[Music] foreign good morning mayor yes if Council can return to the Deus we can convene the meeting please mayor Pro Tem shortwing thank you sir can we start yes mayor good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday August 30th 2022 present in council chambers is Mayor Lisa along with mayor Pro tem shortfein representative anello representative molinar and representative Salcido representative Rodriguez is running a few minutes late it is 902 a.m and now will everyone please silencer electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by police chaplain Joe Morado foreign good morning good morning if you care to pray with us today I ask that you would bow our heads together as we call upon God Heavenly Father we come to you today petitioning you for your guidance and direction in today's proceedings your word teaches us that if any lack wisdom let them ask of God who gives of it liberaling so today God we are asking for that wisdom Lord that you would give it and allow it to work today we ask that you would bless our elected and appointed officials as they make decisions on behalf of the city and its residents and execute their duties as best as possible in a day when resources are limited and needs are without number your word says that you provided for your people with bread from heaven and water from Iraq let the needs of the residents of El Paso and the surrounding region be met today and allow for limited resources to minister to the greatest number of people Lord let the hungry eat today let the homeless find a safe shelter let the lonely find friendship and those that are hurting across our region find hope today let your peace and your presence rest upon all of us and as always we ask that you would bless and keep our First Responders as they protect us and we thank you today for your guidance and your wisdom in his name we pray amen amen Clint can you lead us in the pledge sir to the fight of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you sir thank you on the record representative Rivera and Lisa are in council chambers along with representative Hernandez thank you and I do want to thank everyone for for being here it's um hard to believe that August has come and gone in high school football Little League football and um you know um college football is here to hear for us and I think it's really important as we we think about that that as we do a moment of silence today that we we pray for all the kids and other students that are participating in all sports that to stay healthy and that everybody remembers that it's important to be good sports and while we're out there and why the kids are out there and that we we continue to respect the process and respect the children and respect each other as we sit in the stands and and understand that we're the example for these kids we're the example that they'll look over at has uh as their life continues so I I'd like to have a moment of silence for all these young women and men in the city of El Paso that are participating in sports as uh the month of September is a day away and a lot of Youth Sports and school sports begin so with that please let's have a moment of silence to hope that no one gets hurt and everybody stays healthy but thank you and may God bless everyone Mr Prine thank you mayor that brings us to your proclamations the first Proclamation is EPCC arts in education week thank you mayor whereas Arts education comprising of a rich array of disciplines including dance media arts Music Theater Visual Arts and more is a well-rounded subject in an essential element of a complete education for all students and whereas Arts education supports the social and emotional well-being of young people in a community of self-awareness self-efficiency self-management and perseverance social awareness and relationship skills are Central to any Arts education activity no matter the age and ability of the student or the environment in which the learning takes place and whereas Arts education enables students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills imagination and creativity discipline and collaboration alternative ways to communicate and express feelings and ideas and cross-cultural understanding which supports academic success across the curriculum and whereas Arts education contributes to personal growth outside of the classroom including increasing a student's likelihood to participate in Civic life volunteerism altruism and Community engagement and to succeed in today's economy students must masterfully develop traits that Business Leaders demand in a 21st century Workforce such as communicating through words images sounds and movement and whereas reduced funding and Equitable access to digital technology and suspension of Arts based curriculum and programs are leading to reduced access to and participation in arts education for El Paso Texas students and whereas the Arts are an integral part of life in the United States and El Paso Texas and are an integral part of a complete education which contributes to the vibrancy and vitality of communities in the nation now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the week of September 11th through September 17 2022 shall be known as EPCC arts and education week [Applause] thank you representative Manila Miss Prine yes so the next Proclamation is Elvira Galvan Galindo Remembrance Day representative good morning good morning thank you mayor good morning everyone whereas Elvira Galvan Galindo was a lifelong resident of El Paso Texas a graduate of Jefferson High School in the class of 1969. and worked for the city of El Paso in various capacities during a career that spanned over 30 years and whereas after her retirement elvita continued to serve her community with great enthusiasm in many ways including most recently as an appointee to the greater El Paso Civic convention and tourism Advisory Board and whereas she accomplished her lifelong goals of graduating from the University of Phoenix with her bachelor's degree in 2000 and from Park University with her master's degree in 2017. and whereas in her spare time alvida loved traveling flowers gardening doing things around her house and taking care of her beloved pets and whereas the city of El Paso wishes to honor alvida Galvan galindo's steadfast commitment to the Borderland as a public servant volunteer and Community leader and provide to her family a commemoration of her selfless service to the Sun City and its citizens now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of El Paso Texas that August 30 2022 shall be known as alvida Galvan Galindo Remembrance Day thank you mayor and uh she was a remarkable woman and sadly she passed away in March of this year so we extend our deepest condolences to her family but we do want to recognize her for the great contribution she made to our beautiful city thank you mayor thank you very much and I think that speaks a lot of volume plumber graduated from 69 and in 2017 still had that drive to go and get the Master's Degree so congratulations and you will be missed um Miss Pine yes for the record representative Rodriguez has also arrived in council chambers the final Proclamation is hunger action month thank you mayor good morning everyone Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas hunger and poverty are issues of vital concerns in Texas where 30 percent of people face hunger in our state and one in every five children do not know where their next meal will be come from and whereas the city of El Paso is committed to taking steps to combat hunger in every part of the community and to provide additional resources to those struggling with hunger and whereas the city of El Paso is committed to working with opasoans fighting hunger and feeding Texas a member of the feeding America Nationwide network of food banks and educating people about the role and importance of food banks in addressing hunger and racing awareness of the need to devote more resources and attention to issues relating to hunger and poverty and whereas El Paso fighting hunger has contributed nearly 100 million meals over the last 12 months to our neighbors through the network of food pantries soup kitchens shelters and other community organizations and whereas the month of September has been designated hunger action month in order to bring attention to the food insecurity in our communities and to enlist the public in the fight to endure hunger by taking action including volunteer shifts social media shares and donations to ensure no one has to make the impossible choice between food and other necessities like medicine utilities and child care and whereas feeding America food banks across the country include El Paso El pasoons fighting hunger will host numerous events throughout the month of September to bring awareness and help end Hunger in their local communities now therefore became proclaimed by the mayor and City Council of the city of El Paso that the month of September 2022 shall be known as hunger action month signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser thank you representative and um you know I think it's um it's very important and we see the type of work that the food bank has done and I think there's a lot of challenges during covid and to be able to provide the service that you all were able to provide is incredible but um your work will never stop and we know that and it's a it's really a um a chat thought when you keep thinking about children and one in five uh need food and and will continue to need food and you know which really gives us that drive to continue to provide for the children and for our community and um Susan we want to thank you for for everything you do I know you have a board that really is proactive and and being part of the community and I know y'all are working on on something new coming forward that I had that privilege of uh talking with them yesterday and I think it's important that we continue that um to make sure there's no kid that ever ever goes to bed hungry because that's unacceptable in our community and in our country thank you would you like to share a couple words man thank you good morning Mr Mayor city council I want to thank you all for your support of the food bank the work of the food bank has been intense I think from the moment I came into this town in early 2018 and I just wanted to make sure that you're all aware that the need in this community continues at an intense level since January 1st of 2020 to this food bank has served 153 381 El pasoans that is one in five El pasoans has visited the food bank or one of our partner agencies that we Supply with food in order to feed themselves and their children we're grateful for your support we hope to see you at many of the activities that we'll be doing this this month in honor of hunger action month and thank you for all you do thank you very much and I think it's important you know you say for your support we're hoping someday you don't need our support because there's no one that's going to bed hungry thank you Miss Prine yes mayor that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussions the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting thank you mayor Pro Tim yes mayor good morning everyone proposed revisions for the August 3rd 30th 2022 meeting agenda as of 8 30 a.m page five item three moved to the regular agenda to representative Hernandez page 10 item 27 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda for representative Rivera page 11 item 32 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda after item 27 per representative anello page 18 item 47 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda after item 32 for representative Hernandez and page 19 item 50 revised per animal services department and that revision is to add the words up to 1.5 million dollars to the epvma um I do have a revision um are you reading from this one mayor pretend yes ma'am okay so any other revisions at this time yes I just wanted to to clarify I did not request item number 47 I requested item number 32 32. so if you could just swap the two names represent anello and representative Hernandez item 32 to the instead of item page 11 item 32 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda per representative Hernandez and Paige item 8 18 item 47 moved to the Forefront of the regular agenda for represent vanilla is that in fact I moved item 32 to the Forefront that was it so um uh Mrs Prine um we had spoken yesterday and I had sent you an email last week about item number 32. um what I just want to make sure that the proclamation items go first yes and the resolutions go first so that we have all of those taken care first that we can we can go take photos and then the item number 32 can go after this it was item 47 that you moved to the Forefront it was the nine 32 is a resolution right okay so then it's an error in the number on the revisions then so which one would you like me to the Forefront representing on this um so you should say item 47. yeah yeah item 47 was the one we discussed yesterday which is right it's just I think the narrative is incorrect so the narrative and item number 47 says uh for um September as Suicide Prevention month so you'd prefer item 27 40. I just want I just wanted you to recognize that the record yes that we need to change that for the record because it's not the the verbiage does not align with the item number you're correct which yeah I see what you're saying right we still have item 47 just not I guess item 47 is a count the EP County 911 District budget that's the one that's removed okay right so we just we have the right item the wrong narrative correct is there a second there's a motion by represent mayor Pro tem Shortline seconded by representative Rivera to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote foreign representative Salcido aye representative Rodriguez yes thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 27 . this is discussion in action on a resolution that the city of El Paso proudly honors and recognizes district one city representative and mayor Pro tem Peter schwartzwein for being elected the first Latino chairman of sister cities International yeah thank you mayor representative thank you Mary this is great honor to to place this item on the agenda and I I believe that uh we have endured uh our mayor Pro tem for so long and every time that he speaks and he he's set to do something he speaks with a lot of compassion a lot of uh Drive uh a lot of information to that as well uh and so uh I had the honor of being at in Santa Fe New Mexico when uh mayor Pro tem was elected for the vice for the presidency of uh the sister cities International uh I've got a little video and at that time I would ask uh his staff and Miss Tatiana to walk up to the podium please I.T can you play that video please where's the staff lose and and born and raised in a multicultural Community Peter schwarzbein is ready to represent our organization as the chairman of sister cities International he's a first generation Jewish Latino American his parents were born far away in Argentina and France yet sought a community in the United States that embraced their immigrant background and found it right on the border in El Paso Texas as far as mine returned home to start an art project and ended up in office as the city representative for district one in 2012 El Paso unveiled the return of the streetcars that once connected El Paso at Juarez sprozwein was part of the movement and became an advocate for this public work project and historical preservation in 2015 the people elected him as City representative Peter was inspired to chase dreams overcome challenges and learn mutual respect as he served the community of El Paso as the city representative in 2018 he sought re-election and once again the people of El Paso supported him and continued representing the community Peter's first mine also became a member of sister cities International during his time in office and our organization shares his same beliefs and Mission sportsbind believes in promoting peace and mutual respect he grew up in a community where it creates Bridges to connect and unite communities throughout the year El Paso has exchanged initiatives built strong relationships and prospered along with surrounding communities and he has been a part of this movement under Peter schwarzwein sister cities International will continue making a social impact all around the world hello I am John barrella the CEO of the Border Plex Alliance the only organization privately funded that represents three states and two countries behind me is an Open Door it's public artwork here in El Paso that represents the open door to ciudad Juarez which is only a half a mile away from where I stand today I want to congratulate all of you and especially congratulate representative Peter schwartzbein for being elected chair of the sister cities International board the work that all of you do and the tireless work that representative schwartzbein has done to create better cultural understanding jobs hope opportunity your trade opportunities is absolutely incomparable thanks to your work and representative sports fines I can think of nobody better suited to lead the organization than representative schwartzbeim his tireless efforts over the years and your tireless efforts over the years have yielded great results promoting peace Harmony and understanding among people around the world so once again congratulations for all of the work that you do and congratulations to representative swartzbein on behalf of the mayor of the city how are you as a chairman of this important worldwide organization this is San Antonio mayor Ron nurenberg as a past chairman of Sci it is my pleasure to congratulate you Peter on your Ascension to the chairmanship of sister cities International SCI brings local elected leaders together to think globally and act locally on international issues of mutual interest ranging from cultural and educational exchanges environmental stewardship business connections and opportunities and simply making the connection on a person-to-person level around the world it is important work and you are well prepared to take the home Peter you deserve this honor and I look forward to the continuation of sei's progress under your leadership [Music] foreign and before I make the motion I would like to be the resolution that was prepared and I'd like to make the motion to approve afterwards but it goes to well-deserved individual whose commitment is committed once he he sets his mind to it the resolution reads as follows whereas founded by Presidente Dwight D Eisenhower in 1956 sister cities International is a non-partisan 501c3 non-profit which serves as a national membership Organization for individual sister cities counties and States across the United States and whereas this network unites tens of thousands of Citizen diplomats and Volunteers in nearly 500 member communities with over 2 000 Partnerships in more than 140 countries and whereas the mission of the sister cities International is to promote peace through mutual respect understanding and cooperation one individual one community at a time and whereas a city of El Paso has active sister city Partnerships with sudar Juarez Mexico Chihuahua Mexico and hadera Israel I hope I said it right Peter Israel and where and whereas in February 2020 representative schwartzfein let the Mexico U.S sister City's mayor Summit which was hosted by El Paso and Juarez and brought over 400 people to the region to learn about the relationship between the two Nations and whereas on Thursday July 16 2020 representative sportswein was elected vice chair of sister cities International and whereas on Friday July 8 2022 at the annual summer Leadership meeting in Santa Fe New Mexico El Paso District 1 City representative and Mayo Pro 10 Peter schwarzbein made history by being officially sworn in as the first Latino chairman of sister cities International and whereas representative schwartzfein's first major event as chairman will be held this October at the U.S sister cities mayor's Community Summit in San Diego and Tijuana now therefore it'd be resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that one that that the city of El Paso probably honors and recognizes District City one representative of Mayor Pro 10 Peter schwarzheim for being elected as the first Latino chair of sister cities International and wishes him a successful two-year tenure as chairman congratulations rep mayor Pro tem second with that I make the motion to proved is there a is there an opportunity for uh for common and discussion at this time yes please go ahead sir representative um go ahead um I know we have a 10-minute uh limit on our city council days and I will not use anywhere close to that um thank you again representative Rivera for uh for your kind words and thank you again everybody uh for for this honor as well again of course if this resolution passes and we know that we've had some uh some very close votes this past year so hopefully this will not be one of them um you know um it's it's really been an honor to be able to serve to serve this community I did not come into public service with with the background and and uh you know a blueprint of of what it was except to help this community and to help um be an ambassador and and speak about the truth about growing up here on the border which is one of the most misunderstood and most wonderful places that we have in this world um and being able to have the privilege and honor of being able to uh start as a city as a board member for sister cities International and rising to become chairman um is really a deep honor and it's an honor that I share with all of El Paso my interest with the organization has always been to put El Paso first to communicate not just the challenges but the opportunities and the truth about being born and raised here on the U.S Mexico border between El Paso and Juarez and so feel very honored to be able to continue that work over the next two years and I think we've done a lot to do that including bringing the U.S Mexico mayor Summit in El Paso and Juarez back in 2020 literally a week before the world shut down due to covid and it's a really great honor which you'll be hearing from later today to be working to host the next U.S Mexico mayor's sister city Summit in San Diego and Tijuana October 11th through the 13th as well and of course everyone here is invited um you know I um when I first was in the was elected onto the board in the summer of 2016 it was about two months after my father had passed um and I remember being in Washington um discussing myself and why I wanted to be on on this esteemed Board of the oldest and largest citizen diplomacy nonprofit in the world and I couldn't help but think about my dad and I couldn't help but think about um his role and journey as an immigrant to this country from Argentina about his commitment to his family and towards wanting to to Build a Better World for for me and my brother and to serve this community as well as a medical professional and he loved El Paso and he loved El Paso because of the opportunities that it represented to all people Latino and otherwise and when I was there I just thought about how much of an ambassador he was to El Paso and how much of an ambassador he was towards citizen diplomacy and um I'm just very honored and so thank you again representative Rivera thank you again all of council and thank you again to everybody here in El Paso as well um continue to represent you and also I would be remiss if I didn't think one my staff of Luz and Missy they've been rock hard with this I really appreciate all your work and also our West Texas State representative for sister Caesar National Tatiana Avila my beautiful fiance who's here as well so thank you again everyone for your support thank you again staff and um you know the the best way forward as we know in El Paso is by Leading by example and I think that we have a unique opportunity to show this world how communities can work together and that is an important lesson um not just yesterday but we know more so today than ever before so thank you again for everybody's support and thank you again for this honor thank you thank you Mr down for putting helping put this video together and thank you staff for your your help as well thank you all thank you well thank you all very much for this thank you very much thank you mayor Pro tem you know that um you know it's always um great to see that as you term out moving forward you still have the ability to represent your city and continue to represent the city so thank you for that and congratulations on being appointed chair of sister city and look forward to spending uh three four days in San Diego as we continue to sign the sister cities so thank you again and congratulations or you'll continue to be able to represent our community representative Hernandez thank you and um and to representative Rivera for sponsoring this and to shedding light on this wonderful recognition I wanted to share a quick story with you I was visiting about the mayor of San Antonio I was visiting New Orleans Mayor Pro tem and I ran into the mayor and his staff there and I was like super excited and I said mayor near I wanted to meet him and introduce myself and his his staff shut me down they wouldn't let me approach it and then I said well I'm from El Paso and I just want to introduce myself and he heard me and he says hey do you know my good friend Peter and I'm all like okay that's all I had to do was it was drop mayor Pro Temp Peter schwarzheim's name so I can get introduced to the mayor of San Antonio and and that is just evidence of why it's so important um for someone to help share El Paso's story we are so um they're so so many misconceptions and there's not a really true understanding of what makes our community beautiful and that is because of our bi-national wonderful people in our community and I couldn't think of a better person to be in this role mayor Pro temment so I just want to give you my sincere congratulations continue to correct the misinformation and continue to share about the wonderful people we have in our community and congratulations on this wonderful position thanks thank you do we have a we have a motion in a second yes mayor we do the motion was made by representative Rivera seconde by representative Hernandez to approve the resolution on item 27 on that motion call for the vote point of order do I need to recuse myself from this vote no go ahead we'll let you vote and if it's a tire if it's a tie You Can Count On Me do a verbal roll call yes sir mayor Pro tem Shortline aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously yeah congratulations sir mayor one last thing just like to present uh mayor Pro tem with plaque commemorating the today's date and of course you've been selected as a first Latino uh chair over there with your family and this is a resolution thank you costumes very much it's really nice thank you all yeah thank you you spelled my you spelled my last name right thanks yeah okay that brings us to item number 32 and this is discussion in action to recognize September as Suicide Prevention month a time for people to raise awareness of suicide prevention treatment and recovery and this item was submitted by representative vanilla thank you may I read the resolution yes ma'am it says whereas September is recognized a suicide prevention month a time for people to raise awareness of suicide prevention treatment and recovery and whereas suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 34 and fourth leading cause of death for people aged 34 to 54. and 46 percent of people who die by Suicide had a diagnosed mental health condition and whereas during the pandemic Hospital admissions for teenage girls who may have attempted suicide increased 50 percent with lesbian gay and bisexual youth four times more likely to attempt suicide than straight Youth and transgender people are 12 times more likely to attempt suicide than general population and whereas veterans represent almost 14 percent of suicides among U.S adults in 2019 and whereas as a community it is vital we learn to identify symptoms of mental health conditions and warning signs of suicide in order to step in and help individuals to get help before it is too late as well as to dismantle stigma and misinformation and whereas together spreading public awareness educating families and friends advocating for mental health care expansion and improving our Behavioral Health System will help the lives of individuals living with mental health conditions and their families and whereas the National Alliance on Mental Illness Nami of El Paso along with El Paso VA and emergence health network will host a vigil to honor those lost to suicide on September 22nd 2022 at San Jacinto Plaza at 6 pm and whereas El pasoans context Nami to 741-741 to access the crisis text line can call the Nationwide suicide crisis line at 988 or emergence Health Network crisis line at 915-779-1800 if they are a loved one are expecting experiencing a mental health crisis and whereas September 10th is World Suicide Prevention day which is recognized internationally and is supported by the World Health Organization now therefore be resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that the city of El Paso will recognize September as suicide prevention Awareness Month in commemoration of those lost to Suicide approved this 30th day of August 2022 and I believe there are individuals from both emergence Health Network and Nami here to speak good morning good morning mayor council this is our Renault emergency Health Network Chief of Staff uh I would like to begin by thanking you for your continued support of emergence and for recognizing the public health threat that is suicide uh just I know you have some statistics uh they representative we're going to throw out just a couple more according to the National Centers for Disease Control and prevention the United States continues a very along a very alarming downward trend for deaths by Suicide uh they uh deaths continue to increase year to year and decade to decade unlike other disease processes such as cancer or cardiovascular disease which are trending downward the trend continues to go up for suicide year after year decade after decade as I said and the and the the trend continues to be even more disturbing for children under the age of 18. in Texas suicide is now the second leading cause of death for individuals ages 10 to 34. at emergence we work on several intercept points to guide individuals to to at risk for suicide to available resources whether it's at our adult our adult or Children's Clinic our veterans One-Stop Center or any of our 19 locations our staff is trained to recognize the warning signs and provide the necessary interventions to hopefully prevent injury or loss of life through our mental health learning library we work to provide valuable training such as mental health first aid to educate teachers law enforcement officers in the general public about the warning signs and symptoms and of course our crisis and emergency services division works with individuals contemplating suicide and other harmful behaviors and provide life-saving services and supports our extended observation unit are mcats which are mobile crisis Outreach teams and our CIT teams together with the El Paso Police Department provide life-saving in and very valuable supports 24 7. our crisis line as we mentioned 779 1800 and now 988 talks to individuals again 24 7 365. you could you can call that number and receive telephonic therapy for folks who are who are contemplating suicide or to help family members who need guidance to guide their loved ones to support as you may have heard El Paso is now one of only four Texas centers that are nationally recognized as National Suicide Hotline 988 centers and we're also proud to be a nationally recognized bilingual call center and we're receiving calls in Spanish from all over the country um mayor and console please know that as your mental health authority emergency health network will continue to to combat suicide on all fronts and we will continue to work with the city of El Paso and partners like Nami to make sure no lives are lost to Suicide thank you this morning for your time thank you good morning mayor good morning Council good morning um thank you representative Manila for the sponsorship of this item and for bringing this for us um it is very important that we can move and and have more conversations on suicide prevention and suicide awareness and Nami El Paso we work to educate our community on mental health conditions as that's one way that we can prevent mental health conditions from becoming so serious that an individual contemplates or attempts suicide we work with our partners like emergence Health Network in the El Paso VA to ensure that we are educating our community on the resources that are available to them you know suicide is a very taboo conversation it's a very hard conversation to have Renee mentioned some of the um you know common medical conditions that we see take individuals to the hospital cancer may be a car accident uh various things and we know that's family members rush to support that individual who may have tend to suicide in their close phone family members but when individual attempt suicide it tends to get a little quiet and those individuals don't know how to approach that family and so this month we hope to continue and expand the conversations around suicide expand the resources and educate our community on some of the warning signs and symptoms to prevent suicide and intervene and again have those conversations about mental health before it gets worse and of course our visual later this month where we will be honoring those lives individuals be sharing their stories of individuals they've lost to suicide and we'll also hear from survivors who have survived their suicide attempts and talk about now their Journey towards recovery as a way to offer hope for those who may feel alone may feel that they don't know where to turn and then Nami El Paso and our Community Partners like ehn and the El Paso VA are here to help them thank you thank you sir will you please state your name for the record yes my apologies I'm the executive director of Nami El Paso the local affiliate of the National Alliance thank you thank you good morning my name is Elisa Baron and I'm a licensed clinical social worker with a suicide prevention team at the El Paso VA thank you so much um to having us here today I just wanted to share a few words um and not to be too repetitive as to what has already been said about the importance of this month and really of the work that all of us are doing throughout the year suicide prevention is is really something that our team puts a lot of energy toward we want to highlight The Importance of Being able to learn those warning signs and symptoms and asking the question asking the question immediately when you've identified those warning signs of suicide you don't have to be a mental health professional to ask that question to provide genuine and heartfelt support so that's really something that is important that we want to highlight that we all have a role in preventing suicide regardless of of who we are in the community during the month of September our team will be participating in or hosting a number of events some of which are public so we would love to see see you there we'll be sharing information and resources about lethal mean safety and about learning the warning signs of suicide and being able to do what we can as a community to prevent suicide moving forward so again thank you all so much to for having us here today thank you for being here and thank you representative and I know it's really important for you know people that need help but also the families and how they can reach out and what's available out there in our community so I thank you for the awareness and this is how we'll continue with awareness to get the word out and allow people to know that there is help out there and there's people that want to help so thank you thank you mayor and with that I'll make a motion to approve second here's the motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve the resolution on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously motion to recess there's a motion and a second to recess in order to take photos with this morning's honorees all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 9 46 A.M Mario thank you Council if I can get you all back there and we're gonna go for ahead and do the proclamations first we're going to start with um the Arts and education week followed by the Elvira Galvan Galindo Remembrance Day followed by the hunger action month and then we're going to go ahead and move on to the resolutions [Music] thank you they do have answers amazing [Music] oh yeah yes sir mate Council may we have a motion to reconvene the meeting there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1002 a.m if we can turn to page number 18 the next item that was moved to the Forefront is number 47. this is discussion in action to approve the El Paso County 9-1-1 District FY 2022 2023 budget to be presented by Scott Calderwood director good morning good morning good morning mayor good morning how are you Representatives so uh I'm Scott Calderwood I'm the director of the El Paso County 911 District we sent you a copy of our budget and I've spoken with most of you most of you are familiar with what we're doing and so I just wanted to take the opportunity to um point out that El Paso has some of the finest Public Safety uh in this whole country and we are committed to continuing our partnership and supporting that by providing those entities the best 9-1-1 service and systems that that are currently available so our budget looks pretty normal this year we have sufficient Revenue to meet all of the obligations so we'll be able to continue all of the programs that we've been that we've been sponsoring in the past without any without any real problems so I don't know does anybody have any questions regarding the budget no sir okay they moved to approved second here's the motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 47. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you thank you nice to go to Chief may or may we go to item number 13 that was moved from consent to regular next yes ma'am please thank you this is on page five item number 13 and this is a resolution that the mayor be authorized to sign an inter-local governmental agreement between the city of El Paso and the county of El Paso district attorney 34th Judicial District of the State of Texas for services to the city and its Police Department relating to arrest and prosecution of criminal cases in connection with the District Attorney's information management system dims program good morning chief good morning assistant chief Z Silva with the El Paso Police Department if it can bring up my short presentation please thank you can go ahead and go to the next slide thank you this is for the district information management system I'm going to give you a short presentation on where we are with the program it aligns with strategic goal numbers two and six to maintain standing as one of the nation's top safest city in 2021 advisor Smith ranked El Paso number three for cities of similar size as a safer City it's also to increase Public Safety operational efficiency to implement Leading Edge practices and also to deliver Services timely and efficiently with a focus on continual Improvement next slide please so the purpose of the dims into local government agreement is to allow prosecutors to screen criminal cases presented by US law enforcement and to determine if the prosecution is desired within hours of the commission of the offense and with hours of a person's arrest and just for clarity it's the number one criteria for the dims program that the offender must be on the scene for the officer to take into custody oftentimes the offender is either unknown has fled the scene or the case requires further investigation for it to be a dims case the offender must be present it also permits the filing of criminal charges in the state court system within hours of a person arrest which increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System it allows law enforcement to present a completed case quickly arrest an offender and provide safety to the victims and of course it promotes a strong working relationship not only between the El Paso Police Department and the District Attorney's office but also the sheriff's office next slide please benefits to the police department include but are not limited to providing the community with the timely response to the current status of their case so victims will immediately know what the offender is arrested for they'll have access to bond information and they'll understand the nature of the charges the cases can be presented by the officer from the field to the district attorney cases are accepted or declined expeditiously the dims intake booking process has significantly been reduced in the amount of deaths necessary to book an offender into the county jail that allows officers to return to the field quickly dims cases do not go to a detective for further investigation and dims cases do not go through the transfer office so that significantly reduces workloads for two of our sections in the police department next slide please for the sheriff's department we have a working relationship they also utilize the gyms program and they've come up with a fast track booking process if you utilize the dim system so instead of going through the four-step process officers that are using the dim system can go directly to the second floor of the jail they stop at the nursing station to make sure that the offender is healthy enough to go through the booking process and then they stop at emergence Health to make sure that they're mentally prepared to go through the booking process and then we go directly to booking if we don't go through the dims process then we have to stop through four stations the nursing station emergence Health the financial station the CJC and then we have to go back to the Magister on the first floor this is all prior to booking which exponentially increases the amount of time it takes for an officer to book one person into the county jail next slide please so far in 2022 we've had over 2100 cases go through the dims process it looks like we're on track to hit about 3 600 dims cases for the year next slide please the scope of the services for the dims program is that the dims attorney will make their staff both the assistant district attorney and their support staff available on a 24-hour rotating basis they will answer our calls within 10 minutes of the first call or within 20 minutes of a missed call their trip provide us with statistical reports that will include weekly monthly yearly comparison reports on the caseload for misdemeanor and felony cases on whether they were accepted or declined and then we also are to meet quarterly with them to discuss and analyze and review and update the program as necessary next slide please so the next steps in the process will continue our quarterly meetings we've already had about two we also want to improve our internal capabilities with our records management system to make sure that we're also able to retrieve cases when we compile the statistics from the dims program we'll also match it to the information that we have in our web RMS system we'll continue to review process improvements about January and then if required we can come back to City Council in August and give you another update of the program and that concludes my presentation okay uh District Two thank you um thank you for the presentation I'm really glad that we were able to work on this program and get a better outcome I know that y'all have worked really hard on it um I have a couple questions about uh the kind of cases that qualify for dim so I didn't know you said misdemeanor and felony um are there any kind of charges that do not qualify for Dems so all of our major cases for example murder those will never go to gyms a lot of our major narcotics cases are STI negligent homicide cases those kind of things will never go to gyms anything that requires extensive investigation what about domestic or child abuse they do go through this they do remember that the offender has to be in custody so even if it's a domestic violence case and the defender has absconded then it has to go through the long route okay and and not every case goes through the day or not every arrest goes to the dance process right and so what happens um how do you all determine who does go through dims and who doesn't that is by the judge or is it sometimes by law enforcement as well generally speaking we know which cases go through them so if it happens generally within two to three hours of the call and the offender is still present it doesn't have a lot of evidence it's not a murder case then it'll go through dims but if they are outside of that and the offender is not present then those cases can't go through deal and what is the officer's responsibility after the arrest of a case does not go through dims so they'll have to complete the report and the report gets approved to a supervisor and then the case gets transferred to the appropriate section okay and then it's no longer the city of El Paso's case it belongs to the the jail the district attorney no the case isn't complete it'll go to a detective section okay and the detective will be responsible for completing the case prior to sending it to the district attorney okay thank you that's helpful because there's just been a lot of confusion I think recently with what has happened with some cases being thrown out and some Communication in which This falls on the city's purview to to put that through the process the District Attorney's office and so I don't know if you all have any comments on that I think it's it's created some confusion my understanding is they weren't very valid comments and were not fair to the El Paso Police Department I shouldn't have asked you to comment those that's unfair I'm going to go ahead and comment because you're talking about cases in which the defendant has already been placed in jail and in 99 of those cases the El Paso Police Department had presented those cases in a timely manner we did review those cases thanks well thank you I appreciate that clarification and I think it was unfair um to put the police department in this program on such public notice with uh not very factual comment so thank you for that I really appreciate it you're welcome thank you Chief civil for being representative Hernandez come here proton um to um follow piggyback off of Representative nella's question um of the 2114 to date as of this year calendar year um in the event it goes through the gems process and then it gets kicked you know it gets kicked out or it's dismissed because nothing came too fruition does do you all have to come back and um re go through the process through the dense process again or is it at the end of the cycle of the case where you all have to go back they'll pass they'll pass the police department do you all have to go back in and represent this again in front of a judge no we do not go back once we present the case to dims and it's either accepted or declined the case now belongs to the district attorney so the most we can do is if they need more information and they ask us for maybe missing evidence or whatever else that they might need but if they decide to decline the case at any point then it's only within the judicial system so at no point if the case is dismissed and then it's refiled there's no role that the El Paso Police Department place unless they decide that they want to put out a KPS and we have to go back and pick up the offender no okay there's no other work for us understood and are we able to determine and what progress we have seen year to date year over year I don't have that data okay because I understand like we changed the process and so it's making it more efficient I'm trying to determine where the efficiency is as it relates to the changes that we've done procedurally and so I'm just not sure if that's a good representation of data since you have two different procedures or if this is a new Baseline and then we Benchmark off of this year's new changes that's that's what I believe we should do because we just started the program in January and we should Benchmark going forward and so in your in your opinion in the Department's opinion is um is this program more beneficial to the city or is it harmful to the city in terms of resource allocation with our Police Department so before we answer that we want to at least have a year of data I mean that's that's generally a good Baseline to ensure on both sides if the program is really working the way we set it out to do we do know that from the jail side which is very important that we are having an efficiency there right okay no no I appreciate that response and I think that's fair because you want to compare apples to apples um and so I recognize that and and so long as there is coordination through the D.A that we're saving time and resources um then I'll be in support of renewing this agreement with the District Attorney's office thank you and represent and on this we did initiate a lean Six Sigma project and identified a lot of efficiencies some were a little too efficient and you know we did include the county in in that discussion and that work and so we took in everyone's comments and so we made some of the adjustments not all of them and that's what the chief's talking about that those changes that were made we're going to run that through for a year and then come back and look at it again care representative uh mullinart thank you mayor Pro tem Chief always good to see you thank you um on slide eight you mentioned that you have continued quarterly meetings with the D.A when was the date of the last meeting I don't have the days but myself and Eric Gutierrez who's already met with them about two months ago and we will track and keep the dates and when we do our final presentation we'll let you know how many times but it's been at least twice that we've met okay I don't know if you can answer this question or not but whatever it is or is not happening with the District Attorney's office and the public defender's office um dismissing cases for lack of indictments what is the morale on the El Paso Police Department so we don't see that in our day-to-day work Patrol officers are not seeing you know the dismissal of cases so they're continuing to present cases from the field the way the dims program is designed to operate okay and Miss Hamilton um is there what repercussions do we as a city incur if so many cases are dismissed well this this um the district attorney is responsible for the prosecution of those cases if there is a an additional crime the officers would go out and investigate that crime for future you know work um but the dismissal of the cases is is not something that the city would be reliable and is there someone from the uh assistant D.A uh rescue me an assistant problems excuse me assistant City attorney's office on that uh lean six project or in the meetings with the DA's office we did meet with them and they were part of the process we were putting that together and we gave each of you an individual presentation when we went through that process okay all right thank you Chief I appreciate your time okay to improve second just had one question can you describe your relationship or actually the interaction with the District Attorney's Office over the last few years and how that that relationship is working with this program well we've we've gone through a change in District Attorneys so you know they're different they're not obviously the same but right now we do have a good working relationship in regards to the dims program we spent a lot of time working on this contract and making sure that there were benefits on both sides so I think our our relationship is is pretty good right now do you have an idea of how many Dems related cases have been dismissed or dropped over the last six months or a year I don't I'm not able to track that through my web RMS system that's one of the things that we need to receive as part of the the data from the District Attorney's office and we're also working internally to make sure that our records management system can also capture that data so when we come back in August we'll be able to have that for you okay thanks is there any other questions from Council at this time okay hearing none like to call the question all in favor oh whoops we have we have somebody made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 13. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you thank you that brings us to item number 28 on page number 11 of the agenda and this is a presentation and update by the city manager on the status of Grants and or loans provided to small businesses through the small business emergency relief program managed by lift fund to include a list of any businesses attached to a lien and this is representative Rivera's item April 10th yes I hit the right the district to speak yes sir thank you thank you uh thank you thank you mayor Pro tem uh this this so this item was placed on the agenda because uh we had a call regarding uh an individual who was issued a grant and I hope we get that explanation so everybody can in case you get the same kind of calls because uh where the gentleman when the gentleman went to had paid off his loan he had gotten the ground and paid off his loan and eventually uh was in the process of selling his business when he was notified that there was a lien placed on his business from the lift fund that is the reason for for this and apparently uh from what I learned is that they do notify them regarding this issue so uh if you have member members of the community in your districts that don't aren't aware of this maybe and you get a call like this uh this presentation will help you out are they going to do the presentation yes sir Elizabeth yes sir Elizabeth Triggs with economic development um if it can bring up the presentation please so what we did represent Rivera this information was pretty readily available so we were able to to retrieve it she has a short presentation to go over what your question was about oh thank you thank you very much and like I said it's beneficial for the rest of the council they they want to wear this yes sir um so what I wanted to do is just provide a little bit of a background on this program um shortly after covet hit about two weeks afterwards um the city council was able to commit a million dollars initially from our impact fund for the small business emergency relief program um when combined with the counties dollars in total 1.2 million dollars was set aside for small business loans we did partner with Lyft funds to administer those loans in total we found that 71 loans were provided to small businesses within the city limits for a total amount of just over 1.07 million dollars so a huge impact very early on before any cares funding or federal funding was released um later that year on October 28th city council did allocate cares funding for loan forgiveness which turned all of those loans essentially into grants and so all loans all 71 plus those that were issued outside of the city limits were forgiven next slide please this just provides kind of a an overview of how the loan application process works and how the Forgiveness process also works so just like any other loan application the application was submitted it was evaluated for credit worthiness as is the case with most loans a lien was filed on on assets on the borrower's assets to secure collateral for the loan so that did happen with all 71 loans and then once Council allocated that cares funding later that fall to forgive the loans that was done in October a couple months later early December once Lyft fund received the dollars to forgive the loans a notice was sent out to each of the borrowers notifying them that their loan had been forgiven and also providing instructions on how the borrower can file for a release of the lien what I want to note here is that it was very clear that it is in this case the borrower's responsibility to file for release of the lien um and then you know borrow would take that on and next slide please just very quickly this is a sample of what the letter looked like you can see circled there where it talks a little bit about how the the lean can be released so all borrowers did receive this this notice we have spoken with Lyft fund however and asked that they please send out another notice just one more time to make sure that that all all the borrowers under this program are aware that they are responsible for releasing the lien and with that I'm happy to take any questions one of the male protein walked out so okay to speak thank you thank you representative thank you Mr eggs that was thank you Jim uh thank you Mr that's very informative and uh hopefully we can all learn from this uh because uh apparently they weren't notifying them but I'm glad that you you got back to them and are they going to actually send out a letter for those that have uh grants and have paid off their grasses yeah just um for clarity it's not the grant program there was no lien um filed for Grant programs it was only for the Loan program um which was a really limited number I'm sorry so yeah no that's okay they will send out a second notice sir thank you so much again for the presentation okay um representative uh Rodriguez thank you thank you representative pretty well after putting this item um Elizabeth my question is you know are we prepared for the second round um of grants that will be allocated so we don't have a similar situation to this yes um so the second round we're looking at bringing it forward to you all in September October at the latest um you all have already allocated our funding so we're just working through the details of the contract with lift fund and we are planning on um ensuring that that just like is the case here we'll make sure that it's written out if there are any loans involved in the future that there is a notice provided to the borrower but but I do want to be clear that that all borrowers were advised that they needed to file for release of the lien um that said though if we do bring any loans forward we'll make sure that that's also spelled out that a notice is required in in our contract okay and you said we'll be hearing getting information on those um either end of September beginning of October yes ma'am yes ma'am that's when we're looking forward that first round of fatigue we are looking at Grants at this time um so not loans but but grants which which means that no lien will be required okay thank you um do we know when this grant program is going to be operational usually it takes about a month after the contract is approved to get it up and running what I will say is that we're prioritizing those businesses that did not receive funding through the cares process initially so so trying to hit the ones that you know weren't able to take advantage of the program to begin with and then we'll move if they're still funding remaining we'll move to to the next round of businesses that that perhaps we're able to secure uh cares Grant fund funded grants do we do we know when when that will be coming to council to approve September um October at the very latest okay thank you yes sir is there any other questions at this time if not call a question sir item number 29 is discussion in action to approve a resolution that the city council declares that the expenditure of District 8 discretionary funds for the use of the El Paso police department patrol units and officers to support the Bowie 100th anniversary Legacy parade to be held on September 1st 2022 serves a municipal purpose and this is representative lizaragaza Mr proof there's a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative lizarga to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item number 30. and this is to discuss the 2022 sister cities International U.S Mexico mayor's Community Summit hosted in San Diego Tijuana October 11th through the 14th as the city of El Paso will be able to promote its uniqueness and reinforce the existing relationships with other Mexican cities and the United States and this item was submitted by mayor Pro Tem schwarzwein thank you very much City clerican good morning everybody as well um first of all thank you again representative Rivera for the uh the resolution earlier um great opportunity to talk about um this continuation and this opportunity for our community when we talk about El Paso and we talk about what makes it so special we know that we have always been a natural gateway to Mexico over 90 billion dollars of year of trade across through our ports of entry and we know that everything from family language music Food business students and other things across our borders each and every day between our two sister cities of Juarez and El Paso yet El Paso and Juarez and our city are part of a larger Network and a larger relationship between our two countries a bond that is unbreakable and has existed for centuries and so today I would like to if we can go to the first slide it I guess we'll do this backwards um I would like to uh just share with the council a great opportunity invite the council as well as the mayor For an upcoming U.S Mexico mayor's Community Summit and a little bit about this initiative with sister cities International again to to remind Council this is a continuation the third of of what uh these bi-national Community Summits so next slide so a little bit of an overview we talked briefly about it due to the uh the resolution that representative Rivera has but again sister cities International is a presidential Legacy uh non-profit founded by Dwight Eisenhower on September 11th of 1956. Eisenhower who's one of our greatest generals became one of our greatest presidents and uh his concern was was with keeping the peace after World War II in the middle of the Cold War he felt that the best way for uh to help create Global peace and prosperity was not through countries talking to each other but through people and here in El Paso we do know the power of our people as well so um basically the the program of sister cities International started with um different uh different community and citizen exchange programs focusing on student exchange arts and culture exchange economic exchange as well as humanitarian exchange again at a time of the Cold War where countries may not have talked to each other this was not handled through ambassadors and embassies but through Mayors and through people oftentimes just volunteers next slide and from those initial um those initial Outreach and sister city Partnerships most of which were with German and Japanese cities in the 1950s it's now expanded to over 2 000 cities in over 130 countries with over 500 membership cities in the United States next slide and you can see those relationships across almost every single state here in different initiatives different different opportunities a lot of cities have been utilizing their sister city program to encourage International and economic development for example that was one of the opportunities that we signed a sister city relationship in 2015 with hadera Israel hedera Israel is the leading City in Israel relating to cyber and border security technology as well as agritech and other defense Industries as well so it made a lot of sense with our focus on Advanced manufacturing since 2015 to look at hedera as an opportunity and that's just one our relationship with Juarez for example is slightly different it's focusing on tourism and promotion of both of our cities making sure that we send delegations to Washington and to Mexico City with members of both of our cities simultaneously and so up coming up with this we have over 170 Partnerships in Mexico it is our largest amount of sister city Partnerships with any other country followed by Japan and then with China as well and so again would like to invite everybody next slide um to this upcoming U.S Mexico mayor's Community Summit again October 11th through the 13th in San Diego with a day in Tijuana as well so next slide this isn't um this is a continuation of these U.S Mexico Summits started in 2018 in Guadalajara as a way and a platform for different leaders City officials Business Leaders academics and experts as well as citizen diplomats to engage in discussions about that unique and under unending relationship between Mexico and the United States the first was in 2018 in Guadalajara we can go to the next slide and so you can see here um these are just some images from Guadalajara we had over 400 attendees spend two days in Guadalajara with the sister cities of Guadalajara which traditionally are San Jose El Paso Albuquerque and San Antonio we Then followed up this Summit with and we can go to I think the the video at this time follow that up in February 26 to the 28th in El Paso and in Juarez and for those that had to attend it was a pretty amazing experience and here's some video from that [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign spirited time we actually had a uh sort of for those that were there had an opportunity to be serenaded by Juana cereto the bi-national director of development and Juarez as well as an impromptu karaoke by mayor Pete science of Laredo as well so for a lot of people that were there they hadn't they hadn't been there in Juarez in quite a while so it was a pretty great time there so what to expect for this upcoming Summit in San Diego and Tijuana is um first of all great opportunity and commitment already from a number of Mayors as well as elected officials from Fort Worth San Antonio Albuquerque mayor of Albuquerque Mercado will be in attendance as well as mayor miyagashima of Las Cruces and mayor Weber of Santa Santa Fe as well as electeds and Mayors from Los Angeles California Mountain View California San Diego San Jose ciudad Juarez Guadalajara Tijuana Ensenada and Mazatlan we could take away that slide there's another Miss Pine did you get the thing that I'd send was it this morning sir yeah I was about maybe 10 minutes ago okay well um some of the agenda items that we'll be will be going over at this Summit um pull this up really quick um so a number of things will be happening will be having a an opening reception in Balboa Park for those who have been in San San Diego uh pretty special and Historic Park as well for October 12th we'll be departing um to Tijuana uh during the day we'll be having a mayor's panel with Mayors from from throughout the United States and Mexico as well as a panel on the the usmca NAFTA 3.0 as well with representatives from San Diego Mexico El Paso on that panel as well something really special our own mayor Lisa will be signing a sister city agreement with Mazatlan Mexico live at The Summit as well and we are currently planning on having four other sister city signings with other U.S Mexico Cities Live at that time as well so something very special and for those who were members of council for that 2018 signing with Juarez it's a very emotional and special time um so be able to do that with hundreds of others will be a pretty special event we're also looking at having a panel on design and Global resiliency working on the impact of collaboration with designs and Global regions of note is that San Diego and Tijuana were recently awarded the global design City it's the first time that two cities have been awarded this at the same time we'll be having a taste of Baja breakout as well for that first day and then in addition to that we'll be having panels on October 13th focused on immigration energy between the United States and Mexico as well as a youth panel with different that's being organized currently by youth from Tijuana and San Diego as well and finally for a keynote lunch topic we'll be looking at tentatively uh Mr abroad who is the economy minister of Mexico as well as on the second day a keynote lunch topic focusing on Sports diplomacy uh between the United States and Mexico with members of the San Antonio Spurs as well as the San Diego Padres in attendance for what should be a very spirited conversation about about this opportunity so with that I just again want to invite everybody on the council as well as the public to attend this is a great opportunity to showcase the unique cultural and vibrancy between our cities and our countries through sister cities International and again it opened up for any other questions at this time no action that was just for a discussion uh is there yes I representative Salcido thank you representative mayor Pro tem just wanted to say thank you so much for all the hard work you did in showcasing our city I think it was great I only heard a lot of positives so just want to thank you for all your hard work and and your staff and putting such a great event I'm looking forward to you representing El Paso and yours and just shining a light in on our beautiful city for people to really know how great we are so thank you thank you again representative Salcido thanks is there anyone else okay next item yes sir that brings us to item number 31 and this is discussion and action to allow the animal shelter advisory committee ASAC to participate in bi-annual events that do not require a monetary contribution in partnership with the city of El Paso's animal services and other organizations to increase adoptions raise public awareness and address the needs and Welfare of animals pursuant to ordinance number zero one 7746 ASAC originating ordinance and this was placed by representative anello I'm just gonna go for it thank you Miss fine for the council's information this is an issue that has come up um at the ASAC committee meetings this was an item drafted and recommended by legal the ASAP committee has put on events but has limitations on how they can partnership with animal services advisory I need the council's approval to do so and so I know there was an event planned in October I think it has been canceled but this would just allow them to have adoption events in partnership with animal services so I think that Eric Gutierrez is on the line if Council has any questions for him otherwise I'll make a motion to approve well can you explain what kind of joint ventures are going to have please so okay so I'll explain again uh nothing planned at the moment but uh I believe last month or two months ago uh animal services committee members put together an adoption event um and so one day they partnered with other shelters that charge and then on a Sunday they Animal Services was able to come and I think there were significant amount of dogs adopted out it's just you know it was just an event to help clear the the shelter but without the partnership approval from Council that can't actually be like we couldn't have said oh this event was sponsored by Animal Services committee it had to just kind of be an adoption event right we can't say oh this is in partnership with animal services without counsel approval so the events can happen and have but um I think the partnership is the really important thing so it can be officially held by Animal Services thank you for I'm sorry the ASAP committee I apologize no thank you for that and thank you for placing on the item on the agenda so again I'll make them oh we have a motion a second sorry so there is a motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Molina to approve item number 31. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 33 on the of the agenda and this is a presentation and discussion on El Paso Animal Services management good morning mayor council uh Terry kepchel for the record uh director of Animal Services and and could I have it bring up the presentation please okay this is our uh up an update on Animal Services where we are for the year next slide please so Animal Services we fall under strategical eight nurture and promote a healthy sustainable Community we're also under the 25 by 25 30 by 30 to become a live release rate of 90 or better and also to sustain that number in 2017 uh we created our strategic plan that we followed daily and this is this is very important go ahead next slide without a strategic plan this is where we were this is prior to setting up our strategic plan the shelter reform in 2015 and suggestions from from that reform committee so in 2014 we saw a live release rate of 27 percent slightly better in 2015 we had no real life safety measures in place we were still noticed known as a pound next slide please so after implementing our strategic plan moving forward you can see our live release rate did much better we went from that 27 percent up to the 87 percent in 2019 and we continue to strive for that 90 as we move along again it's very important that we follow that strategic plan next slide please so we saw some impacts that we had on from covid just like anybody else in in the industry across the world we saw effects on our Workforce people were you know they didn't know what was going to happen with covid a lot of them left the job to be with their families we did get people sick and we continue to have struggle with some of these positions there we see external impacts supply chain issues still haunt us today and we're also seeing shortages of adoptions throughout the country as well um and then our community impacts during kovit we were less we weren't going out to the uh public as we used to again there was unknowns on how this disease would affect everybody we saw our off-site adoptions events uh go way down but we're on the upswing on that as we get new employees and get everybody back on track so we're looking at increasing all those those measures next slide and looking at those in the adoptions as you can see our adoption numbers are down to 24 percent of our intake right now and then Nationwide you can see that there are of their total intakes they're also down um our goal is to have that our intake balance out with the adoptions or even do better so that that's our goal it always will be so we can reset 90 uh release rate next slide please so we have our coveted recovery I'm going to take a little step back here in June of 2020 there's a program collaborative that was put into place this was shelters across the the nation here and it was known as Haas El Paso Animal Services we joined that as a pilot program and we were part of that program for approximately one year uh in July of 2021 we separated ties with ahas and we went back to full operations at the animal shelter so completely open full intake owner surrenders our adoption events went back into place all those types of measures next slide please and looking at some of our highlights over this uh this this year this calendar year starting in January we had our first ever winter flight um that's important most flights happen during non-winter months this would give us a head start on reducing numbers at our shelter and we can we hope to continue those those types of Partnerships moving forward having flights and transports throughout the year um El Paso Animal Services we lead the nation on on our um vaccination clinics that we provide one of our partners Petco love they Supply the vaccines for us they were so impressed they wanted to come down and see how we do it here in El Paso we do things big here and we go strong and while they were here during that event we served over 1207 uh pets during that event which is our all-time record here locally so we're very proud of that we also go out to different events we still go out Nationwide and showcase our best practices across at national conferences next slide please in may we started up our normal transports again our air transports our ground transports they went into effect um and then this as of this month again we're always pushing for adoption events and August was our clear the shelter event and we were wrapping that up and we got just a couple days left on that we had a marathon here on Saturday where we showcased all of our adoptable dogs during that event again we're constantly pushing and moving forward on on adoptions next slide please uh talking about best practices these are some of the things that we've been doing here in El Paso we have the microchip scanning that the fire stations we have again our drive-through clinics are second to none we put into a into effect a grooming ordinance that not only protects the animals but also protects the employees taking care of those animals um we also have our cats at the zoo which is still one of the only places that you can go adopt a cat at a zoo Across the Nation next slide please next slide on this side here um talking about best practices this is something where we're going to be introducing a quick sneak peek of this it's a it's a reunite site it's a first of its kind in the world um this is going to be it's a microchip scanning station a self-checkout base basically this reunite site will be put up at the Salvador Rivas Junior park that's 12 4 8 80 uh Pebble Hills on the east side again we're looking at revealing this uh this technology on September 14th this is brought to us in partnership with our strategic Partners at The Parks and Recreation working with them on locating a site and getting their approval to set this up with best friends who helped fund the project and also 24 Pet Watch there are microchip supplier and and come up with this technology and again the sole purpose of this is is when somebody finds a pet we can quickly scan them they'll use their their phone uh use a QR code and so we can try to reunite these these pets before they ever reach our shelter with that I'm going to go ahead and pass it on to Michelle Anderson she's going to go on to the next part of the slides here sorry I've got a Don para who's next good morning Adan Parra animal services for the record so I'll be giving you all some updates as far as our facility updates enhancements that we're making to the facility our Workforce and some of the things that we're doing out in the community to keep animals out of the shelter next slide these are a few of the projects that have been reinvigorated this year these were approved by the 2019 Bond the main one that we're working on right now and is set to begin in the winter is our HVAC project that project is going to be a complete revamp of the HVAC facilities there at the shelter to provide a more comfortable living conditions for for the pets in our care and for the employees also the the kennel Expansion Project has been reinvigorated uh that that one's gonna be adding an additional 400 kennels kennels to the to the facility and uh again with the the mission of providing safe comfortable living conditions for those animals in our care next slide please with regard to our Workforce we understand that our Workforce is is one of our biggest resources as far as the taking care of the animals in our care so we've had to remain agile and um and create some new positions and also make adjustments to those positions with regard to providing that thousand dollar sign on bonus a 90 bi-weekly and infectious control incentive and we're streamlining the processes for getting those employees on board it used to take two to three weeks to to get them on board and now we've got it down to about two two days on average next slide please what we're doing out in the community where we we've had some setbacks with uh Coven in the last couple of years but we've we've definitely been hitting the community very hard we've been we've given out over 23 000 pounds of food microchipping and vaccinating thousands of pets so far this year and the entire point of of those events is to make sure that we provide those pets in our community every chance to get back home without ever having to set one paw in the shelter that's a direct reflection as far as our national partners are wanting to make that effort to get pets back home keep pets and families together and so that's like director kepschel said we're trying to do that here in our community and our events that we have that take place on 301 George Perry on a monthly basis again our second to none and um everybody wants is is reaching out to El Paso to find out how we do them how we're able to serve so many pets in a single day and uh we're going to continue that continuing providing those services to the to the pets of our community we're also partnering with local clinics local veterinarians we don't have a veterinarian at El Paso services at present so we're having to get creative formulate those Partnerships we're working with four presently we also have contract veterinarians veterinarians that come in from out of town who are licensed in the state of Texas and um working with a VMA to try and do a spayathon in the future so so that we can get a lot of those animals owned and shelter pets spayed or neutered in a timely fashion you can see that the data there shows that the number of surgeries we're able to perform is a direct reflection of the number of vets that we have on staff um so we're we're really working hard to um recruit we're looking at going out of town to local or in-state Veterinary programs like a Texas Tech in Amarillo and um so that way you know we let them know that El Paso exists who are really selling uh not just the the job and the workforce work life balance but the city itself and how much there is to do here um veterinarians can presently go anywhere anywhere where they they'd like to work whether it's Florida Hawaii San Diego they they have it's it's their market right now so we really need to sell El Paso and show them that uh this is you know a beautiful place to live next slide and with that I'll hand it over to Michelle Anderson morning members of the council Michelle Anderson for the record I'm going to touch a little bit on our community support our community impact that we have at El Paso animal services and one of those being our volunteer Force our volunteer Force has really did a complete 180 of course back with kovid with the shelter shutting down and in an effort to protect staff our volunteers the animals and our community we did limit volunteer support at the shelter but ever since then we have reopened our volunteer program and it has expanded exponentially we've had a 175 percent increase in volunteer hours compared to previous years in April we had a record-breaking month we had 863 volunteers donate 3 630 hours to El Paso animal services and really this shows the tremendous Community Support that El Paso Animal Services has because um with the number of animals that we have in our care the number of programs that we're constantly working on we need that community support and it's coming in droves we have continued volunteer programs and Partnerships our rescue Runners Who come out every Sunday and even helped us co-host our marathon that director kepsil mentioned we have Partnerships with sisd and CISD Clinton Independent School District for event science students to earn their vet assistant certification by volunteering at the shelter and getting those hands-on experience and developing those skills to then pass that test and we're just you know working to increase volunteer opportunities voluntary volunteer training opportunities to really support our volunteer Force because they are truly along with our Workforce the backbone of the shelter next slide please also working to develop Partnerships across the community we have a new Rescue partner if you haven't visited the Sun City Kitty cafe at the Sunland Park Mall it's an a wonderful place to go and pet some cats have a nice cup of coffee or tea and maybe even adopt one as well and that's one of our newer rescue partners that we developed this year also partnering with El Paso Community Foundation you the members of the council approved that partnership between us and the Community Foundation to develop a friends of epas fundraising arm which was part of the original shelter reform plan back in 2016. this will just increase our efforts to provide fundraising capabilities and really expand our efforts to support our life-saving programs that we have at the at the shelter and for our community next slide please as director kepschel mentioned as well always striving to increase our adoptions at the shelter especially ever since covid adoption numbers across the country have gone down um so we're always looking at ways to increase interest of adopting at the shelter or even across town developing creative adoption events aimed at highlighting our shelter pets and increasing those adoptions and also new coming up uh probably next month is the maiden voyage of our Animal Services transport bus Which you members of the council approved back in 2019 along with that shelter expansion so that will also be expanding our efforts of transporting more animals to shelters and rescues across across the country to increase our life-saving capability at the shelter next slide please education and Outreach this is going to be a huge Focus for us moving forward and we've really increased since covid um you I'm sure a lot of you all saw some of our cat lady Bertha and some of our uh virtual education opportunities really expanding that and going out into the community more now that we have uh the capability to go out into the community you know visiting schools really tackling our efforts to educate our kiddos from as young as you know three four years old with our Safety Town participation all the way up to adults through the neighborhood Leadership Academy that came and visited the shelter earlier this summer next slide please and we are uh constantly reviewing and updating our 311 scripts and reviewing how we are getting out into the community and how we are listening to the voice of the community our animal protection officers are responding to calls every single day um thousands of calls we've had 18 531 calls for service since January through July and these are calls anywhere from you know at large dogs Stray by investigations um nuisance calls animal cruelty or neglect calls and they are working really hard our animal protection officers getting out into the community and making sure that we're caring for those pets in our community I want to set the record straight that in no mention there's no mention of leaving animals in the field in any of our 311 call strips scripts we have reviewed all of these um concerns that have been brought up to us we take these concerns very seriously and we have reviewed all the calls that have been brought to our attention and there is no mention of leaving animals in the field except for this kidnapping messaging which um you know 3-1-1 are uh our staff at the shelter our animal protection officers out in the field really take the opportunity to educate and inform the community how they can help us save lives and kidnapping messaging is one of the big ways to do that that's really the only way that we will ensure people to leave animals in in the area where they're found because if you find a litter of kittens chances are mom is around and by kidnapping those kittens you are actually putting their lives at danger so really putting out that messaging has have been for years so really that's the only messaging where we will encourage the community to leave those those kittens out into the field for their best chance of survival but also of course ever all opportunities taking all opportunities to educate the community to try and help find ways that we can support the shelter and support life-saving ensuring that pets are getting reunited with their family taking in as many steps as they can because it will ultimately better the outcome for the animals that come into the shelter and in our community making sure that you take those steps to get that pet microchip scanned if you do find a lost pet or leave those kittens alone and check in on them occasionally next slide please and this is just a few testimonials from some of our volunteers our Fosters our rescue Partners you know just about working with the shelter what working with the community how much they have dedicated themselves Aaron Hart at the top left he's a volunteer Anna Foster of ours he's actually a commanding officer captain for the US Army he's been stationed here for the last year he started volunteering just to get some hours for his um for his uh requirement for the program that he's in and he has ended up staying he's donated over 300 hours in the last year alone and has even fostered numerous dogs as well and found homes for them we have Miss Vasquez down here at the left who is a Foster and has been a foster with us for about six years she's fostered hundreds of kittens and puppies to give them an opportunity to to save their lives because if they were to stay in the shelter Unfortunately they might not have had that opportunity and then love one of our rescue Partners on the right here who has worked with us for six years now they really focus on those animals that don't have a opportunity and don't have a chance at life at the shelter some of our injured some of our you know key medical cases that we just don't have the resources for at the shelter they really help pull and find homes for them and care for them as well so I won't go over uh their testimonials but they are for there for you to read them as well and with that I will go ahead and pass it back on to director capital uh so what does all this mean what does this all get us this is our ultimate goal here um in January we hit a a milestone of a hundred thousands pets saved um that's that's uh just a dedicate that's a dedication that's from the support of council the city manager Deputy city manager our rescue partners our volunteers and I can't go without saying without the staff at the animal services these employees they come in day in Day Out start their day five in the morning get in the shelter ready feeding cleaning their highly dedicated employees again we couldn't do reach these types of numbers 100 000 saved um without and and again it's with those life safety measures that we put into place back in uh started that process in 2015 uh talking in 2016 and putting our strategic plan in in 2017 without that we were we would be looking at uh this number would be more at twenty eight thousand to thirty five thousand but instead it's a hundred thousand and today we're at uh at a hundred and six thousand just a few months later so I want to thank the uh staff Council uh City Manager for all that support can I have the next slide please so moving forward uh we're going to continue to focus on Community Support again we want to keep the animals out of the shelter we give give them those resources pet food if they need it um a dog house those types of things vaccinations we're going to increase our transports uh throughout the country to other countries as well um we're going to be proactive on our on our recruitment and development uh of Crete and be creative on attracting veterinarians to our community uh we're going to become and we're already becoming uh competitive in the open market uh and so we're putting things into place so we can attract those and retain them and get those live outcomes increased uh we're going to keep up the momentum um again life-saving is what we're looking at getting that 90 and sustaining it next slide please and with that we need the community's help we can help by adopting volunteering fostering donating being responsible pet owners make sure your pet is vaccinated microchip and registered with the city and make sure that the microchips are are up to date they don't update update themselves so that when your pet does get loose we can quick quickly reunite the pet without ever reaching the shelter and also spay and neuter and with that if anybody has any questions representative anello thank you Miss Prime can we take item number 50 with this item one so staff doesn't have to wait for the whole agenda since we're up here now and also I know that program was mentioned in this presentation and I have questions and if we can just all do it at once I think it makes more sense is that are you okay with that Terry I'm good okay item number 50 is discussion in action that's that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement between the city of El Paso and the El Paso Veterinary Medical Association for the city of El Paso to transfer up to 1.5 million dollars to the epvma to promote overall Community Health by increasing Spain and neutering pets to promote a healthy and sustainable animal community in the city motion approved so thank you uh Mario D'Agostino and I just wanted to kind of highlight some of the things the team's gone over I don't think they they talked about the passion the employee has enough and so with that we we know the stresses that covet brought on the community the entire community and especially the shelter operations I mean we we we didn't see the movements we've seen in the past we haven't had our adoptions up we had Staffing difficulties we had a lot of turnover we had people leave the the real difficulty right now is not having those veterinarians this this new item that you just brought up that directly correlates with this and this is how the city El Paso Animal Services is remaining creative during these difficult times this is a force multiplier so what this does is it allows us to give money to the EPV VMA so that we can get space and Nutters done across all the veterinarians in town and so that's huge without a veterinarian that really does puts a backlog on our shelter on what we can actually adopt out by Texas law we can't adopt animals unless they've been spayed or neutered so this allows that Force multiplier since we haven't had an opportunity to hire a vet now we're utilizing them going back to the presentation and looking at our creative ways we've been addressing these issues is we've changed our hiring practices and everything from our sign-on bonuses that we've talked about here for several months in which you all have supported in a new fiscal year we're also looking at very creative ways and we're we're happy to to say that we we've got veterinarians looking at the position we've gotten to a range where we can be competitive with the market and we truly hope to bring a veterinarian on board soon that that will help change the outcome of the shelter right now when you have to rely on outside sources this this 1.5 million is going to help to help continue those efforts but this gets one on staff in the shelter 24 7. other creative items that they talked about that I'd really be missed if I didn't highlight is that new pet scan feature in a park that's huge that's the that's the first of its kind that's that's awesome for El Paso it's on the east side of town where it's a large community very dense Community we have it at all the fire stations but this is just one more Avenue where people can take when they find that that Lost Pet they can take it to get shipped and so those are some of the items I wanted to cover I'll leave it back to uh chief kepsoff for any questions do we have public comment on this item Miss Brian yes ma'am we do can we take that first uh alternate mayor Pro tem yes thank you yes the first speaker is Mr Ron Cuomo followed by Julia crampy and Bernadette adenivas good afternoon sir you have three minutes okay so where do we start do we start at the 66.1 10 live release rate that we had we're really achieving 90 we're down from running 87s and 90s and 2019. we're discussing not having the Haas program in our facility yet we have them not picking up Strays they are they even said that they were only going to pick up injured and aggressive dogs matter of fact I believe you all got a memo to that effect um we have the program of finder to Foster which is a Haas program which is still in place at our shelter the found reports which don't work are still in effect at El Paso Animal Services which again is a Haas program we are running the Haas program from one end to the other the problem we are having today is the number of Strays there are in the city of El Paso because they left and are leaving let me say that again left and are leaving Strays unaltered running our streets we have to stop the cycle we have to stop producing all these strays we have a shelter that is absolutely packed and there has been not one comment about how they're going to safely or humanely uh save these animals and house them they don't know they have no clue we've discussed this I've given you guys a an alternative way an inexpensive way and from what I'm being told a pretty quick way to turn these schools into a shelter we can't get people and keep people in disgusting conditions that are at our shelter we are overwhelmed we are overrun and it's because we've allowed the Haas program to stay in El Paso we've allowed the shelter to give us information that's inaccurate yes adoptions are down they're down 21 Nationwide Texas is actually better let's use real numbers instead of just saying they're down so that's why we have less adoptions when we speak it call to the public I'm going to give you actual numbers from the city's reports from July 2019 compared to 2022. we keep hearing that they've gone back to the plan from 2019 that actually worked they haven't they haven't even tried we've gotten lots and lots of lip service it's time honesty comes up we come up with a real plan to fix the shelter this is insane folks 3 95 Strays at the end of July attached to the shelter where are they do they even know thank you I'll see you later on at the open to public and Mr Cuomo today's call to the public is only for topics not on the agenda the next speaker is Julia cramping followed by Bernadette adenivas good morning you have three minutes good morning some of the stuff they really talked about sounds really good I like the allocating of the money to the vet because spay and neuter is a very huge issue here in El Paso that needs to get handled and the shelter is not doing it currently some of the things they did not address is the current conditions at Animal Services where they are currently housing animals inhumanely they are still housing animals in cramped cages with dogs that do not know each other without any kind of enrichment it is inhumane they are holding them like that long term that is the problem that I have with animal services currently funny that they bring up like The Grooming ordinance that they're bragging about having been a victim of their grooming ordinance I will tell you it is completely worthless you can take a one and a half hour online class become a certified groomer in El Paso without ever having touched a dog you can also go in their grooming ordinance where it tells you that me as a grooming shop owner have to have water for dogs at all times water for dogs that are supposed to be drying while they cannot keep water in their own dog shelters where they are housing them for months to years just some unreasonable expectations here on the grooming ordinance but once like once again the problem that I have is how the dogs are currently being housed they are being housed inhumanely they do not have enough enrichment they are living in their own filth the environment that they have is not conducive to adoptions because when people come to see dogs they are covered in their own feces or their own urines they are so stressed out from being contained for months that they are not considered adoptable we took a dog from there that had been God he'd been there for more than a year his name was Piper the dog was completely out of control he has since gone to a rescue bent one of the people at the rescue the mentality that these dogs have after being confined to a year is not conducive to sending them to a home and having them be nice easy beloved pets and when other people see these out of control dogs going into a home being behavior issues being problems do you think they're going to want to go adopt a sheltered dog after seeing that no and the problem is is they don't get enough time they don't get enough tension they don't get enough exercise because there is just way too many dogs at the shelter for the number of employees that they have there people should go to a shelter to adopt the best dogs so that other people go to the shelter to adopt dogs not just housing hundreds of dogs stacked on top of each other inhumanely until they go kennel crazy like I said that's the problem that I have with the shelter the the current conditions that the dogs are in thank you and the final speaker is Bernadette adenivas and I don't see Miss arenivas in person or in the queue so that concludes public comment rippinello did you I have some questions yeah thank you um Terry I have a many questions but I'm going to try to do this in a way that makes sense um because my notes are a little all over the place so first I want to start with the reunite site I know the chief said it is similar to what we have at the fire stations so what is the information that'll be provided because I know there's been some confusion for people who take a dog that they find to the the fire station and they think they're going to get someone's personal information and that's not the case and then they get a little frustrated um so can you explain what this is like how this process is actually going to work if you find a dog so it's going to be similar um but instead of taking the pet to a fire station to scan it's going to be a self-service so you'll take it to the reunite site again this is a pilot program we're hoping that this is successful we'll be able to spread to other Parks throughout this the city um so it's all self-contained you'll scan and then there's a QR code that you'll use your smartphone scan that QR code and it'll run you through the process if there's no chip found it'll give you the next step processes to do you know request you know that's posted on on social media and those types of things if it has the number it gives you the number to call so that you can find out who that pet owner is the next process so people are going to be getting individuals in like phone numbers and information because I know that's been something that depends on the on the chip and how they they register it if you register it you don't want to give that information out you can do that and then the the chip manufacturer they'll contact if you don't want them to give that information out okay um and if the animal does not have a chip what are those steps so those steps are going to be due to uh check your neighborhood uh post on Lost and Found type type things and as a last resort would be to take it to the shelter okay and then on slide at 19 I know Michelle talked about the new transport bus that bus has or has not been purchased yet it has been purchased okay yes yes is it the new one or is it the one that has not been working it's an international one okay and is the other bus up and running yet or is it still out of commission I don't have any other transport bus we have some vans that we used to use for small trips um are you talking about the adoption van maybe uh when we did the event a few months ago we were told that this spot that would have been the adoption event it's working we were we were told that that this one the transport bus that opens up was not working um but that may have been a miscommunication so so and we just have one of those great okay um and then you talked about also on Slide I don't know what side it was I lost it I'm sorry um but you talked about I know we're working on the HVAC right now I know that we have funded uh an expansion of the shelter ponding the ponding area needs to be uh I guess dealt with by the water utilities prior um can you give us a status on that project has any of the design been done has any of the work been done we're still in the design phase for the shelter itself okay um the HVAC system has already been designed out um again with the covid and in the supply chain we're waiting for those components to come in so that they can start it's already been pushed back about a month so we're anticipating this winter October November is the time frame that they're going to do again it's a heating and cooling throughout the whole shelter the ponding area we're working with um um the water utilities they're actually looking at Contracting this out so I know they're in the in the Contracting phase to get that project done what it's going to do is going to push the ponding area more behind where Humane Society is make that a little bit deeper so where the ponding areas directly behind the shelter that'll be filled in and we can use that for more kennel space sure and we can't do any work until they do that so we don't have a time frame on that project from the water utility it's supposed to start anytime I don't have the exact time frame no that is fine um okay so I want to talk a little bit about um two things I wonder which one I want to talk about first let's talk about uh slide six uh and intakes and adoptions right um so we've been getting a lot of calls about the community cats program um and I'm going to put this on the ASAC agenda this has just come up so we can talk about it there but I I did kind of want to know a little bit of history about how the community cats um and the trapping started at the city of El Paso and where we are now with that I don't know if you have that history off the top of your head I don't know if anybody here does I don't have the exact dates but I know it was a pass by ordinance I believe it around 2019 or earlier than that I don't know the exact dates but just passed by ordinance and it's a communicat program that allows uh animals to be um become community casts that means we're not going to go pick them up and euthanize them as long as they go through the that program the program requires us to spay or neuter we tattoo them at such just a small ink on their belly and also their their their ears get tipped as well meaning that their ear gets flat and a little piece of their ear gets removed so that they're easily identifiable and when this program started who would who would trap the cats who would pick them up the my understanding unless uh Don has that it's it's the public that would uh pick them up they'd drop them off and if they would give us the information um we would drop them off at the place where they they were captured um if they give us that but we also had some uh some people from the community they wanted to take them back themselves so we would contact them and and give them back at that time just to be frank with everybody right now that that communicat program is we're way behind on it again we do not have the veterinarian on staff the entire goal of this is to have a cat come in to become a community cat TNR cat we would spay and neuterate within 24 hours and return it right now with the backlog of spay and neuters it's not happening nearly as quickly as we used to okay and that's going to transition to my last set of questions but really quick we used to provide traps for individuals to do that and we're now being told that we do not and have not provided traps and I'm not entirely sure when that stopped but if we again I don't expect you to have any dates off the top of your head I am going to put this on the esac agenda I know those ladies have a lot more information than I do so I just I I am I I get what you're saying about like we're not able to neuter right now so it's it's kind of like a double-edged sword if we if we do get those cats but I am concerned about the amount of participation that we do have in that program at the time if that makes sense but we can have that conversation in a couple weeks so my questions now are in regards to um the agreement will we be taking the animals so explain to me what will happen if with someone who needs their their cat or dog spay or neutered and we now have this contract with the El Paso Veterinary Medical Association will they be coming into Animal Services is there a place that other end of individuals will be going to get the service done how is it going to work So currently what we do is uh we'll talk about for I'll talk about first the the way Animal Services we utilize it so again we don't have a veterinarian so we we partner with the different clinics throughout the city and we continue to look for more partners we find out what their capabilities are because they're also have their regular clients to take care of so we discuss capabilities and we come up with a a plan and we actually take the the pets to them and then we pick them up and bring them back to the shelter so so it's again it's a little labor intensive on our part but something we we have to do I agree yeah with this 1.5 million is what we want to do with that is help develop a a a voucher program so again we have the Foster to adopt is what we are have been heavily relying on right now oh yeah because we can't adopt so we can again as uh Chief D'Agostino said we cannot legally adopt until the animal has been spayed or neutered so we have the Foster to adopt so people can take home an animal it's still the property of the city and once it does get that spay neutered then we can finalize the adoption process and with this voucher program I'll be able to allow if so you take a cat home now you can schedule with the list of vets and on your schedule get it we can still do it at the shelter make the scheduling but we've we've found it very difficult because a lot of people their their plans change so there there's a lot of no-shows so we get the again kind of that double-edged sword again so the Vets come after us saying we we set up and they didn't show so um we're looking at different routes and different methods to provide that uh spay neuter for the community okay so I mean I like the idea of a voucher program but does is the 1.5 million attached to a number of animals right will that cover x amount of animals so we spayed or neutered how is that like how are we budgeting for the need that we have in that regard so I can't give you an exact number because it depends on the surgery yeah um cats are cheaper sure than than the uh older heavier females so again it just depends on how many of each of those types of surgeries that happen so we're looking at again we're pushing hard to get an in-house veterinarian that'll get us again starting to in-house getting a lot of these spay and neuters done but that's still not going to wipe out the backlog that we have so we're going to continue with this program so you know as we get more veterinarians on the less will will depend on the outside clinics even though we still will utilize them even on the good days we'll still utilize them because sometimes there's some specialty surgeries that we cannot perform at the at the shelter so yeah I mean I think it's it's we needed a vet there's no question about that we're we're backed up especially it's been like kitten season and we haven't had a vet I know that that's of no fault of yours there is a vet shortage but wanting to make sure that this program is going to be successful and so there's something else in there it's saying that we are not going to I'm gonna stop actually I have another question how many animals do we have fostered out that still need to be spay or neutered do we have that number I don't have the exact number but it's in the 3000 range well and then we still have animals in the shelter that need to be spay and neuters right I guess my question was do we think the 1.5 million dollars will at least be able to get us through that do we have any idea like is there an answer is this is a one-year uh contract so our fiscal year is just starting uh next month so the goal is to have that last dude out that year we did make have some discussions and look and we were having some discussions earlier and I think we were undercutting ourselves so we did go for the full 1.5 million okay and so then my last question and concern is um why have we decided that we will not spay um or neuter kittens until they're four months is that because of the backlog that we have and we want to get some of them out but I know that it can normally be six to eight weeks so that that's a decision of the that's one of the downfalls of having to uh contract out with the clinics as a private practice that's their standard they wait till they're older in the shelter we did them in in the past uh in the shelter medicine life we do at the younger at the younger age so it's it's again it is a a negative thing for us because they're you know the younger the cuter but it's it's the clinics that they've made that decision on their own okay absolutely last question I'm sorry representative you're you're pushing up any other questions no can I just take my second 10 minutes I have one question left my last question is um how much do we have budgeted for two veterinarians what is the salary the starting salary do we know what that is sorry if that question wasn't clear because I know that we've we've increased that and so I don't remember exactly what we're looking at for starting pay and what we're seeing um the average across the country I mean I know again we have a shortage everywhere so it's probably a more than competitive the base veterinarian to the to the senior the chief veterinarian ranges from about 130 000 all the way up to about a hundred low low 190s okay and where did we have that at in 2019 or pre-paid yeah I mean I just I want to just prove to the public that we are really serious about this and we really appreciate that we really have addressed our our job specifications over there to make sure we're including that and so we can be aggressive in our search and we did adjust that pay we just took for a higher amount yes like Morgan said so the it was the range is 81.5 to 145 and now it's at 104 to 197. that's for the chief veterinarian's position so we we put it in the ballroom the ballpark where we can be competitive with the private Market yeah I do want to add on that 1.5 million dollar question you had that is enough to cover the population it really is but we we added dollars in there because it's not just about space and neuters it's about welfare checks it's about making sure they're healthy so we can start those transports with that new vehicle it's it's the whole package of care and we need that to make sure that we have it in place for until we get a veterinarian and even once we get a veterinarian we know that that large of a of a population within our shelter or in our foster program is going to be a strain on one individual so that's still there to help them to get them started and so we can get the process of getting back on track with our space neuters and our Medical Care sure and I just I want to say that I I understand that a lot of the issues we're having is because of a lack of a veterinarian right we can't get animals out um you know post covet it was also very different than covid we seem to have a lot more animals coming back to the shelter um and and so I know that there are limitations there are situations that have created the position that we're in but we're still responsible for dealing with that right and so it's it's hard because I don't want to be hard on y'all because I understand that you're in a a position that didn't exist two years ago but it is what we are in now and there are an increased number of Strays on the street all you have to do is look on next door all you have to do is you know talk to the people that come to my house in the middle of the night because they found a dog running down Trowbridge and they don't know what to do with it right there there is a problem I know that y'all are doing your best to address it but we do need to be finding alternate Solutions because it is becoming increasingly worse right at no fault to anyone at no fault to anyone at animal services or at the shelter I don't want to in any way say that I'm pointing fingers and that anyone is to blame um but we do need to be looking at how we can be getting more creative because I I I'm just concerned that we're not going to fill this position as quickly as we think we've been trying we're having trouble people are having trouble all over the country it's not a unique situation to El Paso and we can only for so long try to find short-term Solutions until it just gets worse right and so those are my last statements I'm sorry mayor for going far over 10 minutes thank you all we're we're in the process of hiring a vet right now so just want to make clear that that pay difference did make a significant difference and we're going to be working on her in a second and third bet as well and the 1.5 million is a bridge because the staff has in their presentation has shown we've been very creative given just the different challenges but we we don't we don't give up uh when we we have looked at other options and that's what was presented today thank you representative and I know you serve uh you know on the animal board on the on the shelter board we and we thank you for that and I know you and I have had quite a few uh discussions and we thank you for your passion and you know we do have to continue to work and continue to to move forward to find different answers no doubt about that thank you representative molinar thank you mayor Mr Capshaw thank you very much for your presentation um I haven't reviewed the presentation and I'm glad there was no mention about however you pronounce it the Haas or Hayes program so I'm glad that you explained that because that was going to be one of the things that I was going to say well why is that not there and so in July of 2021 has been discontinued however our office district court office still receives calls still receives emails from citizens that say hey I have a stray dog I call 3-1-1 I called or I would drove to Animal Services there and they were denied they were said I did not you know we're told you keep the dog you Foster the dog you feed the dog whatever it is like that so animal services today are they accepting new animals yes just one be sure loud and clear yes that is an affirmative if I if I could add yes sir go ahead it's it's a yes yes we will accept them do we try to get somebody to take care of that animal to keep it out of the shelter when we look at some of the concerns we heard here today and we talk about that long-term housing and what effect that has on an animal we know that and we're concerned with that so we're doing our best to keep the animals from even coming into the shelter so do we try and talk to that Community member and get them to hold it until they can get reunited with the family yes but at the end of the day if they say I'm sorry I just can't do it it doesn't get along with my dogs it's not my I don't have the situation I want capability even the dog food and the cage that doesn't help us I just can't do it we bring that animal in okay and and that's correct you know some people already have dogs and that those dogs will not accept another dog or whatever reasons dogs live their lives that way but you know we've heard of soldiers that are deploying that are pcsing and they're like hey what am I going to do with this dog I cannot keep this dog uh elderly that are disabled that are out of the goodness of their heart they said hey I've got this dog in my yard someone please come get it you know I'm going to fall down something's going to happen to me something's going to happen to this dog and you know they're reaching out to our office we need help we desperately need some type of help I cannot keep this dog I cannot feed this dog you know income is limited and things like that so I just want to be sure that you are and I understand you know Chief I understand what you're saying yes it's it's packed uh and that's not a humane way to keep an animal but at the same time when you hear from the citizens it's like you know good bad right wrong what do you do so thank you that's all I am thank you thank you if we haven't maybe we can reach out to Dr Bonar and see if we can get out of retirement just to uh to help out with this there's a lot of opportunities and time on his hands and maybe he can help with being a veterinarian again for our community thank you representative thank you mayor and thank you to representative and I want to know if she does sit on that board and um has a lot of great questions I just wanted to make more of a suggestion I know that we like to promote within I know that not having a vet has been an issue so not sure if there's something that we could really work on identifying somebody that would want to be a vet and we really focus on incentivizing that person to you know they're in our Network already so we just basically pour into them to make sure that you know we then have a vet at the end of the the day and also also have a commitment from that person to serve our community so yes and so during this this region budget season we've talked about it and you've all supported the increase in the tuition assistance program so that is there we do have some city employees who are actually vet techs or veterinarians in Mexico well there's currently no direct path to get it done but we're assisting them and however we can to help them bridge that app so they can get their licensing here so we're looking at everything creative possible to ensure that we're helping those who want to help us to to take care of our own shelter so we do have employees within the city of El Paso who we are investing in for those long-term Investments to you know and hopefully we see some some of that coming to fruition here in the next year that's great it's great to hear that you all are being extremely proactive I think yeah the best word is invest in our in our staff and and employees and then more importantly for them to give back to the community so I'm excited to to see that transfer thank you thank you and I know mayor Pro tem you you kind of giggled a little bit about Dr bonard but I did call him and uh I tried to convince him and I thought she I talked to the Chief and so I made a phone call to him and he told me he had not sprayed it or neutered a uh an animal in over eight years or he would have uh he would have loved to come help us but we did make that phone call hoping that we could get that type of help so we're looking at all avenues to try to get people to help us as we understand the importance and with that we have representative Hernandez hi and welcome this is the first time I've been able to recognize you and congratulate you on your on your new role um I I do just have a quick question um and I'm proud to see a lot of the advancements that we're making I know you all are solutions oriented and I appreciate you all working diligently to address the concerns from the public I just have a question just regarding any complaints we receive um from you know regarding animals because I'm dealing with the situation in my district it is is it is there a department within animal services that is that are responding to any complaints unrelated to um you know like any harsh conditions for animals but rather how animals coexist with with neighborhoods because you know like with roosters and things of that nature we're starting to get complaints about it who's who is responding to those type of complaints Code Compliance or is it animal services so we have our animal protection officers they're the ones in the trucks uh pick up the Strays and stuff they also are code enforcers and so they're the ones that they go out and um they look at the situation make sure that the animals are housed properly there are properly spaced as well I know there's some issues with the rooster we've had recently has to be I can't quote the law right off bet but it has to be a certain distance away from the the neighbor so they look and make sure that those things and again we're not we're not looking at going out and we don't want to uh dropped a hammer right away we want to work with people make sure that their family unit is intact so we want to provide them those resources the knowledge and the tools that they can that we can so that they keep the the pets with the with the family and also address the the uh neighbors concerns as well okay I was so that that helps address a lot of my questions um what is the title Animal Services Animal Protection Officer protection officers are field operations got it thank you for your time and the information thank you chief thank you all for the presentation and mayor there this item was also taken with item 50 so there is a motion on item 51 Council was ready okay yes the motion was made with by representative Salcido seconded by representative anello and this is to approve item number 50. on that motion call for the vote foreign passes unanimously the next item is number 34. thank you thank you chief item 34's discussion in action on the request that the director of purchasing a strategic sourcing Department be authorized to wish a purchase order to Target Solutions learning LLC DBA Vector Solutions motion to approve there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 35. this is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2022-0038r457b deferred compensation plan administrator and 401a profit sharing plan administrator to empower retirement LLC move to approved second here's a motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by representative Molina to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the next item is number 36 this is discussion in action on the request that the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue a purchase order to USI Southwest Inc referencing contract 2019-1063r property insurance move to approve there's a motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by representative Salcido to approve on that motion call for the vote and the Boating session and the motion passes unanimously item 37 is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for contract number 2022-0411 are professional Municipal advisory Services between the city and Hilltop Securities Inc move to approve there's a motion made by representative Rodriguez seconded by representative Salcido to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 38 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2022-0039 Security Guard Services to Night Eyes Protective Services Inc motion to approve second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Molina to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 39 is a public hearing on an ordinance vacating a portion of Grandview Avenue at 1901 Grandview Avenue second there's a motion made by representatively zaraga seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve there's no public comment on this item on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes with seven affirmative votes representative Molina voting name the motion passes item number 40 is a public hearing on an ordinance vacating a portion of a 20-foot wide alley and utility easement at 415 North Mesa Street there's a motion made by representatively zaraga seconded by representative Rivera to approve there's no public comment call for the vote voting session is open representative lizard thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 41 is a public hearing on a northern cementing ordinance 8064 to add Cesar Chavez Day move to approve second there was a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rodriguez representative anello seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 42 is discussion in action at the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of El Paso and Park Hill Smith and Cooper Inc a domestic for profit Corporation for a project known as epia taxiway golf reconstruction move to approve ment motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Molina to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 43 is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of El Paso and Garver LLC for a project known as epia general aviation ramp reconstruction move to approve there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative anello to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 44 is discussion in action on the approval of a resolution to authorize the city manager to accept and sign a grant agreement for the rebuilding American infrastructure with sustainability and equity grant for the Isleta Port of Entry pedestrian and related improvements second can we hear the Hernandez I was just going to ask mayor if we can hear a quick briefing from Anne if she's available to speak on it none would like to hear a presentation can everyone see the slides yes ma'am okay so today's presentation covers a Grant application that we brought to you this past spring uh the project was the Isleta Port of Entry pedestrian and related improvements and this is a grant from the United States Department of Transportation and today I am bringing it back because we were successful we won that Grant we got 12 million dollars from the U.S Department of Transportation under the raise Grant award program with a three million dollar match for this project and I'm going to give you some background real quick on our grants program uh that we've recently implemented and utilized in pursuit of this grant so for this grant program we are working off of a defined set of priorities that align with our strategic plan and other adopted documents that are in support of that plan and working with that list we have identified uh multi depart or projects from more than five City departments mainly pertaining to infrastructure that support our priorities we spend a good deal of time familiarizing ourselves with the opportunities that are out there uh what they fund what the criteria are and then we match those two the uh the pro the priority projects so in doing that we have been able to undertake a very strategic approach in getting our priorities funded this is a brief list of the priorities and this information is uh is is within the backups I'm not gonna I'm not gonna just uh read the list to you but under each is its strategic uh alignment and so as you can see we have uh the deck Park uh Advanced manufacturing our International Bridges and we've got a couple of different things related to energy and resilience this is where you're going to find things like electrical vehicle infrastructure um climate action plan things like that and then there's also a regional component to the strategy we have met with other stakeholders and we're working pretty closely with a couple of our regional Partners to ensure that um within our priority projects we are May uh we're pursuing Partnerships where there's alignment and also um fairly important as well is we are ensuring that we're not competing for the same opportunities or uh being the grants the same funding cycle that we're that we're talking about who's applying for what and we're making sure that we bring the most projects possible to our area and as many of these funding opportunities have a maximum number of uh awards they're willing to issue to the same geographic area it helps us to ensure that we're um that we're not competing with each other for those opportunities and so we have strategy works out that covers uh fiscal years 2022 to 2024 at this point it's a living it's a living strategy um and then here we get into now with that background the actual project for which we received this award so to recap 15 million dollar project uh divided up as 12 billion dollars of funding from the United States Department of Transportation and a three million dollar local match the local match will come from International Bridges P3 fund these are the elements that this project is going to uh to contain there's going to be a lot more uh pedestrian amenities that make it easier for pedestrians to get across safely and comfortably uh provision provisions of shade dedicated areas for uh for people to connect with their rides and and Transit um more street lights more pedestrian level fixtures and intersection treatments and things like that way finding signage Landscaping improvements is going to be a really really good project um and then this is a slide that covers its strategic plan alignment as well as other adopted plans such as the Texas Mexico Transportation uh master plan the Border Transportation master plan and the Bridge's Capital Improvement plan and with that the requested action today is for city council to approve a resolution to accept the Grant and authorize the city manager to uh to enter into the agreement and uh for us to accept the required match and this concludes the presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions so we're using the P3 funding and those funds were originally for to fund overtime for CBP officers is that is that fund currently do we have the three million in the fund or that's money that we'll continue to collect and if we what is the what are we spending on the funding for the office uh overtime funding as uh we continue to make sure that um we fund those officers to expedite the crossings go to the new American Council David Coronado with the with the international Bridges I can I can take this question and so yes mayor so this this funds that three million dollars we're using is Gonna Come From that same uh fund from the P3 program so essentially it's great revenues that we set aside uh that bond is used for three essentially three purposes one is for CP officers to provide overtime two is for police officers also over time to do traffic control and then three is capital projects and so we have made sure that we have enough funding in that account to cover continue covering the P3 with CVP with pde and the projects all at the same time so this contribution is not going to be an expense or you know a reduction in those other uses we have plenty in savings that we've been accruing since 2014 and so we continue providing PD overtime at the bridges copy overtime and then now with this you know additional capital projects with the same account so what do we have in that account currently and I didn't so you're telling me that that P3 funding was also for Capital Improvement yes yes at the bridges or rcip yes so rcip um for the next five years it's about 40 to 44 million dollars over the next five years the majority of it above 32 is going to come from the state in the writer 44 that we received the other 10 is coming from P3 and so the last time that I checked and I don't know if the right number the exact number in my in my head right now between nine and ten million dollars that we have right now in the fund in savings since 2014 we've actually been receiving more Revenue that we have spent and so those savings have stayed in that fund and that allows us to commit to this to this grant no it's great to be able to get those funds and I know that I was very happy to see that I just want to make sure that the P3 funding is the proper allocation based on the agreement we've made with the federal government when we signed and agreed to be one of five ports that had had the ability to do the P3 and um so and like I said it was back in I think 2015 when when that was finally signed and I know it started in the prior Council before I even took office that really started that um to be able to allow the P3 funding to be able to increase the quality of life for the citizens coming across so I just want to make sure that that was part of the agreement that we could use the money for Capital Improvements but I mean all the all the matches and all the grants and all the money we've gotten from the federal government congratulations with uh with everything you all have done to get that thank you sir and yeah no totally agree with you I think you know as we proceed over the next five years we're going to be giving you updates on the CIP um you know we want to make sure just like here and the rest of the council we want to make sure that the program is sustainable that we can actually continue funding the CIP continue finding the overtime and especially also for police officers we have a ton of issues with traffic control you know we could do with more officers more hours but again we have to balance those needs right both the short term and the long term in this case this is a long-term investment that you know D.O.T with the support of Mrs Escobar the State of the State the rest of the state delegation now we can actually you know invest in a larger project with a small contribution from from the P3 fund thank you representative Hernandez followed by mayor Pro tem thank you can you please go to slide number three um I just wanted to to take a moment and give praise and recognition to our wonderful Administration staff and all the work that you do I don't remember the last time we've actually received this competitive Grant I think the last one was before previously known as the tiger Grant right is that the sun the Sun Bowl garage is what we built with that tiger Grant do you all know of any other raise grants that we've received yeah um we actually won a grant in 2021 under I believe it was it was raised I I don't think it was its previous name anymore at that time but that was for it was a 900 000 grant for the design of the duck Park wonderful and and it is because we are taking the time to not only create a strategy but we have a Clear Vision on how to leverage our current dollars we leverage and we draw down these federal funds but it doesn't it doesn't work without a plan and so I just really want to to tell and recognize all of the achievements we've been able to bring in new revenues 35 million dollars of new revenues that would have not happened without the support of our wonderful team and staff and so kudos to you all this is how we reduce the burden to taxpayers while prioritizing our strategies this is how we advance and improve our infrastructure and keep doing a good job keep seeking these grants and raise dollars because it is without these funds we would not have any of these wonderful projects that are absolutely necessary for our for our transportation so thank you all for for your hard work and I would look forward to seeing more grants coming our way thanks thank you thank you representative on this mayor Pro tem thank you mayor um so Mr Corno do we have an idea of what percentage of the P3 funds would be utilized for this um like I said right now we have about 9 to 10 million dollars in in the fund um every year in P3 dollars we get about three million dollars um in in a normal year right 2020 wasn't normal right but in a normal yearbook about 2.83 million dollars so so this is essentially worth one year's worth of revenues in Bridge in Bridge tolls so we're getting one year again only from only from sorry only from P3 and from that one year of a three million dollar investment we're getting 15 from the federal government working we're getting 12 right great um so seems like a pretty good return on investment um you know obviously we know that our ports of Entry are are the lifeblood of our economy each one serves to be as an artery to the heart that is our bi-national community and our bi-national economy um so I think that this is a very good project very happy to see these improvements there um you know it's a little bit of catch up we know that this this uh Port of Entry was not necessarily really designed with pedestrians in mind yet we see people that are that are aligning to utilize bus Uber and just to get picked up every single day so these kind of Investments are much needed um and again one of the things staff for their hard work on this and again if you uh if you fail the plan you plan to fail so it's good that we have the Strategic plan in place as well as the Texas border master plan and others as well so you know it takes a village to make this kind of work happen and it's a great day thank you thank you sir representative um be better thank you mayor thank you I also want to thank you uh thanks staff for this this is great as as the new rep for that area and having worked that area before this is a much needed project uh the reason why we need officers down there not only before uh vehicular traffic but also foot traffic sometimes they were placing themselves in danger you know hopefully this will resolve all the issues and make uh make the directing traffic a lot easier for the officers down there as well I thank you for uh you're strategic planning and and now hopefully soon to be your action to improve that um Port of Entry as was mentioned it was in bilf war uh pedestrian safety but lo and behold hopefully in the few short years you'll be able to make it pedestrian friendly and safe for everyone to to travel in and out thank you so much thank you mayor thank you sir and again congratulations on the team for securing these grants but I know we work very strong with our federal government Partners our congresswoman and everyone that has really helped us to secure these and and so we do think that congresswoman for working really hard with our team to be able to to secure a lot of these funding so congratulations and thank you all for bringing the funding to El Paso and not costing the taxpayers money thank you and with that we have a motion and a second yes mayor the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Rodriguez to approve item 44. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Rodriguez not present we now move to call to the public the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city excuse me in the Middle East must be focused on the meeting at charge of 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 and attendants are expected to displace Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public uses foreign 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 bring forward a topic that is commented on on a future agenda this afternoon we have three members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Marcy Chavez followed by Jose barriga and Marty Hunt good morning Miss Chavez you'll have three minutes good morning first of all and I would like to speak since I only have three minutes about the economy and this is based on the elderlies actually everybody in the residence of El Paso Texas though as we all know everything has gotten Sky High right it's priceless the rents and I'm just going to base it on housing housing has extremely created a big chaos in regards to the residents here in El Paso which I'm one of them they have prices for rentals that is so ridiculous nobody can afford 1300 2300 or whatever dollars they're asking for with a uh what do you call it a stable uh income such as Social Security many have been receiving a lot of stimulus checks since the pandemic started and until this day they're still receiving why do we discriminate the elders you know versus the young Generations that now they don't even want to work because you know it's better to receive free money than just to go out and work as we all know there's a lot of you know applications out there positions that are needed because nobody wants to work now I'm here and I hear millions of dollars going into grants and fundings and this and that and what about us the people what about what's going to happen to us we're going to end up in the streets I've been in the streets because of this situation and it's no it's not even fun to be out there believe me the majority say that Homeless are out there because of their choice no it's not because of their choice is because of people that are supposed to be representing us not the government not the state not anybody but the people which don't even do their job yesterday I came to with to your office Mr Mayor and it was kind of cowardly that they sent a police officer to speak to me other than speak to you I think that if you're in a position you should be available to hear the people out of the people's mouth instead of hiding away we didn't choose or elected you so you can just have a title and it's enough is enough you have a lot of people that are very upset out there and we have a lot of concerns that you are don't even bring up ever in any other meetings so that is my concern my concern is the economy we don't need big buildings and fancy buildings or remodeling or anything else we need to feed the hungry we need to help the ones in need that's why we worked all our lives we're taxpayers and you're using our money in me spending money because to me I don't care about the building I don't care if somebody comes from wherever they come from and our money is given to them how's that possible now I live in an apartment and I'm paying three hundred dollars thank you ma'am you've reached the three-minute limit thank you thank you Mr Speaker is Jose barriga Mr barriga will be followed by Marty Hunt Mr barriga's topic is my journey today good afternoon Mr Buddy good afternoon everyone I'm Jose rodriga and I'm here to share a story the beginning of this journey started whenever I miss the 6 30 inbound bus 37 for nickel and Science in route to Northgate Transfer Center at 6 35 I had no other choice but to walk from the vicinity of Canyon Hills Middle School to the dire and Honda pass outbound dire Brio Station arriving arriving almost at 7 00 a.m at 709 I boarded the Alban diet RTS Frontier Hondo Pass station at 7 55 I got out at the Cancer San Antonio stop from the Kansas San Antonio RTS stuff I walked to City Hall arriving at 8 30. the purpose of my busy was to physically sign in so I could see if I could talk in person for today's public comment segment right after my VA appointment at 0 8 9 19 I left City Hall toward the San Antonio Transit terminal and I got there at zero eight twenty five at 0841 I took the Alban Alameda Brio I see you on 905 High School stop from there I walk approximately 0.7 miles by using the recommended route BR Reynolds which is inaccessible to the South Central VA Wellness Center located at 350 Revere Street from my 10 a.m 10 10 a.m schedule appointment uh at 11 00 11 A.M I depart the VA Center and I headed back to Alameda Jefferson High School stop by walking through the Texas Tech via Rick Francis which is accessible and I would recommend that that route at 11 35 I took the inbound Alameda RTS and I arrived to the San Antonio traffic terminal at 11 50. from the San Antonio Transit terminal I walked back to the city hall at zero at 11 58. whenever that rail car will be available for extended hours I would like to have access to the proper available public transportation front to the proximity level of my home is uh is that you have the the proper uh this you get you're gonna have extended hours of the or they are or the red car and you would limit the the time the hours from the other buses uh I think that I will not have access to the to the transportation and uh I don't know where Athena will feel the I will feel it really at I don't know maybe you're upset maybe put to the side maybe this regard Maybe I will not have time to use thank you sir you've reached the three minute limit thank you thank you the final speaker which is joining us virtually please press star six to unmute your telephone Marty Hunt star 6 plays to unmute your telephone Marty Hunt I see you in the queue if you press star six you can unmute your telephone Marty Hunt star sixth place to unmute your telephone May write I don't see the person I'm using the microphone I'm not sure if they're having technical difficulties but that concludes call to the public thank you and thank you everyone for coming to call to the public thank you Mr Travis with that we go to religion the next item yes sir the next item is 45 this is discussion in action on a resolution of the city council of the city of El Paso nominating Phelps Dodge refining Corporation for participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone Program and staff does have a floor amendment to read into the record on this item yes ma'am thank you Bill Allen with economic and International Development and I'd like to present to you a Texas Enterprise Zone nomination um could you please bring up my presentation thank you next slide please so the requested action is for the approval of resolution nominating Phelps Dodge refining Corporation to receive the designation as a Texas Enterprise Zone project couple highlights on this project the company plans to spend a minimum of 20 million dollars it will retain all of their over 400 jobs over the five-year period of this designation and very important no impact on City funds the program involves state sales and youths tax rebates only next slide please I like to provide some backup and background on the Texas Enterprise Zone Program this is an economic development tool for local communities to partner with the state of Texas to encourage job creation and retention as well as capital investment Texas communities nominate companies in their jurisdiction to participate in municipalities of our size are eligible to nominate up to nine Enterprise Zone project designations during each state biennium the current biennium began September 1st of 2021 and runs through August 31st of 2023. we've already processed two nominations in the current biennium that was Charter Communications back in the fourth quarter of 2021 at El Paso Healthcare Systems in May of this year designated businesses receive state tax incentives under this program in the form of state sales and use tax rebates there are some eligibility requirements for this designation jobs must have an average wage that meets or exceeds the county average weekly rates wage and I'll talk about that in just a second as it pertains to the uh the nominee in addition employment and capital investment must be met prior to the expiration of the five-year program jobs must be maintained through the end of the designated program or for at least three years after the date which the tax benefits are received whichever is later and then if located outside an Enterprise Zone 35 percent of the company's new employees that are brought on must be designated as economically disadvantaged have an Enterprise Zone residence or be a veteran next slide please a little bit about Phelps Dodge refining Corporation so they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan who employs 24 700 people worldwide again they are located the facility is located at 897 Hawkins Boulevard in District three and they plan to and keep there are over 400 employees in El Paso 219 of which are in their copper Refinery and 184 in its Rod Mill so they're going to use the 20 million dollars of capital investment to upgrade and improve both the refinery and the rod Mill facilities again Staffing levels will be maintained over the five-year designation period at minimum and then as far as their average salaries uh their average salary currently is just a shade under seventy six thousand dollars and their operators salary range from 55 000 to 83 000 and when you compare that to the El Paso MSA median wage of 14.58 cents per hour or thirty thousand three hundred and twenty six dollars annually that matches the criteria next slide please so as far as recommendation Phelps Dodge refining meets the criteria for designation as an Enterprise project again they're planning to invest a minimum of 20 million dollars they will retain over 400 jobs during the five-year period at minimum and have committed that 35 percent of any new hires will be residents of an Enterprise Zone economically disadvantaged or veterans there's no impact on City funds program involves only state sales and use tax rebates this is a wonderful State program that helps us to assist with significant local Investments this will also generate incremental tax revenue and then lastly as mentioned I do have a floor amendment to this resolution is in the first bullet of the sixth recital changing the word inside on line three to outside that first bullet would then read Phelps Dodge refining Corporation is a qualified business under section 2303.402 of the ACT since it will be engaged in the active conduct of a trade or business a qualified business site located outside an Enterprise Zone and at least 35 percent of the businesses new employees will be residents of an Enterprise Zone economically disadvantaged or veterans the remainder of the resolution Remains the Same and is unaffected by this correction thank you and do you have any questions thank you do we have motion the motion or secondness prime yes sir the motion was made by representative Molina seconded by representative Salcido to approve with the floor Amendment on that motion call for the vote foreign session the motion passes with six affirmative votes representative anello votingne and representative Rodriguez not present the next item is number 46 this is discussion in action on an appeal by the property owner of 1121 Terrace Court El Paso Texas in the Sunset Heights historic district regarding a decision rendered by the Historic Landmark Commission in hlc case phap 22-00022 on June 6 2022 to deny a certificate of appropriateness for the reference property thank you representative lisarga mayor I just want to thank the city staff Miss Velasquez and the historic land commission for their hard work and considering this case and making their recommendations in cases like this in which staff recommends against approval and the hlc voted against approval it is very difficult for me to overturn that on appeal in order to do so I would need to see very compelling new information in this case we made it very clear to the property owner at the last city council hearing that he would need to provide us with any new information for us to consider as soon as possible so that we could do our due diligence and conduct our review the property owner just yesterday afternoon sent us new information after our agenda review meeting was already completed and adjourned meaning that we haven't been able to have a proper dialogue with staff and with the public about the new information regardless of the final outcome today I find the timing of this new information unacceptable on the part of the property owner who is effectively asking us to let him off the hook for something he didn't get proper permission for from the hlc regardless of any permits he did or didn't have we made it very clear that we needed this information much sooner than when we received it in order for his appeal to have more of a chance of success because we haven't been able to publicly consult with City staff about the new information I would like to do that now if that's possible mayor can the staff please give us your input interpretation of the recommendation about the new information that the property owner provided yesterday and I wonder if staffs have the opportunity to really review it since we just got it yesterday I'd like to answer that um yes Mr Feria the popular did submit some information but what he submitted to you are plans that were never submitted to us for the um proposal for the approval for the permit for these structures he also submitted some estimates that he got within last week for work that he had done many many years ago and I think he's submitted um some paperwork just to show you that there were permits that were approved in 2002 and 2005 that he received but again he has never submitted any application for permit for the balcony the canopy the pergola and he was well aware that he was in historic district we have information that he submitted applications back in 2002 and 2005 but in 2018 when he was constructing these uh structures he never came to the city and asked for approval he never went through the process he never did this legally so what you have in hand are basically papers showing that he got some estimates for the work and I think he's trying to incur a little Sympathy by showing you how expensive it would be would have been a lot more less expensive if he had done this legally so what you have in front of you doesn't really help the case I don't think we're still asking you to recommend denial of his appeal and to support the system Landmark commission decision okay you answered my internet mayor Pro tem uh Kristen Karen for the record yes um the staff does have a presentation and I think it because this is an appeal hearing I think it may be important for staff to have the opportunity to present okay thank you miss Karen if you may I do have one more question for Miss Velasquez if possible was this information provided to the historic land commission at their hearing or is it completely new Miss Velasquez this information okay thank you representative he submitted this um yesterday basically so we got it about the same time you did one minute please hold on y'all have any questions for the applicant or okay so if you like I can go over the Powerpoint so um as you can see this is an appeal to historic landmarks commission decision um this is a brief view of the process that's required uh this is a timeline of recent activity when he was cited in 2018 and as you can see it took four years for this to go to court and for you to go to the Historic Landmark commission so these structures have been completely finished and done and were in place for several years before the applicant steps to legalize them um the construction also involves a few issues we are also talking about of course the Historic Landmark connection um components but there are several issues at work here there's the fact that structurally we don't know these structures are sound if they're present any danger to the public and if they meet current code because he never submitted anything and also um Planning and Zoning will not be able to approve these structures because they don't meet the required set facts so the historic is one component of many on this parcel um this is a brief timeline uh the permit activity and you can see that in some cases you did submit an application for work sometimes we did Grant it sometimes we didn't and many times the final inspection was never called but he never ever ever submitted a uh a proposal or an application for these structures um this is what the house looked like on the 11th by 2001 and in 2022 you can see that it's almost unrecognizable because it can't be seen in a historic district we really pride ourselves on our architecture we like to show it off so we asked that the main facade always be visible we wouldn't approve something like this because it obstructions too much sorry much too much um and here you can see exactly what was done so there was fencing done uh the balcony there's electricity there's a dumpster there that's been uh illegal since 2014 they're stuck on the wall and here's the back of the property where he constructed two structures the pergola you see in the canopy and they're not done in compliance either um I'd like to show you one example um in 2005 he asked for approval to change his windows and that was granted and the approval was to change the windows in kind meaning he had to put in new windows that look exactly and function like the old they could be a different material but they had to look like the old and he hasn't done that he has not complied with that approval either so lastly um again we are asking you to uphold the Historic Landmark commission denial of all this construction that was done illegally and denied this property owner his appeal please let me know if you have any questions so I make a motion to deny the appeal is there any questions mayor Pro tem or mayor if I may I think the the motion is to uphold the Historic Landmark commissions uh ruling I think so the motion is as written so the motion would be as written that's correct the motion is to uphold the the motion should be to uphold the Historic Landmark commission's decision on June 6th of 2020 22 and we do need to offer public comment as well we will we will sir absolutely if you just give us a chance sir okay so do we need to change the motion Laura I believe that the um mayor if I made the the one of the assistant City attorneys sent you a proposed motion if you might read that into the record please thank you yes so the proposed motion for item 46 it reads whereas the city of El Paso's Historic Landmark commission hlc is established under the authority of chapter 211 of the Texas local government code Municipal Zoning for the purpose of promoting the public health safety morals or general welfare and protecting and preserving places and areas of historical cultural or architectural importance and significance whereas title 20.20 of the El Paso City Coda authorizes the hlc to decide cases regarding certificates of appropriateness and declares as a matter of public policy that the protection enhancement preservation and use of historic landmarks is a public necessity and is required in the interest of the culture Prosperity education safety and general welfare of the people whereas the purpose of title 20.20 Historic Landmark preservation includes but is not limited to protecting enhancing and perpetuating his historic landmarks which represent or reflect distinctive and important elements of the city's region states or nations architectural archaeological cultural social economic ethnic and political history and to develop appropriate settings for such places whereas on June 6 2022 the hlc denied the request for certificate of approval after the fact for an outdoor deck in case number PHA P 22-00022 located at 1121 Terrace Court El Paso Texas 79902 on the basis at the constructed Edition did not meet the design regulations or character for the Sunset Heights historic district whereas the applicant for case number PHA P 22-00022 has elected to appeal the June 6 2022 ruling of the Historic Landmark commission to the city council of the city of El Paso under the appeal procedure defined in section 20.20.190 of the El Paso City vote whereas the appealed hearing before the city council began on August 16 2022 and continued to the August 30th 2022 city council meeting now therefore be it resolved as follows motion that the city council uphold the hlc's decision on June 6 2022 of the denial with recommendations in case number PHA P 22-00022 per property located at 1121 Terrace Court El Paso Texas 79902 for the purpose of promoting the public health safety morals or general welfare and protecting and preserving places and areas of historical cultural or architectural importance and significance this motion incorporates by reference as is fully set forth herein the recitals above and the content of the following number one agenda for the El Paso Historic Landmark Commission meeting of June 6 2022 including attachments there too number two Historic Landmark Commission meeting minutes of June 6 2022 number three presentation presentation materials and related documents provided at the regular city council meeting of August 16th 2022 and August 30th 2022 for item number 41. file 22-1049 and item 46 file 22-1049 which include the following materials a city of El Paso Texas agenda item department head summary form B planning an inspections department memorandum dated August 8 2022 see notice of appeal data July 20th 2022 D backup agenda material for the June 6 2022 hlc meeting e-certificate of appropriateness denied by the El Paso Historic Landmark commission if PowerPoint presentation title appeal of hlc decision for 1121 Terrace Court and number four the minutes and video record of the August 16 2022 and August 30th 2020 to regular city council meeting related to hlc case number PHA P 22-00022 approved on August 30th 2022. do we have public comment signed up for public comment I did not have anyone signed up for this item sir pardon me under our rules in state law we can allow on specific agenda items if someone has not spoken up but has the desire to speak we can allow it right I think we should allow any time to speak but um I will um I will allow them uh time to speak and um so if we can uh give them three minutes to speak I would like mayor would you like a motion to suspend the rules the rules required that the person sign up with the city clerk prior uh we are by law allowed to have reasonable rules related to agenda and our rules do require persons to sign up prior but if you want to suspend the rules to allow these members to speak yes there's a motion and a second to suspend The Rules of Order to allow speakers after the sign up period all in favor yes anyone opposed three minutes right three minutes they'll have three minutes okay thank you sir will you please state your name for the record concerning for the property owner at uh 1121 Terrors the item on the agenda I would like to ask for permission to exceed the three-minute test I don't think this is public comment I'm his attorney and I'm presenting his appeal before the city council today as posted on the agenda so if I can have that clarification if I can exceed the three-minute rule no you can't no we'd like to continue to stay with the three-minute service you didn't sign up for public comment but it's important for us to hear from you and we uh we did make an exception because I think it's important to hear from you and the homeowner also sir thank you so we can give you three minutes and then the homeowner please we'd love to hear from him thank you so provide a evidence in this case uh for today's meeting we did so we were not a instructed as to when we needed to provide those this uh case has been ongoing for a little bit over four years uh that's taken the Historic Landmark commission and bring this before city council and to hear this case so two weeks is not unreasonable for my client to uh or it's a little bit unreasonable for my client to secure all the evidence to present before the council however he did so and he provided uh those items to council yesterday I would like to uh invite the council's attention uh to the permit that he did secure and he did secure permits for everything aside from the uh pergola however uh he did contract with a company to that builds pergolas and they're the ones that were supposed to uh ask for that permit uh he did a file the building plans with the city and those have been filed with the city since before the pergola was was even started uh they did not secure the permit my client is a person Contracting with a company to do those uh to to perform those services and and for whatever reason they did not in those uh plans it does say that the structure is sound that the uh ground that it sits on is proper for the structure so I would differ with Miss provencio that none of those tests have been done they have been done and they're in your packet so we submitted for your review uh additionally my client did a secure permits for the fencing for the for the uh also for the windows and nor does it say that it needed to be a specific kind of Windows now we provided you the cost of how much you would uh cause my client to uh replace those windows and it would cost them over twenty thousand dollars to replace those windows like he testified before you uh two weeks ago that he's been making this uh property uh better uh for 25 years and a little bit at a time for him to undergo all these expenses would be a tremendous cost to him we provided pictures of the properties around the uh the neighborhood which have very similar pergolas as installed uh by him the fences that he installed comport with the international building code and they're set at a 42 inches now miss prevents you make some statements but he doesn't provide she doesn't provide any proof as to when this uh that the permits don't comply with the work that was done so let me um let me ask you a question your three minutes are up but I do have a question on what you were going over can you you're telling us that there was permits for everything except the pergola except the purple and he did apply for a permit once uh he got a he found out that there was no permit taken out uh by The Moments happening that was back in 2021 okay and the pergola was built in 2017 18. okay so everything the windows everything that we're talking about except for the pergola was permitted by the city exactly yes yes uh mayor it was and the permits uh show that pardon me man but those permits were not sent to us they were in the in the packet that we submitted to you certificate of a pro pretty nice uh page 4142 as some of those permits we did provide those two Council so what's your and I just want to make sure that I I heard you correctly that's why so everything that was built in that house windows everything else it was per it was applied for permits through the city in the city issued permits based on whatever was requested uh yes mayor he did and Miss provencio alluded to that in her statement and the only thing that was not permitted would be the pergola that's correct he did uh apply for for it uh before was it ever permitted after he applied no it was not uh however the building plans by a civil engineer were filed with the city back in 2018 originally yes sir and were they stamped by the city at that time uh were they stamped yeah you said they were submitted I'm not sure if they were stamp but I know they had it as they just returned them to us uh this past week um okay we have um yes sir from the City Planning Commission yes sir planning an inspections so just to uh address some of the questions or comments that were brought up one of the items that you will note and that were submitted to city council it was a packet of I believe 40 documents and I can share my screen if possible to allow me to um I did not receive a packet with 40 items I received an attachment with 18 items on it I believe [Music] at least that was emailed earlier so at this point so at this point then let me bring that up really quickly so I believe this is uh what the gentleman is referring to one item to note so these are the plants that were prepared by a engineer back in 2018. so you see the survey the general site plan the site plan one thing to note is that this site plan was actually prepared on July the 12th 2018. the notice of Correction for this property when we first uh noticed the violation was actually submitted a month before the plans were prepared on June 11th of 2018. so the plans that were prepared that are part of this document were prepared approximately a month after the notice of violation was issued along with notice to cease all work and go through this simply shows a aerial of the proposed construction and again these were done approximately a month after the correction notice was issued I've never seen that this section notice the well that's the correction notice that's fun five but the alteration permit that was submitted in 2021 was submitted in January of 2021 all reviews failed uh primarily because of the Sony violation Historic Landmark approval being required so yes an application was submitted the application was reviewed the application and the uh reviews failed at that time this is a copy of the certificate of appropriateness application that was submitters to the historic preservation office uh regarding the case apparently before City Council pictures of the pergola and please let me know if a city council would likely to slow down or stop it in the instance so in getting to uh these are estimates by the property owner that we've submitted that should be part of City council's package so these are some of the older codes that we're starting to look at so Roofing permit issue in 2002. that was approved and that was part of the presentation that was provided by provi earlier on on that spreadsheet that we showed at this point this is the admin illustrative review so that moves that was approved by that is both Landmark commission specifically to be Sierra gray based on the pictures that we apparently have that is in compliance this is a certificate of appropriateness for a separate item and the request was to stackle the entire house this was denied at the time and it was allowed to be painted instead and apply a stucco to the chimneys this is the actual permit for the roofing back and from 2002. and then we had a permit for a rock wall again this permit dates back to 2003. attached as a copy of that permit along with the approval from the histo finishivation office at that point in 2005 you'll note that we also had a permit to replace the windows which is the permit that I believe the gentleman is referring to that permit was approved and did go through the Historic Landmark Commission and this is the uh Historic Landmark Mission esthetication it stated replace the windows with new matching existing so what you see now and on the presentation what you'll notice is that staff looked at older uh Google street views and the windows in a specific area of the house will change that some point between 2015 and 2022 long after this approval from the Historic Landmark commission have been printing at that point we're not seeing any permits that have been submitted or approvals by The Landmark commission at that time again the basic permit that is issued by our department for the replacement of the windows in 2005. and some of the uh admits that city council pass in their taxes um also if I may add uh when replacing the windows we approve replacing windows with new matching the existing and as you can see that's not what was done at all um what he did was removed a tripod track window and replaced with a big picture window this is not what was approved by status it's not what was approved by the Historic Landmark commission that's a violation as well so yes he made that an approval for the windows but he did not install the windows that we approved thank you representative nello yeah my question is from uh Mr De La Cruz you keep referencing a package what package there's absolutely not on this council meeting or the last council meeting any of this documentation uploaded I'm seeing I guess an email that was sent on Monday August 29th uh this email uh that was forwarded to me is from was sent to uh the mayor from yamis so you're okay you're referencing documents that are in response to this 18-page attachment that was sent to us what I'm asking you is why were none of those documentation from staff uploaded in the backup for council's review this documentation was actually sent to mayor uh City Clerk and probiot from you yesterday no no from the Ricardo the property I only the only attachment I have from anyone yesterday is an 18 page attachment does anyone else have anything else no none of us have anything else so what you're saying Mr De La Cruz just to be very clear the property owner sent you all documentation yesterday the documentation was sent to the mayor tuporovi and the city clerk but none of it got to city council that is my understanding I mean I I I don't disagree that with uh representative lazaraga that yesterday was far too late to give us this information um but I also don't think it's appropriate that the information wasn't given to us so I'm going to be recusing myself from this vote representative thank you mayor um yes I I actually wanted to go over those documents I mean that for me was very important so the fact that I don't have you know that that information right now I will also be abstaining from this vote foreign would be best if we postpone until we get that package representative guy it's up to you turn on your mind sorry you can make a motion for that but I won't be voting in favor it's difficult to to for them to tell us that we have an 18 page package and one of us have it I don't have it so I'd make the most to postpone another two weeks to see we have those that package in hand second can you make sure we've got you know and and I know you said that um we didn't have a time limit but we do have you do have a time limit because we did discuss it in the last meeting saying that we would give you two weeks and we'd reconvene in two weeks so that's not an accurate statement that you didn't know that there was a time limit and there's a time limit and we will be recommending in two weeks and I hope that at that time we do not postpone it anymore that we have the information and we just move forward with it but uh you can't tell me you didn't have a time limit because that's an inaccurate statement I will uh send this to everybody just to note it's 56 Pages yeah make sure we get a copy of it with plenty of time with that we have a motion and a second to postpone well which one takes precedence the postponement would take precedence correct so we have a motion in a second to postpone and this is for two weeks representative Rivera yes sir there's a motion and a second to postpone the item for two weeks on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes with four affirmative votes Representatives Representatives schwarzfein and Rodriguez not present the remainder of council voting I the motion passes and sir we will have a meeting in two weeks and there is a time limit and the longer you take the less chance we have to review the documents so I do recommend if you could give them to us yesterday it would be probably very appropriate not I'll resend them today mayor thank you thank you excuse me and I believe it's the applicant's responsibility to get it to us is that correct that's why I was talking to he's representing the applicant that's why I'm speaking to the attorney yes directly to us thank you but right away thanks thank you the next item is number 48. this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign a two-year on-call Professional Services agreement to perform surveying services on a test by test basis to Brock and boost sales Inc Cobb family and Associates Inc and Frank X Spencer and Associates Inc move to approved there's a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem shortstein and representative Rodriguez not present the next item is 49 this is discussion in action that the city manager or designee be authorized to sign required documents and submit an application to the Texas Military preparedness commission for the defense economic adjustment assistance grant for the construction of the McGregor range water line second motion made by representative anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem shortfein and Rodriguez representative Rodriguez not present plus you're seeing your command promotion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting for Tuesday August 30th 2022 is adjourned at 12 58 pm