Well, good morning everyone. We're going to get started here. >> Good morning, Mayor. >> Good morning, Miss Pine. >> Good morning, everyone. and welcome to the presentation of the mayor's proclamations. This morning we begin with a pledge of allegiance. And the pledge of allegiance this morning will be led by St. Clement School at the invitation of city representatives Lily Lemon and Art Pierro. This morning we have Lulu Carmona, Rivers Anderson, Prescott Kulquit, Bishop Farah, Charlie Follet, Arya Forny, an Sengetti, Gia Gerardo, Sebastian Mas, TJ Marlejo, Kel Martinez, Levi Murray, Anna Ailia Ramirez, Ben Recendes, Renee Raldan, Fuentes, Hannah Shimov, Vivian Stalker, Amy an Aaliyah Davis, Matilda Ginrich, Ryland Grahamley, Blake Huffman, Iwanosa Ida, Raul Lopez, Amelia Martin, Caroline Mata, Isabelle Tamaris, and Rose Tulis. [laughter] this morning. >> Help me move them up. >> Okay, listen guys, we're looking back the flag right over here and move over a little. Come this way. Come, girls. >> Great job, >> Lei. Where are you? Come on up. Come on. [laughter] We're busy to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [applause] >> So now if you turn around and face Mayor Johnson [laughter] actually >> now we can go back in. There's a shadow. Hello. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Oh yeah. Follow the hand. tiny. >> Thank you. That brings us to the mayor's proclamations. For those of you receiving a proclamation this morning, your group will have up to four minutes collectively to receive the proclamation at the podium. >> Representative Lemon, >> the first proclamation this >> mayor. Uh thank you. I did want to acknowledge that we have uh former state representative Marisa Marquez in the house. Marisa, thank you very much for joining us and for bringing Cal to this meeting today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Look at >> the energy. >> Don't forget >> amigo. >> And the first proclamation this morning is for Adair Margo. [applause] >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> So great to be here. >> Good morning, Adair. >> Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Whereas Adair Marggo is a distinguished third generation El Pasoan whose lifelong commitment to the arts, humanities, and civic engagement has enriched both her local community and the broader broader cultural landscape. And whereas over more than four decades, she has demonstrated leadership and vision in the arts, founding the Tom Lee Institute, preserving the legacy of artist Tom Lee, and producing award-winning publications. And whereas she served as chairman of the president's committee on the arts and the humanities under President George W. Bush, contributing to national arts policy and advocacy. And whereas she has shared her knowledge and passion with students throughout teaching appointments at the University of Texas at El Paso and New Mexico State University. And whereas her efforts to stand as a testament to the power of individual dedication to nurture cultural heritage, community pride, and artistic legacy. And whereas honoring her work inspires current and future generations to pursue creativity, civic service, and the preservation of cultural history. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that October 28th, 2025 shall be known as Adair Margo Day. Congratulations. [applause] >> Adair is my constituent and a proud resident of District 1 as well. So, we thank you for all that you do for our community. Adair. >> Well, thank you. May I say a few words? I I want to start by um Angie Rosales, an El Paso and serves on the Governor's Commission for Women. And I love Angie because when she took that position, she wanted to take El Paso with her and elevate El Paso. And so, she's the one that nominated me for this award. And without her, there would never be the recognition. But when I thought about it, I thought that's exactly what I've loved doing my entire life. We live in such a special place, El Paso. And my exposure through UNESCO and serving the president has proven that to me more and more. My involvement be began with a gallery, you know, I had an art gallery for 25 years, showing Gaspar and Rus, who taught at Buoie, who really taught all of our uh muralists who are now painting our murals, Luisi Menace, all those artists uh I began with. And then when I ended up in uh uh Washington, I was so uh uh delighted to take El Paso with me. The first year I was there, this is a true story. We gave the National Humanities Medals and the National Arts Medals. Our committee uh which was from all over the United States uh was involved in that. And that year, Sandra de O' Connor swore my committee in from El Paso. >> Wow. Uh, Jose C. Sneros won the National Humanities Medal. Uh, Tom Lee was hanging in the Oval Office. Uh, Jerry Rubin sponsored our reception at the White House. And someone on my committee said, "Do all roads lead to El Paso?" And I said, "They most certainly do." [laughter] And I wanted just a final thing. There's so many I I've never been by myself, but doing the oral history of both Tom Lee and Jose Ceros at UTEP was an eyeopener to me because it taught me how our community relates to other people and how we like no matter where you've come from to be elevated. Tom Lee was working on the most well-known mural, not the most well-known, the finest mural of the New Deal period is our federal courthouse mural called Pass of the North. Jose CNos was a refugee from Mexico from Durango, Mexico, who was working at the White House department store and did drawings on the back of discarded signs >> because he didn't have paper. and he went to the courthouse to show his drawings to Tom Lee. Tom Lee got off the off the scaffolding, looked at him, told him it was great he was showing depicting his own people and then he wrote a note to our librarian Ma Duran Sullivan presenting Senor Jose Ceros who has just shown his drawings with me. this guy has some stuff. And she gave him his first exhibit at the El Paso Library downtown. It's now uh the Mexican-American Cultural Center, part of it, but still the library. So when I was serving President Bush, Joseé Ceros and Tom Lee were there at the White House. Tom Lee had passed away, but his painting Rio Grand was in the Oval Office. and Joseé Cneros, a refugee from Mexico, was being honored at the same time. >> Wow. >> So, that's the kind of community we live in. And it's been such a privilege for me to be able to share the message of El Paso. >> Thank you so much. >> Don't run off, my friend. Hang on. Don't run off, my friend. And congratulations on all your success and all that you've done for this community. I would be remiss not to introduce Mayor Margot who is is here with us as well in the audience. So, Mayor, thank you for for joining us and and recognizing all of the great work that uh [applause] your wife has done. >> I'm really here as Mr. Dare Mar [laughter] >> and and Adair, you have led so many countless tours uh by national walking tours into Wades and so many groups. you you actually led a group with the Texas Lysm when we had a a a meeting here and you have truly changed that negative perception about this community by taking people into Wades and showing them the rich culture of of the region and we can't thank you enough for all that you do and congratulations on being inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. That is significant for for El Paso and it's been a long time coming and you have done so much and we cannot thank you enough. So, thank you. And and uh Mr. Marggo, thank you. Since uh you've you you're now Mr. Marggo, a Dar's husband. So, >> couldn't have done anything without this guy. Really, >> he paid for all those receptions after my gallery openings. He paid [laughter] for. >> He's great. So, >> it's good to see you back in Chambers, mayor, and and and Darren, congratulations on everything you've done. >> Thank you. My favorite job is being a tour guide. Really? >> Yeah. I know you're good at it. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Congratulations. [clears throat] Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much, >> dear. Good to see you. >> It's so nice. Congratulations. >> The mayor is not going to come up, >> Mr. Dear. Awesome. >> All right. Ready? Smile. Ready? One, two three. Thank >> [applause] >> you very much. That brings us to the next proclamation which is Kaq FM Halloween parade parade day. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Good morning. How you guys doing? >> Good morning. >> Hey guys. Hey friends. Representative Roachcha. >> Thank you, Mayor. And good morning to everyone. Uh we h who had a long night watching the Dodger game last night? [laughter] >> Yes. >> Who watched all 18 innings? Yes. >> Yes. Way to go. [laughter] So, thank you for being here this morning. I really appreciate it. And with this, I'm going to start the reading of your proclamation. >> [clears throat] >> Whereas on October 31st, 1986, KAQ 95.5 FM radio station created the annual Halloween parade as a fun and creative promotion to bring the community together in celebration of Halloween annually. And whereas over 40 years, KAQFM has entertained families, friends, and children alike at our at our annual Halloween parade. This community event was designed to create a safe and engaging event that is free to the public and free to participants. Sponsors, high school teams, organizations, and bands, local sports groups, clubs, and community organizations have made the Kaq Halloween parade an annual tradition for Halloween fun, whether participating in the parade or attending the parade as a spectator. And whereas this great community event was created to provide entertainment to El Paso families, friends, and children in a safe atmosphere that embodies fun, music, candy, and creativity for the Halloween day each year. And whereas Kaq has invited thousands of participants and spectators annually over 40 years, that includes special guests and local heroes. as grand marshalss. And whereas it is an honor to recognize the commitment and dedication from the staff at Kaq FM and Towns Square Media who have taken the initiative to provide a great community event every year on Halloween for the past 40 years. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that Friday, October 31st, 2025 shall be known as KAQ FM Halloween parade day, signed by the Honorable Mayor, Renard Johnson. Congratulations. [applause] >> Good morning, Brad. >> Good morning, Mayor. How are you today? >> I'm good. How are you doing, my friend? >> I'm doing great. I'd like to My name is Brad Dubau. I'm the marker president for Town Square Media. I'd like to introduce my staff real quick. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> I'm Connie Hernandez. I have worked at the station I think is two years a couple years less than Brad has. And this is my 38th parade putting it together. >> Wow. >> With the great team of staff at our office. >> I'm Marina Lee and I've only been there for 17 years. >> Wow. [laughter] and Chad Harris. Uh, shoot, it's been 20 something years. I can't remember anymore but >> wow. >> I'd just like to say thank you for this honor, mayor, and an entire council. Um, I feel like everyone here is kind of familiar with KAQ and our morning show and and traditions that we've done. just like to say the Halloween parade couldn't have happened without thousands of different people involved. We probably given away over a million pieces of candy. I'd like to just make sure to remember a couple people here. Um, three of them are DJs. One of them was a gentleman named Jerry Wilson. His son now plays for the UT, his grandson plays for the Utah football team. But when we were like a little bit younger, we would go to his parents house at lunchtimes when it was like disco 95. And I looked at Alvin Park and go, "This would be a great place to do an event." And [laughter] after watching the Dudah Parade before the Rose Bowl out in LA, we said, "Let's just give this a try." And we, you know, got to, it's easy to say no. Everybody knows. So when you say yes, you got to do the work. And so bosses and people said yes. And we put the parade together. And we didn't know which routes we were going. So we would block streets, very important streets on Halloween for about 40 minutes. And people would want to kill us because they were unhappy. [laughter] and we ended up getting the parade route through the neighborhoods and we've been able to work with the city and the police and and thousands of different volunteers to make this event happen. So, on behalf of everybody at Town Square Media, KAQ, uh the other two jocks I'd like to not forget would be Courtney Nelson and Magic Mike Ramsey. They were all both really critical uh and even that lamp so critical in like having this parade and this event continue and without the dedication of like Connie and Chad and Marina here uh it would not as well. So it's a commitment from a lot of people and then afterwards there's a new part to the parade the candy bash and let you tight talk about that real quick. >> Yes, thank you. I also want to extend my thanks. It's it's a true love putting it together. It's a lot of work and it's been a great fun um the week of it's not so much fun because I'm going crazy, but um we do appreciate the honor and and thank you very much uh uh Councilman Roachcha for uh honoring us today and all your help with Julia and your team. They've been great. Uh we are extending what we do. Normally it ends right as the sun is setting and everybody disappears instantly. This year we're actually having a little candy bash in the park afterwards kind of like a post celebration. We've got some food vendors and uh different clients and sponsors that are going to be having games and additional uh ways of for the kids that show up to get uh get more candy treat bags and get more candy. So, we would invite anyone that is coming um to stay and have a Halloween party there and enjoy the the festivities there at the park. But thank you all for your support. We appreciate it. >> Very welcome. >> That's it. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Hey, don't run off of Representative Fier. >> Oh, thank you, Mayor Brad. You know, thank you. Thank you for your partnership with our community. The great concert Gio brought. Um I was looking at your bio. It said you started at Kella Q in 1964. Is that right for I I don't know. I don't look back there anymore. I'm just looking [laughter] forward. >> Brad, thank you for your partnership and what you everything you've done for our community. Thank you, mayor. >> Well, I'm gonna be a [clears throat] little bit easier on my friend there. I don't think he started in 1964, but um again, thank you guys for what you do for this community. A couple things. So, I believe it starts at 3:30. Album, can you tell us a little more details of where it starts and album Park and all the good stuff? >> It starts and ends at Album Park and it'll start promptly at 3:30. Um it is free to the public, so we do have quite a few people that have pre-registered, but we will take people that just walk up. We have three categories where we judge folks um in the in the parade. People that are walking in costume have a chance to win cash and trophies. Uh rock and drive is our most fun uh category because it's people that just decorate a float in their garage, their truck, their kids bikes, whatever. So, those are always really really creative. And then we also have a business category for businesses that want to um support the parade and show showcase their business. This year we also have a new category. We started a high school spirit challenge and we've got four high schools that are going to have floats. Um, and they're competing for a spirit trophy amongst high schools, which is a really exciting new addition that we had this year. So, it starts at 3:30. It's 1.9 miles along the uh neighborhood and it usually ends about 4:30, 5:00. Uh, and it starts and ends at Album. The main streets is Album Street, Zanzibar, and then a lot of the neighborhood streets of Fur, Daphne, Bermuda, and then Zanzibar and Album are the main two streets where everybody is, and it gets pretty crazy crowded. >> Wow, this is great. And and again, thank you guys. This is, you know, a lot of us here on on the Dasa, this is part of quality of life. This is one of my pillars. And thank you guys for all that you do uh for El Paso. All the concerts, all the I I mean it goes on and on. And you know, Brad's been doing it for as long as you know I've known you. You've been doing events, everything from the Balloon Fest to to other events. Uh I do have one question though. Do you guys still do the the haunted house? >> Actually, we are assisting like Wet N Wild with their haunted house this year. Um, we've worked with the people there before in different places, but we're not doing the Kaylee Q haunted house this year. We're supporting haunted scare grounds at Wet N Wild. They're friends and people that we've worked with for years. >> Okay. Very good. And and we know it takes, as you said, Brad, it takes a team to to pull these off. And and I do want to and I believe I got this right. I do want to give a shout out to one of your sponsors, and I believe that's One Source Federal Credit Union. >> Yep. So, we definitely want to thank them for all they're doing, your entire team and the community, and I think you're going to have a really, really big uh event this year, and thank you for creating a signature event for our community. >> Once again, thank you for the recognition. We appreciate everything that you do and your support 100%. Thank you. >> You got it. Thank you guys. >> Thank you, [applause] >> Connie. You got it. No, I mean The next proclamation is Sher Gate Lights parade. Good morning everyone. >> Good morning sir. >> Yeah, that is a good team. Yeah, look at this. >> Yes sir. >> Yeah, Representative Nino. >> Teamwork. >> Look at this. >> This is teamwork. >> Teamwork. Thank you, mayor, for allowing me to read this proclamation. What up? >> This is definitely definition of teamwork. Thank you guys for all the everything that you do. So, proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas. Whereas Winterfest featuring Sher Gate Lights Parade is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a most cherished festival in El Paso, bringing families and visitors together to celebrate the holiday season. And whereas the heart of downtown, San Hasito Plaza, including the Cleveland Square Park and surrounding areas, will once again light up with more than 1 million lights, oversized decorations, and will feature a new 45- ft holiday tree. And whereas Winterfest, led by the city parks and recreational department, will offer familyfriendly attractions, activities, and entertainment. And whereas a 6-w weekek Winterfest season draws more than 550,000 people in our downtown to enjoy outdoor ice rink interactive holiday displays, weekly local performances at Sanghasito Plaza, a unique tasting experience at the holiday food truck village and musical display of lights at Cleveland Square Park. And whereas Winterfest has become a beloved tradition with the city of El Paso and its partners coming together to enhance the holiday experience for residents and visitors. And whereas the Shurleade Injury Attorneys at Law sponsors the Shirley Gate Lights Parade that features more than 60 decorative floats and attracts more than 65,000 people, making it the city's only lights parade. And whereas last year more than 3,000 people marched in a onemile parade route, lighting up our the streets of our downtown, creating holiday cheer in free, festive, and a safe environment. And whereas Winterfest is made possible with the support of the lead collaboration between destination El Paso that organizes the ice skating rink, which attracts approximately 20,000 skaters throughout the season. And whereas Winterfest enriches the lives of the residents, neighboring communities and visitors celebrating our cultural heritage with holiday events across the city from the El Paso Street Cart, El Paso Public Library, City Museums, El Paso Animal Services, and the Parks Recreational Department. And whereas Winterfest unites more than 20 city departments, Destination El Paso, the downtown management district, and dozens of local businesses and organizations to support El Paso's most cherished event. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and the council of the city of El Paso that November 2022nd, 2025 through January 4th, 2026 shall be known as Winterfest 2025. Congratulations, >> [applause] >> I know. >> Good morning, Pablo. >> Good morning, Mayor and Council. Uh, how's everybody doing today? >> Good. Good. >> Perfect. Perfect. Well, it's that time of the year now. And as you can see, November 22nd, starting with the Chirley Gate Light Parade and with the Winterfest season, now we actually are in the holiday festivities for the entire city of El Paso. Um, I'm not going to take a long here because I have a lot of people that want to introduce themselves, but I'd like to thank all of you for the support, always supporting. This is the 10th anniversary for for the Winterfest season. So, thank you all. And I'm going to start this with uh our Winterfest coordinator, Diana Sepeda. [applause] >> Thank you, Pablo. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, mayor and council. I'm Diana Sepeda, lead coordinator of Winterfest, the city largest holiday festival in the region. And I want to thank you, uh, mayor and council, our city leadership, parks and recreation department staff, and of course, our Pablo Cavayto, our director, and our, uh, deputy city manager, Richard Bristol, for all the support we had over the past 10 years. Since he began, Winterfest has grown every year with more than 500,000 people attending last year's season that lasted six weeks. None of this will be possible with our partners and I know uh representative Nino already mentioned them but we want to thank downtown management district destination El Paso Jose Garcia and his team and all the city departments that work together to create the biggest holiday celebration in our community. We have uh worked very hard to be able to bring this event every year and we also want to thank other city departments Ben director uh Ben 5 managing director as well as uh all the staff for all the city departments. I want to thank our sponsors uh Telmundo our television sponsor GECU for providing free pictures with Sana. They are also the title sponsor for the ice ring this year. Of course, we also want to thank uh and welcome to first time sponsor Point Homes uh as they are sponsor the holiday fiestas this year. And a special thanks to Sherle Gay Law Firm for once again stepping up to sponsor the Sher Le Parade and they have been our sponsor for the past seven years. [applause] Thank you Samay and Jim Sher. And I would like to invite Jim Sher to um say a few words. >> Thank you, Diana. First, uh Mr. Legate sends his respects and sadness that he's not here today. Uh I'm here on behalf of Sher Legate and we are so excited to sponsor again the Lights Parade Winterfest as we have since 2018. >> Wow. >> And we're really proud of it. M Let me give you a little history of it and why this is important to us. One, we're El Paso, born and raised here. I'm third or fourth generation. My kids are born here. And many years ago in 1977, I sat where you're sitting, right where this the Westside representatives are. I had districts, Miss Chavez, Mr. Canales. That was my district. And we sponsored our family on Thanksgiving, which I thought was the most exciting and most important holiday of the year, a Thanksgiving dinner that started off every year with all members of city council and chambers. And since that time, the city has followed through with a major party for all of El Paso to give thanks for what we have our blessings in America for, our freedoms, our right of first amendment and every amendment that we have and the right to be solid Americans and we all stand up for it. For me at 24 years of age, being on city council was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I heard a dare talk about all the people she was involved with. Well, I was on the other side of the political spectrum. So, I was with friends like um Jimmy Carter that was a personal friend. I was tied in with Senator Benson. I I go through all this, but it's all what America is about. All of us being involved, caring and our law firm Sherigate is now in its 50 is going to start the 50th. My law firm is 50 years old in January. [applause] >> It's a nationally recognized and internationally recognized law firm. And we've had the honor of having some of the finest lawyers in the country working with us and some that have left us that are some of the best lawyers you you'll ever meet. And we still have them. Bless you. >> But you know what? Winterfest and the Sher Legate lights parade starts off a season for all El Paso. Last year when we punched the button, and you're going to have a chance to do it this year, mayor, and other members of council, it's like watching the electric lights parade at Disney World. It just lights up and all these little ones and big ones are starruck and excited because what that is is our season for our heart, our family, and the people we love. So, may we all have a blessed and wonderful holiday season and thanks to you for your sacrifice that you make for our community to build it and make it better for tomorrow. Thank you. >> WOW. [applause] THANK YOU, JIM. UH, like I said, sir, uh, there's so many things behind the scenes that I would like to take the opportunity to share the microphone with everybody. >> Sure. >> On the back. So, >> absolutely. >> Start. Jacob, you're the first one. >> Hello. I'm Jacob Ruiz. I'm the park area supervisor in charge of all the maintenance throughout Winterfest and year round at Saninto Plaza. Um, and thank you guys for having me and letting me be here for a part of this celebration. Thank you. Good morning, Jacob. >> Mr. Mayor, council, and make me the Ones, assistant director. Um, thank you for this opportunity to host 70,000 of our best friends in one night for one event. And thank you for picking the time between the end of one growing season and the beginning of the next one. We [laughter] take a breather. We enjoy the sense of community. And we recharge our batteries to be ready for the next growing season. So, thanks for the timing. >> You're very welcome. >> Good morning, uh, council mayor. Thank you. Um, my name is Jose Karo. I'm part of corporation superintendent. Uh, thank you for letting us serve you one more year, uh, after the so many years celebrating Winterfest. Uh, and thank you for your support. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> My name is Samuel Lee. I'm the other parks operation superintendent. So, uh, this is my seventh year being involved with this and we look forward to it every year. So, thank you. >> Yep. >> Good morning, mayor and council. My name is Carlos Rodriguez, um, parks and recreation on the recreation uh, division. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Mayor Council Rodas Parks PO. Thank you so much. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, mayor and council. My name is Linda Hammonds, a recreation and sports coordinator for the recreation division. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Ricardo Reaya, community center supervisor at the be. Thank you. >> Good morning. Thank you for everything. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. My name is Josen Corona um with Parks and Recreation as a recreational specialist. [laughter] Good morning, Mayor Council. My name is Fibig Grihalva, part of special events coordination under Diana for the past four years, and it's been a privilege to be able to help coordinate such a amazing event for our city. >> Good morning. I'm Vic Courtz. I'm a recreation and sports coordinator also, and it's glad to be here, and this is a great event that I am so proud to be a part of in El Paso. Good morning, >> Jose. Go ahead, sir. Good morning, mayor and council. Jose Garcia with Destination El Paso. Um, we are a proud proud uh partner of uh the city when it comes to Winterfest. But uh I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce uh young Miss uh Stephanie Rivera. She is the point person for us. She's our uh our special events manager and uh she takes point for us on the rink. So, uh, Stephanie, why don't you come up here and intro introduce the rest of the team? >> Good morning. >> Good morning, everybody. I'm Stephanie Ria, special events and sponsorship manager at Destination El Paso. I have Yasmin Contas, our special events um, coordinator. Hello. Nice to meet you guys. [laughter] >> Good morning. >> Um, and then we have Marisa Laberta, our director of event services. >> Good morning, mayor and council. Thank you again for having us. And of course, Amigo Man who is a big part of our team. But uh go winterfest. >> Yeah. Good morning. >> Go winterfest break. And then we have um Renee Wong, who's our director of marketing. >> Good morning, mayor and council. Very honored to be here. Thank you. >> Good morning. >> And I don't know where she is, but we have um a Jessica who is our social media man. She's over here. Um the amazing team of Destination El Paso and we couldn't do the ring without everybody involved in Jose as well. So, thank you Very good. Thank you guys. >> Hi. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Ricky SAS here, uh, communications officer here spearheading a little bit of the communications portion of Winterfest. Want to thank you all for the support. I've been doing this for 10 years now, which is pretty pretty wild. But, uh, you'll see me out there pretty much every weekend. I love I really really do enjoy Winterfest. I'm pretty there. I'm there like Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Even though I shouldn't be working those days, but I do it anyway cuz I really love what I do. And uh this team behind you, amazing. Amazing. And this is only just a fraction of the team. We have a huge, huge team that really just does Winterfest for the whole season. So, thank you all so much. >> You got it. Thank you. So, with that said, thank you so much and we looking forward to meet you over there at on November 22nd. >> All right. We got one more person that's trying to hide, but our deputy city manager, Richard Bristol. [laughter] >> [applause] >> Uh Richard Bristol, W city manager and uh it's a great pleasure to work with this group. Uh after 20 years in the street department and fighting traffic and infrastructure, it's a lot of fun to work with the quality of life departments. [laughter] Thank you. And Ben, >> good morning, Mayor and Council. Ben Fe. Uh, I've had the privilege of working for this event for 11 years cuz I got tasked to actually come up with a way to create a much larger experience for El Paso. Rep. Lemon remembers that when we redesigned Sanosinto Plaza. So, it's been a pleasure to take it from a very modest display to actually shorting out downtown for a whole night [laughter] because of how many lights we've put on. So, thank you so much, [applause] >> Representative Phil. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so very much. And you know, Rick put it best when he said, "This is just the tip of the iceberg of all the organizations, of all the people who helped put this together." And I want to thank all the sponsors, the parks and wreck, and everybody's here that's going to help us be another successful event. But mayor, I'd be remiss if I didn't um u bring out J pull Jim to the front and and bring up that you're fourth generation, just for the record, El Pasoan. Your family's still here, but you you left out the most important Oh, you were the youngest representative to ever sit up here. I'm sorry, representative. Representative, you guys are not the youngest. Jim was the youngest. Thank you. But but Jim, you're such a mentor. You're such a friend. Um you're such a great partner in our community. And in between there, I don't know where, but you practice law here. But so, but thank you for everything you do and give back to our community. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. [applause] >> Representative Chavez, >> real quick, mayor and council, if I can rec I for I'm going to get in trouble if I don't recognize Anna Sandoval here. You guys see her all the time. She's our social media coordinator. >> She's done a tremendous job. Thank you. And as well as uh Laura Kusak Costa, who's over there, too. Still, they're all involved in Winterfest hardcore. So, thank you, >> Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I am just so excited to celebrate Winterfest. And I want to thank all the departments that are involved in this wonderful event for the community. But I do have to correct you, Pablo, just briefly if I can. I think Diana is not the coordinator for Winterfest. I think she's known as a Winterfest queen. Is that right? [applause] >> So all hail to the queen of Winterfest. [laughter] Thank you so much for the work you're doing. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you guys so much. I mean, this is an incredible event, not only for the city of El Paso, but for downtown. And you know, I remember taking my daughters out there and as Jim said, seeing the smile on their faces, to see all the lights, the hot chocolate that has spilled in my car. But it was been so much fun to to witness what you guys have done in transforming our our downtown. Um, I got to I got to tell you No. Okay. Okay. We were going to say Chris was the youngest council person, but [laughter] not true. So, um, >> we checked his ID. >> Okay, good. Not true. Okay. Uh, but there's been more than 550,000 people attend this event. So, let's set a record for this year. Let's get that up near 600,000. Okay, let's do it. [applause] Congratulations to I know it takes a village. I know it takes a village to pull this off because this is a big event and when you're entertaining this many people for that long of a period of time. It takes sponsors. It takes the parks. It takes destination El Paso. I could go on and on and on and on, but most importantly, we got the Amigo man here to help us celebrate. >> Yeah. So, thank you guys so much. >> Mayor, they do have a Destination El Paso has some gifts for you all as well. And then in they'll have a folder right in front of you that has the map information for Winterfest. So please please join us not just for opening day but throughout the season. >> Wow, look at this. >> I'm going to try to take a picture. >> Picture time. Okay, Miss Bryant. >> Yes, sir. The final proclamation this morning is for Vernon Brandy Kurther state. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, sir. Good morning, >> Representative Tjo. >> Thank you, Mayor. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> I have the honor of reading this proclamation for this beautiful flags across America. And Randy, if you go to Northeast, you're going to see some beautiful flag that represents our community. Uh you can see it from miles away. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Whereas El Paso Flags Across America is a nonprofit organization established in 2003 to honor the American flag and to recognize the dedication and sacrifice of those who have served our nation. And whereas through the efforts of the organization, numerous monuments have been established to honor wartime service members and preserve their memory for future generations. Whereas Mr. Vernon Randy Kadthers, did I say that name right? very good began his volunteer service with the El Paso, Texas flags across America in 2007 and served as president from November 2017 to January 2020 and continues to volunteer his time and leadership. And whereas Mr. Kurthers created a tracking system for memorial bricks purchase by the community and has led fundraising for the Persian Gulf Memorial which will honor all who served in the Persian Gulf region both military and civilian from 1990 to 2021. And whereas Mr. Kurthers pr proudly serves the United States Army for 23 years including two develop two deployments to the Persian Gulf and retired from Fort Bliss, Texas in 2010 as a first sergeant. And whereas after retirement he continued to serve as a defense contractor as NASA operations supervisor and now as a department of army civilian with the army field support battalion serving as a battalion S3 for the past four years. And now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and city council and the city of El Paso that August 2nd, 2025 shall be known as Vernon Randy Kurther's day. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Good morning. >> Morning sir. I just want to introduce my name is Vernon. Well, it's Randy Kathers. Formal name is Vernon. Um, I just want to introduce my team here that um, I couldn't have done this without them, but I'll let them come up and introduce themselves. Okay, >> starting with my wife, >> Denise Kurthers. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Terry Larby. >> Good morning. Al Beach. >> Thank you. Good morning. >> Gloria Nicholson. >> Good morning, >> Betty Hallebertton. >> Good morning, Betty. >> Cliff Seaman. I'm vice president of El Paso, Texas. Flags across America. And we are so proud of this guy. He's worked he's really worked hard. >> Yeah. Come see that monument. It's it's a it's a heartthumpumping tribute and it's beautiful. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Randy. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. U Mr. Mayor, city council, I just wanted to um give you a little back brief on the memorial. We started this project seven years ago. It took us seven years to um to um raise the funds to to establish and and to install it. And I could not have done it without all the people that's standing behind me today. They're the ones that really um was out there fundraising while I was working, doing my normal supposed to be 8 to 5 job, which was not true. It was a lot longer. But you know, these guys behind me, they're the ones that actually went out there and and and beat the streets and um and strong armed people for money to um to establish this. But um I'm just proud to um to have been a part of it. The um the memorial is for everyone who served in the military from 1990, which is Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and then the war on terror, which um basically if you look at it, it is still going on today. We're um still still in that fight. But um this memorial, it it it it recognizes the sacrifices of everybody. And I I would encourage all of you to come out and and look at it. There's four different slabs out there. Um each one front and back um is designed for that particular error. But um I would encourage everyone to come out and and check it out and to um to let the people in your districts know um that we're there because for as long as I've been out there, they've every week we do the food truck events on Wednesday, which is tonight is our last one, and it'll be held at Sam's parking lot. um as the grand finale. But um people come out there all the time and they say, "I've lived in El Paso all my life and I never knew that I could come to this flag site, you know, and it and and it kind of blows my mind, but when you go over 54, the only thing you see is the flag. That's all you see." But um come down there and actually tour the grounds. They they are definitely sacred grounds. And um I encourage everyone to come out and um I'm just proud to be, you know, a prior president of the O Glory Memorial and um it's just it's just a great honor for this. Thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. [applause] Well, Randy, thank you. First of all, thank each and every one of you for your your service uh to this country and and thank you for honoring so many that have served and and and especially those who have paid the ultimate uh sacrifice. Randy, can you tell us a little bit more about the the u the memorial bricks and if there's still bricks available to purchase? >> Yes, we um there's [snorts] still bricks available to purchase all over the Old Glory Memorial. Um each one the um the funds go toward that memorial to help maintain it and stuff. The um bricks are a $100 donation. Um turnaround time is about 3 weeks on um on all the bricks. I I do all of those myself. Well, I don't engrave them, but I coordinate um the in-n-out process to getting them there and getting them installed. But um the bricks are are a great way to to honor someone, you know, either past or present. You don't have to have served in the military. Um for the bricks to go in certain areas. Um there's very little stipulations on what you can do if you need help with the bricks um formatting them basically. Um I because people say, "I don't know what to put on there." Well, let let's talk about it. and we talk about it. We start with the rank and the name and the this and that and lo and behold, you have a full brick. So, um yeah, I encourage, you know, if if you need any help or whatever, we just started the um World War II memorial. Well, we didn't start that memorial, but the me memorial has been there for 20 years. And we've just installed the um area in front to put bricks in front of it so we can um go back and um if you have a a a relative or someone you want to honor that served in World War II, we can put bricks out there in front of that also. Now, >> yeah, very good. Yeah, we um and as Cliff said, you know, and as everyone standing there knows, I mean, it is an incredible space there in Northeast to to visit. I've been out there a number of times. I've seen Cliff, I've seen it all of you guys out at the uh flags across America and, you know, whatever we can do as a community to continue to help you guys improve that area, fund raise and and do what we can. I encourage my my colleagues along the DAS here to to go out and visit it. I mean, there's a store there. Most people don't know that you you have a store. I mean, you want to tell us about the store? >> Store store manager is right there. [laughter] >> What did you say? >> The store manager. >> Oh, yeah. I'm the store manager. What I do is I sell anything flag related. I have t-shirts, hats, hoodies, windbreakers, and all kinds of flags. So, stop by the store if you're up there, and I'll I'll sell you anything. Thank [laughter] you. >> Very good. Well, Randy, congratulations on this day and congratulations to your team that's here and and again, I encourage everyone to go out and visit the facility. It's it's phenomenal and we got to go in the store and buy some flags. >> Yes, sir. >> Represent Lemon, >> thank you. Um, thank you very much. It's always great to see you all. What a beautiful, beautiful site it is out there. Had the opportunity to visit and Betty been out there on different projects and activities that you have headed. And so I'm going to take the mayor's challenge and I will be um purchasing a brick that will be and you will need to help me with it in honor of Carl Robinson. I'm sure he might already have one, but if he doesn't if he does, >> here's another one to add to the walk in the Vietnam Memorial. Thank you very much, >> Representative Fo. >> Mayor, I can't be outdone by my my deskmate here. Please, I'll I'll purchase a brick, too. Thank you. >> Wow. We've got two bricks already sold there Randy. >> And uh Representative Tjo, >> of course, I need to do that as well. So, yes, I'll be donating as well for the bricks. Yes, ma'am. >> We've got some some bricks sold already. And then um we appreciate that. So, I appreciate the colleagues uh stepping up and and getting a brick. Okay. >> Yes. Yes, sir. >> Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it. All right, Miss Prime, before we continue, I just want to take a second and and recognize that today is also National First Responders Day. So, would you join me in giving a round of applause to all of our first responders? [applause] >> Okay, Miss Brian. >> Thank you, Mayor. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, October 28th, 2025. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with mayor prom chavez, representative aso, representative alonado rocha, representativejo, representative nino, alternate mayor prom, representative lemon, and representative canales. It is 10:10 a.m. Will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police Senior Chaplain David Mayfield. Good morning. >> Good morning, Mayor Johnson. Council, thank you once again for allowing me to the privilege of coming and praying for this body and for our city. And now I invite those present to join me as I pray. Gracious and loving God, we gather today in gratitude for the opportunity to serve the people of this city. As members of this council, staff, and community, we recognize that leadership is not about position or power, but about service, stewardship, and sacrifice. Teach us the humility to listen before we speak, the wisdom to discern what is right from what is easy, and the courage to do what is just and compassionate for all who call this city home. Lord, help us to see beyond our own interests, to value the voices of those who are often unheard, and to remember that every decision made here touches lives, families, and neighborhoods. May this meeting be guided by mutual respect and understanding. May each action taken reflect integrity, fairness, and a deep love for our community. And may we never forget that true leadership means lifting others up and seeking the common good above all else. I ask your blessings on this council, our mayor, and all who serve that together we may lead with vision, unity, and grace. And we pray this in your holy name. Amen. Thank you. Okay, Miss Bryant. >> Thank you, chaplain. That brings us to public comment on agenda items this morning. We have uh Mr. Roberto Avalos. Roberto Avalo. He signed up to speak on item number 24. And this is item 24 is a directing the city manager and city attorney to engage collaboratively with the transportation security administration TSA and Federal Aviation Administration FAA to explore the development of a memorandum of understanding andor lease agreement regarding the TSA security checkpoint at the El Paso International Airport. Good morning, sir. You have three minutes. >> Good morning. >> Hi. Good morning. I wasn't expecting to be first, so I'll go ahead and blow through this since my back is killing me. Um, thank thank you everyone for being here today. I really appreciate you hearing me out. Um, I am here to speak against the uh the item being proposed on the agenda on the issue by starting by saying this specific item while it may sound administrative actually steps into federal grounds that distracts us from the issues that FASO needs to focus on. This is a distraction, waste of time and taxpayer money. And I mean this with all due respect to everyone here, but it is not something we should be focusing on. I would like to emphasize on local um on local versus federal boundaries and pointing out that TSA and FAA already operate under federal law. For example, the TSA checkpoints is a federal security zone, not a city-run operation. and trying to bind a federal agency to city ordinances, especially about political expression, risks creating jurisdictional conflict. It's not a role to manage or inter reinterpret federal contracts. It is our role to serve El Paso directly. I'd like to frame it as a waste of taxpayer time and focus. For example, we are asking our city manager and city attorney to chase federal contracts and clearances. That's hours of legal work, travel, and bureaucrac bureaucracy. At a time when we're still fighting for a faster 911 response, cleaner streets, and a stronger law enforcement recruitment, this is not where our priorities should be. This the public expects us to be efficient and people focused, not paper focused. On to my next point. Uh this would be a free speech and transparency concerns. This would connect. Um and what I mean by this is that we when we talk about regulating political language, we need to tread very carefully. Governments should not be in the business of the deciding what political messages can or cannot be seen despite of whatever side you may be in. I mean political messages are meant to be for everyone. Free expression, free freedom of speech. As our first amendment states, this is a slippery slope, one that goes against the free speech values we're supposed to protect. Onto my fourth core argument. No, there is no tangible benefit to citizens. It's keeping it simple. This doesn't make life shorter. It doesn't make us safer and it doesn't make life easier for travelers. I mean, imagine if the delay due to a plane for a meeting, especially you, Mr. Mayor, who are a very wealthy and successful man. I believe we all have to go to important meetings if we reach that status. And if the delay of a plane has to go because of a TSA message being uh argued because of a whatever the reason may be, I think that's a really good reason to delay a meeting. And to conclude, the TSA and FFA are federal agencies, not city departments, trying to make them follow city local ordinances, especially on something like political language crosses a line into federal jurisdiction and this does not help residents directly. Our priority should be towards the residents ourselves, not towards government owned properties. With that, that's my time. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Mr. Joe Gutenrath. He signed up to speak on item 29. And this item is uh a presentation on proposed amendments to El Paso City Code 20.20, historic landmark preservation. Good morning, sir. >> Good morning. Good morning, mayor. >> Good morning, >> council members, city managers, city staff. I'm Joe Goodenrath, the executive director of the downtown management district, which includes two of the city's designated historic districts. I want to first start off by thanking Tony de la Cruz and Daniela Casada and the rest of the city staff for their efforts to engage the public and seek input throughout the process and review of proposed amendments. I especially want to thank them for attending the DMD board meeting in June to share their presentation. In addition to that meeting, the DMD was represented at a number uh of the public meetings and we did help promote the online survey that they conducted. Despite all that effort, I am very disappointed in levels of participation from the public in this very important uh code changes. At our June board meeting, the DMD board did take a position in opposition of the amendments as proposed at that time. The reasons for the board member opposition are reflected in the presentation that they'll provide you later today and in the backup of this item. One of the items that we were specific that the board was specifically opposed to was a designation uh without property owner consent. Uh a different part of the proposed amendments that I specifically want to address is the idea of demolition by neglect in the context of historic preservation. It does sound like common sense. Obviously, we do not want our historic buildings to slowly deteriorate to the point that they are no longer salvageable. But I I would argue that this concept is unnecessary and duplicative in city code. There is no building in any part of this city that should be allowed to slowly deteriorate without city intervention. Not the banner building downtown, not your neighbor's house, or any abandoned strip mall across the city and in any of your districts. It's the main role of code enforcement. And if code enforcement is carried out to the degree in which they are allowed, our historic buildings and all other structures would not be allowed to deteriorate beyond repair. The DMD is a strong advocate for safe building conditions, strict code enforcement, and securing empty buildings uh and already expects code enforcement to provide this community safeguard. It does not need uh it does not need another layer of oversight and bureaucratic involvement. Again, on behalf of the Downtown Management District Board of Directors and the property owners, business owners, and residents which they represent, I ask you to vote down these amendments until we can build consensus on the best strategies to preserve, protect, and rehabilitate our historic properties. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Joe. >> That brings us to call to the public. The El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens, and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge. The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council. All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane, threatening, or abusive language. Public comment will not be used for personal attacks, nor may any member of the public use this forum for political statements or campaigning. Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda. However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda. This morning, we have 11 members of the public that signed up to speak. The first person is Elizabeth Crawford. Miss Crawford's topic is fatherhood and abortion. Miss Crawford, star six, please. Good morning. You have three minutes. >> Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Um, as we approach October 31st, much of the community and much of our nation, is celebrating Halloween. We're warned to God's holy word that Satan, the enemy of our souls, is the father of lies, whose goal is to keep captive whomever he can for eternal destruction. The devil is the father of lies. By contrast, the Lord is the God of truth and a merciful father to all who fear him. Psalm chapter 103 states, "Like as a father pies or has compassion on his children, so the Lord pies has compassion on them that fear him." In recent days, Al Patholans have been standing outside the Planned Parenthood business in the city, as well as working hard to stand against the construction of a mega abortion center in Los Cruises that would market their quote services to El Paso women. No doubt. We're excited that after a campaign of texts and phone calls, a number of the contractors have withdrawn their participation in its construction. They thought that they were going to work on a beneficial healthc care center, but were made aware, thank God, of the reality of what it actually is, a mega abortion mill. One of the big lies propagated by the abortion industry is it's just a clump of cells. I recently had a young lady outside an abortion center say to me, "Sorry, but I got to do what I got to do. Get rid of this sh and I won't say the word expletive." Even the most simple among us know in our heart of hearts if we are honest, this is a little person. God is the God of truth. I'm thankful for the rest of Psalm 103 that gives hope even after an abortion on demand. Psalm 103. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. First John 18:9. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. Hope you have a good day. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Brenda Carvajal. Brenda Carvajal. We'll move on to Claudia Contra Siller. Miss Siller's topic is war against animal cruelty. She will be followed by Ron Ko. >> Good morning. >> Good. Good morning. >> Hi. Good morning. Brenda is barking. She's also going to speak right now. Uh I'm going to light up this candle in memory of all the animals that are dying on our streets. that are victims of animal cruelty, hunger injustice and it's blue because I'm I'm a fan of the police and I stand with them every day. Uh I'm wearing my cat ears uh just like the first time I was here nine months ago. Here is a picture of the cat that was stolen at my cat colony three weeks ago. So, I'm going to leave my candle here. Um, animal cruelty is a crime. It's a 5-year imprison felony. The case is as strong as the evidence we can present. We need the animal cruelty unit to be bigger. The director needs to have experience in the streets of El Paso. Stop looking for a business degree. We don't want a person that's going to stand, I'm sorry, that's going to be sitting down in a computer checking out numbers. We're not talking about numbers. We're talking about cats and dogs that are dying daily here in El Paso. Poisoning cats should not be normal for the city to do. Okay? It should not be the norm. Education is the key. We need a director that is not going to be afraid to face the cameras of the news and he's going to educate that is going to do events and he's going to tell the people how to report animal cruelty. We need billboards. We need signs that is going to say animal cruelty is a felony. Stop doing it. the officers of animal services. I respect animal services, but whenever they're going to show up after we are um saying they're killing cats, they need to look for the evidence. And if they don't know how to do it, hire a police officer to teach them how to do it. Okay? This has been going on 9 years. Animal cruelty is very stressful. I know veterans of war that have seen cats in the freeway and they said, "Oh, this is like I'm in war." They felt the same thing when they were at war and this is a crisis. You know, I respect all of you. I respect animal services. I have seen they work very hard. But hiring a person that their fort is the numbers is the most stupid thing to do. Excuse me. Please hire someone that has experience at least four years um that is uh dealing with animals that is driving the trucks of El Paso that knows the streets just like we do. Uh today I encourage people to come and talk here. I met them in the streets feeding cats also. Feeding cats is not easy. We get attacked by people. Please uh tell people to do the TNR program and this is only getting worse. And also whenever someone is going to say, "Hey, this person is taking a lot of animals." Investigate them. If they're already presented an ID that has a fake address, don't give them more animals. Please work on it. Animals have souls and all of us are their boys. Please hire an expert, not a business person. Thank you. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Ron Ko. Mr. Ko's topic is exercising his constitutional rights for rescue of 1983 animal services. He will be followed by Peter Miller Valer. Good morning, sir. >> Morning. >> Good morning, everyone. >> Good morning, Miss Lone. I apologize for my comments from the last meeting, but and just to be honest, the reason why I asked you is you're the only one up there that was here when the shelter was actually successful and you were part of that success. Now, to go back to the bite situation that's been happening, the CDC data shows that 2019 through 22 2022 saw a significant increase in deadly attacks. In 2019, there were 48 fatal dog attacks in the US, followed by 62 attacks in 20, 81 in 21, and 22, there was 98. Guess what else happened in 20? We started implementing the HOS plan all over the place. Cities sucked it up because they were told they'd save money. They told they'd reach no kill, even though it's fake. and we continued on. I haven't found 23 and four yet, but I'm sure it's even higher. We have a problem and you guys are ignoring it. Okay, I sent all of you an email which I doubt anybody read on how you change the polic, the shelter plans for the city of El Paso, the what's required to be done. And I challenge the people that are supposed to handle the legal end of this to give us dates for when the hos plan went through the two required city council meetings. And then you take into consideration the person that was running it stated he was operating under the uh no kill equation which is a another shelter plan which doesn't include managed intake. So, I'd like to see those dates when they were approved by the two mandatory city council meetings to get the shelter plan changed. If those cannot be brought to everyone's attention and proven that they happened, we need to go back to our no kill plan that Miss Leone and all of her people that were up here worked hard to get done to protect the community, to protect their pets, and to protect the strays of El Paso. And I challenge you all to do the same thing. The city's in a crisis and the city put us in the crisis. We need a qualified director, not a friend, nobody from Best Friends, nobody from Austin Pets Live, and definitely nobody who supports the sheltering plan. That's what put us in this situation. So, when do we start having meetings like we had back in 2015? When do we start talking about how to fix the issue and get a qualified person in here? Obviously, we haven't done it in the past. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Peter Miller Valio. He will be speaking on war against animal cruelty and will be followed by Barbara Valencia. Good morning. You have three minutes. >> Good morning. [clears throat] >> Good morning everyone. I'm here to speak about multiple occasions of animals being harmed, strays. For example, at one of the locations that I feed in water and trap so I could spray and neuter them. 11 of them were poisoned. And the [snorts] person or multiple persons that did that should not get away with it, nor anyone who ever harms an innocent being. Another case being from animal services directly themselves. I brought to them a cat who had been living with for years with a tumor on the side of his lip. meaning it was probably benign. And I took him through the spay and neuter program so they could also treat that uh tumor because I am of low income and they had in previous occasions treated for example a bite wound from a stray cat that she is still alive and well. And at uh the 3-day mark, they called me letting me know that they put him down. And I know that it takes more than multiple days for them to get that tested and get results back to know if it was malign or benign because it's an entire difference. One meaning the cat can live on well and the other meaning that it's going to keep deteriorating and they chose to put him down and I have his ashes. His name is Orange. Another case being when I called uh animal services for them to pick up a dog that was roaming and when the employee showed up in the truck. She was extremely forceful on this dog who did not want to walk when she put the leash around her his neck and the leash was the kind that the as soon as you pull it gets tighter on their neck and she was choking him. There's no other word for it. and I did not intervene at the moment even by saying words which was a mistake from on my part. Another case being that I called in a a dog that got picked up and 4 days later they put him down. Only four days they >> Mr. Miller >> and thank you for the time. >> Yeah, thank you. >> The next speaker is Barbara Valencia. Miss Valencia's topic is animal services hiring a new shelter director. She will be followed by Chris Veis. Good morning. >> Good morning. [laughter] >> Sorry about that. >> He might need those. >> Yeah. >> Good morning everybody. I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue. Hiring a new shelter director. According to the city manager, the shelter the animal shelter advisory committee, also known as the ASAC, will be invited to participate in the interview process for a new shelter director. However, the ASAC should not be involved in any aspect of hiring a shelter director due to a conflict of interest. During an ASAC meeting, the vice chairwoman praised Best Friends Animal Society and their inbed shelter program, claiming it has positively impacted our community. We have been living the nightmare caused by Best Friends for almost 5 years now. It's time for the city and animal services to end limited intake, refusing to accept stray and lost animals, leaving their defend for themselves on the streets. Too many animals have been indiscriminately breeding, suffering, and many died and will continue to die from starvation, exposure, predation, and being hit by vehicles. Community members are left with the tough decision of either leaving an animal on the street or taking it home, endangering their own families and pets. Meanwhile, local rescue organizations continue to be overwhelmed, frustrated, and financially strained while receiving no support from the city. Despite millions of tax dollars, millions of tax dollars allocated to animal services, this department continuously to fail fails to address the responsibilities as city officials with the power to intervene refuse to end this ongoing animal welfare catastrophe. But that is exactly what the ASAC wants for the animals in our community. In addition to the ASAC promoting Best Friends, that very same vice chairwoman stated at an ASAC meeting, Best Friends has given us a million dollars. When asked to elaborate on who is US and how was that money used, she refused to elaborate. When the vice chairwoman of the ASAC states at an ASAC meeting of us receiving a large sum of money, it stands it stands to reason the US is the ASAC. Giving money to influence or curry favor is called a bribe. Our city doesn't need another Best Friends affiliated person as shelter director. The city and the shelter are in a deep enough hole as it is and it will take years to get out of it because of best friends. Bringing in another best friend, supporter, affiliate, representative as a new shelter director will only dig us even deeper into the hole. Having the ASAC involved in any way when it comes to hiring a new director would be nothing short of corruption. Thank you. [applause] >> The next speaker is Chris Bles. Miss Bles's [music] topic is also El Paso Animal Services. She will be followed by Brenda Carvajal. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Morning. So, one thing is I voted for Lily and you sir based on accountability. Our new city manager is big on accountability, right? Fiscal accountability. The biggest problem I have with um this animal situation is that there's no accountability. There's no oversight. The ASAC board basically hangs out and pats each other on the back. They don't really do anything. So, I kind of want to put out there that maybe we sweep out the ASAC board. you reook at putting new people on the board and actually put people that do numbers, math, and don't have any residual feelings about how we should be going forward because we're not going forward. It's the same cycle, right? We don't want to put dogs down because we want a no kill equation, but it's not it's not feasible at this state mean that there's too many strays. One thing that I learned is I met with Michael and he does have a plan going forward, but he doesn't know how to implement it. And then one thing that kind of struck me as odd is that nobody speaks. County doesn't talk to the city. The city doesn't talk to the counties, right? So you have like Sooto, those 13 dogs that attacked that little girl. That was 100% preventable. They were actually picked up by Sooto Animal Control, taken to the shelter, and the shelter's new contract in 2024 gives them the option to say no. But the only shelter that has the capacity to accept animals hasn't been built up. Horizon hasn't been built up. Fabins hasn't built up. County doesn't even have a shelter and they're the rabies authority of the whole county. Right? So when they went to animal service and said, "Hey, we have these 13 strays, right? The neighbors are kind of mad about them. They're kind of dangerous." The city told them, "So sorry, we don't have space. Bye." So what did Sakoto do? Sooto cut them loose. Put them right back where they found them. So these 13 dogs were out and about, but now they were a pack because they got released in the same area. So, when this little girl is just minding her business, walking to the bus, she gets entangled up with 13 dogs. Am I saying they were vicious? No. Was she injured? She got a couple scratches. But had that been a bite, right? And these dogs were not vaccinated, which is another point, those 13 was were released back into the community unvaccinated, unvetted, unchecked. It's just like, here's my 13 dogs, and then I'm just going to throw them back out there. Right? So if one of them had rabies and gave that little girl rabies, she could have died. That's a severe uh injury to a human being, right? It goes neuro issues and then we eventually die if it's not treated. So you have these 13 dogs running around. They do what they do and then now they got picked back up and they got put to sleep and some of them were puppies. The the public was in, you know, messed up, was upset about it, but it had to be done. And that's one thing is that there's no group that has all these animal protection agencies that forces them to discuss, talk about saving money, about how are we going to make a difference, how are we going to work together. Nobody works together. And to me, it's obscene that we pay the money we do when they don't speak. >> So that's what I'm charging you guys with is that we need someone that's going to make that difference, meaning bring those groups together and make them work together so that we don't have these situations. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Brenda Carvajal. will be speaking in Spanish and council. We're trying out [clears throat] a new platform for translation. We've sent you a link to follow. You can also follow using the QR code displayed on the screen. Animal investig. investig Canadian. Um, number Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Yes. Toyotaas. Go ahead. The next speaker is Wanda Helguson. Miss Helguson's topic is ground lease at El Paso International Airport. She will be followed by Rico Velasquez. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Morning again, Mr. Mayor, council members. Um, my name is Wanda Helguson. I'm the executive director of Border Rack. We're a nonprofit corporation that serve to coordinate emergency health care and disaster preparedness amongst our health care providers. Typically, we're behind the scenes every day, but I feel very certain that our hospitals and our EMS providers would tell you um would speak to our contributions. We're currently planning um NICU and mass casualty exercises for our hospitals over the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2026. In August of 2012, the council approved a sub lease at the airport um for a hanger owned by TJW Aviation. It was noted for the storage of hospital and emergency medical supplies along with disaster response equipment assets that could assist the airport in the event of a catastrophic incident such as a plane crash. In July of 2023, we received notification that we needed to demonstrate aeronautical use. We submitted a plan to the city that reflected guidance that was provided by the airport. But after 6 months, receiving no response to that, we received a notice of default. We resubmitted our plan and waited an additional eight months with no response. No return phone calls, no return emails, not even communication regarding certified letters. It seems our attempts to cure that default was ignored. The termination of the ground lease came to the council on June 24th as part of the consent agenda. We were notified of that termination July 9th. The city received FAA determination letter August 7th after the termination was already done. We remain unclear as to the exact questions that were posed to the FAA as a later conversation with them confirmed areas of our earlier intent were never conveyed to them. An eviction notice was filed September 24th. We received that notice October 1st. We appeared before a JP judge on October 9th. The judge denied the eviction indicating that the city's termination of the lease was improper. And yet, we have received another notice to vacate. Unless a predetermined outcome is being sought, I do not understand why the city does not work with us to meet the requirements. I look forward to continuing to work with the city to resolve these issues and to move forward which with what has always been a very colleial working relationship. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Wanda. >> The next speaker is Rico Velasquez. Mr. Velasquez's topic is Pedra Street closure. He will be followed by Mustafa Rifi. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. [clears throat] >> Good morning, mayor and members of council. My name is Rico Velasquez. I'm the owner of Dwy's Corner Pub. Dwy's Corner Pub is a combat veteranowned and operate a small business in the heart of central El Paso. When I last spoke before you, I voiced my concern about the proposed 10-month street closure on Pedro Street. Since then, I've El Paso Waters clarified that the project could last 16 to 18 months, a year and a half of restricted access. For small businesses like mine, that's not a delay, and it's certainly not an improvement. It's a shutdown. What's even more frustrating is that the primary reason for this closure is to widen extend sidewalks. I've sat through countless discussions over the years with three different city representatives about potential exciting area improvements like gas lamps, illuminated crosswalks, and even trees. Yet the one project being pushed forward is the one area simp is the one our area simply does not need right now. El Paso water only joined in because city plans to demolish the street anyway for a sidewalk expansion project. In other words, this disruption is being driven by necessity. It's being driven by a want to use funds allocated from the city lights project. And because thousands have already been invested into the surveys and planning over the past decade, Dwy's Corner Pub has generated millions in state contributed over 1.1 million in taxes. And we're not alone. The small bars, restaurants, and venues throughout the 79903 zip code collectively generate millions of dollars each year's in taxes. Medions that help fund the very projects not threatening our livelihoods. We built this area in a thriving entertainment corridor without city grants, abatements, or corporate incentives, purely through personal investments, hard work, and community pride. This is why it's so disappointing that our own district representative, Dr. Josto, has not stood up for us. Every business owner who met with him made it clear that we oppose this closure. Yet, since this meeting, we've heard nothing. No update, no outreach, no engagement. And even after I stood here a month ago to raise the issue again, meanwhile, I continue to support the project. That silence feels disrespectful and dismissive to the very people that was elected to represent. This proposed closure would local businesses, threaten jobs, and erase years of organic growth in central El Paso. I'll continue to speak on these matters until this issue is addressed. And if necessary, I'll bring this to the matter to the attention of local media until we are heard. I heard city I urge city council to reevaluate this project. This timeline is true necessity. 16 to 18 months is unacceptable. And finally, I want to thank those who listened to my concerns about how code compliance has been reinforcing the city's norance policy and how that focus should shift towards muchneeded area repairs. Immediately after my last address to council, city maintenance trucks were on site addressing those issues. And that's leadership that makes that's what makes business owners feel appreciated and heard. If that was Dr. Ato's doing, I thank you. If it wasn't, then please take note. Thank you guys. Have a great day. >> Thank you, M. The next speaker is Mustafa Rifi. His topic is Pedra Street narrowing project. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, mayor, city council, members. Uh maybe some of you don't know the history of this project that Rico has spoken about. So during 2020, uh the co shutdown, larger sidewalk areas with open air environment were constructed to allow restaurants the ability to serve people. The same thing happened in New York City and other large cities. Fast forward 2, three years later and CO is no longer a thing to worry about and sidewalk and street dining is no longer needed or desired. I'm here to speak about the deception process that has taken place as it's still taking place now to push through a project that is rejected by all parties. The landlords, the business owners, the residential neighborhoods that will be affected by this ridiculous project. I want you all to know the type of deception that is taking place so everyone on council is informed properly what is going on. My first point proper procedure of informing the public and more specifically property owners and businesses affected was not done. When I asked both city reps 2 and 8 about when how and how what was who was informed the answer was we spoke to the five points association. So, we contact the FivePoint Association, better known as Five Points Development Association, to understand who gave them the authority to represent us. Here's what they said. One, we were never informed of the full detail of the project since 2020. Two, when we requested info from city reps, we were told you cannot understand it even though the person requesting the info on behalf of the association is an architect and teaches at Texas Tech. Number three, every time we asked for more info and express the neighborhood's rejection of this project as it stands, we were told that it's almost 70% now 90% design complete and still refuse to share info on the project or actually stopping the design process until the public is properly informed. The five points development association is taking the position that this project is not the best interest of five points and opposes it. The business and the property owners in the length of pedas have spoken out against this proposal. Business and property owners held the meeting with representative aso who ch champions this proposal and strongly voiced their opposition. Every single person in the meeting opposed it. When asked of an example of a similar s successful micro project that took place in the city, we Rodriguez of capital improvement spoke on the glowing economic success of the Cincinnati street project. The room erupted in laughter since many of the room businesses that that were there had closed businesses in the area because of that type of project. Today, a drive-through Cincinnati area will show how many buildings are empty, sales and leases, buildings are up for lease. and one of the anchor business Gio Jesse closed last New Year's Eve. At one point, our city claimed >> Thank you, sir. >> the water company wanted to notorious. Thank you. >> Must stop. Thank you. >> Appreciate your help. >> The final speaker on call to the public is Lisa Turner. Miss Turner's topic is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP. >> Good morning, Miss Turner. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Mayor Council. As everybody knows, you've seen everything in the news. Come one November, there will be no money for SNAP. State of Texas is sitting on a 24 to 26 billion surplus and they're unwilling to spend 1 cent. The United States Department of Agriculture has funds in reserve to fund SNAP benefits and they have chosen not to. So, in light of this, how many of your people use SNAP benefits? And how many of those are you going to allow to go hungry? What plans do you have in place to at least make sure that your employees are fed? Okay. Now, I haven't seen a whole lot coming from any of the churches or anybody else about kicking off any kind of campaign to help fund these people are going to be hungry. Even before this, it was 35% of the people in this county, including this city, didn't know where their next meal was coming from. You can't be much of a city or a community and turn your back on that. What kind of city can we be if we turn our back on children who go hungry every single night? And we do it every single day. We don't take action. I'm asking for leadership right now, mayor, from you and this council to pick up the ball and be the leaders in this. It's we can't let our neighbors go hungry. So, I'm going to ask you all to put a plan together first to take care of your own employees and then the rest of the city. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> council. Per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, no personal communication should take place on the day as well while the meeting is in session. Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you may speak twice per debatable motion and please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the day while the meeting is in session. For those of you joining us virtually, please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any background noise. That brings us to the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote. Members of the audience may ask question regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken if an item has not been called out for separate discussion. The item has been approved. Council may however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting. Mayor Prom. Thank you, Miss Prine. I move to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions. Page three, item four, move to the regular agenda per representative Maldonado Roachcha. Page four, item eight, move to the regular agenda per representative Maldonado Rocha. >> Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. Second. >> Is there any discussion on any of the consent agenda items? >> Mayor, we do have public comment. Okay. On item five. Okay. >> And item five is a request of waiver of penalties and interest in the amount of $23766 for a property owned by taxpayer [music] Chick-fil-A. Mr. Turner signed up to speak on this item. >> Okay. >> Good morning. >> Good morning again, Mayor and Council. I'm opposed to this. Chick-fil-A has its own CPAs, its own accountants, and it has its own lawyers. If they missed it, it's because of their incompetence or they just didn't want to pay their bill. Uh I can barely understand it when an individual messes up because I account for every single penny I've got because I have to budget. So I don't think you should give them a free walk. I think they should be held accountable. I think they should pay the bill. I think they should pay the penalties because they have the attorneys, they have the CPAs, they have the bookkeepings, they have the lawyers. There's absolutely zero excuse for them not to have paid. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Prime. >> Yes, sir. That concludes public. >> Representative Canales, >> can I comment on this item? I'm pretty >> sure. I just wanted to make clear that uh in this particular case uh this taxpayer uh was able to provide sufficient evidence to show that it was an administrative error on our side that caused a late payment. Um and so uh and it reads, "Whereas the taxpayer submits evidence sufficient to show that an actor, emission of an officer, employee or agent of the taxing unit, uh caused or resulted in the taxpayers's failure to pay before delinquency date and if the tax is paid not later than the 21st day after the taxpayer knows or should know of the delinquency." And so um they met that in this case and uh that that's the reason for the waiver. >> Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion on any consent agenda items? Miss Pry. >> Yes, sir. >> The motion was made by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor prom to approve the consent agenda as revised. On that motion, call for the vote. Voting session is open. Representative Lemon. >> Thank you. And the voting session and that motion passes unanimously. >> Okay, Miss Brian, let's take item I mean page number three, item number four. >> Yes, sir. Item four is a resolution with a list of solid waste tax leans or environmental lease. >> Okay. Represent Brocha, do you have a motion? I motioned to postpone this until next week. And the only reason that I want that is because I have an item that's coming up on the November 4th agenda that I'm adding. [music] I've been working with uh the attorney's office and and Nikki uh Ibara to be able to come up with a solution uh regarding the leans. Also, we just received information this morning um that we had I had had a conversation with Nick back on the 24th, I believe. Yes, it was the 24th. And so, I now have that information. I know it's standard to go ahead and just approve the leans. Um this really has to go back and look at the at the environmental piece of it, which is the trash, the debris, everything else. We're just trying to create a framework for the lean process. So, if you'll just indulge me and postpone until next Tuesday, which is the 4th, that item is already on the agenda and I'd appreciate any support on that. >> Okay, there's a motion to postpone. Represent Canales. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right, represent Canales. >> Thank you. Just to better understand what is what is the issue with the lean process? >> It's messy. So there's if if um there's a framework that really goes from code enforcement to ESD to the finance to municipal court and back again. And we're just trying to just create a a tighter framework for the individuals for the properties owners. That's all it is. It's not trying to negate it or trying to say we don't want them to pay it. It's just trying to create just an absolute framework with a solid time frame in it because right now there's there's some time frames uh based off of what I've seen that are a little loose. >> And is the intent then for the properties listed for leans today to go back through the whole process again? >> No, not at all. No, they're just holding on to the leans, just postponing this item until next week. We can vote on it next week to approve the leans to go forward or otherwise. But that's that's the only intent of this. >> Okay. I'm just not understanding the connection between cleaning up the lean process and then postponing these particular leans that have already gone through the process >> because it has to do the So, I'll give you some some some backstory. Originally, I was requesting to go in and say, "Okay, well, let's not do code enforcement on trash and debris, weeds mainly." And that was simply because of the fact that we, the city, had a huge problem in our own backyard. And so that's not possible because that would be considered um there's a health and safety aspect to it which would mean that my neighbor would not be able to call and get the other neighbor cited or there's an issue or whatever the case is. Then the next step was well let's go ahead and look at waving those p those those costs for the citations once it's already been cleaned. That's considered a gift of public funds. So then the next piece is now let's look at the lean process. Let's look to see is there a way to create a payment plan because that's part of what the issue is and part of what we provided which is not in the backup and I apologize for that. Uh we received it this morning right before council. There's about 435 properties that were cleaned by clean El Paso this year so far. Out of all of those, it looks like 10, 20, 30, 45, maybe 75 have been gone gone through a payment plan. So, it's just trying to create a payment plan where it's more visible to the property owners to let's get more people into that payment plan versus requiring a lean or moving them to the lean process. So, there's still an opportunity before they get approved by council to go into the payment plan. Am I correct on that, Miss Miss Neman? >> Mhm. So, there is an opportunity for these individuals or these property owners to still go into a payment plan versus having a lean put on their property. So, that's the purpose of it. It's just to just to to try to to maybe reach out before I say we're already working on it. It's been something in the works that that we've been working on for I think we finally landed on this after several months of discussion. And so it's just trying to to see can we get these people on a payment plan before it goes on a lean on their property. And that's the only thing. >> Okay. So it's just offering these folks the opportunity for a payment plan. They have had that opportunity. I mean, these cleanups happened between March and June 2024, >> right? >> So, more than 500 days ago, >> right? >> Okay. And the request for postponement is three weeks. >> No, just next next week. >> So, next week. >> Yeah. Because time to contact all of them and give them the opportunity to >> I I think so. It's a very short list. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Represent Lemon. [clears throat] >> I'm not clear on the action. I'm I'm sorry. I just want to be clear making sure you have a motion. So you're asking the staff to go back to everybody who's in a lean process right now or we waiting till next week to have that further conversation so we have direction from the body with a presentation before I I have the item next week. So if we can I'm sorry >> you're asking to postpone right >> to postpone it till next week so that we can decide what the situation is going to be what the vote will be out of next week's item and then we can move forward with action. Thank you. So, right now it's just postponement. Yes. Okay. Represent Limon. >> I I'm not sure the need um for this. I I was very concerned when I first came on council this time with those lean list. And Nick Nicholas, I'm not sure where you're at. I see you over there. Um I had a conversation with him. I was concerned that there would be a lean on a property, elderly couple, one dies. I mean, just there's a whole bunch of scenarios here. And so our office has taken the role of contacting and reaching the people that appear on that lean list. And it's the most difficult thing to do in the whole wide world. Uh we have an address. We may not have a phone number, but we we have we've tried on every single possible level to reach them and make them aware. Yes, there is a payment plan. And in the beginning, it was stated there is no payment plan. Yes, there is. And I'll tell you that they'll be happy to receive $5 a month. I mean, it's simple. And I think that that we're where we're discussing this and asking perhaps staff to go through more jump through more hoops. I think the process is in place. If we want to do something about it, I think that we need to do it because staff has already done everything up to the point of bringing it before city council. If we want to change it within ourselves within our office, then we need to do it. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Okay. Thank you, Representative Fiero. >> Question for Miss Neman. Mr. Demon, once the lean has been posted or or placed on a property, it once it the the amount is paid in full, then the lean is removed. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. That's correct. >> All right. Thank you, mayor. >> Okay. And and Miss, I guess I got a question. Is there a cost to place these leans >> and then to get them removed? >> Yes. >> Yes. It's part of the It's part of what goes on to the lean process that we add to the lean portion. I don't have those specific numbers, but we can provide them. >> Okay. So, the motion is to postpone this until next Tuesday, Miss Prime. And there was a second by Representative Fier. Is there any further discussion on this item number four? >> All right. Hearing none, Miss Prime, please call for the vote. >> Yes, sir. on the motion to postpone for one week. Call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes 621. Representative Lemon voting nay. Representative Canales not present. >> Okay, Miss Prime, let's take page four, item number eight. >> Yes, sir. And item number eight is a resolution authorizing the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing to notify Aztec Contractors, Inc. that the city is terminating contract number 2025-0398 EPIA terminal roof repairs pursuant to attribute 18 subsection 7 liquid A damages for failure to enter into contract of the solicitation documents and the termination shall be effective as of October 28 2025 and that the city may take all necessary steps to seek forfeite of vendors bid bond as liquidated damages >> represent Roachcha want to make a motion Thank you, mayor. Uh, I make a motion to um I've [laughter] tried to >> one give me >> I make a motion to um deny the approval or deny the termination of the lease. >> Okay. Is there a second to this motion? >> Second. >> There's a second. Okay. U discussion. Representative Rocha, >> thank you, Mayor. And and I know that we had uh I had conversation with Claudia. Thank you for for taking my call. I had a a a brief conversation with Claudia regarding this. I had a more extensive conversation with Aztec contractors um last week, late Friday, and and I just have a couple of uh well, actually, I have a few questions, so bear with me. So I understand that part of the contract or the reasoning be behind the termination of the contract is because there was a failure to provide a payment and performance bond that was part of the packet or the award packet. Is that correct? >> Good morning Claudia Garcia. Yes, that is correct. >> Okay. And then I understand that that process of having So let me back up. The contract had not been executed. Correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Now my understanding from from speaking not only to asset contracting but to other contractors within within the world of federal contracting, department of defense contracting or even public contracting that it's not particularly the norm to have a payments and performant payment and performance bond executed prior to the contract being executed. So, I did a little digging and I went back and I looked that the Miller Act is the one that provides the federal the federal projects. We go based off of that federally. In Texas, we have what's called the Little Miller Act, and that's the state of Texas and any municipal properties and projects that go regards to that. So, more specifically, Texas Government Code 2253. Now, in there, what I could find was that all it said in that code was that the payment and performance bond had to be provided before beginning work. So, it did not state anywhere in the code, and I scoured it. It did not state that it needed to be provided prior to contract execution. So, can you explain to me, Claudia, why the city has that stipulation in its award packet when I can't find it in the code that goes directly to projects and contract or contractual projects with the with the municipalities. Okay. It has been the practice to request those contracts to execute uh a city contract for construction and uh we have never had an issue with contractors providing PMP bonds before executing the contract. >> Okay. So then so then the next thing is is that um where is that in the city code? Is there something that says that in the city code or does it only exist in the packet of the award? To my knowledge there is uh no regulation in the city code. It is just standard practice for the city. >> So then how does the city the city has a layer which seems to me which seems to me that um is a layer above what the state provides or the state requires. Is that typical? >> And I believe there's a hot mic somewhere. So, Rep. Representative, for the most part, the requirements on executing the contract are part of the purchasing and procurement rules when we put the project out to bid. So, [snorts] that's part of what they that a bidder is put on notice of. And then the city is allowed to have more stringent items or procedures than the state procurement statute. So, we have had a long-standing practice of requiring these um deadlines prior to the execution of a contract. >> So, so let me I guess restate it then. If if it's in the award packet and I can find it online regarding the state, where can I find it when it comes to the city other than the award packet? Because I don't have access to that award packet. So, where would I be able to find that? So the information it is included as part of every solicitation that we procure for construction. So the requirement of the PMP bond insurance for contract execution, it is part of the documents that are in desol stationation. >> But nothing that I would be able to find as part of city code or contractual obligations or requirements. >> Not to the extent you're >> okay looking for. >> Okay. So then >> representative. Yes ma'am. >> If I could just interject for a second. When an awardee is granted the award and they've submitted the package, they are committing to comply with the terms and conditions of the bid award. >> Right. >> Right. So when a bidder comes forward and says, I want to submit a bid for X, Y, and Z. They are obligated to be put on notice that they are going to meet those certain requirements. >> So it's part of our process in the procurement process that we put them on notice. We don't codify it or put it in a separate area because every contract has specific deadlines based on the needs of the department. Okay. >> So, it's on a case- by case basis and they decide that before it goes out to bid. >> Thank you. Thank you for the explanation. So, that that leads me to my next question. um construction companies or contractors are required to go down to their shity company in order to obtain their payment and performance bond. That's typically the the the process. in my conversation not only with with Aztec contracting but with other contractors that do um local projects, public projects, federal projects, DoD projects. It's not standard to have the payment and performance bond prior to contract execution. So I I don't know if that's if if if you'll allow me. Um, when I spoke to you last night, Galia, you said that you had spoken with somebody from the shity company to confirm that they would not provide the payment and performance bond to asset contracting. Is that correct? >> So, we met with uh the shy company >> from uh this contractor and they indicated that they were not going to provide the PMP bonds after meeting an explanation of our process as included in the solicitation. C do you remember the date of that conversation by any chance? >> October 7th. >> October 7th. Correct. >> And who did you speak with from the shity company? >> I don't have that uh that information. Um but we maybe >> do you have the name of the person? >> Jonathan. >> Jonathan. >> Jonathan. >> Russell. You spoke with Jonathan Russell? >> Yes, my staff did. >> Who on your staff spoke with him? >> Good morning, Crystal Bus with purchasing and strategic sourcing. I spoke to Mr. Russell in that meeting. >> Okay. And that was on the 7th. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you so much. Is it typical for the city to speak with a shy company or the agent of a shy company? So what we have as practice it is try to help contractors to meet requirements before we move to extreme uh recommendations. Uh so we can help them meet the requirements or if they have questions we can clarify. So it is our standard process to try to help to the extent possible. Okay. And and I know that Aztec has done previous uh very big projects for the city of El Paso uh pretty significant projects within the city. Is that something that they were required to do prior? >> Yes, correct. Uh so we have in uh our records uh prior awards and they met the requirement for those awards. >> But requirements I I'm asking specifically if the payment and performance bond was required prior to the contract execution. >> Yes, we are following the same process or uh contract was awarded. We provided contract documents including the requests of insurance and PMP bonds and those were provided before executing the contract. Okay. Typical um for so I went in and I dug a little bit more with the shity companies. It's not practice typically to provide that payment and performance bond prior to the contract execution. So what was the delay on the contract execution? our practice uh it is uh requiring to have PMP bonds insurance and uh execute a signed contract by the contractor so the city can execute the contract. So those items are required prior. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then uh let me ask you there was an email that was sent to staff on 107 correct and I believe that they had provided a scan of the payment and performance bond draft if and forgive me for not knowing the exact verbiage on that. Who on staff responded to that email? >> So, we did get uh some scan documents. >> Mhm. >> Let me go to my timeline. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> I know it was last uh week. I just don't have it in my in my notes. >> Is it in the timeline that Miss M I haven't had an opportunity to review it, Miss Mack? So, I don't know if it's in the timeline that you provided. So we received uh an email with uh some scan documents yesterday uh last week. Um I got notification yesterday. >> I I show 107. So on the 107 date, I'm asking who on staff responded to that email specifically please. So that day that's when we met with uh the shy company and asked to reiterate the requirements in the solicitation. >> It was an it was the email if I believe it was after that meeting. >> So >> they sent the email >> I sent an email yesterday to them when they were requesting confirmation the receipt of the PMP bonds >> but I don't have uh the original completed uh documents. So on so on 107 am I understanding that there was no response to them? >> That's when we met with uh with them. >> I'm I'm sorry in email. Gladia please. >> Yeah I don't have that in >> we don't have record timeline of the email you're referencing now. >> Okay. There's there's no record of you all receiving anything from from the contractor on the on the 7th >> 21 and then we >> Okay. So we we did receive and let me just step back a little bit. >> Yeah, please. >> Uh 929 we did receive uh draft PMP bonds. >> Then we met with them 107 to clarify and uh continue reiterating uh the requirements on the PMP bonds. >> So you met So you got the email on 929. >> Yes. >> Then you met with them on 107. Yes. There was no email on 107. Is that my understanding? >> It was the meeting that we had. >> It was just a meeting, but not an email. Is that correct? >> Yes, that is correct. >> Okay. Repres back up. Yeah, I'm going tee you back up. Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, >> and I haven't been uh briefed specifically on this item. I haven't spoken to anyone about it, but what I'm hearing is and I just want to reiterate um you know to the community that we have to be really careful about city process you know or what we've typically done versus what we legally need to do. So there's maybe a fine line between those two things. I would you know encourage staff to review those things and I know that we're going to be working on that in the future. Um, anytime companies, you know, solicit work with the city, we have to be very careful about how we manage those things because of course we want to stick to the law of things. But at the same time, you know, we are um dealing with people and businesses and employment and financial stability. And these matters are very delicate in nature because they could potentially affect a company, a family in a very direct way. So, we have to take the work that we're doing seriously. Um, and I just want to reassure the community that that that is why um these decisions hold a lot of weight for all of us. So, just something to consider. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Representative Rocha. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh I I have one question and then if if you'll allow me to hear public comment after my question, I'd appreciate it. >> Uh would terminating the contract today result in legal ineligibility in future projects for Aztec? >> No, that is not part of the resolution. >> Okay. And then if I could hear the public comment from from Aztec, please. Miss Prime. >> We're going to take represent Nino, then I'll go to the public. He has a quick Thank you, mayor. I have a one quick question. So after council awards a contract, you guys go through the negotiation process and prepare all the paperwork. Correct. That's the phase that we are at. >> So if uh depending on the methodology that we're using, uh negotiation happens before uh purchasing is recommending an award. >> Okay. And >> so right now we're just in the execution of the contract phase. And so if this motion was to be denied, we would go back to like the the conversation and try to negotiate. I'm trying to understand what the next steps could potentially be. >> So what was the motion representative Rocha again on this to >> to deny the termination? >> Okay. >> So if it get if the if the item if her motion passes, what are the next steps? I'm trying to understand what is the process. Is it back to negotiation and ensuring that they have the correct paperwork? I also didn't get brief so I'm trying to really get all the picture together so I could understand further. >> So after that we would I guess try to get the missing documents to execute a contract and then once the contract is executed um start the project. >> Okay. Thank you mayor. >> Okay u miss prank can we have cough to the on the consent agendas? >> We have the first speaker is Frank Spencer III. He will be followed by Nancy Camarena, Adrian Reese, Jonathan Russell, and Jeff Parkerst. Good morning. You have three minutes. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, uh, mayor, members of council, uh, city manager. Uh, my name is Frank Spencer III, president of Aztec Contractors. Today, I'm here to address a serious lack of communication and responsiveness from the city regarding our awarded contract bonding requirements and material cost savings proposal. From the onset, Aztecs complied with every request made by the city. We've submitted the executed contract documents. We provided the certificate of insuranceances and all the mandatory forms. We began background checks process with our subcontractors. We submitted the draft performance and payment bonds showing full shity capability. And we submitted a compli uh compliant material proposal designed to save the city money while meeting all specifications and warranty obligations. On August 18th, we met with the mayor, city attorney, and city manager and other officials, and we expressly told the cost-saving material alternatives, if equal and in performance, will be reviewed in the interest of taxpayer savings. On October 7th, Aztec Aztec hosted a meeting with our bonding agent and city staff to explain the final bond execution requires an executed contract, which is standard national security practice. The city acknowledged this and said they would consult with the director and provide us with further direction. From that point forward, Aztec repeatedly followed up in good faith on both the bonding process and the material proposal, but the city did not respond or provide direction. This lack of communication prevented it prevented Aztec from moving forward despite every effort to cooperate. The documents issued by Aztec by the city included the award letter and instructions requires bonds to secure the contract. Yet nowhere do they state that those bonds must be delivered prior to execution of the contract. In fact, the bond forms themselves legally bind the shy only to an executed uh agreement meaning the contract must be finalized before the bonds are effective. Our shy confirmed this is standard practice nationwide and under Texas government code chapter 2253. Aztec acted in full good faith. We submitted the draft bonds early explained that the explained shy requirements on October 23rd. We sub submitted fully executed performance and payment bonds electronically. Instead of accepting them, the city responded that hard copies were needed even though the requirement appears nowhere in the contract documents. In light of this ambiguity and the city's own lack of response to our repeated follow-ups, we respectfully assert that the termination is premature, proced procedurally defective, and not supported by the terms of the solicitation or Texas law. We remain fully ready and able and willing to perform on this project immediately. At no point has Aztec delayed or refused any requirements. We have fully complied while the city has not provided responses, direction, nor necessary contract execution on material determination. We're here today to respectfully request that we're ready to uh proceed upon notice to proceed on this project. We want to do this project for the city. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Nancy Kamarena. She will be followed by Adrien Reese, Jonathan Russell, Jeff Parker. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Mayor and members of council. >> I'm chief revenue officer at Aztec Contractors. again the contractor awarded for this project. I'm here today because we have identified serious irregularities surrounding the specific or specified roofing material suppliers. As a result, we have proceeded proposed a cost-saving material substitution that would save the city and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars without compromising quality warranty or FAAB compliance. To date, those cost-savings options have not been addressed. During both the pre- bid and the post bid phases, AIC and multiple roofing subcontractors attempted to obtain standard pricing approved subcontractor list freight cost and technical guidance from the specified supplier representative Oscar of Garland. Instead, we encountered failure to provide pre-qualified roofing contractor list or unit material pricing prior to bidding. inconsistent and inflated freight pricing through his personal logistics company. Statements from the supplier indicating a 300 300% markup for personal profit on Garland materials. A non-roofing contractor personally invited by the supplier to bid and offer a profit split of $700,000. Different subcontractors receiving different prices days apart with differences exceeding $100,000. comments suggesting procurement favoritism and soul sourcing despite public procurement rules that require fair competition. These are not allegations made by AIC alone through independent subcontractors including vendors who regularly work with Garland in other regions reporting this behaviors as highly irregular and inconsistent with Garland's national practice. Why this matters to the city? The current specification effectively locks the city into a one source leading to inflated prices. taxpayer dollars would be unnecessarily spent on artificial markups and undisclosed logistic arrangements. Aztec submitted a foreman material substitution request offering an equal or better roofing system with fully warranty compliance, equal performance and FAA standards and significant cost savings to the city. Those savings could be returned to the city, used for unforeseen conditions of the project, or applied to other present city needs. During our meeting with city leadership on October 7th, we were told this cost-saving alternatives will be reviewed in alignment with the city's fudiciary duty to taxpayers. However, we we never received any response or determination. We respectfully asking council and the mayor to direct the city staff to formally review or cost-saving material substitution proposal or to allow Aztec the opportunity to present those savings in a public or administrative forum before any termination action proceeds. We believe due process transparency and fiscal responsibility require that these unresolved material irregularities and cost-saving opportunities be reviewed before taxpayer dollars are committed under pot are committed under potentially inflated terms. Thank you for your time and your service to the citizens of El Paso. I am available to answer any questions. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Adrien Greece, followed by Jonathan Russell and Jeff Parkhurst. Good morning. You have three minutes. >> Thank you. Uh, city council, I think you all are tasked with a very, very difficult job. From the onset of this meeting, uh, as the chaplain spoke, you all are stewards of this community. You are leaders of this community. We are asking for fairness, uh, as a small business, as taxpayers of this community as well. We ask that y'all do not revoke this contract. If going to revoke if you're going to revoke this contract, you're looking at possible second place bidder, which is roughly $800,000 above our pricing. $800,000 with the potential cost savings that we've offered the city for about $500,000. You're talking about $1.3 million that could be used for other projects as a uh change orders contingency for other things that are necessary for this project or for other things that are necessary for the airport. We really ask that you consider not revoking this contract. We have provided the documents stated. We're asking for clarification and communication through the city with the through the proper forms, through the project managers, through the architect, but we have not received that information. We ask kindly that you do not revoke this contract. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Jonathan Russell. Mr. Russell, star six, please to unmute your telephone. >> Jonathan Russell. Good morning. You have three minutes. >> Uh, good morning. Uh, I'm Jonathan Russell with Epic Brokers, a shy agent for Aztec contractors. appreciate the opportunity to speak with you on behalf of them regarding the bombing for the EPIA terminal roof repairs project. Uh as a SH agent, our role is to serve as an intermediary between Aztec and SH carriers. While shies focus on underwriting risk assessment, they often don't have full visibility into the specific context of a particular bond request. That's where agents like myself help bridge the cap gap by managing communication and facilitating the bond execution process on their behalf. Typically, a Shirley will not issue performance and payment bonds without a fully executed contract, meaning both parties must sign the agreement. On September 29th, at Aztec's request, we provided draft copies of the required performance and payment bonds for this project. These included all required principal and shy details except for the bond number. It also had a watermark noting they were draft copies. The intent was to demonstrate bond availability and Aztec's commitment to meeting the bonding requirement pending contract execution as a standard. Following the providing of those bond copies, we participated in a Zoom call on October 7th with Aztec in the city of El Paso. On that call as an agent, we explain that is standard industry practice to wait for a fully executed contract before issuing bonds as the shy's obligation is tied directly to the contract terms which should be finalized before they approve release of bonds. There was no final decision made on that call and we offered to be available for any follow-up uh questions but received no further communication from the city. The next communication we were made aware of was the termination notice dated October 21st. After Aztec informed us of this notice, we immediately approached the shy to request approval to release the performance payment of bonds despite not having a fully executed contract. We provided the contract copies that was signed by Aztec and the shy was comfortable pro proceeding with the release of bonds under specific conditions given the urgency of the matter. We provided the electronic copies of those executed bonds on October 23rd and sent the original hard copies out via mail. At this time, I'd like to reiterate that while issuing bonds without a fully executed contract is uncommon, shies and their underwriters may at their discretion still choose to pro uh proceed based on specific circumstances in their underwriting judgment. During the October 7th call, we outlined standard best practices in the shy industry, but in no way did we indicate that issuing bonds without a fully executed contract was impossible, just that it was not standard. Had the city communicated with us or Aztec at any point between that call and the issuance of the termination letter on October 21st that they were absolutely unwilling to execute the contract without the bonds. We would have engaged the shy to explore options just as we ultimately did when we provided those bonds on October 23rd. [clears throat] Thank you for your time. >> The final speaker is Jeff Parkhurst. Mr. Parkhurst, are you in the queue? Jeff Parkhurst. >> I don't see his phone number in the Q. Mayor. >> Okay. Represent. >> Unable to. [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. >> He was unable to attempt. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Representative Tjo. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> I did I did get a chance to get briefed with Claudia. Uh sometime recently. I think it was a couple of days ago, but you know, in my in when I was briefed, I I did have a few questions to Claudia, and I'm going to ask them again. Claudia, if you had had any issues with this contractor in the past with receiving any any documentation that was required, >> I indicated prior projects uh they did meet the requirement before executing a contract. >> Okay. If if this uh contract is terminated, what would this look like going forward? Would would you would it go to the next bidder? Would it would you have to restart the bidding process? >> So, we would need to start the bidding process again as all the bids had expired already. >> Okay. And then rebidding, what does that process look like? How much time are we talking about is having to go back and rebid it? So we are we're anticipating a four month uh delay on the project as we would need to go out again uh based on the FAA requirements to have a competitive procurement process to select the contractor that will be doing uh this uh performing under this contract. >> Okay. So you would have to go back and rebate it. What does that look like as far as cost having to have the staff go back and redo all this again? I don't have those uh numbers, but it would be like starting a new procurement. >> Starting a new procurement. This is a rep uh reconstruction for a roof or fixing the roof. Correct. >> Yes. More details on the scope of work. I'm going to ask airport to answer those questions. >> Sure. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Shane Brooks with the airport. Yes, ma'am. This is the reconstruction of the terminal roof. So, it's the middle part of the terminal. This is one that we won several grants for. So, we're excited to get started. >> Very good. Wi with the weather, you know, winter coming. Is there are there any hazards to not getting this roof repaired immediately? >> No, no, no. It's an old roof. It's in need of repair, but but we're used to to maintaining it, so the time. >> Thank you. Uh and then more questions for Claudia. Uh Claudia, we had received the bonds. Is that correct? you've received. >> We did get uh a scan of uh the PMP bonds. So, we don't have the original as uh requested in the award letter. >> I'm sorry, what is that again? >> We don't have the original documents as requested in the award letter. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you, >> Representative Fier. >> Thank you, Mayor Clney. During the description, we there was the batcher going around. Did I hear somebody say that they changed the specs when they submitted their their proposal or to the city? >> No. So I think that they indicated that they are going to be providing uh approval to change certain materials as it is allowed after a contract is executed. uh there is a process in the general conditions that they can submit uh at the um substitutions if they meet uh performance specifications and design. >> Okay. And then we're talking about a a practice that we we we usually do from your office is that's that's the whole conversation. >> So that is after the contract has been executed and that is uh managed by the user department in this case would be airport >> after a contract has been executed. represent DJO just asked a question about the bonding and um is it a us so is this process usual practice is that what I'm >> the PMP bond request >> what we're what we're going through today is it usual practice for a b for a company a construction company to to supply the bond bond to the city as you're requesting >> correct >> as you're describing >> yes uh for the past 15 years I've been here with the city. That has been the practice. And uh when a contract has been awarded, we do request the contract signed by the contractor PMP bonds and insurance and we receive them so we can execute the contract. >> And and this company has done lots of great work for the city in the past and they've always complied. But what I'm hearing is this time it's been it was different. >> Yes, it has been different based on our experience. >> Thank you. Okay, represent. >> Thank you, mayor. I am trying to get clarity. I just feel like this is really messy to say the least, and I want to understand. Okay. What what is missing right now? It's the PMP bond. >> So, we are pending the original payment and performance bonds. >> That's it. >> That's it. >> Okay. And I'm seeing that there was a meeting that was held on October 7th with Aztec to reiterate the requirements in our solicitation, which means you were asking for the PMP bond at that meeting. >> Correct. >> Okay. And they told you we're not going to provide PMP bonds until the contract is executed, signed. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then on October 15th, 8 days later, you created termination documentation. So what happened between October 7th and October 15th? As soon as you walked out of that meeting, you said, "Okay, we're terminating it because they don't want to give us this or I'm I'm not very clear there." >> So we started coordinating with the airport to see what was the plan of action. Uh then they got in touch with FAA. So we recommended we provided our recommendation to FAA. So, we were waiting on concurrence from FAA and we did get uh that concurrence and that's when we placed the item in the agenda. >> Okay. So, but as soon as you walked out of that meeting, you knew that you were going to do this cuz you were at a stalemate. They said no, you wanted those the PMP bond and then you said, "Okay, well, it's time to terminate." And you started doing it 8 days later. So we coordinate with the airport based on our documents in the solicitation and that is one of uh of the notices that we're including in the solicitation where we can uh provide this recommendation if uh the contractor fails to provide the contract documents required. >> Yeah, it's still not super clear but okay let's let's ask something different. So AIC has done work with the city before. There's been different projects. >> Correct. >> And they've done a PMP bond before every single time before the contract is executed. >> Uh correct. >> For sure. >> Yes. I have a note of uh two of those uh projects. It is it was 2021 1445 Prime View and Nolan Richardson renovations and 2021 1422 Penguin exhibit. >> Okay. Um, can I ask AIC if this is true and what's different this time? Somebody from ASIC could come up. >> Would we? >> I can do. >> Miss Prank, can we do this? Can I come back up for >> I could give some of my time to >> It's still his time of hearing. He can use his time to ask a question. >> Sure. >> Thank you, M. Prank. >> In the past, all of our bonds provided have been with an executed contract. We've always had an executed contract prior to submitting our performance and payment bonds and and it what it stands is within 10 days of execution, it's our responsibility to provide a performance and payment bond. >> Okay. >> And that that's been done. >> Okay. So, what you're saying is that every work the 2021 projects that were just mentioned, the PMP bond was submitted after the contract was executed. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Not before. >> Not before. >> Okay. And Claudia, you disagree. >> Okay. Nicole Cody, um, city manager's office. If I may, representative, I think that the thing that we're confusing is when it's awarded by council. And so many of times once it's awarded by council, you've already approved it. You've approved everything to move forward. It's our responsibility and purchasing to ensure we do make sure all of the paperwork is completed. And so when the contract, even the solicitation goes out, just to take a step back and really reiterate what Miss Neman said is that's the contract. So council's already approved the contract. And so I think we're interchanging words where here it's very important on how we use these words. And so once cons council has approved it, we've got the documentation and we get the PNP bonds very easily because it's been approved by council. And who needs anything else really? Right. And so with that then we get the documentation and it's in the solicitation which is our contract. So it was really important when you said our contractual obligations when they submit [clears throat] their proposal they're agreeing to those contractual obligations. That's why the solicitation itself becomes the contract that council approves. And so that way that we avoid any confusion and we avoid um what what you all want to avoid, right, is having it different every time. So we actually have standardized the template with our help of our city attorney's office to be able to do that. And so if you want do you have the paper? So in the contract itself, it's part of the solicitation, the solicitation the contractor won and it specifically states under item 8 the bonding requirements and everybody gets to see this. This isn't just someone who has been awarded the contract. This is anyone who is interested in submitting a bid. And so that's really important, right? We were always talking about a fair and competitive environment and ensuring that everybody knows upfront what the expectations are. And so with that, thank you. Then we have item seven. Right before the requirements in item 8, it states liquidated damages for failure to enter into contract. In the event the successful bidder fails to refuse to execute and deliver the contract insurance certificates, bonds and resident agent designation as required herein, which is the contract 14 days after the bidder has received notice of award. So the notice of award is your approval. you are providing that notice of award when you approve at council. So did we try to work with this vendor? Of course. Does it make sense that it went beyond 14 days? Maybe we should only leave it at 14 days. Contractually that's all we had to do. >> Okay. >> But we in we wanted to work with them because they have done business with the city before >> and Okay. So from everything you just said on July 23rd when con when this was ordered by council so about 3 months ago you are kind of saying that is the executed contract >> that's the notice of award and that has been sufficient for all other awards that have been made that have required a P&P bond >> because council's the ultimate deciding authority. So the contract's done at that point even if it's not signed on the dotted line but >> we have to verify all the other documentations that are required per the contract have been signed and that's what that's what purchasing is for >> and and so if there is the documentation the PMBB let's say the PMP bond that was given today would that be sufficient to be good with this contract? So since since we posted uh recommending termination, it would be up to council to deny the recommendation for termination. And to answer representative Nino's question, then we would have the final PMBB bond and make sure we have the full packet to execute. >> So a denial would say, "Okay, now get the PMP. It went to council and if you have the PMP, then it stays with you." >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Representative Chavez. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Nicole. I have um a few follow-up questions on that. So, council approves of a bid, but then there is a lapse of time between council approval and the actual start time of a project. Is that correct? So, if if you're saying that when council approves, it's synonymous with execution of a contract. Is that is that what you're saying? I want to be very clear. No. >> Uh, no. So what I'm saying is the notice of award has been sufficient for previous all other for the past 15 years vendors to provide the necessary documentation because council has awarded it. >> Yes. >> And so there's I'm sorry just to clarify. Go ahead. So when um it was discussed as I think one of them said it was best practice to have an executed contract then we receive uh then they're able to give us the performance bonds. Well the notice of award has acted in that way. It's not synonymous because we still have to formally execute. >> I know. So my point is this. If if a company is required to get a bond to the execution of that contract, you're saying that they should go ahead and get the bond months prior to the contract even starting. >> I I mean, because that's that's that's what we're questioning today. We're questioning whether the company should be required even though they're legally not required, which we just determined from Representative Rocha's uh statement of the law, right? uh the little I'm sorry, Representative Roacha Little Miller Little Miller. The Little Miller Act does not legally require them to do it, but it's city practice for that to occur. >> So after a award by the city council, that's when we request those documents because we're notifying them that city council has awarded that contract to them. So we need those documents in order to fully execute the construction contract and then issue NTP so the project can start. So, so when according to um either of you, when should the company according again not by law but by city practice, when should they solicit that bond? >> Is it when council approves or when the the contract is actually executed? >> So the a work notice that we submit to them or we provide to them. It is after city council has approved uh the item by the end of that Tuesday. But then they were then they would have a bond tied up for months potentially, right? Because the contract might not be executed. So they would just have to have a bond ready to go potentially for months before it's actually started. So it is my understanding that contractors uh use that award notification or award letter to provide to the P uh to the shy company. So the shy company can provide the PMP bonds for the contract amount. But if there is a delay in the start of a project for example then that contractor that company would basically have to sit on that bond till whenever the city decides to move forward. So, it is taking capacity of uh with their their jury. >> And I think that's where I have an issue with because if they're not legally required to do it, the city is, you know, basically binding them to something that they don't legally have to do for for when for however much time, right? We don't know because sometimes um sorry, projects are delayed for whatever reason. So, I I think I have an issue with this. The second question I have is in terms of the FAA termination. Um, we received notice that the FAA had already agreed to terminate this contract. So, what happens now? I mean, if we deny the termination, the FAA already agreed to terminate it. What happens next? >> So, they concur with our recommendation to city council and they were going to take the determination made by >> But council hasn't hasn't voted on that yet. So, they concurred with what exactly? with our recommendation to city council. It's not that they approve the termination. They just concur with uh purchasing presenting the recommendation to city council. >> So what happens next? >> Do you go back to FAA and say council didn't approve of a termination and then >> you vote ma'am, you vote and then we'll make sure that we let the FAA know exactly what the determination was by council. >> Okay. So why does it have to go back to bid then if we deny termination? If you deny termination, our next steps will be to try to get the performance bonds in place for this contract. If that is the case, we would then go back to the FAA. We will let them know that we're moving forward with this. Um, and then hopefully, you know, we would have a successful project there. >> Okay. >> We would go back out to bid if you were to move forward with termination. That would be our next project. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right, Miss Ryan. No further discussion on this item. Would you call for the vote? >> Yes, sir. So the motion was made by representative Maldonado, seconded by representative Trejo, and this is to deny the termination on item number eight to deny the action requested. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session. And that motion passes 6 to1. Representative Fiero voting nay. The remainder of council voting I. Representative Ganales not present. >> Okay. And Miss Bry, I need the record to show that uh in full transparency, Aztec is not a donor to my campaign, but the principle of Aztec is a donor to my campaign. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Claudia. >> Okay, that brings us to items today. >> Um, Miss Bryant, I'm going to move an item because there's been some people here waiting for quite some time. Page 11, item number 28. We're on page 11, item 28 is discussion and action on updates of short-term rentals in El Paso. The presentation by city staff, the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors, and the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance will include requested items by city council on September 3rd, 2025, including identified safety issues and concerns related to short-term rentals in the city of El Paso and an update on the current state of short-term rentals within the city. Good. Good morning. Still >> it's still morning. Yeah. >> Good morning, mayor, council. >> How are you today? >> Good. Good. Um before I before I um go into my presentation, please allow me to express my gratitude and also thanks to uh city council members for accommodating us whenever we come to uh brief you on items like this. And I also want to thank um our city leadership as well uh the city manager Miss Mark and our deputy city manager Miss uh co Miss Cody and also u our staff planning staff Mr. Smith Mr. Dea Cruz and I also want to um extend my gratitude to the gapper um Mr. Anesto and also um Tony Delgado and also Miss um Heidi Ses. So these folks has worked uh tirelessly on this for the last six years going on seven years now. So we've been dugging this thing for a very long time. And um this presentation is in two parts. Uh staff presentation followed by uh the u short-term rental alliance presentation by Miss Fines. So, um, back in September, city, uh, uh, council and mayor, you'd as staff to come back and and report back to you within 60 days and to provide updates on the collaboration between, uh, city staff, gapper, and short-term rental alliance. >> Yeah, I'm I'm just trying to Yeah, thank you. Um, to come back. Okay. Okay. >> Oh, sorry. >> Yeah. So like I was saying, you asked us to come back within 60 days uh to specifically identify um issues and concern related to short-term rentals in the city and also to provide an update on current state of uh short-term rental within the city as well. So this is just the update. Uh yes, a snapshot of the current state of the um short-term rental here in the city of El Paso. These numbers do fluctuate. Uh so these numbers are not really uh tied down. They're not nailed down to anything, but they do fluctuate. And yeah, you have um in 2023 you have about 16,700. Um 2025 you almost have about 2,000. The occupancy rate dropped a little bit in 2025. Um most of these are listed on the Airbnb platform. So we have different platforms as well. um the entire home rented uh 88% in 25 uh 2025 locally owned. Uh so we wanted to distinguish because the issue came up during our briefing that uh some city council members wanted to know which one of these are corporate owned or which are individually owned. So this is why we have this number there. So you have locally owned 93% and also remember some of these locally owned can just be under an LLC or even the corporate ones can be uh locally on but under LLC just to protect their investment. So here's the distribution of short-term rental within the city limits. As you can see, two and eight um are the largest share of the distribution. And this is no surprise because uh the uh downtown is in district 8. Uh you have uh district 2 also the uh district 8 the downtown kind of ble into um the central area as well. And there's no surprise because if you have uh the ballpark, you have the museums, you have the convention centers, you have the university, uh you have those hospital as well. So as you can see from these um and the bus stations. So those are factors affecting the distribution of the um short-term rental here in in the city. Again, eight takes the largest share of this because it's the downtown and everybody coming to your city wants to be in your downtown. Um D1 is also trending and because of close proximity to the downtown area and also all the facilities and the activities in the um in the uh downtown area 311 and enforcement cases. you had asked us. This was one of the issue that you had asked director staff to look into. If you look at the number of um complaints in 20 uh 23 was 18, 2024, 20 uh 34 and uh 2025 37. I want to caution um council members because these numbers when we looked at our asella which is what we used to track all the uh um cases that come in through um complaints um those numbers may be accurate but they are not showing that these are short-term rentals because in the code we really don't have a definition for short-term rental. So those numbers could be just calls for um a vacant house or for somebody just having parties. And when we cross reference these numbers with um Granicas, which is a platform that we use to verify this information, as you can see those numbers, five um in 20238 kind of ramped up a little bit, but less than the 37 that you were currently showing. Okay. Again, short-term rental is really not defined in our city court at this time. So, this particular use, if you want to look at it in a strict sense, is an illegal use. Um, what we may consider close to a short-term rental is the bed and breakfast. Um, which again, um, the classification actually doesn't match the the actual use. It requires a special permit, uh, council approval, CPC, public hearing. So, um, it goes on and on and on and it requires a lot of, uh, staff time and also fees associated with that. the art tax. This the reason there's a reason that we have this in there just to demonstrate to city council the amount of revenue generated by this and also for city council uh action in the future or now. So today our ask is just a simple recommendation that after about almost seven years that we need to have something in our code that defines short-term rentals. So we have to amend our city code uh especially uh title 20 to include the definition and also amend the permissible use table to make sure that whenever we get a call we can actually properly at this point once we have that um definition in the code. So when a call goes into uh our seller or to 311 we can say yes this particular use or this particular property is a short-term rental. So we can classify that and whenever you ask for the report we can tell you that out of 60 calls 40 were all short-term rental but right now we can't do it because there's no classification for that. So, um there on the screen you see a proposed definition and we're also going to be working with our legal team, you know, to um clean up the definition and come back to you at at some point um when we go to CPC. Then we'll come back to you. Then, um we'll have an adoption of the ordinance uh to our title 20. Again, the next steps, you know, prepare the ordinance, schedule CPC meeting and all that. So unless you have any question mayor council I would like to pass the next presentation on to miss >> do do you want to talk now represent f represent fo >> thank you Philip thank you mayor um one simple question yes >> what happens if we don't move on this or pass this today >> so the definition is a must we've been going about this for the last six seven years the definition is a must you if you you want to allow um short-term rental in your corporate boundaries, you have to have a definition in the zoning code. This is a must. >> Okay. >> And then I guess the the next steps would be if this passes today, we would ask Miss Mack and her team to come back with the the proposed ordinances. >> That's correct. >> And and I'm assuming that that up to this point we've had stakeholder input and involvement that there would be stakeholder input and involvement along that process, too. >> So, part of the uh directive you gave staff back in September 3rd was to work closely with the alliance and and GER. So last last 60 days um we had Friday meetings that we had with them and we've been meeting with them. So the last meeting we had with them was about two weeks ago. They invited their um state reps to come. So they were here with us and we went through this entire presentation. We made it known to them that a definition is a must and we had to move forward with that. >> And you had Friday meetings, >> correct? Well, >> mayor, it's not Monday. >> Mayor, how do we how do we get on this Friday calendar? [laughter] >> It's not Monday. >> Uh, Philip, one quick question on slide nine. >> Yes. The key assumptions in the upper leftand corner or my lefthand corner uh it talks about the occupancy rate at 45%. Is are these 2024 numbers that were what year is are we looking 23 or 24? Do you know >> mayor? I'm not smart enough to talk numbers with you. So, I think [laughter] um this probably is an assumption for maybe 2025 or maybe from 2025 uh 2023 to 2025. >> Okay, fair enough. Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Philip, for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. Yes, ma'am. The first is the draft definition. Is that >> labeled draft because you're still working on it? >> Correct. So, you have to give us direction. Once we get the direction from you today, we'll work with our legal team to make sure that we have a better definition. Uh look at some other cities, have a better definition that fits exactly what the use is and then amend the code. >> Yeah. And I I do agree that we need to clearly define what a short-term rental is. Um, the only thing that I would ask for consideration is, uh, it says here that overnight persons, you know, sleeping areas are rented to overnight persons. But if you look at the slide, and it's occurred in my district quite frequently, like slide number seven, sometimes short-term rentals are rented for parties, right, or for events in some cases. That's why there's excessive noise, parties, trash, and not necessarily people sleeping there overnight sometimes. So I don't know if other cities um have defined it a little bit more broadly >> and that's that's what we'll be looking at and and remember again there's no definition. So when there's a call that a a house is um generating um noisy uh loud loud noise um that may not be an STR. It may not be a short-term rental. So, I want to be very careful not to label all the calls that we received as short-term rental. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't know if we have a motion for this item. Mayor, if you need one. >> So, there's still another presentation before you do that. >> Thank you. >> Representative Lima. >> Thank you, Mayor Phillip. I just want to be really, really clear. The action that you're requesting is to set a definition of short-term rentals. That's correct ma'am. >> That's it. >> That's correct. >> As far as this presentation and then there's other presentations that will have perhaps a different ask. >> No, this ask is just a one time ask. And this is the definition. >> Thank you. >> And amendment of the uh title 20. >> Thank you, Philip. All right. So, council, you know what? I let me entertain a motion to approve this if you don't mind. >> Okay. Representalis. >> Thank you, mayor. um looking at the and I apologize I wasn't in the seat listening to your presentation but I was I I could hear the whole thing. Um looking at slide number seven the 311 and enforcement cases I see the the numbers of complaints each year. Um is this specifically when the caller calls in and identifies that it is a complaint about a short-term rental or are we asking the question is the property >> asking the question because we really don't have it in code. So when um a typical neighbor calls uh they call well my next door neighbor is generating a whole lot of noise. So that call is tracked through the the the uh system and we'll send some uh code enforcement to go out. So code enforcement will not know maybe if they ask the question if they say specific question that says is this a short-term rental because the neighbor may know uh if it's a short-term rental or not. But if that's not the case, I don't want to classify it as a short-term rental because um we don't have that in in our code. >> Okay. So, the definition will help us potentially to then identify >> when a complaint is made whether that that uh complaint gets registered as a short-term rental. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um because I mean I I recognize that we entered into this the pilot program and wanted to track the these complaints. Um, I I'll say I mean I think my office has received more complaints about specific short-term rental properties than than the numbers that I'm seeing here. >> Okay. >> I just think that they're not counted because either the the reporter doesn't say the the key word short-term rental or like you said, the code officer arrives um you know, has some interaction and it never that the word is never said that it's a short-term rental. >> Yeah. I mean, our code enforcement officers are probably not going to go out there and say, "Is this a short-term rental?" So, they're just going to go out and investigate and make sure that um they they take care of the next steps in in the enforcement process. >> Okay? >> But if it's a short-term rental, if somebody says it's a short-term rental, there's no way to identify if it is a short-term rental unless you uh talk to the owner and the owner can confirm that. So, the owner confirmed in all of like looking at 2025, there were 37 complaints, 16 cases with verified short-term rental. How are those verified? >> So, the reason you see the difference in numbers uh is that we um got those numbers from our system, you know, the the top numbers from our system, a seller that we used to track, you know, these cases. Then, um the platform that we use to verify which uh um short-term rental is Granas. Granicus was able to identify that in 203 that this particular address is a short-term rental. So that's the reason you see the um cases of uh number of cases are verified as short-term rental. How's Granicus able to tell whether a property? >> Granicus is a platform that we've uh retained, you know, to help us run reports and, you know, give us um you know, um idea of how many um short-term rentals we have in in the city. >> Okay. So, there is there is an off-the-shelf product from Granus that identifies >> it's a paid service through Granicus. So, Granicus when we have issues or concern, we'll reach out to Granicus and Granicus can run the numbers for us. >> Okay. Um, and then I just want to note again if we look at slide six, the the short-term rental distribution by district. Um, I think you can see the numbers eight is significantly the highest along with with two, but it's kind of central El Paso that that tends to have down, you know, the the greater downtown area plus central um h has the greatest concentration of these. And uh you know, we we've been speaking about it for a number of years now, but I still have uh a lot of concerned neighbors uh reaching out on a regular basis about some specific properties. I know there's a workflow now where where a lot of these concerns get sent to the short-term rental alliance, and they've been diligent in in dealing with some of them. Um, but there are still concerns from people about uh there not having permanent neighbors in a place and their neighborhoods uh having fewer residents because there are uh high densities of short-term rentals concentrated in some certain particular areas and even, you know, more granular like block by block. Some blocks um have majority short-term rentals as opposed to permanent residents. And I know that's a cause for concern for some of the neighborhoods um where that that are affected in that way. And so I wanted to still talk about that issue. Um I know I'm I'm happy to look narrowly for now at this definition and uh give the give the direction to proceed with with this part. Um I still think there's plenty more conversation to be had. Um thank you for uh slide nine and running the numbers on the occupancy tax projection. um you know adding together not even looking backwards just looking forwards 2026 through FY 2031 that's more than $20 million in in hot revenue that's potentially out there at a time when we're talking about uh ballpark uh capital needs when we're talking about convention center expansion and not necessarily having a a good source of of hot for those uh that's sufficient to complete all the needs Uh I think it's a worthwhile conversation to have into the future. Again, happy to today just just look at the definition. >> Sounds Philip, there's another presentation, right? Short terminal lines. Yep. Let's see it. >> T could you bring up the uh next presentation? Yeah, just go ahead. Now it's officially good afternoon. [laughter] >> Yes, good afternoon. Uh, thank you for having us. So, I'm the president of the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance, and behind me, we have other members of the Short-Term Rental Alliance here today. And, you know, this is just an overdue presentation. We were supposed to come back to council back in 2024. We were uh approved for a pilot program in 2023 after we had had many multiple uh community meetings asking about safety concerns. And with the pilot program um our mission, you know, was to really educate the hosting community and being good neighbors. So about us, what we value, we value collaboration respect education resources, and community engagement. Because short-term rentals are not Airbnb or a faceless corporation. Short-term rental host are faces, you know, your family, your friends, the people next to you at the farmers market. And that's really what we have been really focused on this past two years is how can we serve the community? How can we serve the El Pasoans and our sister cities as well? And so what are our community resources? You know, we have a membership. It is free to join as of right now. Um we offer resources. We have had multiple community meetings along with many city representatives during their community their community meetings. Um we offer uh responsible hosting guidelines and we most importantly educate. We educate host on what they should be doing, how they should be responding, what they should be doing when there's a situation that comes up. if someone's having a party at your property because as short-term rental hosts, we don't allow parties to happen on our property. It's actually goes against our policies and we have security cameras on the exterior of our homes. We make sure that we're always taking care of our property at all times. And so those are things that we like to offer as resources. We make sure that people understand what it means to be a good neighbor. And 90, as you saw in the city staff's presentation, um 90%, and this is something that we've been saying for quite a few years now, is that 90% of our short-term rental hosts actually just own one property, maybe two, but they're mom and pop. This is a mom and pop market here in El Paso. It's not corporations. It's not someone that's coming over to take over. um all of our especially our short-term rental host um everybody that's involved, this is their rental property. Maybe they were able to save up enough money to have uh enough to pay for a rental property and then it became a short-term rental along the way. um some having inherited this property from you know previous family members and this is their retirement but most importantly this is their livelihood and they have been able to continue paying property taxes with with this money that comes through especially having such high property taxes in in the state. Um we are only 0.5% of the housing supply. So, I believe there's over 200,000 homes here in El Paso. And, you know, as you saw in the numbers, we're less than 2,000. And so, we're really low on the we're a tiny fraction that has no effect on local housing supply or the real estate prices. And at the moment, you know, we are paying the 6% of the state occupancy tax. And so we encourage our members to be good neighbors, to maintain properties responsibly, and to contribute to the overall well-being of our community. What have we done in the past two years? So since 2023 when the pilot program was approved, um we have had multiple collaborations with the city, we have active we have been um active participating with the community meetings that are part of your of your representatives. Um we have continuous communication. Um in 2024 we were meeting with the city mayor every quarter along with the city police chief and the city manager and we were continuing to have this conversation to make sure to see the numbers to see where the short-term rental um hosts were doing and to make sure that we were taking care of those safety concerns because the pilot program was made for the safety concerns of the city. those safety concerns that were brought up back in 2023. That's what the pilot program was for. And they launched the 311 where there was a script specifically added so that people could actually say if it was a short-term rental or not. And that script is and Nicole Cody and city staff helped us put together that script so that it was part of the 311 calls. Um, you know, we've been addressing bad actors through the alliance. We've gotten emails and calls and we have been addressing those personally into how can we help that person? How can we help that person that's being affected? But it may be a bad actor because again we are a community but we know we're not exempt from bad actors but it doesn't mean that most of us are bad actors. It's actually a very few people that might not follow the rules just like everywhere else. And so we make sure that we're able to report to follow the the the procedure in order to report those bad actors that continue to to do things that shouldn't be done. And one of the other things is that we partnered up with the police department, especially during prom season and graduation. And especially this summer, we were also able to partner up with certain representatives so that we could spread awareness about the entertainment venue ordinance and to make sure that we were able to really differentiate between short-term rentals and people that were just offering their houses for parties because that is illegal for you to offer your house for just a party. according to the entertainment venue ordinance, it's illegal for you to do so, for you to offer your pool as a venue or your backyard. And so we were able to get together with Representative Rocha as well so that we could really spread awareness about this ordinance and to differentiate between a short-term rental and those people that were just offering their houses for parties. And that's where this really comes up. You know, when we have complaints, when the numbers show that it's only 16 confirmed, it's because the public is not educated what is a short-term rental and what it's not, right? So, they just see a party happening and and someone is bringing a lot of people that they don't know and they just automatically think it's an Airbnb even though it's not because as short-term rentals, you are expected to stay overnight. when you have a party three times a day, no one's staying overnight. And so that that's what we really worked on um specifically, you know, this year. And one of the biggest things that we're really proud of is, you know, the short-term rental alliance in action. So back um in 2024 when we had the fire in Rioso, we were able to put together uh along with the New Mexico short-term rental association the emergency accommodation program. And we did that immediately as soon as the fire happened. We were able to offer free stays to displaced families and emergency responders that were evacuating from Breidoso and coming to El Paso. And we did it as a service to our community. We are in the hospitality industry. We care for our our people, for our host, for our guests. And so we were able to coordinate how the local hosts could offer their homes. And then later on, we partner up with Airbnb.org or and local authorities so that they knew that they could find a place to stay. And one of the biggest concerns was pets. You know, during the time that they were coming, a lot of people have pets and it's very hard and very expensive to find a hotel that will let you bring five pets with you. But yet at the same time as as the as the hosting community, we were opening our homes for free and letting them bring all the pets. I had one property that I had they stayed for a full week and they brought six pets with them and it was fine. I never charged them for anything. I also never charged them for the pet cleaning fee. But not just like me, there were so many others in that list that were offering their places up for free [snorts] so that we could help our sister cities. And that's what the El Paso Short-Term Alliance is. That's why it was created so that we could be of service to the community, so that we could be helpful. And as as far as helping with those certain safety concerns of nuances and that's why we have the noise ordinance, that's why we have the wheat like those things that we have. They're already ordinances in place and we just need to help enforce them. But, you know, specifically with the entertainment venue ordinance, uh, we were very happy how we saw a big difference into the complaints coming from the summertime when people were no longer putting up their pools for for rent because they they knew that there were consequences by doing so. So our ongoing mission is we continue to advocate for responsible hosting to promote collaboration with city leaders and respond with compassion when our community needs us the most. And the last thing that I want to mention is how are we able to make sure that our host are following through. So we actually have wind technologies and this is some this is one of many that are offer out there but what this is is that it's a device just like a smoking detector but what it is is that it monitors the wavelengths if there's noise too much noise happening it will actually let you know that there's noise happening in your property and it also detects if there's marijuana smelling smell vaping and so we're able to do that and We started this back in 2023 when the pilot program was just released. Uh we were able to offer this to our host our hosting community and to let them know that this is a device that we highly recommend for them to use. Again, there's other brands that are also available, but um this has been a gamecher for us because again, we don't want those things happening in our homes and we want to protect our community and we don't allow those things to happen. So, but it's it's like everything, right? Maybe someone's going to break the the rules. So, how can we make sure that we're able to find a solution? It's like immediately as soon as I get a message saying that they detect a marijuana smell, I'm able to contact the ho the guest and I'm able to take measures if I have to cancel a reservation and have to charge them. And the same thing happens with noise um the the noise detection. if we see that it's happening which is very rare that it's ever I've ever gotten notification about that but if it does happen now I know that hey you know we have received this certain um notification and what I love about this is that it actually it has its own app but it also tells you how to respond what message to send when they have received this notification. So it makes it very easy for the host to have that communication with the guest if they are breaking the rules. It's not like oh what can I say or what should I do? No they actually guide you into this is a message that you could send to the guest at this moment because we have received this notification about light loud nosis or the smoking. Um so this is what you know the alliance is all about and what we have been doing for the past two years. So, I thank you so much for your time and I'm going to um have Gar which is one of our partners in the alliance um present now. Thank you. >> We got a quick question. >> Represent. >> No, Heidi, I just want to thank you. I know that I've seen the birth of the short-term rental alliance, hosting community meetings, and really, you know, addressing what the prim primary concern was amongst the community, the safety component. And I know you did a lot of outreach. So, I just wanted to congratulate you on the collaboration and, you know, meeting with all of us and really uh also with the, you know, the greater El Paso Realtors Association and city staff and working in addressing all the issues that have come forward. So, I just wanted to to thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Very good. Good presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, good afternoon counselor Ernesto Garcia from the Greater El Paso Association Realtors playing cleanup hitter like Kirk Gibson did in 1988 for Tony Delgado who decided to visit all your offices yesterday and ended up probably eating more chocolate than he should have. So, he was supposed to speak and uh, by the way, we love the designs on everybody. Um, I'll get started. The Greater El Paso Association of Realtors uh continues to collaborate with the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance and the city of El Paso to address the community concerns and continues to implement effective property management outcomes. There's a lot of work to be done. A partnership formed over 2 years ago by this council and this staff that took something that is now being a model for other parts in the state. There's not a day that goes by that I don't get a call from my counterparts wondering how do you do it? What are you guys doing? Something is great when they see those numbers that you saw. They are pleased to see what is happening. But they also know that's a lot of work. This has produced positive results in identifying issues such as parking, noise, and safety while creating fair policies that distinguish responsible hosts from problem operators. Together we are trying to reduce conflicts. We are encouraging transparency and we are protecting private property rights through ongoing communication and data-driven solutions. Still, there's more work to be done. GEPAR remains committed to facilitating meetings between the city officials, EP, the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance and community members and to asssure any public concerns are addressed or at least met or identified. I think our police department that needs to deserve some credit here. I know that Chief Pacillas has been very vocal to speak with us and wants to get things done and when he needs something, Heidi's phone is answered and that's going to not go away. It gets put part there. We've had when we talk about when this short-term rental alliance was developed and this pilot program, there's one partner that's not here with me today, but I know that they have were a big part of it. That was our El Paso chamber. They were a part of this as well to try to find solutions. That shows so it shows that this community is growing. The effort is growing. But as Gar is the adv is the an advocate of the current work accomplished by the city and the zoning and planning and zoning commissions, we can't be we cannot get it done. Philip is hard to deal with, but he will get it done. Nicole Cody is hard to deal with and she will run out of breath and she will still make it over here. Um Tony, I don't call him Jose anymore. Dea Cruz has also done very well and Kevin Smith has done his part to make sure that we get to this point, but there is a lot of work to be done. This relationship continues to build trust and accountability by engaging with planning and zoning and it's a credit to the city council for letting us be a part of this. We thank Dion Mack and her staff for being able to hang with us here, work with us. There's still a lot to do. There's much more to be said. We have to look at a lot of other factors, but we need a little time and that's what we're asking for is to let us continue doing the work in progress. We will continue to put motions and we will continue to try to address the city concerns and once again keep this project rolling and be a standard to set for the state. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you. Thank you for the collaboration too. >> Representative Limon. >> Before we actually go into the vote, I just want to be very very clear that the action we're taking today, Philip, is we're going to set a definition of shortterm rentals. Punto. >> That's correct, ma'am. >> Thank you. Representative Asabetto. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to wait till the whole presentation. So, I'm going to go back to the the first part, Philip. On slide five, [clears throat] you have some data that says locallyowned. Um, you don't have any for 2023, but for 2025 it says locally owned 93% and then corporation owned 22%. That doesn't add up to 100. So, I was trying to understand how that makes up. >> Well, like I said before, I'm not smart enough to debate numbers with you. If you look at the number, these are numbers that we generated from um that Granus gave us. So these numbers may not be accurate or may be accurate again if you look at what I explained to Philip. >> Yeah, >> he asked the same question sir. Okay. >> And we recognize that the corporate corporation owned could be also local. >> Correct. >> So those are people who have set up corporations to protect their property versus people who are registered as an individual. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Perfect. >> Just like I explained before like Miss Mark just explained. So you if you want to protect your personal property from your investment property, so you can go into an LLC and and keep that separate. So that's you asked this question before and that's one of the reason this is included in the slide. >> Okay, perfect. >> Yeah. So they may not be up to 100, but again locally owned um I mean if you don't if you don't want to be um safe from any other u lawsuit so you can keep it the way it is. >> Okay. So, it's it's some double dipping. Some are locally owned and corporation owned and Okay, that makes total sense now. I appreciate the the clarification and just overall I I know we're voting on the definition today. I'm supportive of that and I I think it's great and I appreciate all the the people that presented and gave us some great information. I I think just as we move this forward, I think we need more data, right? in in just different areas and I've had that conversation with Gapart just to kind of say get us more data that's going to help us with economic development which economic development is very important >> and we could have more co-play concerts rather than every 5 to 10 years have some major event and then everything is booked and no one could find anywhere to stay. Yeah, that's that's going to be really vital. I think the the convention center expansion and trying to figure out what to do with the convention center in terms of renovating it that I think that is long overdue because a lot of this is going to go hand inand in my opinion. So, I'm just hoping that we could have more data pair it with economic development in order to move us forward into what comes next for short-term rentals. That's all I wanted to say. represent Canales. >> Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, kept missing the microphone button. Um, I had one additional clarification I wanted to ask and that's uh when I asked the question the first time, I was told we are not asking people when they call in if uh the property that they're calling about is a short-term rental. Uh, we heard from from Heidi that there was a script developed for 311 specifically to ask people if it's a short-term rental. Which one is the which one is the truth? >> So, if you go back to what slide >> Okay. >> Um, Nicole Cody, yes, we've got Oh, Carolyn's here as well for 311 and Chief Tagino. And the answer is we do ask the question if the the complaint is related, of course. So, it's part of the script >> and that's when somebody calls with what kinds of complaints? >> 311. So, um it's a specific Caroline, do you want to go over the exact language? Yeah. >> Yes. There are about five. Caroline Patrick with the IT department. There are about five service request types. One is on the noise complaint. I can get you the list of the the types. I don't have them all off hand, but the question is asked is what is the um who resides in the home? And there are five options to answer. Short-term rental, long-term rental, the property owner, I don't know, is an option. >> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Um, and then just to clarify the the clarification that uh, Representative Lemon asked for. The action today is not to approve a definition. It is to direct staff to develop a definition that will come back to the council for approval at a later time. Correct. >> That's correct, sir. >> Okay. I just wanted for the public's clarity. We're not setting a definition today. The draft definition that's included in the backup is not the definition that's being adopted. It's >> just the draft. Correct. >> Okay, that's all. May. Thank you, >> Miss Prime. We have public comment on this one. >> Yes, sir. We have Miss Turner signed up to speak. >> Good afternoon, Miss Turner. >> Is it afternoon? >> Yeah, it's afternoon now. >> It's afternoon lunch. I'm hungry. >> Uh I'm not happy about this. I think this needs to be postponed and I think you need to come back with something substantial. Uh could somebody could it bring up slide six for me please? Thank you. I want you to take a long hard look at that and I want you to understand that what you're looking at is the reason why that there's a high cost of housing in this city because stuff that could be on the market could being sold or could being used for rental properties is not there. So understand that. Second thing is if you're going to go, you know, I'm afraid if you do this today, this is the last we'll ever see of anything about this short-term rental thing, you know, cuz I want to see some rules in. Example, if you're sell if you're a realtor, you're selling a house and whoever's buying the house should know that there are short-term rentals in the neighborhood because I if I'm wanting to buy a house, I don't want this around me. If I'm moving into a neighborhood, I want neighbors. I don't want people popping in and out every other day and on the weekends. I don't want strangers in the neighborhood. I want every single one registered with the city so you can inspect them for safety. Inspect them that they are ADA compliant. I want to make sure that not a single one of these carry any kind of property tax exemption be it old age, uh disability or homestead exemption. Not a single one. Uh I'm also concerned about liability uh the cities and the people who renting these things out. Uh I think you need to postpone and bring us something back, something real, because once you know how many there are, you can actually start to do something. There may be 2,000 short-term rentals in this city and only a 100 with the short-term rental alliance, which leaves you a lot of people unregulated. So, I'm only asking for some clarification and some straightening out. I don't think it's too much to ask of you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion on item number 28? Hearing none, seeing none, Miss Prime, please call for the vote. >> Yes. Representative Maldonado, can you restate the motion? >> The the motion to approve >> to approve. >> Uh do you want me to read what the what the recommendation is? >> Yes. >> Okay. One moment, please. Let me get it. >> Are you >> I [snorts] recommend I recommend the approval for staff. I move to approve uh staff. Well, hold on. I wasn't prepared to do this. I'm so sorry. So, give me a second. >> Are you Are you >> I I move to approve and direct uh city manager and city attorney and staff to define short-term rental in the city code and amend permissible use table. >> Second. >> I thought we already had a motion and a second. >> There was a motion. >> Yeah, >> there was a motion. >> She wanted in a second, but she didn't state what where she was motion. You just clarify the motion was to just clarify. So staff clarify the original motion. Okay. Thank you very much for your clarification. >> Okay. >> On that motion, >> call for the vote. >> And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. >> Okay. Council, it's 12:40. It's up to you guys if you want a break for a lunch. >> Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to return, go to lunch, and return at 1:40. >> 1:42. >> Okay. There's a motion. >> Can we do 30 minutes? >> It's up to you. It's up to you guys. >> Yeah. >> There's a motion in a second to recess a city council meeting for 1 hour. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? >> Let me let me take roll call because I I hear no. This is to recess for one hour. >> Correct. >> Mayor Prom Chavez. >> No. >> Representative Aso. >> No. >> I >> Rocha. >> Djo. >> I. >> Nino. >> I. >> Pero. >> I. >> Lemon. >> Definitely. I. [laughter] >> Canales. >> No. >> The motion passes 5 to 3. >> We're in recess until 1:40. >> Don't worry about me, Miss Pry. [laughter] There wasn't a tie. What are you doing? Okay. >> Okay, Miss Prime, we're ready. >> Council, is there a motion to reconvene? >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second to reconvene the city council meeting. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The meeting is back in session at 1:43 p.m. >> All right, Miss Brown, I believe we're on page seven of 13. Uh, the first reading of the ordinance number 15. >> That's correct, Mayor. These are items 15 to 19, the introduction of ordinances. >> Mayor, I make a motion to move on the first reading of the ordinances. >> Okay. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the first readings, Miss Prime? >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Lemon, seconded by Mayor Potm Chavez to approve the first reading of ordinances, items 15 to 19. On that motion, call for the vote. [clears throat] That's fine. >> Oh, I could do it. >> And the voting session and that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Maldonado Roachcha and Fiero not present. >> Okay, let's take item number 20 on the regular agenda. >> Yes, sir. Item number 20 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of tracks 9 and 13 from R4 residential to C1 commercial and imposing conditions at 7800 and 7804 Alamemeda Avenue. >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve? >> Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve item number 20. >> Okay. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion on this item, Miss Prime? >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Lemon, seconded by Mayor Prom Chavez, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 20. There is no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Malonado Rocha and Fiero not present. Okay. May Mayor Pro, would you take 21 for me? >> Item 21 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of lots 15 to 20 block 13 from C1 SC commercial special contract and SD special development to GMU general mixuse and approving a master zoning plan with a 32% parking reduction. This is north of Arizona Avenue and east of North Oregon Street. >> Thank you. Is there a motion? >> Move to approve. Is that good? >> Miss Prime, we have a motion and a second. >> Yes. And we do have public comment from Miss Turner. >> Sheila. >> Sheila. Okay. >> Can we call for the vote? Thank you. >> The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Lemon, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item number 21. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Maldonado Rocha and Fiero not present. >> All right, let's take item number 22. >> Yes, sir. Item 22 is discussion and action on a resolution that the city of El Paso adopt to the Camino Royale Regional Mobility Mobility Authority Christopher Linder to position five whose term will expire on February 1st, 2026. Move >> to approve. Second. >> Okay, there's a motion and a second. Any discussion on item number 22? All right. Hearing none, seeing none, Miss Prime, please call for the vote. >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Lemon, seconded by Representative Oer Treco, and this is on item 22 to approve. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Rocha and Fiero not present. Okay, let's take item 23. >> Item 23 is discussion and action on a resolution approving the use of district 2 discretionary funds for payroll of the part-time administrative specialist and authorizing the city manager or designate to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate such expenditure. And this is representative as repres. >> Thank you, mayor. I move to approve. Um we are just wanting to extend our administrative specialist in my office. He's been with us for a few months and he's been doing a great job and we don't want to lose him just yet. So, this is this will give him a few more months to to be with us. >> Second. >> Okay. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item. All right. Hearing none. Seeing none, Miss Bryan, please call for the vote. >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Aso, seconded by Mayor Prom Chavez to approve item 23. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Rocha and Fiero not present. >> And Miss Pine, I apologize for jumping a little bit out of order, but we have somebody that's been waiting most of the day. We're going to take number 29. >> Yes, sir. Item 20. 29 is discussion and action on the presentation on proposed amendments to El Paso City Code 20.20, historic landmark preservation. The presentation will provide council an update on the input received from the community and staff recommendations. >> Okay. Is there a motion? >> Oh, there's no motion. What number am I on? >> It is a fraction. Is there a motion? >> Can we see the presation first? >> Is there a motion on this item? >> Okay. >> So, what >> to to discuss and bring the the items for discussion. >> Correct. >> Right. There can't be a motion to discuss. >> We've been we've been doing that all along. We take a motion, then a second, then we discuss it. >> The motion has to be to take an action. It can't be >> I would like to make a motion to delete it. >> Second, [clears throat] can we please see the presentation, folks? >> There's a motion and a second to delete. Any further comment on this item? >> Yes. >> Represent canals. I would ask the council to uh vote down the motion to delete so that we can see the presentation and then uh this is anformational presentation that I think will be helpful. We're not there there's no uh action here today to approve anything to adopt any changes to the code. >> Correct sir. >> Uh this is an update on the results of the public feedback process and then a change in the the staff recommendation. a small adjustment to the staff recommendation. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh that staff wanted to use today, I think, to present that potential change to the public. >> Yes, sir. And >> so that we can receive additional feedback before the time when this comes back to the council if this comes back. Yes sir. >> All right. So, there's uh Representative Chavez. Mayor, I just wanted to so um council asked that I provide an opportunity for us to bring forward to you before items were going to be be brought forth for a vote for consideration. Um any feedback we've gotten on ordinances, an opportunity to talk about what we've heard from the public. This really gives the opportunity for you all to decide what we do next on this. And so this is really following what I heard during my evaluation process that you wanted me to bring those items in a way that were very public. So, I would ask that we be allowed to understand what the action is, whatever that action is, so I know if I'm posting, if it's gone, if we're still doing outreach, I just I want to just have really clear direction on what we do with this item next. >> Okay. Representative Chavez. >> Sorry, Mayor. I wasn't finished. >> Oh, you're still Go ahead. >> Yeah. So, again, I I just asked the council um that we allow staff to present their updated recommendation from what went to the public initially. They have an updated recommendation that I understand is based on the feedback that came out of the public outreach. So, I'd love to see I went to some of the meetings. I wasn't able to attend every one of the public feedback meetings. I'd like to hear what the public feedback was from those additional meetings and then understand how staff's recommendation is shifting in response. >> Okay. >> So, I'd ask that we not postpone. >> Representative Chavez. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor. I I was briefed on this item from staff and um I stand by my motion to delete. I know that motion was seconded already. Um I do not oppose to a presentation. I've already seen the presentation and I would like to take a vote on my motion to delete. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Representative Lemon. >> Mayor, I've I've had actually two presentations and I attended um our two community meetings and um this is very confusing. Tony, I apologize. I think this is not a place that staff should be put into that you all work and then come forth to do a presentation and then we delete it immediately without information. My apologies for me and my office for doing that today. On the same uh route though, I I think that the amount of work that you all have done is good. This is outreach update. It's what it is. outreach update. And if we had been able to go along, I would have some input onto other possibilities of a much deeper dive into outreach, but I can discuss that with you at another time and thank you again for being here. >> Thank you. Appreciate >> represent Fiero. >> No, mayor. I was just going to ask that we um that we're allowed the opportunity to vote on it. >> Okay. So there is a motion to delete this in the second, Miss Prime. >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by Representative Nino, and this is to delete item 29. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes 4 to three. Representatives Chavez Aso Berjo Fiero voting I. Representatives Nino Le canales voting nay. Representative Malonado not present. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members for moving me up a little bit. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh let's take item number 23. Uh 24. We had 24 Miss >> 24. Yes, sir. >> Let's take number 24. >> Thank you. discussion and action directing the city manager and city attorney to engage collaboratively with a transportation security administration TSA and Federal Aviation Administration FAA to explore the development of a memorandum of understanding and/or lease agreement regarding the TSA security checkpoint at the El Paso International Airport EPIA. This effort would al aim to align operations with applicable city of El Paso guidelines, policies, procedures, and ordinances, including but not limited to those related to the display of political language. further direct the city manager and city attorney to review all relevant documentation related to the security checkpoint at EPIA and formally request any necessary security clearances to access and review existing contract lease agreements with a report to be presented to city council within 60 days. This item was placed by representatives and Maldonado Rocha. >> All right. Represent Seto. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'm I'm hoping Representative Maldon Rocha will will make it back, but I'm I'm happy to to um kind of give some background on what's been happening over the last few weeks. >> Do you want to make a motion on this one? So, we have some >> Yeah, I move to approve. Okay. >> Second. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Thank you, mayor. Sorry. >> [laughter] >> Um October October 14th, I went by the airport after hearing things on on the news, hearing stuff from constituents about uh a video that was playing. You know, there were there were u airports across the country that were saying that they were not playing it and then a Texas Tribune article came out and we confirmed that we were playing it at the airport. So, I needed to see this for myself. And so, around 8:00 p.m. on October 14th, I went to the airport and um there were no more flights for that day. So, TSA had just left and I went to the police officers that um have an office at the airport. I asked them to escort me up to the TSA um checkpoint and they were under the impression that nothing was playing. The airport wasn't playing it anywhere else. And then as soon as we got up there, I saw the screen on the right side of the checkpoint. I took a video of that. I posted it on social media. And then the next day on October 15th, um, two colleagues joined me to write a letter to the TSA and we we wrote that letter to Jared Babin and a few days later he did um, respond and said that they were not going to stop playing the the video. And we saw that there were numerous airports in Texas across the US. They were refusing to play the video. Um the the big thing here was that political content should not be played in airports like this. Any messages from government officials should be neutral information related to customer service, safety, and security. We at the city have a lot of rules, especially during campaign season. you know, we can't um do certain things and we have a a very strict code. And something that we um realized also is that the TSA has a lease at the airport for offices, but that space is in a really gray area that has um quote unquote governance by the federal government. And so as we're looking through this, we realize that we cannot, you know, tell them to stop playing the video. Even though it's the airport, people are seeing the airport as the city of El Paso, and it's just really difficult to explain. in conversations with the city manager um going back and forth on this um later that that week they posted a sign saying that we don't condone this and we don't have partisan language and and so I think the the big thing here is that no matter who is in the White House, whatever party is in the White House, there shouldn't be any partisan language coming from our uh federal agencies. I believe that this is a big violation of the Hatch Act and um there's legal counsel that said that it's not on behalf of TSA. That's what Mr. Bamman shared with us. But I I think if you continue to look at it and a lot of people have been citing the Hatch Act and I agree that it is a violation of the Hatch Act and so I think the the idea here is as we go through this government shutdown, it's a very difficult time for people. Um a lot of people are are hurting across the country and we need to focus on getting the government open. Congress is at a standstill. They're at a big impass. I don't know when it's going to open. this will likely become the the longest running shutdown that we've had in history. And so looking through on okay, we can't tell them to stop playing, but what we can do is show a spirit of collaboration on behalf of the city and try to engage in anou so we're not blindsided by this because we did not know that this was coming. They didn't tell us that they were going to play this video. They just kind of did it and now we can't tell them to do anything. So, what [snorts] the the idea behind this um this item is to try to get into anou with TSA so they're looking at our policies, our regulations, open a line of communication. We've done otherus in the past where we're sharing that information that we're knowing that these things are coming and there's a collaborative effort effort at one of our biggest properties. And the other thing with the shutdown as people are hurting. One good thing is that here in El Paso, our credit unions have really stepped up to help people with low interest or no interest loans and they'll give them those loans for people to access and then they could pay them back when they get their back pay when the shutdown finally ends at some point. And so I I think that I'm asking for your support on this to direct the city manager and the city attorney to engage in these conversations to have a collaborative effort with TSA and see if we could come into an MOU. And then the other thing is also we realized that there was no real direction that the city manager had. So, this gives her direction to go out and try to get that security clearance because the other thing that came up and the questions that I was posing to the city manager was that this is um a very secure area. So, even the documents that govern this have a security clearance and we're asking to get that security clearance. So, we're also in the know and we have an idea of what is happening here. And those are the documentation documents that are really running this area and that way we have a lot of information sharing and it's a a better partnership. I think TSA does a incredible job. They keep us safe. They keep our airport in in great shape and it's really just coming in and saying, "Hey, let's be more friendly. Let's share information." So happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. >> Uh represent Fiero. >> Thank you, Mayor. You know, Mayor, um first I want to start with my compliments to the airport um director. I I think he did an excellent job and and reminding us and reminding the public that the airport is not showing this video. This video is not being shown by the airport or any part that belongs to the city of El Paso. First and foremost, the city manager went above and beyond to keep us all informed via emails, via information on what was happening, pictures of signage, and her communications with the director. I and I hope Miss Turner, if she's not here, is watching because I totally agree with her. Our focus shouldn't be on on trying to be rational with a federal government that is unrational and who does not care about the the the health and security of of our country. Instead, they're worried about about doing petty things like this, putting things on internet for on on HHSC's and certain things. If we what we our focus should be on is again this is Miss Turner brought this up is on the food security of of people who are are need who may not be get receiving their checks in the in the near future of focusing on health concerns. But in my opinion, mayor, this is a non-issue. The the airport the airport is not running this. Nobody up here, nobody in in city management is condoning or supporting this. and and I just I hope that we um um can vote on this very quickly and move on to to some really important business for the city. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Represent Lima. >> Thank you, Mayor. I must say that when this whole thing initiated, my reaction was of Korake. you know, I I was just really upset uh to have someone like Gnome um blaring um that kind of language. My first reaction was really re very very quick and reached out to city manager and mayor and simply said um is this something that would require an emergency meeting for us to make some type of a decision? The r the answer that I got was was quite frankly exactly what we already know, exactly what Representative Fiero indicated. This is not directly in our area. On uh October 19th, I had the opportunity to travel. So, I actually went through the airport through the line. And so, because I have a Global Entry card, I moved over to the left and the monitor is on the right. the monitor small maybe the size of that camera on the extreme right when I was traveling there was a whole line of people not one person mayor was looking or listening to that video not one the line was moving and if people are like me I want to make sure I've got my my ID my wallet my boarding pass that's what I'm thinking about as I'm boarding onto a plane. When I did get through TSA and I asked the young man who appeared to be a reasonable person and I said, "Does it bother you that that monitor is over there?" And he said, "Quite frankly, we can't hear it and no one has commented on it." And so it was a busy day. It was on a Sunday afternoon. I was departing. And so I I'm thinking like we've gotten the best information. This is not ours. We're leasing. They want to put it there. This is old news. Yep. Paso. I mean, let's move on to other things bigger and more important. Thank you, ma'am. >> Represent Canalis. >> Thank you. I'll be super brief because I think I share this opinion for the most part. I I'm happy to support this because we can ask the question of the of the uh the TSA, but you know, we've already asked the question to the TSA and their answer was no, [clears throat] we're going to do what we want in our space. And I think if we ask them again formally through the city manager, uh their answer will probably probably again be no thank you if they're polite enough to say thank you along with their no. Um so uh again I I think that uh Rafiro put it very uh very succinctly when he said uh it's it's not uh prudent to focus on trying to be rational with an irrational actor here. Um I you know immediately condemn the video. It it it's very clearly a Hatchack violation. Um but again only the the uh office of special counsel in the federal government can enforce the Hatch Act and we don't even have a special counsel in that office confirmed by by Congress at the moment. And so um you know with that level of of dysfunction happening uh I I just don't anticipate that we'll be able to enter into any kind of agreement with the TSA that's going to make any difference to a situation like this. Um, again, I I appreciate it being being brought forward and I'm happy to say yes now, but I I just don't anticipate that this is going to be fruitful for us. Um, I I hope that, you know, most El Pasoans and visitors who use the airport, like Representative Lemon said, simply passed through the security and didn't pay this too much attention. Um, you know, it really isn't a message that belongs in our airport or any airport within the United States. Um, but TSA is going to put on their monitor what they want. Um, I I hope in the future, uh, they're willing to enter into agreement into agreements like this to collaborate with us on the operations uh, that they have going on at the airport. But, uh, you know, I'll I'll hold out hope for that one day. Thank you, Mayor. >> Represent Rocha. >> Thank you. And forgive me, I'm a little out of breath. So, um, I I appreciate and I've been listening to to the comments and and this was really brought from a from a place of wanting to be able to, you know, to to Rep. Canalis's point, I understand where um what he's saying and we do hear that. We have heard that. But in in the grand scheme of things, there are memorandum of agreements that do exist between federal and municipalities to some extent. Now, I understand that that this one, you know, we pass through and we may not see it and all of this. And really, the intention of this is never it's not to be um to to impose our will onto the TSA by any means. This is more of a collaboration to say, you know, if something like this were to happen in the future, would you just be able to give us a heads up and then we can appropriately pull our resources to provide an answer instead of what took place unfortunately that that week, which was we're scurrying to try to figure out how to address the constituent concerns. So that approach really provides a more comprehensive way of showing that yes, we know it's the federal government that's going to do what they want to do. And now the city understood we know our place, but we can also within our city facility address that same situation to a certain extent. And the other thing that I wanted to to also point out is that [clears throat] when it comes to um this particular situation, I've heard from constituents that have said, "Keep your nose out of it. You know, it doesn't belong there. Uh keep, you know, local politics is local, federal is federal." And and that constituent has every right to have that that opinion. At the end of the day, the city is an apolitical body and I want it to remain that way for all of us. This isn't just to call out one party or the other at all. This is really just to to say we want to maintain that a-political vibe that this city does operate with. And in addition to that, we also want to say we understand that there's people that need to get back to work and need to get paid. And we are very sensitive to that issue as well. There's a lot of people and I believe Miss Turner, I don't see her here, but she made a comment earlier that that I planned on making today as well. We have a lot of potent we have potential for losing a lot of people losing those SNAP benefits uh this Saturday. and and that's a real issue and and it I can sit here and say, okay, this is not something that we should be delving into, but I'm going to put on a different hat and one that maybe people are a little bit more familiar with. If I were a union president and I'm sitting there and saying, "Can I go and and talk to the federal government and the state government and other people or even if I'm just a union president within a company, you have to align or at least have some type of relationship or consideration or even collaboration across the board. You're it's it's not to impose our will on anybody. It's simply to say, can we come to the table and have a discussion where we can all coexist? And really, at the end of the day, that's all it is. It's not trying to say, I want to see uh your policies. I want to understand it and say the city is going to impose this on you. By no means was that the intention of this. So, I I just want to be crystal clear when I say that this is really coming from a place of let's get everybody back to work. Let's get everybody paid. Let's get everybody that's on furlow back. Let's get those SNAP benefits hitting. Let's be able to work collaboratively and avoid something that took place, you know, two weeks ago and maybe nobody's talking about it and nobody worries about it when you when you go through security and that's fine, but at least we've been able to be proactive about it and we're not scarring our resources after the fact to work through it. So that's my piece. Thank you, >> Representative um >> Trey. But another one lit up here at the same time. [laughter] >> Okay, >> that was me. >> That was you. Okay, see >> that was my fault. >> Okay, represent Tol. >> I I'm just going to be short here. You know, when when we have a violation of federal laws, it's important that we speak up. And so one of the thing many many times I say, you know, silence gives consent. And so this is not something we should be silent about and and uh I'm going to be voting with you all on this. Thank you. >> All right. Before we have uh Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I'm just wanted to ask Miss Neman as our city attorney if she could weigh in on um what she knows about the agreement we currently have with TSA. if you could speak a little bit about that and how maybe this item would change that in any way. I'm not sure. >> So, currently we have um lease agreements with TSA for the use of the airport facilities where they keep their administrative offices. Um under federal law, no airport is allowed to charge for the use of the security checkpoints that we're the council is discussing. Um and and you heard from some of the council members, we we have discussed um having more of an ability to have a say in regards to what happens in that space, but as a result of the conversations that we had because of the video, we learned that we have no ability to have any say in regards to what takes place within the security checkpoint. So potentially what would change if we were to engage in a conversation with them or even >> you know request anou what could potentially change? >> I don't believe that that that we would be successful simply because the law is very clear about what areas of the airport the law says they have to compensate us for and then also the jurisdiction of the federal government specifically the TSA at ports of entry like the airport. So they have total jurisdiction in in that space. >> Okay. The contract that we have in place with the TSA, is it a contract that we write or is it a contract they write? >> I would have to defer to staff. I haven't seen the contract myself. I don't know if it's an FAA approved document, but Ignasio, you could answer that. >> Good afternoon, Ignasio. >> Attorney's office. So the document that we have for the lease spaces in the airport with TSA is one that's prepared by the federal government. It's a kind of a standardized form that they use for all of their properties. Um one thing that is important to note as um Miss Neman said the the security checkpoint is not a space in which they have a lease or anou to operate in. And from a federal regulatory perspective, we're not required um we're not allowed we're not allowed to uh charge them for that space and they aren't required to get any sort of operational agreement between the city or the TSA as a federal agency in order to occupy that space because it's part of the airport's overall security and TSA is the agency that signs off on the airport security. So, it's kind of a sort of a circle. We can't operate the airport properly without TSA signing off on our security and they won't do that unless they have a part in our security. >> So just to reiterate, they provide the contract. >> Yes. >> They have complete authority over the space that they are utilizing. >> Yes, that's correct. And from what you know, they will not engage in any type of other type of coordination or agreement. >> From what you know, >> from what I know, it would seem very unlikely because, you know, they aren't in any way obligated to have to do that. And at most airports, they, you know, operate the same way. We've spoken to uh outside counsel that we use for complicated airport matters like this. and they have said they have many airport clients across the country. Um they have said that most airports are dealing with this situation the same way that we are in which the video is not being displayed on like city or airport owned like displays within the facility. But if TSA has their own displays, they can't do anything to stop them from using them to show it. >> Okay. I I don't have any further questions. Thank you. >> Represent Canelis. Thank you, mayor. Uh, just one bit of clarity for the public and it's getting in the weeds just a tad, but the public was very interested in in this and uh asked a lot of questions about the city's authority and what it means and who has jurisdiction where and so the it's the the portion of the code of federal regulations. It's 49 CFR chapter 12 section 1542. that is what governs the federal control over certain portions of the airport including the uh what they call the SCPs, the security uh checkpoints. Um and then that that's that that outlines the program called the TSA airport security program. And then there is an agency uh document of of guidelines called the checkpoint requirements and planning guide. And that is imposed on us. That's not like an agreement that we enter into with the federal government. That is just the TSA says federal law says that you must uh provide us this type of space with this these types of requirements. Um and then the city is required to do that. That that's not something that happens like through a negotiated agreement with the TSA. That is the federal agency that says these this is how it works. This is what federal law says about how airports work in the United States. and the city is required to provide us with this space with these specifications. And so I I wanted to make that clear for the public. Um you know, I heard from a lot of people saying the city needs to be doing more. You need to change your the terms of your agreement with the TSA. Um that's not something we can do. There is no like there is a lease agreement for their administrative offices. There is no lease agreement proper for the security checkpoint. That is something that is guaranteed to them through federal law. So, just wanted to make that clear for the public. Thanks, Mayor. >> Mayor, good. Representative Asavetto. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to also add on, you know, they're not obligated to do anything, right? And that's why I think we're trying to be collaborative [snorts] in nature. And they can say yes, they could say no, they could say maybe, you know, but just like any other government entity, we've been talking throughout this year of doing things with um the county of El Paso and they're their own entity and we could go into anou with them. We could do different things with them. we already have maybe some stuff like that in place and it's a collaborative effort to unite and do better for the community. And I I see this in a very similar fashion where you have the the federal government here. Yes, they have all the control in the world, but I don't think there's anything that bars them from saying, "Okay, yeah, we would love to do anou with you on we're going to share information with you and we're going to have you in the no." that way you're not kind of blindsided by it or your constituents aren't blindsided, etc. So, um I've also talked to other colleagues from across the country on other city councils and they're doing their investigative work as well on looking at stuff like this specifically in in Austin. Austin removed all their TVs last year because of space constraints and the TSA allowed for that during in the checkpoint. So Austin's not playing it because they didn't they don't have any TVs in that area. But the the difference here is that they carted in a TV that was theirs and put it there. And so they could have done the same thing in Austin, but they didn't do it right. And I'm not sure why they didn't do it. Um I didn't get into those specifics, but I think there's um other cities kind of looking through on on this. And I think if we don't try, then we're not going to know what the answer is. And at the very least, I I strongly feel that the public doesn't have a full understanding that that, you know, it it's so in the weeds of the security checkpoint has no lease. It's just an area that they govern. It's completely theirs and we have no say. But the public, I think, on just a very normal way of looking at the airport, they see the whole airport being us. And I think part of this is also just to clarify those roles for the public and show that intent of saying we want to be good partners with TSA. They do a great job for us and we want to have this collaborative relationship. So just wanted to add that >> represent. >> Thank you mayor and and thank you for bringing this forward as well. I know when the video got, you know, was shared and it became a viral story, um, I had also reached out to Miss Mack and Miss Neman just trying to get clarification of what exactly was happening. Um, I think there was a lot of misinformation that was shared because um, it said that TSA was playing the video at the El Paso International Airport, but other communities were not. So, I'm grateful that Miss Mack did put up a sign saying that it's not the city itself who's taking a stand on on on this political video. Um, and I know that I had also asked Miss Mack and the team if we knew if other municipal airports were also playing the video within the TSA area that has no jurisdiction over the municipal government. Um, and I think someone mentioned, do we know if any other municipal governments have any sort of agreement or with TSA across the nation? I don't know if anyone could answer that. >> So based on the based on the research that we did when all this happened, it's our understanding that what Agnasu just presented is correct. We have the standard lease agreement and that's what all airports use. Under federal law, the security checkpoints at all airports are mandated by federal law and you cannot charge for that use. So there are nous. >> They have lease agreements for administrative space at airports, not for the security checkpoints. and and and I know that we say charge but in regards of the actual security checkpoints we we don't know if there's an specific or agreement that is needed in order for them to operate but according to federal they don't right because they have full jurisdiction over that. >> Yes, that's correct sir. >> Okay. Um, no. I think overall, you know, however this item moves forward, I think it's we've kind of also made it clear that it's not the city of El Paso who is sharing this video. And I think it's important to reiterate that as a whole um because I think there was a lot of again miscommunication amongst members of the community and and we want I want to ensure that we clarify that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Miss Brian, [clears throat] let's take the public comment. >> Yes, sir. We have Mr. Michael Apodaka. Michael Abola. We have Joseph Joseen Aila in the queue. Star six, please ma'am to unmute your microphone. Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Miss Aila, go ahead ma'am. Your microphone is ready. Miss Aila, we can't hear you, ma'am. Your microphone is ready. >> Oh, hello. >> Hello. >> Yep, we can hear you now. >> Okay, sorry about that. May I begin? >> Yes. >> Yes. Good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is Jocelyn Aila and I am a district court constituent. I am speaking today in support of the of this item directing you know the city c the manager and attorney to work with TSA and FDA on thisou. I do think it is very important and I hear hearing you all. I understand that we may not have any federal control as of right now, but I think this is about the efforts that representative and Maldonado have, you know initiated um that is mobilized by your community's response. It's not so much about, you know, all the reasons why we cannot do anything about it, but rather the effort that is being mobilized by your constituents and your voters. Clearly, our community was very upset by the video. I was personally heartbroken and, you know, um [music] couldn't believe that this administration is trying to politicize and further polarize um here locally in our own airport. And so I think that this is a reasonable action about good governance and transparency, you know, to ensure like uh Representative Algo said that we're not blindsided in the future and that these federal operations um you know, if possible align with the standards of nonpartisanship here in the city of El Paso. So I do think once again that you should be mobilized and inspired by your community response to it which was overwhelmingly negative to it and we should we shouldn't see it as you know being silenced by it because that's exactly what the presidential administration does is trying to capitalize off of all the reasons why we cannot do anything about it to suppress and silence the American people. So I think it's as a representative you can do something about it. Um I do strongly urge you to support it and once again just follow through with this act to ensure that there is good governance and transparency in the future. So once again I am in support of it and I hope that you all can have a little bit of a change of mind on this item. Thank you very much. >> Thank you and Miss Turner. >> That concludes the comment. Mrs. Turner, I believe, has left. >> All right. So, just a couple quick comments on this item. So, this is a prime example of when you have conflict between federal, state, and local uh groups, and this is clearly a a conflict that that we are having. I can tell you that uh you know, Miss Representative Lemon is correct. You know, I flew in the airport and there is a monitor to the far right. the volume's not on and and you know you're trying to get through security so not many people are are paying attention to it. I think with the request that that we're seeing today where it says have the city manager and city attorney to review all relevant documentation related to the security checkpoint at El Paso International Airport and formally request any necessary security clearances to access and review existing contract lease agreements with a report to be presented to city council within 60 days. I can tell you that's a lot of resources that that's going to take to get the city manager and the city attorney to do that. For one, many of you may not know, but I also sent the letter to the TSA director requesting that the video be taken down, and I got the same response that the city manager got and probably the city attorney. So, we did make a number of efforts trying to get the the video uh taken down. It is in an area that is controlled by TSA. We've also heard a lot about this Hatch Act. So, one of the portions of the Hatch Act that they're not reading to you is that the Hatch Act does not apply to the president, vice president, cabinet officers or members of Congress, nor to employees or certain agencies like the FBI, CIA or National Security Council in specific roles. So that particular video we we you know we all have our our our feelings about it. But I personally think that to to go up against the an agency that has already told us a number of times that they're not going to take it down. And again, I sent the letter requesting that the video be taken down. And I received the same response as our city manager and city attorney. I don't think it's prudent to be spending the the city's money, our taxpayer dollars to have our city manager and city attorney trying to get them to remove a view a video and get the same response that we got. This is a time right now where you have federal employees to include the TSA agents, to include our FA, to include a number of federal employees who are hurting and to continue to to go down this this this path that we we're attempting to go down with no result that we're going to get to develop anou. And Representative Nino asked a very good question. Is there any other city that has anou? And the answer was no. So, I'm not sure what this is going to cost the city, but I would rather spend some of these resources on fixing potholes and and pulling weeds and doing those things. So, I think we've got our answer from the TSA. But, Miss Prime, with that said, please call for this vote. >> Yes, mayor. So, the motion was made by Representative Ato, seconded by Representative Boyjo, and this is to approve the direction listed on item 24. On that motion, call for the vote. Mayor, there's a tie in the voting session and the motion fails with the mayor breaking the tie. Representatives Chavez, Nino, Fiero, Lemon voting nay. Representatives LaDo, Roachcha, Canales, and Tjo voting I. The motion fails. Let's take item number 25. >> Yes, sir. Item number 25 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2025-0285 Vista Soul Reconstruction and Resurfacing to Jordan Foster Construction LLC for a total estimated amount of 4,217,87340. This project will consist of mill and overlay implement Americans with disabilities act ADA ramps. Remove and replace sidewalks, video image vehicle detection systems, implement signage and striping along Vista del Sol Drive from Sumac Drive to Phil Gibbs Drive. >> Is there a motion? >> Mayor, I'd like to make a motion. It's so good to get back to business, especially when it relates to District 7 and District 6. [laughter] Make a motion that we approve this item. >> Okay. All right. There's a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All right, Representative Rocha. >> 67. >> Thank you, Mayor. Oh my gosh. [laughter] >> Is it 67? >> Yeah. >> You don't even know what that means, Rep. >> It doesn't mean anything. That's [laughter] the whole point. >> Look it up. >> It's not five. It's six. >> I don't I just have a quick question. Um on on the on the presentation, I I I saw the dates for beginning and the date for ending. But it said spring of 25. Is that spring of 26 and then ending in spring of 27 or wh what is the start? What what's the timeline on that? >> That's correct. Gilbert Guerrero with capital improvements. Uh correct. The spring of 2026. That was narrow in that. And completing a year later spring of 2027. >> Perfect. Thank you so much, Gilbert. I appreciate it. >> Well, Miss Prime, since we're dealing with items that have to deal with 67, would you please call for the vote? >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by representative Lemon, seconded by alternate mayor prompier, and this is to award the solicitation on item 25. On that motion, call for the vote. >> And the voting session and that motion passes unanimously. >> Okay, let's take item number 26, please. Item 26 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the agreement between the city of El Paso and the El Paso Community Foundation to continue to promote and support education and programming at the Mexican-American Cultural Center. >> Is there a motion to approve this item? >> Move to approve. >> Okay. There's a motion made by represental, seconded by represent Lemon. Any further discussion? >> Represent Rocha. >> Thank you, mayor, and and thank you, Ben. I appreciate it. I just have a couple of questions on this. I know it's a short presentation. Uh on February 17th, it says that it was a 5-year agreement. What was the amount of that of of that by any chance? >> So, the agreement is actually So, the agreement is actually for the community foundation to serve as a repository for funds being raised. Um, however, the city manager's uh um the city manager is capped at $50,000 per ordinance in terms of dispersal. >> We've raised in excess of that. And so what we're asking the council for is permission for us to have those funds to be able to continue to disperse them as we continue to raise more funds to support programs like classes, workshops, camps, and scholarships. >> So it says that the money is nearing its limit. Is that correct? >> That's correct. We've we've meet we've reached that 50,000 limit. Is that what I understand? >> Okay. >> And Ben, if you don't mind, it is a relatively short presentation. Do you mind walking us through that? And represent Lemon. >> Of course. >> Yes. If it can bring the presentation up. Uh so we did enter into a 5-year agreement with the El Paso Community Foundation in February of this last year. We have a very long-standing relationship with them at EMCAD. uh they are the vehicle that we use to raise funds for Chalk the Block. We also have the El Paso Museum of History Foundation housed under their umbrella as well. Uh the purpose of that agreement was to support education programming at the MexicanAmerican Cultural Center. Uh if you look at the date there, this was just a few weeks before we opened the facility and we knew that our fundraising efforts were going to start ramping up considerably when people uh particularly sponsors were able to see the quality of the facility and the programming that was being offered. Uh so they are the the notfor-profit vehicle that will receive donations, sponsorships, and importantly grants from agencies that do not fund municipal entities. Uh, and that funding limit is defined by ordinance 016736, affectionately called the Godzilla ordinance by the city attorney's office, which limits the dispersal at $50,000. Uh, currently we have raised about $85,000 with more asks out there and more grants planned. And so again, we want to be able to continue to uh utilize the funds that sponsors and agencies are giving us to be able to support the work that staff is doing at the center. >> Represental. >> Thank you, Mayor. Who's Godzilla in that scenario? You don't have to answer that. [laughter] >> The ordinance itself is so large that is Godzilla. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> All right. [laughter] >> Any other further comments on this item? All right, Miss Prime, call for the vote please. >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Canal, seconded by Representative Lemon to approve the resolution on item 26. On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. Let's take item number 27. Item 27 is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the city manager to execute the state infrastructure bank loan agreement together with all required documentation to effectuate the city's intent to borrow such funds and that the city council further authorizes the city manager to take or perform any actions required for implementation of this resolution to receive funding from the state infrastructure bank. >> Motion to approve. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Anyone want to see presentation? Okay. Can we see the presentation, Wim? >> Absolutely. >> So, very short presentation. Um, this is the siblan agreement to execute the loan agreement with the state infrastructure bank for Sean Hagerty Extension. Next slide please. In April of 2025, council approved the use of SIB loans to fund our city match and local contribution requirements for all of our federally funded projects. The first of these loans that we applied for was the Shan Hagerty extension project. This was approved by the Texas Transportation Commission uh in August of this year. And this resolution is to approve the final sibloan agreement um and is the last step in the process. Next slide. So, our recommendation is that council accept the sibloan agreement in the amount of $7,364,000 for actual costs of the Sean Hagerty extension project. Um, this would authorize the city manager to execute the siblan agreement and authorize the city manager to take any actions required to implement the resolution and receive funding from the state infrastructure bank. >> Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, there's an item coming up for council next week that's regarding something similar to this. Is that correct? >> Correct. So, council had originally authorized staff to utilize funding from the sale of capital assets to fund our local match requirements. Um, after that action was taken, we started working on a more sustainable option to fund our local match requirements. Um, what we came up with was the use of the SIB loans. So, what you'll see on next week's agenda is an item to resend the authority to use funding from capital asset sales. Now that we have the SIB loan in place, you'll see a similar item to that for all of our items going forward that were originally approved to use capital asset sales, but will now be using cib loans. >> Okay. Um, Robert, can you talk to us a little bit more about the civ loan? I know that the item and I'm you know I just briefly saw it so I know that there's a difference in the amount without me saying what the difference is but um could you talk to us about the loan agreement itself? >> Sure. So it's um something that we've been talking about for quite a while trying to identify an ongoing source for the city match what came to the presentation yesterday to talk about all the different projects currently in the queue that we're working on. Um, I think really the key takeaway of that was leveraging the federal money that we're getting through the no and uh the city's contribution about 17% on average. So, I mean being able to leverage a pretty substantial amount of money with the city's portion being around 17%. U but this particular sub loan, it's a 4% interest rate, 25-year payback, uh annual payments a little over $400,000 a year. um something that we've got factored in going forward with our debt modeling. Something we'll continue to factor in as we do more presentations with the ongoing debt issuances that we have planned for the remaining public safety bond, community progress bond incorporating the amounts that we need for the siblings going forward with the NO projects. >> Okay, thank you so much. I don't have any other questions. Thank you, >> Represental. >> Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, just a couple of people had asked me about the terms and so I think it's uh prudent to share. Uh the prime rates 7.25%. Current MUN bond uh tax exempt yield is like four and a half 4.6%. We're getting 4% from the SIB. So this is a very favorable rate for the city of El Paso. Um, [clears throat] so again, I was just responsive to a couple people who had asked me specifically about what sibloans look like for us. Um, and and interest rates. Uh, sorry, that's not really a question, just uh, does that all sound correct? >> It does. Okay. >> And we also don't have the bond issuance cost. You know, we have historically been utilizing um, cos and and you know, to be able to fund this. And so there's lots of savings in different ways using this me this side. >> Yeah, excellent point. So yes, those bond issuance costs and the public art costs that go it's typically around 4% of the issuance and so again that's saving the those costs by doing the sub loan as well. >> Absolutely. Yeah, I commend uh all of you really for working toward this alternate solution for for the the grant match. I think we have lots of great grant funded projects and thank you to Hain for the hard work on all of those. Uh we just we couldn't uh fund those with the sale of capital assets forever. uh we'll eventually run out of assets if we keep doing that. And so uh this alternative solution uh makes a lot of sense. So thank you. Thanks for the the agility to get this done. >> Very good. Any further questions on this particular item? All right. Call for the vote. >> Yes. The motion was made by Representative Orejo, seconded by Representative Vero, and this is to approve item 27. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. >> I believe that brings us to item number 30. Miss Bryan. >> Item 30. You're correct. Mayor, is discussion and action on a resolution that the city manager designate be authorized to affectuate a budget transfer to use zoos operating fund balance [music] for the purchase of 50 air conditioner units, including labor and materials. >> Is there a motion to approve? >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> All right. Represent Basto. Thank you, mayor. I was looking at the presentation on this and it's $756,000. >> Represent. Do you mind if we go through the presentation? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Because it's only a couple slides. >> Sure. >> So, Sasha Andonski from Office of Management and Budget, and I have the department here that uh that will deliver the the presentation. >> Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Gary Lensford, the zoo assistant director. >> Thank you. So this is uh this request is for transfer of funds for 756,000 for repair of HVAC units. It is uh as you can see there's uh the units in question are are rusted and degrading as well as uh many of the parts and the coolants are obsolete at this point. So, it's challenging to to repair these units. This is specifically for 19 evaporative coolers and 31 uh refrigerated units across the zoo, a total of 23 buildings that would be addressed by this uh renovation. So the specific request is to free up the funds or to approve the transfer of funds from the zoo's restricted funds to the operating budget to address the uh replacement of these HVAC units. >> Okay. repres. Sure. So, um, last year when we kicked off, um, a lot of the climate work, we had the opportunity to do an energy audit for the entire zoo, really looking at, um, how we could be more effective and efficient and realized that they were one of the biggest users because of these very old units. Um, as we were doing that work and thinking about how we can make improvements across the board, we use utilizing a lot of the capital funds we have in place to to address a lot of the deferred maintenance. And so we were able to get a lot of those things underway. The team also used some of their resources to be able to buy some equipment to have that to be able to deal with some of the deferred maintenance like the pathways and other things. This is really a great opportunity for us because we have enough money in the fund to actually be able to start to deal with some of these projects which really is a purpose you know to have those funds available to be able to hit some of the capital pieces and really be able to get on a trajectory where we don't have as much deferred maintenance. the zoo and not having to wait until we issue bonds to be able to do some of that. >> Represent. >> Thank you. And thank you, mayor. I I guess the the question here is the 756 and you're saying you have enough in the fund balance. So, I guess how much is in that fund balance that we're able to >> cover this and that's $4.2 $2 million of >> and we increase that for this budget year right? >> No. So, so um the this fund is just the dollars that they earn. The way that um the zoo is funded, we fund only staff through the general fund. So, every other expense for the zoo, whether it's an item like this or it's animal food, comes through their gate and money that they're raised. So, this fund, you know, is at a level sufficient that the team felt that we could do this project. And so, um, it would, I think was at two million last year, like 2.5. And so, we've been adding the gate when we don't spend the money, you know, adding those dollars in to give them enough cushion to be able to do these type of things. >> Okay. So, there's been an increase of about that was kind of what I was getting at. So, there's been an increase from last year to this year about 1.5 million. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Just to be clear also, I mean, I think city manager talked on it. These funds are separate and apart from the general fund reserves that we've talked about. So, this is this is restricted fund balance that's generated through their gay revenue, >> right? Okay. >> But don't hold me to that increase, sir, because let me make sure. >> Yeah, that's that's what I was trying to compare. What was it last year and this year? Um but but overall, I guess what um I'm trying to get to as well is how much has the the Boston Community Foundation raised for the zoo? So what they're doing, what you're seeing right now is one of the conversations we've had is before there used to be a split with how we utilize the gate. So now 100% of what they're earning through their tickets are going into this account. So we went from doing about $100,000 a year to bringing in almost um 300 or $400,000 a year. In addition, all the events that they host, you know, have no um overhead and cost to it. For example, we did Boo at the Zoo um last weekend. um it sold out with 1300 tickets sold. That entire $55,000 after expenses would go into this account. So all those traditional ways that we were raising money, whether it's through concessions, um uh school visits, all of those things go into this fund. What we have set up um at the community foundation was looking at ways for people to be able to contribute to very specific things. So, we've set it up so you can contribute to um conservation or if you want to come through to talk about a specific um um program that you want to support, they have little buckets that you can kind of contribute to. That again is separate from this fund. This is specifically just the things that the team are involved in in terms of raising that and we can bring it back as a separate presentation for you. >> Yeah. I I I guess um what I'm hearing is that all the events that the zoo society did and came up with are now part of the zoo and they're continuing to do that and you're getting 100% of the money instead of the 7525 split for memberships or just whatever it was and the society's been out of the picture for almost two years now. But then we have the community foundation with this contract that has been in place for about a year and a half almost. >> But it isn't a contract. So I mean it's >> we voted on a contract that >> they voted on an agreement that allows us to save for if we raise dollars then they I think it's 1% you know of the dollars that are raised when they're allocated. So we're not like paying them to be a fundraising arm. They're really just managing the funds that are coming in and then there's a percentage that is allocated for the overhead and for the auditing and those purposes. >> So, who is doing any fundraising then? >> The team is and so you'll actually you'll see an audit that's coming forward to you. So, all the traditional things that you saw um uh we're not doing a um we're doing the Boo and the Zoo. We're doing a lot of those others that are ticketed events. And so you'll see that the revenue is coming in for those and that goes into this account. >> So I I guess I' I'd like to see how much money has been fundraised by the El Paso Zoo, right? But at the same time, it sounds like the only fundraising that is happening is through whatever events the society used to do, which are now Del Paso Zoo doing them. But there's no real efforts to go with donors like the society used to do to get things done. And it's born like we have events, that's fundraising, that's it. We have a glorified GoFundMe account with the community foundation, the Basan North community foundation for conservation and whatever people may want to um donate to, but we're not really making any efforts to get people to donate. >> There isn't a capital campaign. So, and this is off topic and this is way off topic, so maybe we should bring this back to council. So, 12 years ago, there was a capital campaign. the capital campaign split what we would be fundraising for in terms of capital projects that was clearly identified. I do think it's time for us to do another. We're about to finish up with the projects that were a part of that 10-year plan and really sort of understand what that looks like. That would be something that we would make some investment in. Last time that plan cost about $100,000 to be able to put together. Um the city did make a sizable contribution towards that, but I I I do think that's a separate conversation. I'm more than happy to to pull that together for a discussion for council. >> Yeah. And and then the reason I'm asking all these questions, and I understand how you think it's it's [snorts] a separate conversation. I think we do need to have that conversation at at a future council meeting, but I'm asking these questions to inform my vote because I feel like stuff like this that is really important and we're looking at these pictures and those units look pretty bad. Um should at the very least have some of the the fundraising efforts go toward this. And I haven't really had a clear picture of what that is until >> since the society left. And >> I don't know >> and and I'm just >> and it's I'm using it for my >> expected even for MCAD and the rest. I truly believe it is our responsibility to take care of the basics and to take care of the maintenance. You know, as we talk about these projects, when you talk about fundraising, I would hope that those things would be the ice and it would be the new projects that take us to over and above. I mean, we just have a lot of deferred maintenance across the entire city. And I don't think that those should be things that we should be fundraising for. We should be figuring out how we take care of the basics. And then when people are coming to us, it really are the shiny things that people can see that are adding added value to the organization. They shouldn't have probably gotten this bad, but I'm really happy that we did the audit and it allowed us to be able to bring this forward and we have identified the funds and it doesn't leave the zoo in a place where they don't have sufficient funds and a sufficient cushion to be able to do the things they need to do do in the future. >> Represent Fier. >> Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Lensford, thank you so much for everything you're doing at the zoo. I was there at an event similar to Boo Zoo or Zuboo. I I I can't pronounce it but um it was a fabulous event. It was an evening. Your team is absolutely wonderful. Um they made every all the guests there feel welcomed. Um I I think that um it's too bad that that when this other organization it wasn't the same feel. This is night and day and now we're investing back in our zoo and fixing the issues that been there for years and years and years. But thank you for you and your team's leadership. Thank you, Mayor. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Representative Chavez. >> Thank you, Mayor. A little off topic, but the kids that visited us this morning to do the pledge of allegiance, the one request that they had from the city of El Paso was more animals at the zoo. So, just thought I'd throw that out there. >> Second floor. [laughter] >> I'm just Don't Don't kill the messenger if you're right. >> Okay, Miss Brian, call for the vote, please. >> Yes, sir. [laughter] The motion was made by Representative Lemon, seconded by Representative Boratjo. This is to approve the resolution on item 30. On that motion, call for the vote [clears throat] and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. >> Okay. Let's take the last item, item number 31, Miss Fry. >> Yes, sir. The final item is discussion and action to approve the FY2025 2026 annual internal audit plan. >> All right. Is there a motion to >> approve? Okay. All right. All right. Good afternoon. >> We'd love to see the presentation on this one. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council. Miguel Montiel with Internal Audit Department. Let's go to the presentation. Okay. So, we're requesting for the city council to approve the audit plan. So, we're starting out with what is the audit plan? So the audit plan is a riskbased strategic document developed by the chief internal auditor to determine the priorities of the internal audit function ensuring alignment with the organization's objectives and risk profile. Uh this plan is a living document as members of the FOA know uh that it's it's flexible and it's updated as needed throughout the fiscal year with approval of the FOAC to remain aligned with the city's most critical and current risks. And actually we brought uh this uh the audit plan to the FOAC and which which was approved on the October 9th 2005 meeting. Okay. So we talk about the risk assessment process and this is how we start and how uh the process we use to create the audit plan for the year. So um all the audits uh identif identified uh all the audits for the fiscal year 26 audit plan were identified through the risk assessment process. The process included included meeting with key stakeholders for the city. Uh we met with the FOA uh members uh city manager, city attorney, the deputy city managers, uh the deputy CFO and a few of the department heads and of course we use our internal audit department staff knowledge of city operations. Uh the audit plan includes audits related to the evaluation of internal controls, assessment of compliance with city policies, contracts, regulations, review of economic and efficient use of city resources, and we do follow up on prior audit recommendations. Okay. So each uh general uh so continuing with the risk assessment process, uh the uh audit objectives are included in the audit plan and if you see the actual audit plan, it's the last two pages of that plan. Uh specific audit objectives are determined at the beginning of each engagement. So we do actually two risk assessments. One we do for the audit plan which is our guess global for the whole city and then when we start or before we start any audit we do a uh an actual specific risk assessment of each audit area to determine specific risk that we need to go in and and go look at and audit. So we do that by performance research. We do interviews uh we issue an uh what's called an internal control questionnaire just to become uh familiar with the area under review. So like everything our uh our limitation is uh our we have a finite number of audit hours and here in this chart is how we calculate our actual time we have to concentrate on audits and projects. So actually we start from the bottom up. Um what we do is Oops. Go ahead. >> Sorry. [laughter] There you go. Uh so what we do is we start with how many uh full-time staff members do we have for the office? So we calculated 8.75. The 75 comes from the uh uh the chief internal auditor position that's currently empty. uh we're expecting the uh the position to be uh full or or or hired for uh uh for the second through third fourth quarters of the fiscal year. So that's why that's there's a 75 and what we do is we calculate also how many actual hours are available for the year uh work hours. So there's 2088 hours for this fiscal year. So if you multiply 288 hours times 8.75, you get the 18,270 hours we we have there listed as a total. From there, uh working our way up, we subtract training and CPE hours. Uh most of our staff has uh a certification or more. So we need at least 48 CPE hours to meet our obligations with our with, you know, keep our credits, keep our certifications alive. And then we add some hours for uh citymandated uh training that we do. Holidays, you know, our staff, we like to take holidays. So, we we take those off as as from working hours. Vacation and sick leave. Uh we do some allocate some calculations on average number of vacation and sick leave we take. Uh and then uh we don't since we don't have an admin person, we do uh general administration within the office, you know, paying the bills, uh just managing the office, having meetings uh with city staff. So, that's those are those numbers there, general administration. So that gives us a total of 12,780 audit hours that we have specific for uh for these projects. Okay, next slide here. Here we're given an estimate of how many uh hours our audits take. So we estimate our full audits take about 500 hours or so. Our follow-up audits uh depending on the number of findings we're following up on can take anywhere from 100 to 250 hours. [snorts] We do have recurring audits and projects. Uh those hours vary by engagement and we have carry forward hours. Uh those hours vary by engagement. The carry forwards are audits and projects we started in the previous fiscal year which we didn't get done and we're still continuing completing those projects. Uh we did do some uh benchmarking with uh some other cities within the city of uh within the state of Texas. The city of San Antonio uh based on their approved annual audit plan for fisc year 25 they're taking anywhere from 90 to,200 hours per audit. Uh the city of Houston on based on their fisc year 25 audit plan they're taking about thousand hours per audit and the city of Dallas based on their 25 fiscal year 25 approved audit work plan they take anywhere from 200 to 1,000 hours per audit. We're averaging about 500 hours per full audits. Okay. So audit resource allocation. So uh of course we just talked about the limited resources uh on our time. Uh so we emphasize our audits. Uh we prioritize our audits based on high and moderate risks. Uh that we evaluated them. Uh the specific risk factors are related to internal controls, estimated liability and levels of exposure that used to identify and priority prioritize risks. As such uh we as internal audit function serve as a risk evalation evaluation resource for the city. So the number of audits and projects included in the audit plan are based on in consideration with the number of internal audit staff, staff experience, average hours per engagement, the use of any external consultants experts and then we do leave some hours of unplanned for unplanned requests. You know during the year we may get requests to do a project an audit something comes up during the year. So we do leave some time um to give us time for those projects. Okay. So based on our calculation of audit hours, uh we did have time uh we only had time for eight uh new audits for this fiscal year and we'll talk about those. So here we're breaking down the new audits uh and projects and carry forwards for the first through fourth quarters. So for here for the first quarter you can see we do have some carry forward audits. So these are projects that were started last fiscal year and we didn't complete by the end of the fiscal year. So here we show the remaining hours of estimate to complete these projects. So like you see the vehicle allowance and takehome. We estimated 15 hours to complete that project and actually that project is complete already. The cyber security audit at the police department we're doing the administration portion of it. Uh there we have a contractor doing the actual work. So we're estimating about 50 hours to complete that project. Uh the zoo financial activity audit. Uh that one's on the tail end of of our work. Uh we're doing a red book assessment. Uh we're requiring 250 hours. Um and this red book assessment is we do we self assess ourselves based on our uh internal audit standards that we follow because we uh subject ourselves to uh uh to a peer review. So when the question comes up who audits the auditor we do have we're part of the association of local government auditors. So we have a reciprocal agreement with this uh organization. So they send out their audit directors and audit team members to our city to audit us, our project, our audits, make sure that we're following our internal audit standards. And then we volunteer and we audit other cities. So um here you can see we had animal services construction audit, code enforcement division audit. Those are uh estimated at 400 hours for completion because those we started in August until at the tail end of the fiscal year. So uh the estimated budget for these two projects was 500. So, we had just started those projects. We're doing two follow-up audits. Uh accounts payable receivable um the accounts receivable sorry program uh second follow-up audit and the plan inspections permit audit review. We have another uh this is second quarter for fiscal year 26. We do have one more carry forward. This is a single family owner occupied renovation program audit. This is a project we had scheduled for last year but we we didn't start. Uh there was a a conflict with that uh project. So now that the conflict is not no longer here, um we're starting that project in fiscal year and second quarter of fiscal year 26. Two new audits, uh El Paso Police Department, the overtime audit. We'll be looking at the overtime there. Uh we're going to do a PC card and travel review audit of a city department. So we're going to look at a city department, just do a regular pec card and travel, make sure that you know receipts are there and travel requests and you know they're following policies. Uh we have follow-up of a 38 agreement monitoring audit. Uh another follow-up of on call services agreement audit. The this is the third quarter. These are new audits, accounts payable audit of a city department. We'll we'll do a risk assessment and determine which department we're be looking at. Uh for accounts payable, we'll be looking at you know make sure that the specific department is look is playing their invoices on time and that policy procedures and approvals within the department. Uh we're looking at the streets and maintenance facility maintenance audit. So we're looking at the efforts of streets and maintenance to uh maintain our city buildings. Uh an audit of city council and city managers pecard and travel review. Uh this will be co-sourcing with an external party. We're in the process right now with purchasing to get us a contract with some external uh CPA firms to come and and do that work. Uh then we scheduled for the third quarter uh our peer review, the one I just mentioned. So here we'll have uh the team come over and they'll be here for about a week or so and they'll be reviewing our procedures, our policies, our audit results, and how we uh conduct our audit work. Uh we have a follow-up at parks and recreation, uh park usage permit audit, and a follow-up of the Paso airport accounts payable audit. Okay, for the fourth quarter, we have these four new audits. Uh we're due, we're going to do an audit at the airport, a construction audit. So, we'll be looking at, you know, change orders, uh make sure everything's uh when the vendors submit, uh payments, uh requests for payment, make sure everything's signed off, uh there's proper approvals. Uh everything looks good. We'll look at that. We'll look at parks and recreation. We do an audit of sports fields. Look at the sports fields. look at theus between the city and the school districts. You know, we we do uh lend some of the sports fields uh to uh school districts for them to use, you know, baseball fields and flat fields. So, we be looking at thoseus, make sure uh we are getting the deliverables that we're supposed to be getting and of course likewise that they're getting the deliverables they're supposed to be getting according to the contracts or theus. We looking at the contract for Lanube. So, they've been open about a year now. So, we look at that contract, make sure, same thing, deliverables, make sure we're getting what we're supposed to be getting and they're getting what they're supposed to be getting. And then one more PE card and travel review of another city department. So, those are the new projects and audits. Every quarter, we have these uh the listing here. These are continuous uh audits and projects we work on every quarter. So, we look at uh city uh sales tax analysis. We have a a contractor looking doing that right now for us. They're looking at sales tax uh payments from for vendors. Uh franchise fee audits. We'll be looking at that uh this year. We do also Texas sales tax discovery. We do that. We manage the city employee hotline. We manage the hotel occupy tax audits. Uh we perform tax office refund reviews. You see those at city council for approval um once or twice a month. Uh we continuing with cyber audits. will be performing an audit there at the health department. Uh we'll overseeing that project. We have a contractor that does that work. And then the time we spend with uh preparing and and and presenting at the full act. That's that presentation. >> Very good presentation. Questions? I I do have one quick question. you >> did I hear you right that you outsource some of the audits like for example to the pecards and >> for the pecard this is something new we'll be doing uh several during the summer uh it was discussed as full act that there was a I guess a conflict that we're auditing our bosses yourselves so we'll be contracting out with a CPA firm from out of town >> uh to do that work for us >> okay >> yeah and we do cyber security work the cyber security audits we've been talking about discussed those. We have a contractor that has that expertise. So, we just manage the contract on, you know, they do the work for us. >> And and is there a fee for service when you guys go audit the auditors? >> No, sir. No, sir. We do it for uh we just pay expenses uh you know, travel and hotel, but we don't get paid. >> Okay. Just checking. All right. Represent Nino. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to thank Mr. Montiel and Liz and the entire team. Um you know, as a member of FOA, they did sit with us. uh we had a lot of brainstorming and got to give input and they really broke down the risk assessments and as a body we made the decision of this being the audit plan. But I just wanted to thank you for all your work and and collaboration that has taken place in order to draft this audit plan. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Miguel? Lots of hours in there, Miguel. >> Yes, sir. >> You guys are going to be busy. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. There's a motion in a second to accept this audit internal audit plan. Any further discussion? All right, Miss Prime, please call for the vote. >> Yes, sir. The motion was made by Mayor Prom Chavez, seconded by Representative Malonado Rocha. >> Yes. >> This is to approve. >> Item 31. On that motion, call for the vote in the voting session. The motion passes unanimously. Alternate mayor promp not present. >> All right. Thank you, council. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> To adjourn. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? And the regular council meeting for Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 is adjourned at 3:08 p.m.