where they you see people going out of network maybe could be like Dermatology or something um and so then it's working with Etna to have them work harder um to secure more contracts in that area so that our employees are covered at all levels and also if I can add and So currently and one of the reasons why we're asking for that position for next year is that we're having to utilize an outs outside company we have a consulting firm that we're utilizing to help sort of augment the HR department in the benefit section and so having somebody in house internally would obviously save money but then you have somebody with the expertise that's you know able to relay that information directly to miss Wiggins and her team yeah that's absolutely great to hear we we definitely need get that cohesiveness um I actually had to go to the emergency room everything was fine um but then I received bills from different like you're saying none that were on the network so I actually thought that was it was scam it was a scam so I had to call everybody and they're like no we're just out of the network and so I I I can definitely see and it was a few of the little things but I just wasn't I guess familiar with with how it works well I I would have you get with me afterwards oh okay perfect thank you for that Mary I haven't paid the bill yet cuz I was making sure it was not a scam and and everybody was trying to build me all at once time I and given that the the emergency bill was pretty pretty big I thought everything was covered within that well so there are lots of times that you know if you go to a covered emergency room not everyone at that hospital is going to be depending upon it could be the radiologist who reads and so forth and so we can work with our Etna customer service we'll call Gabby um and we can work with her um there there's some I'm not sure what the word is but there there's something that we can do that makes me happy um and I think uh no that that was basically it so I'll share you with you all the the contacts I have and and that is it thank you all for your leadership thank you thank you thank you ma'am representative molard yeah that's right Chief good morning everyone and welcome again to day two like to see everybody here and it's been quite an experience I can tell you yesterday all day and this morning so far but um like to say a good thank you to all the people I'm going to say the budget team mayor liser Colonel Weston Mr Robert cortinez M Nicole Cody and everyone else that's behind the scenes who I don't even know your names I don't even know your faces but it's always a pleasure to see all the hard work come together as in unison with the same Visions the same goals to make our city safer more productive more resilient so on top of the district four team I say thank you for that um I wanted to ask uh about the Elmo that's at the city council chamers I know I've addressed this in the past and it's always kind of like um disturbing to see we have all this technology all this great things the gentleman Mr Ernesto I don't know you can't remember your last name but anyways you talk about Ai and what's happening what's not happening but it still looks like to me something from the eighth grade you know so I don't know and I brought this up before colel so I don't know if there's in the works or Horizon about what might be Avail to us as different options we can look into different options for the functionality that we have that is the latest we just replaced it in March okay so it's the way that you're projecting it's like a very new projector is what it is so I don't know that they have anything to offer other than what we currently have that's really and it's been upgraded so it's brand new I mean the whole idea that even though it may seem Flintstone like it's the uh it's the latest in technology but I think that the security concern is introducing data into the system that could be generated and put on the on the computer so rather than having to go through uh which would be a pretty laborious task of going through all that um you know we just have to use the best technology we can to be able to show those things and so I don't disagree that um in the Advent of all the technology there's better ways to do it but I think that's about the the only thing we can see right now rather than actually plugging something into the system whether it's a USB stick or something that we'd have the screen to put into the present to be able to project visually correct yes sir all right thank you very much for that response um also want everyone here to know that I currently serve on the Texas Municipal league for the board of directors for the State of Texas we will be having a conference annual conference in Houston Texas um in October early part of October 2024 and so I know we've been talking about the 89th Texas legislature that'll convene in the early part of 2025 so if you have any resolutions that you believe that could benefit us as a city our community please let us know I'd like to work with our city attorney's office to pass in-house resolutions and at the conference as a board member I can take them before the board there from all the Mayors or majority of the Mayors from the different states or cities from the state of Texas and we can pass some of that taking that to uh the the Texas legislature in in 2025 so I know mayor you talked about before um the curfew ordinance that is done away with I'd like to see that come back uh we talk about AI so there's and I'm just using those two as an examples but if you feel that we can do a resolution here because would would require a uh successful resolution here at the city of El Paso then take it to the board at the conference and I'm sure it'll pass there and they tml can take it to the state legislature so if any of you have any and besides Ai and besides curfew if there's any other things you'd like to see um in technology or Finance or anything else like that please let us know thank you very much and with that that is all the questions I thank you all very impressive U very prepared and being able to answer questions that um I was very impressed with that so I do thank you all for the job you did and I know that U this is just U more of a work session and we will have another meeting on August 1st to kind of put everything in concrete and move forward on what I hope to see um no additional um taxes yes sir mayor before um we can we you conclude the meeting I'd like I'd like uh Nicole to bring up the budget calendar so we can just make sure that the city council understands what the next decision points are with the budget okay before we are going to go to Executive session before it all ends before the meeting ends and we're going to go downstairs because there's a lot of stuff that needs to be shown in this room's wide open and it and it would be shown on on the monitors which would keep it from being privacy so we will go downstairs and only the people that need to be in there will be in executive session so representative non this and after that we'll ask for a motion to re into executive session after the one thing I wanted to mention um related to uh I think the is the grants strategic initiatives under under your department um I did make a request for um Grant matching dollars um you mentioned that there was an Mo um matching needs and then it matching needs I'm not sure if there's any potential grants a available there but what is the budget proposed to have Grant matching dollars available as of right now nothing and so apart from what the council took action on last Monday of approving the use of the proceeds that we talked about for the Imp match for this year next year but it's something the colonel West and I have been working on um we are putting a plan together to bring something back to the council relatively soon before the adoption of this budget but as of right now we don't have any additional match including the budget for discretionary Grant programs but but just to be clear but the but the the grant we believe that our obligations for the grant matches are covered this but this next budget year and going into following budget year but again I think the concern to your point is this is onetime money and so what we're working on is something that's much more sustainable than that because otherwise we're going to find ourselves in the same position next year trying to find what that source of funding is going to be with a very very tight budget um and and that's just not a way to continue to do this on a on a year-to-year basis um I did make a request for a million dollars it will well not having any funding inhibit the department to apply for for required match Grant applications from the city of Al Paso it creates challenges I mean no different than every other priority we discussed over the last two days obviously knowing that we've got funds set aside would help be more aggressive in the grants we're going after fortunately the folks that we have doing that right now have been very creative and Innovative in how we're going about applying for the grants whether they're grants that don't have a a match requirement or they're working with another entity to help put up the match whether it's a passle water a pass electric to help for example the EV project that we worked on there's a lot of opportunities that we have yes that's a priority but I think that the list that we covered yesterday is it's more than just the m match or the discretionary Grant match there's we just talked about the it capital investment that we need to identify a funing source for in the future we have facilities fleet vehicles equipment You Name It We have needs and streets is at the top of that list as well so there a lot of areas that we need to really begin to work on identifying future funding sources to address these issues um obviously the n match is a critical one because we're leveraging pretty large amounts of money from the federal government to be able to do pretty significant Transportation projects in the community that has a positive impact I don't know if any wants to add anything as as far as what he's seen on the actual Grant application side so we have two strategies that we're we're working on right now now the first is is exactly as CFO cortinez mentioned we're largely targeting grants that have low match no match or match that we can identify a partner will cover uh we also are looking into this next year there's a pool of grants that we could Target based on current Bond money that we have uh terrific Target would be the police academy for example uh we can leverage that Bond money as match for projects so it's not that we have a lack of projects that's for sure sure okay no I mean cuz I always hear no match you know Awards or applications and and I'm thinking well we're limiting ourselves by not um targeting if it requires 20% 10% whatever it may be but no that's helpful to know I just would really like to um strategize uh within the Departments that we are applying for the match required so we actually and I want to just reiterate what what uh Mr cortinez said so and I I really don't want to uh get into the details now until we have this buttoned up but we are working through a plan right now to do just that to have something that's much more sustainable and our and our plan is to bring that back to the council before budget adoption for you to evaluate it and uh and make a decision on the plan okay thank you thank you all and then on your presentation Nicole uh Miss Cody uh where you're looking at the overall budget um according to getar the median sales prices um in the city of house is 263,000 I don't know what the average household value is and perhaps you may have that your recommendation for a reduction of 4 cents what does that equate to to the average household valued I don't know $250,000 and what the increase would equate to uh per month and annually and and if you want to look at that as we close up that conversation I don't need it now thank you as of right now yes as of right now the impact would be an increase of $123 128 on the average value home assuming obviously that it doesn't increase more than 10% from the prior year so right now the average value home is well last year was 185 360 this year assuming that 10% cap 2,674 Tak into account the 4.1 C tax rate reduction the increase in the tax bill on the city portion would be $123 128 or $10.27 a month you I can never get you on a question you have every answer um but you said assuming so the 123 like takes into account that 10% already or it's not taking into account that it's limiting the 10% it takes into account it takes into account the 10% cap on the change in the average value and do you know the number without the 10% it it's not much higher and so actually the average value home is right around under about 11% so it's not too much higher okay all right thank you thank you so just uh quickly mayor uh it's a quick reminder and I know we've said it multiple times but we'll receive the certified values on July 25th so anything that we provided of course is just an estimate at this point um on August 1st which is a Thursday we we would like a special council meeting to be able to introduce the tax rate as well as to discuss um the overall budget uh so we'll have those items posted for that Thursday on August 1st as you mentioned mayor and then uh the public hearing on August 13th is when we're scheduling that uh that public hearing on the budget and then the adoption would be August 20th is what we're proposing for adoption so that August First Dates a little bit different than what we've done in the past typically we do those on the following Monday however because of the timing of the receiving of the certified values on July 25th that's a Thursday there's no telling what time in the day we will get those reports from Appraisal District sometimes early in the morning sometimes they're late late in the afternoon we obviously wouldn't have time to be able to post anything and get it on the agenda for that following Monday there's a lot of work that goes into that Miss pus is the one that actually does all the calculations on the no new revenue and the voter approval rate uh we work very closely with also miss Marin because we're also incorporating all of our debt schedules and then obviously Miss Cody and her team have to work together to put together any adjustments that we need to make and so in order to provide oursel a little bit of extra time doing it on that Thursday and then coming back on the 13th and it won't be a very lengthy meeting I believe on that August 1st uh it's uh presenting certified values and then the introduction of the tax rate and then we'll come back actually on the 13th to do the public hearing as Miss Cody mentioned so do we need the call for a special meeting on the 20th because council meeting would be the 13th yes sir we will need to do a regular council meeting on the 20th just PR just to make sure and so also it's yes sir it's also as a result of some of the changes the state made with the requirements for the public hearing we're only now required to do one public hearing and so just because of the timing of the receiving of the appra district reports the public hearing that's required and then the adoption of the budget on the on the 20th it creates a little bit of an issue but um again yes sir we will need to have that August 20th meeting that concludes this portion of it we still have an item from executive session we have a motion to move in executive session there's a motion in a second to retire into executive session all in favor anyone opposed and the city council of the city of Al Paso May re retire into executive session pursuant to section 3.5a of the AL Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss executive session item 1 state of Texas versus United States Department of Labor at all call number 424 cv- 0049 under 551.071 consultation with attorney it is 10:55 a.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e anyone opposed and the special meeting is back in session at 11:49 a.m. mayor protm we're on ex1 motion made seconded and carried that the city council directs the City attorney in coordination with the city manager to take all steps and actions necessary to intervene in the civil action styled state of Texas V United States Department of Labor at all pending under case number four uh 424 CV 499 sdj before the United States District Court eastern district of Texas Sherman Division and authorizes the City attorney to execute any required documentation to effectuate this Authority second a motion second before we go I and I appreciate miss nman the the briefing and the recing but at this time based on the information we got I I don't believe this is a good idea for our city to intervene and get involved in in something like this at this point Thank You mayor with that we have a motion in a second yes sir there was a motion made I read into the record by mayor protim Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor protim mad on ex1 on that motion mayor protim Kennedy no Representative aavo no Representative ernandez no alternate mayor Pro molinar nay representative salido nay and representative Canales no and that motion fails I think the N have it with that do we have a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the special city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed and the special city council meeting of Monday July 8th 2024 is adjourned on Tuesday July 9th 2024 4 at 11:51 a.m. thank you Council