foreign foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign foreign foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] or do we not have account uh no we don't have a plan quite yet we need one more person we're still one short yes yes it's nine o'clock already though can we begin please yes sir good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday January 31st 2023 present and presiding inside council chambers is Mayor Lisa along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro temanello representative molinar representative Canales representative Rivera is running a few minutes late this morning it is 902 A.M and now while everyone please silence or electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain and Sun Valley Baptist pastor Dennis Kaufman foreign women here that are conducting this meeting that you would give them wisdom and guidance rather let all that they say and do would be according to your will and your word and father we thank you that they have taken this time to come together to discuss the business of El Paso we thank you for the blessings you've given this great City and I just pray that you would give them now understanding and wisdom as they conduct this meeting that they uh we'll do it according to your word and your will that they would do what is best for our city and we thank you for loving us and we thank you for Jesus Christ Jesus name we pray amen amen Mr Rome can you lead us please justice for all foreign it's hard to believe that um February is upon us it seemed like um we're just talking about uh the end of 2022. and I think we really need to think of the possibilities of the things we can do and the things we were elected to do and we were trusted by the voters of our city and really look at life as a whole and I think it's important because I know that uh and I and I talk about it but we've all learned a lesson in life that life is too short and you know I think we just need to have a moment of silence a moment of prayer and and kind of think about our future the future of our city and the future of the people that really trusted us to always make the right decision for the right reason thank you thank you may God bless El Paso and may God bless America thank you mayor for the record Representatives Hernandez Salcido and Rivera are also present that brings us to the mayor's Proclamation and also representative Fierro is also present in Chambers that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is Black History Month in the city of El Paso thank you Proclamation the city of El Paso Texas whereas Black History Month was established to celebrate and recognize the achievements contributions and sacrifices of African Americans throughout U.S history and whereas the county of El Paso is home to over 20 23 000 African Americans currently and throughout history many have played significant roles in the country's economic cultural spiritual and political development while working tirelessly to maintain and promote their cultural culture and history in Warehouse in honor of Black History Month El Paso Community College diversity and inclusion programs will hold activities under the national theme of black resistance to include on February 15th a Black History Month panel discussion and two jazz concerts to feature Gilbert Del Bosque Ruben Gutierrez and Billy Townes on February 23rd and on February 24th and whereas it remains to be our responsibility as Citizens to address the inequalities and injustices that still linger and we must secure our Birthright freedoms for all now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council the city of El Paso that the month of February February shall be known as Black History Month in the city of El Paso signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar Lisa thank you good morning hello my friends good to see you good morning mayor Lisa and The Honorable City Representatives thank you once again for having us today and providing us with this resolution my name is is Andrew Pena I'm the executive director for human resources at the El Paso Community College diversity inclusion is important whether it be local personal state or national and it should be the Forefront of everything that we do EPCC continues that effort in our programs this year Black History Month National theme is black resistance with meat here today is one of our committee members Mr Curtis Smith and he will tell you about all the upcoming virtual and in-person events for our 2022 Black History Month and this is our personal invitation to you all and the community to join us thank you once again thank you uh good morning mayor District representative good morning ladies and gentlemen thank you um so we we will have a couple of we'll have a panel discussion like you said we will have a jazz musicians on on the various campus here in El Paso and we invite each and every one of you to come out and check out our festivities I think you'll have a good time one is in uh both of them are one is in the morning and one's in the afternoon at 7 30. so uh February 24th is the 11 A.M on Trans Mountain Cafe and then the other one is uh the February 23rd at 7 30. so we invite you all to come out and uh if you have time to see what see uh some of our festivities so thank you for your time sir thank you sir thank you the next Proclamation is El Paso media Fest weekend I think your Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the city of El Paso joins El Paso media Fest to honor educate and bring awareness of thriving film industry in El Paso Texas and where else El Paso media Fest created by Chris Hannan and David Daniel Valdez is dedicated to enrich El Paso Community through the international exposure of culture and film the three-day event is filled with film screening Network events celebrity guests education panels local food and more Show casting El Paso's best to the world and whereas participating filmmaker and community members are given the opportunity to network with local talent and filmmaking Pros learning from the industry members and develop themselves further in the world's film and whereas the El Paso city city El Paso media Fest a film event falling on third through the 5th of February addresses the needs of international exposure of the local filmmakers to the immense variety of styles techniques and storytelling methods being used all around the world it also allows International filmmakers to be exposed to the culture of El Paso and recognize El Paso as the wonderful City full of opportunity and culture that it is whereas the city of El Paso Texas is welcoming creative and inclusive community where we Thrive to deepen our understanding to practice and filmmaking for all striving filmmakers in our city and whereas the city of El Paso proudly recognizes the achievements of Chris Hannan and David Daniel Valdez will the establishment of El Paso media Fest and the wonderful influence of the event has had on the community of El Paso now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor in the Council of the city of El Paso that Friday February the 3rd through Sunday February the 5th shall be known as El Paso media Fest weekend signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning um Oscar liser representative sausal and the rest of the council my name is Daniel Valdez I'm a co-founder and co-director of the El Paso media Fest and what an honor it is to be here with you all today to receive this recognition from our great City we wanted to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to go ahead and build a platform that allows us to go ahead and educate our community not only on filmmaking but also how to go ahead and get into the industry in all the many facets that El Paso has to contribute to the world of filmmaking again we want to thank you for this opportunity that you've given us and for this Proclamation and recognizing all of our great efforts that we've put forth throughout all the many years to make this happen from a force a good morning mayor in the city council Representatives I'm Chris Han also co-founder and co-director Festival programmer El Paso media Fest uh not only do I want to say thank you so much for the proclamation and recognizing El Paso media Fest but as a filmmaker as a young kid that grew up in the Lower Valley El Paso went to Bel Air High School and only dreamed to be able to make a difference in filmmaking and the Arts it's truly an honor to be able to have that here in El Paso and be able to give the opportunities to rising filmmakers in our town and for that we thank you very much for the recognition thank you thank you lastly we want to also invite every single one of you out to Alamo Drafthouse East this weekend for our Festival that's kicks off on Friday thank you so much thank you and mayor we have a little token of our appreciation um and the final Proclamation this morning is 2-1-1 day in the city of El Paso good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas 211 Texas is a free and easy to remember phone number connecting callers with services in El Paso that can improved their health and quality of life when needed when they need it and 2-1-1 callers receive confidential personalized multilingual information 24 hours a day seven days a week from a live information and referral specialist and whereas 211 Texas plays an important role in our homeland security strategy to coordinate and disseminate accurate instant information to our community in times of disaster or emergency and whereas 211 Texas call center and El Paso handled 63 623 calls in fiscal year 2-2 and provided referrals to over 34 891 local state and federal resources and 632 of those calls were to assist the extreme weather task force which helped some of our most vulnerable citizens prevent whether they data depth during the summer and winter months and whereas 211 day is a commemorative event to highlight 211 activities and create awareness of the services it provides and whereas the city of El Paso commands the 211 Texas Rio Grande area information center for outstanding service leadership and commitment to the El Paso Community now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso the February 11 2023 shall be known as 2-1-1 day in the city of El Paso signed the honorable Oscar release or mayor city of El Paso good morning mayor and Council thank you all for this Proclamation we appreciate it um we are here for you all I know that several of you have your offices have reached out to us um with constituents that needed assistance and we're happy to provide that um 24 7 for you all and so we invite everybody here the community to please that reach to 2-1-1 if they are in need of any assistance we are happy to provide that and we do cover all six counties of far west Texas so our regional office is based in El Paso and we are located in the Department of Public Health and so if there's any anything that anybody ever needs from us um our door is open to you and we thank Council and mayor for this thank you I want to reach us take a picture now move to recess there's a motion in the second to recess the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess at 9 15 in order to take photos with this morning's honorees if I can get Council back here motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the city council meeting all in favor anyone a post the meeting is back in session at 9 23 a.m Council for this meeting please remember that once you obtain the floor from the presiding chair you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and you may speak twice per item and please refrain from side conversations at the Deus while the meeting is in session for those of you joining virtually please make sure your microphones are on mute to reduce any background noise before you get going I just want to make sure we clarify our show regardless of how many minutes you take the first time you still only speak on any given item twice that's correct okay and we'll follow that so you guys make sure you um we're going to follow it whether you speak one minute each time you're only allowed to speak on each item twice so make sure you um we understand that thank you thank you 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 the If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor Pro Tem I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page 3 item 3 move to regular agenda per representative anello page 3 item four move to regular agenda per representative anello page three item five move to regular agenda per representative anello page three item six move to regular agenda per representative anello page four item 7 move to regular agenda per representative anello page four item 8 move to regular per representative anello page four item 9 move to regular per representative anello page four item 10 move to regular agenda per representative anello page five item 14 move to regular agenda per representative anello page six item 19 move to regular per representative Rivera page six item 20 moved to regular per representative Rivera page six item 21 move to regular per representative riveretto page six item 22 moved to regular per representative Rivera page seven item 29 moved to a regular agenda per rep per mayor Oscar Lisa Page 8 item Thirty revised per purchasing and strategic sourcing department and that revision is to the district to strike out five and replace with District 8. page 16 item 49 revised per Capital Improvements department and that revision is to strike out the dollar amount and replace with 5 million eight hundred and forty seven thousand one hundred and sixty two dollars and to strike out the words and proceeds from the sale of capital assets so that the REITs approving the five the use of five-year ballpark revenues as funding sources for the plan in authorizing the city manager to make all necessary budget transfers to complete the improvements Ms Prime I have another revision per myself and that is too I'm going to revise the language for agenda item 31 and so the revised language should read discussion and action to approve a resolution to create the appropriate City policy which honors and protects the rights of pregnant people period finish are there any other revisions Council there's nothing on consent left um is there a second I'm represented to Manilow on 31 you want to strike out one two and three correct yeah so you would shake out to include the following and all of the language below yes ma'am thank you so there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote go ahead man I representative Salcido aye thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor did you want to take the items that were moved from just from first in the order that they were read off yes sir so items three to ten are related you can take those as one motion thank you item three is a resolution that the city of El Paso authorizes the submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas Homeland Security Grant division Grant application number 471-5701 item four is a resolution that the city council authorizes a submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas criminal justice division Grant application 475-0101 item five is a resolution that the city of El Paso the city council authorizes a submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas criminal justice division Grant application number 471-8401 item 6 is a resolution that the city council authorizes a submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas criminal justice division Grant application number 436-5502 item 7 is a resolution that the El Paso city council authorizes the submission of a Grant application to the office of the governor of the state of Texas criminal justice division Grant application number 47180 001 item 8 is a resolution that this El Paso city council authorizes a submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas Homeland Security Grant division Grant application number 2950609 item 9 is a resolution that the city manager or designee is authorized to submit the state Homeland Security Grant application number 322-1407 and item 10 is a resolution that the city manager designee is authorized to submit the state Homeland Security program Grant application number 2951009 like it there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Molina to approve items three to ten on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously with represent mayor Pro temanello abstaining from the vote the next item that was moved to the regular agenda is item number 14. and this is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the mayor's certificate and the general certificate of the city in connection with the issuance by the El Paso Housing Finance Corporation multi-family housing revenue bonds Columbia Apartments series 2023. yeah I don't know if there is a presentation on this I do have some concerns I see Mr Gordon on the line hello Mr Gordon it's good to see you um Mr Gordon I don't know if these are your concerns to address but you are here on behalf of the the corporation so I will let you know my concerns for a future reference and I have them listed out here there's about six of them so one is that the meeting minutes are not available they're not on the city's board and commission websites and the agendas from July 28th 2021 to August 21st 2022 are not available the live meetings are not offered on the city YouTube channels every other board does this there is a way for us to follow those that is not the case for this group there's very limited to no information available on the website their website currently takes them to the dchd and it's just they only list their mission there's very little information regarding income requirements down payments and closing closing costs assistance there's no financial statements or auditor reports available to the public I believe is a non-profit Corporation created by city council there should be this information to the public regarding their financial standing unit profile cash flow Etc and other finding other housing Texas Housing Finance corporations list their projects and units portfolios to my understanding I've done limited research on this but there's no coordination or collaboration with dchd and my last issue is that it doesn't seem like there's any alignment with the city of El Paso Regional Housing plan it's hard to tell because there's not a lot of information available it's difficult to identify any alignment with the city's Regional plan and so it just you know it gives me a lot of heartburn um I think this is information that should be available to us at the least but definitely the public so again Mr Gordon I know that those are not necessarily your issues to address here but if you could pass those concerns along with me I would appreciate it uh mayor Pro Tema certainly will we will look into that um I know that the executive director has been trying to deal with the issue of the uh the meeting minutes and of course the meeting agendas themselves are are posted and uh we will look and I will make sure that we look into the rest of those I can't tell you however that the financial statements are provided to the city and are Incorporated and mentioned in the city's comprehensive financial report and in Broad terms but that information is certainly available to you at any time there's nothing um that is meant to be kept secret here I I understand that and I appreciate that that's good to know but it does make it difficult for the public to find that it was difficult for me to find that being unaware and I could have asked my executive staff so I'll take responsibility for that but understanding that this information should be completely transparent to the public is the concern and you know following this meeting and and your conversation about my concerns would love if somebody could take some time to you know meet with the council members and and really help them understand especially if there is any um future intent or yeah just future intent to align with the city's Regional Housing plan or how we could do that would be appreciative sure thank you sure I underst I understand that and we do have a presentation for the developer from the developer from this project if you'd like to hear it mayor pretem that they prepared yesterday after the agenda review that talks about this project in particular I mean I would like to see it I don't know if council is wanting to I think that again that was prepared after count you know after this item was pulled it should have been available in backup if you would just like to send that to me I would appreciate I mean send it to all Council but I don't think that Council really has the desire to see it at this moment I think it's something that we need to look at and take some time to understand uh and and you know that moment has kind of passed but if you would send that I would appreciate it we will do that Mr Norman how long has the director been the director of the uh Miss Moya has been the director for five or six years I don't have the exact date in my head but she has been working for the Housing Finance Corporation for that period of time at least okay so it's not someone that was just appointed a couple weeks ago a couple months ago someone that should know exactly would mayor Pro Temps asking should be done oh no it's nobody knew yes sir all right thank you for that representative Hernandez hi good morning Mr Norman Gordon I did have similar questions back in November I I sent an email to City management asking for such information so can you just explain what changes to the terms if you have that information so from what I have here is that they're seven appointed by resolution of City Council um and that there's currently Mr Shaw whose term ends February of 2024. uh Mrs Acosta Emma Costa November 26 2024 Christian hansaker November of 2024 Anthony tomacheski July of 2025 Michael Bray November 2025 Jerry Romero November 2025 in Melanie Bailey July of 2026 and this action today is it to because I I noticed that there are other members listed um in this ordinance and so I guess my question is are we extending terms as part of this no okay so on page number um it doesn't have page number excuse me um it says on January 31st 2023 at and at all times since the following persons each of whom resides within the city have been duly appointed by the governing body of the city as members of the board of directors and this is Jerry Romero Melanie Bailey Michael Bray Anthony tomacheski and Stephen Shaw is this just to clarify that these are the current members yes the the uh the Attorney General uh approves all bonds and uh as part of the approval process they want to know who the correct members of the board is and that is what it is attesting to and I do need to say that I understand the listing that you look at is a little bit inaccurate Mr hotzaker was removed some time ago and replaced by a La Costa and then the other member that was on there was Jim Smith who had resigned okay so there are currently uh six members and it's authorized for seven it's authorized for seven and that is um and there is a vacancy in so they're likely mayor Lisa would have the opportunity to appoint um okay and then also uh in my correspondence um I've asked where online can you find the housing Corporation the um the agendas the meeting minutes um nothing is available all of the information I received was because I inquired and I got an email but as others have mentioned four Public Notices there really needs to be more transparency with these boards that are making critical decisions and and again we understand that this is a different action here but this is just part of the transparency of boards and commissions and we have to have that information readily available and I just wanted to reaffirm my concerns as well that except for an inquiry from a member of council this information is not readily available to the public thank you for your service to the city thank you thank you representative Dundas um mayor Pro tem thank you mayor sorry there's it's something else that I wanted to add I think I I agree with representative Hernandez I I you know I think we all have the same issues about transparency but I also I think I didn't really focus on um the other half of the issue is that I think you know when it comes to housing we've worked very hard to leverage um the most that we can and so I think it is really important for um for the Housing Finance Corporation to really work with the city and partner so we really can be getting the most for our community so I just wanted to Echo that because I felt like I wasn't as articulate about it so thank you mayor thank you do we have a motion there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the resolution on item 14. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes 721 representative anello voting a the remainder of council voting I the motion does pass we now turn to page number six remove to approve can we take um items 19 20 21 22 together yes I'll make them oh sorry item 19 is a board appointment representative Alexandra anello to the financial oversight and audit committee item 20 is representative Brian P Kennedy to the financial oversight and audit committee item 21 is representative art Piero to the financial oversight and audit committee and item 22 is representative Joe Molina to the financial oversight and audit committee move to approve yes sir go ahead please sir agenda and it's a regular agenda because sorry I got it sir no hold on well I got it there for you may I pulled these items out of the consent agenda into the regular agenda because it is important to recognize the notable achievements of the financial oversight audit committee commonly known as forek Fork is responsible for spearheading the following accomplishments in 2014 there had been 21 audit findings identified by the external auditor related to internal control findings or non-compliance and grants thanks to folak for the past six years we have had zero external audit findings forek also address the stabilization funds that result in the city having a 90-day fund balance earning the city a gold standard the full act also hired a company to conduct audits of hotels and insured audits to audit the sales tax audit of the French highest fees audit of the franchise agreements which collectively have brought in over three million dollars to the city of El Paso I understand it's your privilege mayor to a point City representative to keyboards Community committees and commissions the city also has staggered relation relay I'm sorry the cities also have staggered elections where only half the representatives run every four years having City Representatives run in staggered terms strengthens our City's strategic plan to have continuity as chair of the full act I was surprised that you wanted to replace all members of the full act instead of maintaining continuity in the committee such uh such which is of importance as chair of the full act my recommendation recommendation to you would have been to a point uh the vacated seat in the committee along with one new member to keep two current members in in in the committee I believe this method safeguards the Forex continuity of the city's strategic plan and legislative intent that is why I will have to vote no on all these items but let me be clear this is not a vote against my colleagues but against the process used that is missing balance and strategic planning continuity for the 4A thank you sir thank you for that sure and and I thank you you were the previous chair and thank you for your service to the board I think it's important that we allow our colleagues to continue to be part of different boards and continue to learn the boards it I think as the city continues to grow I think it's always good to have in a different view on on thanks and also have people learn different boards so it was very important that um all the board so I took my time and I looked at him very carefully to make sure that we appointed people that um really fit the boards and were able to continue to move our city forward today but not just for today but today and in the future so it's really important that people have different opportunities to continue to serve our city and we're you know and I know not just this but other boards for numerous reasons I was asked for people to go on boards it was you know and unfortunately people had to come off the boards so that again but it's to continue to have continuity and allow people really to serve different boards as they represent their district and our community but again thank you for your service representative um Hernandez thank you mayor I do also want to thank you chairman foak so importantly you never get an opportunity to thank the the men and women and the staff behind the scenes who are working hard to safeguard our city our finances our policies it's been such a tremendous honor to to serve I'm one of the representatives that also will be removed from the faux to make space for other representatives in their tenure which I'm happy to support been here before but did certainly want to thank edemundo for all of the hard work I know you watch all of the City Council meetings or auditing so my message is for you thank you Mundo for all of your your information your guidance and keeping a careful watchful eye on the city all of your work has not gone without notice you have been instrumental in identifying key issues that we have to correct you've challenged us and and I thank you for holding the the current coax team accountable making sure that we're holding the city accountable also to your team I've grown very fond and I have seeing the successes and the succession planning with with your team and making sure that everybody is given a fair chance so Miguel k uh Daryl John Sergio Elizabeth and then also for the finance team Mr cortinas and margaritas it was such an honor to work with you and I look forward to continuing to work with you and good job to the the foak members of all the hard work I think the successes that we have seen with the city I think the the lack of audits and findings that we have seen is a direct Testament to the coordination between City management team along with the audit team we have seen so many successes we have caught so many issues as well and so we're really grateful for your time thank you for the opportunity mayor to serve on the foec no thank you and look forward to seeing everyone serve different boards and other boards that they've agreed to serve on thank you for that Mr praying with that we have a motion in a second who was the second on that one that one thank you sir there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve items 19 through 22. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes 721 representative Rivera vodine the motion does pass the final item that was moved from the consent to regular is item number 29. item 29 is a the award of solicitation 2023-0165 police motorcycle parts service and maintenance to Santa Teresa Motorsports the only question I have on that is who had the contract prior to the solicitation it was Viva and they they and we did the same thing as we talked about yesterday that we reached out three times and no one bit on it so actually I have a kind of explain some of your questions well can we show it for the last one do you do we want to take 29 and 41 together oh that'd be great I think so because they're basically it's the same questions that's a good idea thank you okay item number 41 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-0239 Ford proprietary parts and service to Casa Fort Inc thank you second now let me ask you on that one since we're looking at them both together um on that one you said that it's a three-year contract prior yes so we're renewing a three-year contract that expires February 8th February 8th and it's coming back just now to us and on that one we didn't get any that if I'm not mistaken and please correct me on this one that three years ago when it was done it we didn't get any bids either and was awarded the cost of Ford then so uh prior to this solicitation I'm not 100 sure I believe that that was the case but what we can do is if I if it can please bring up the presentation this is Nicole Cody yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and finish my questions and then we can do the presentation so that's not the correct presentation it I'm sorry so the presentation Sean so cost of Ford currently has the contract correct and cost of four didn't bid on the renewal of the contract either they did bid they were deemed unresponsive so they bid actually twice but they're the only ones that bid they were the only ones that bid we received one bid from Casa Ford yes sir and there were not qualif they were disqualified because whatever reason it was they didn't fill in Cross City or Dot and I whatever well on the first one at the first attempt they were non-responsive um due to the failure to include manufacture priceless so they do need to include as part of the request for the solicitation which is very standard and as you pointed out they have the current contract um they weren't they did not provide that manufacturer list that was required and so then we let them know that they were non-responsive and we actually explain why so there's an opportunity to have that conversation so they can improve the next bid when we open it up so then we open it up again on June 1st and then they did it again sir so they did it again same thing same thing and then we opened it up again so we had the same conversation with them explained how they can improve as well as we ensure that we're also including everyone that we had requested any invitations that were sent to the bid all go out again for everyone that's included in the list and what you'll see on this is not the presentation again I.T I apologize it was sent this morning so so then on the third bid no one bit on it then on the third bid we received one bid again and again it was a it was deemed they were unable to provide uh required documentation which include their operational information on this last time so they corrected their first mistakes from the first two but then they forgot something else on this on the last part and three years ago same thing happened because three years ago I think you said that it was awarded the same way so three years ago it was awarded to Casa Ford but I believed it was not non-competitive it was competitive so that was my mistake okay because you had told me that three years ago it was it did go to Casa Fort yesterday and anyone else bid on it three years ago I would have to check for you I will check on you just focused on on this solicitation yeah and then we'll I'd like to just probably meet with you on that because I'm very concerned and mayor they started the process uh back in in March yes in March so when you said that they're just not bringing it back it's actually this is the one two three four five so they one two three four five sixth time that they've done this no uh that Steph's done this for various reasons that she just mentioned that's why she wanted to go over the presentation so she didn't get tongue-tied on responding to your questions so if if I may if we can bring up the presentation I'm okay with it I mean I understand and I think you did a good job explaining it I'm not sure I agree with it and I'd like to sit down yeah go ahead okay all right thank you I do um yeah go ahead okay but it's very disturbing to me how it's happening and I'm not blaming anybody I just I want to get some answers because it really bothers me a little bit so what I'm going to go over is is really the best value procurement process so each time both of these items were solicited as a best value procurement so we'll go into some detail in kind of where they stop in the process as well as the specific procurement information regarding these two items and then just the uncertainty that we're seeing um overall and the impact it's been having on the vendors so best value procurements as you can see here it is the method that seeks to award based on the bitter offering the best value bid so it's not solely based on price but the the department is able to include other evaluation factors for these solicitations so here's some examples of those solicitations but what I want to focus on is that it really is based and rooted deeply in government in the governing regulations so what you have here is of course our Texas government code chapter 252 as well as ordinances and resolutions that have been adopted by Council ensuring that we are making and providing a fair and competitive environment for our vendors to bid also included in that of course is title VI and the last one is two CFR 200 which is the Federal Regulation so we as you know we both have grants general fund and Enterprise funds that we use in order for our procurements and it's critical that we're always following regulations and we're in constant contact with our city attorney's office and the legal team so this is the workflow for the best value procurements so you can see from the first stages of creation to the point it was advertised and I'll get into information regarding that advertisement so we can talk about how businesses were notified as well as the pre-bid conference so we want to make sure that vendors understand the bid process if they have any questions regarding the scope or the solicitation at all we're able to also provide conferences that are required as well as suppliers are able to submit their information and questions in addition to that then we go to the bid due date so all of this information of course is provided on our website and then I'll also cover how we also ensure that we're emailing and constantly reaching out to the vendors so they are aware of upcoming dates and they also have an opportunity to provide any questions so then you'll see the evaluation process so where the stop sign is is where it stops so if we do not receive a bidder or we receive one bidder and we're evaluating their packet and it's deemed unresponsive then that's where it stops so the whole process will stop we do make a confirmation on whether or not it's considered unresponsive based on the information that they provided and then at that point we work with the Department to start the process over so we do and I did mention before we do reach out to the unresponsive bidder to help it is an educational point it is a teaching point so it allows us to be able to work with them to be able to help improve their next bidding opportunity so the procurement information that we just covered um mayor based on your questions regarding the item number 29 so the average invitation sent for each time in the solicitation numbers and dates are at the bottom each time the solicitation went out on average 68.5 invitations were sent out how many views did we receive that says views on the on the website was only 13. how many of those were local 12. and so um and the first solicitation no bids were received and then as we mentioned on the second and third we did receive one bid but both times they were deemed non-responsive and again this is for the police motorcycle parts and I think we were talking before more about Casa Ford proprietary ports Parts in that sense so as you can see again this is the police motorcycle parts and services and then here is the Ford proprietary parts and services that the current contract is under Casa Ford and that we are looking to award so you'll see here the average invitation sent for this one so each let me step back and let me explain so each vendor if you're a business in El Paso and I think it's it's important we're going to make sure that you all have this information too because it gives them an opportunity to sign up as a vendor you can sign up on multiple categories so we have different categories so that way they're not getting inundated with all of the emails for all solicitations but they have an opportunity on what they're interested in so because of that they can they can request multiple or they can request all of them so that's where you're seeing these fluctuations on invitations that are sent and then what will also cover is the total number of businesses that are actually registered to receive these notifications so then average views for these three attempts were at about 10.6 and of those the local views were 3.5 so what we what will and what I need to clarify is on the first attempt we did receive two bids were received but both redeemed non-responsive because they did not bid on both parts and services and then the second part were exactly what we discussed is they were failure to provide necessary documentation as part of this elicitation so what I was mentioning regarding what's the platform what do we use to be able to reach out to businesses and so the new platform was implemented in November of 2021 and we currently have 1845 registered vendors of those 607 are local vendors with 67 percent as non-local vendors we do and sure as I mentioned yesterday that we work with the chambers and the Hispanic chamber and El Paso greater chamber as well as the contract Opportunity Center to be able to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and our local businesses to learn how to do business with the city how do you submit bids with the city how do you sign up so that way you know when there's solicitations to do work to do business with the city and this is that opportunity and it's available on the procurement purchasing a strategic sourcing website and we constantly are reaching out to various agencies and various businesses to let them know that they should sign up so that way they do know when there are those opportunities arise in what in addition to that last year we started with a procurement forecast and so that's also available on our website and the procurement forecast really gives them an opportunity to see what's coming up so sometimes you don't want to wait until the solicitation has come out to bin and already being advertised but then that way they can prepare in advance when they know when these items will be coming based on a potential expiration dates and the point let me go back one second I really want to emphasize here because we went to a new platform there was a great deal of Outreach in order to ensure everyone was registering with this new platform so what we've seen in the procurement side is post covid is really that economic uncertainty and we've talked about it in multiple areas and in multiple presentations to council but what I'd like to focus is on the supply chain issues so regarding the supply chain issues we're seeing can we still continue to see when we say tight labor market well what does that mean well that means that we're having difficulty filling positions for truck drivers they're having difficulties filling positions for warehouses so certain items that used to be transition points now become bottlenecks and so then it does impact the ability for our businesses local vendors and National Vendors to be able to get those goods that they were used to seeing and receiving in a short amount of time inflationary pressures oh my goodness right we hear that term so much but what does that mean we know what it means when we go to the grocery store I know I do and we see what it means when we have to um be able to go to also the the pump and fuel up our cars and the impacts of the changes in fuel prices but the inflationary pressures are also affecting our businesses and so there is that uncertainty on where the prices are going to go up next what are those goods and services that are going to now cause additional increases in prices that may make it difficult for me as a vendor for me as a business to be able to guarantee a price for three years and so when we're looking at these three-year term contracts you can understand why there might be a hesitation to be able to bid on those or to actually move forward with those items so included not only in the tight labor market but the supply and issues that it creates is also International Affairs and so you all know that there has been an impact from the with Russia and Ukraine the dispute there as well as the impact that we've seen with China so when they had to in this and Dr karanza is here so in the winter of November December when we started to see closures again in China it does impact it does impact our supply chain and then with the tight labor market shortages now we have a difficulty getting those goods and services in the United States the goods that are coming from China and so all of those along with the tariffs that have been in place since 2019 and additional tariffs have cost have caused costs to rise and that's what's leading to those inflationary pressures that's what's leading to the impact on our businesses so key performance indicators that I mentioned yesterday and I think it was important that we provide this information to you all council is because this is what this is only showing one segment in particular this is what we're seeing through our EP Marketplace but even there you'll see we started to spike as far as local percentage spent of the dollars spent just in EP Marketplace so this does not show all solicitations for the city but then we're so we started to see a decline and then in 22 it did spike a little bit back up and it looked better than FY 2020 2018 but there is a decline there we did start to see a decline and where we're seeing it on the procurement side is of course those petroleum-based products and we'll talk about it later in item 33 there's actually a graph for you all as part of that presentation that really shows the fluctuations that we had regarding our fuel costs and the impact it does have on all of the petroleum-based products so those aren't going to impact your streets department those are going to impact your Fleet Maintenance departments in addition to that are the tech products so we have microchips semiconductor chips we've heard a lot about those in the news but what does it mean to us well those are your HVAC parts they're going to directly impact our ability to get parts for HVAC units specialized equipment are Striker stretchers in addition to that the tight labor market also has an impact on abilities for people to continue contracts recently we brought to council the termination of contract because they're no longer able to provide those Services they just don't have the staff to do it they don't have the staff to meet the terms of the contract that they had negotiated two years prior until we understand that in addition to that as I mentioned through supply chain is the construction materials which is our impacts on steel roofing materials and we're also seeing increases in cement and concrete Across the Nation and so these are all critical areas that are businesses local state and National have to take into consideration when they're going to apply for solicitation or they're going to bid on a solicitation I should say and so what we've seen is a reluctance an understandable reluctance to do more than one year but there's a lot of effort and a lot of coordination between the Departments so initially they of course they want to look at three years right they want to be able to also secure prices for three years in order to be good stewards of the Public's funding and so with that it's critical that we understand the hesitancy and we have been trying to adapt and I apologize that we're not just trying but we have been agile in adjusting the contract terms and working with our vendors to be able to meet that so these both of these items are do fall under operational Necessities since we have extended all possible options for each of the contracts for the police motorcycle parts and service and maintenance which expires on February 1st tomorrow as well as afford proprietary parts that will expire on February 8th that concludes okay so mayor to answer your question about the current contract and how that was bid out so it was not a non-competitive the current contract that they're operating off of was awarded back on March 21st of 2017. on the council agenda you can go back and pull up the archived information which I did there was three bits submitted for that contract two of them were deemed non-responsive so Barnett Harley-Davidson and Rio Grande shovelheads were deemed non-responsive for failing to submit all the required documentation so the highest ranked bidder was Viva Sports which Nicole mentioned so it was not a non-competitive people Sports was the one that won that solicitation and the Ford parts I don't have the four parts that's where the parts yes sir thank you yeah okay well I still am having a really hard time knowing that you bid and you win the bid or not and that no one else in our area was willing to bid on a contract that and everyone else was non-responsive because whoever bid on it did not do it properly um I just have a really hard time and I'm I'm I really believe that I didn't get any answers at this point because I have a hard time understanding it and um because I have a hard time believing that somebody wouldn't Bid And if they get it they do the best job possible and then they get it or they don't get it and for someone to say you know what I don't want two million dollars I'm not even going to attempt to get it and I know it's not profit I understand that's net but I have a hard time believing that somebody would not want to bid on it and say you know I'm gonna give you my best foot forward and this is what I'm willing to do and if I get it then I gave my best foot forward and if I don't get it at least I attempt it but people that have very successful business wouldn't just walk away and not try I've never I mean I have a hard time believing on that and but that I thank you for your presentation representative pharaoh thank you Mr Mayor you know and thank you for your your for your work everything your Department's doing to do Outreach with the community um on how to do business with the city it's an area I think that has improved and will continue to improve but mayor I think there's there's ways we can help this department and I don't know if the city manager um or or or the City attorney can uh answer this can this contract be extended six months a year while we while we go back and rebid because I'm hearing three or four times the issues have to do with the three-year contracts maybe we need to address that maybe we need to lower in the in the interim well unfortunately you can't because that's the way it was proposed so you have to order based on the way it was proposed and the way it was brought forward exactly and so it's in and so I I we do have legal here and I'm in a different illegal in a second but no sir um unfortunately we have come to the point where we have extended or we already used all options available to us to be able to extend the current contract and so we are as you saw the regulations that were provided on slide three we are under requirements under State procurement law to to be able to once we've exhausted all possible options we need to move forward to the the competitive non-competitive bid if in this case I'm going to defer to I'm going to defer to Juan Gonzalez he's the lead in purchasing out of the city attorney's office thank you hi everyone that's always the city attorney's office uh I'll address the extension so typically you have to take the whole procurement in its totality so when we put a procurement out there we let the vendor know it's going to be these type of products for this period of time and we're asking them obviously for the pricing it we cannot obligate them to hold on to that same price unless we let them know in advance that there's going to be additional options extensions one of the ramifications I've been on the other side of actually bid on projects before I started working with the city and it would give me pause about bidding on a project if you knew that the commodity or the product that you needed you couldn't project the availability the pricing structure far enough down so what we're asking to do is say for this three-year period we want you to commit to providing these specific products in these you know quantities for these requirements at this pricing and it's up it's an incumbent upon the vendor to figure that part out if they do it right they're going to make their profitability right they're going to make it but then they're also subject to the Ebbs and flows of the market which we've in the last three years seen that it has a massive impact so the negative is if they agree to do something for a certain period of time and they don't we terminate them for cause and that has deleterious effects for their ability to later procure and work with the city and I can tell you when I was on the other side you want to contract with government because government has to pay you in certain time periods I could count on those checks like I'm like practically said in my watch uh it depends on what the contract looks like we do have that we have the determination for convenience we have that ability that's also though up front in part of the facilitation the vendors know in advance this is an option but a lot of times that's part of the whole calculus and Wayne do I want to go after this contract or not now you are aware that when you bid a forward part they all come from the same place Ford Motor Company so all three four dealers would bid if it's a powered part that's only billed by Ford which what you're asking for they're all coming from the same place probably otherwise she would use then your bid would be aftermarket parts and you'd open it up to other bidders not just Ford dealers sure uh I don't know specific like Logistics when it comes to Fords I don't know if they have Regional well for specific parts that have to come from the factory you and I both know that no I understand it but also from my very very limited experience know that Ford also has different hubs when it comes to Distributing basic things based on some that are coming from the Canada provinces some that are coming from South America Mexico and then some that are coming and all four dealers have the same ability to do that so you can't say that one guy can buy from South America and the guy has to buy it from oh no no I'm not saying that I'm like I said I don't know about the logistics and the distribution Network that's foreign when it comes to the dealerships ostensibly yes but I think that it's ultimately up to the by the way individual dealerships to decide whether or not they want to Avail themselves of the opportunity I interrupted you I apologize go ahead sir was that presentation in our backup yeah yes sir it was added this morning under item 29 or I should be under under both item 29 and 41. if it's not we'll make sure that it's been added but representative mullinar is an audience though well if representative Rivera found it again sorry and the last question was I think we need to take an account done and again offer your presentation I pres and I respect it and thank you very much for it but you mentioned economic uncertainty with the lack of three-year commitment um I think we need to consider that as we as we move forward and bid other items um you know to try and have more people participate absolutely so moving forward uh there's always room for improvement and there's also continuous Improvement within the framework of the law so so I'm sorry did you answer my question in regards to extending the current contract so because the previous contract was awarded as a three-year term with no extensions we can't ask we can't obligate unilaterally the vendor to continue to provide us those services at those prices that's why we have to go back and resolicit so we'll we'll of course work with purchasing and staff to make sure that you know see what options are available to hopefully get more engagement from the vendors that could provide these services to the city and structure a contract that we think they would they would find you know that we can of course administer and comply with because that's the most important we don't want to risk sure and expose the city to risk but that also can meets the needs and like I said get to more people to engage in the procurement process with us I think and then just the last question I don't know if you answered it could we get out of this the the our the proposals that we have out or received and then start in you I believe um I and I don't know what the operational needs are I'll ask operations to speak to because I don't know if there's a if we don't have these parts whether or not we're not going to be able to fix whatever Vehicles we need and put them on the road and provide the services our community requires I don't know that I'll let um staff speak to that I think it's important that if we do agree on the contract we follow through with the contract and it has nothing you know I just have an issue of trying to understand why we only had no really no current and we ended up awarding it and the other dealers did not bid on it but I think when we if we vote and if it passes we need to honor our contract and not look at whether we're going to you know change it or try to do something we we put it out for bed just the way it was awarded and I understand that and I think it's a city it really we we should make sure we have we honor what we do so that's not the issue that what's bothered me more than anything else and it's got nothing to do with Costa Ford it's just what's happened I'm having a hard time wrapping my arms around it it's got nothing to do with who got it and who didn't get it um understood mayor um representative fiata we do have Rene Barraza here from streets and maintenance department to speak about the necessity of this that would that wasn't my my question it was my question was a can we extend the contract we have now to to make sure that we are meeting the needs I mean especially since it looks like their Public Safety needs um a and then B um could we start all over to address the issues of people not wanting to to commit to three-year contracts to the uncertainty in the economic uh Outlook and that we have to the the shortage of employees that you brought up and you brought up like five or six great points um and I think that you know considering all those points it should be a consideration that maybe we should start all over so to give vendors a fair chance and and even the whoever whomever is going to get the award uh the opportunity to to rethink their bid so thank you thank you and so we just to clarify that we did we did respond that given the current contract we can't extend it we would need to um just due to the necessity of the of the goods and services we would need to be able to create a stop Gap measure either this contract otherwise we would and then we can at I guess Merit to your point you would want to honor the contract is what you indicated if it is awarded you would want to honor the contract for the full term and then we would be able to rebid can you tell me you said you reached out into what is what actually do you do to reach out to try to get the people that didn't bid on it and opportunity to bid on it based on the changes we we provide and so they're invitations and so what is an invitation for the solicitation is both through email we also have done postcards and then we provided on our website those are the the same invitations that we don't want to provide or create an atmosphere where it seems to preserve perceived a preference between our vendors so everyone has the same opportunity and it's up to the vendor whoever may be to make sure they have a current email address on file yes sir they are able to register individually we don't call anybody we don't make phone calls we don't make phone calls anymore that was all uh representative Hernandez thank you representative my question was to understand if this contract isn't approved today what implications there can be to operations and Public Safety hi good morning streets and maintenance so the impact would be that we would have about 1500 Ford vehicles that wouldn't be serviced we would have 47 police motorcycles that wouldn't be serviced of those 1500 vehicles that are afford for sure 300 of them are marked units for for PD and there'd be a little bit more so this is almost like a public safety contract per se so 300 are Mark units 1500 are is the entire fleet yes to include motorcycles uh no uh 1500 just light duty Ford brand Vehicles whether they're PD or not and then there's 47 motorcycles that are all PD is there any other service provider at this time that you could use the Departments can use without using this contract um not necessarily on the Ford as the mayor has mentioned several times there are three dealers in town I can't answer the fact why they didn't submit a bid Casa Ford has always been the one that's been the most responsive to us in reference to the motorcycles the motorcycles we have had the contract with Vivo for several years uh this time it's with a different vendor and we just wanted to go with that different vendor just as a competitive type situation to see what type of service they they uh they offer us okay um thank you for that response I do have a question for Mrs Cody absolutely Mrs Cody I first want to say that I've just been tremendously proud of your growth and overseeing this portfolio I have seen such a shift in your confidence and in your understanding of procurement rules and policies so first wanted to thank you for that I remember a similar situation a couple months ago where we had no responsive and responsible bidders and if I recall correctly is that the landscape service because I know I'm not sure if you saw that but I heard the streets folks and environmental services talk about that yes ma'am are you taking the same approach with that contract with this contract absolutely so we have to follow the same process as I talked about it's really important that we're always being a fair and competitive market that we are giving no preferential treatment to specific vendors and so once we go through the procurement process a minimum of two attempts and it's just a minimum of two attempts as you saw here we did try an additional attempt to assist those those vendors that we're bidding we then go to the department to work with a possible responsive bidder and that's okay that's the process and that's what we did with the landscape contract if I recall correct yes ma'am nobody bid we had weeds all over the city everybody was calling our cell phones knocking on our front door literally people were knocking on my front door complaining about their weeds oh yes ma'am but then the state law as you mentioned allows for for the Department to enter into private negotiations with vendors if there has been good faith efforts and clear efforts to post a bid and then no responsive bidder so then you can go and directly negotiate correct exactly at minimum we were required two attempts okay yes ma'am I think it's necessary and prudent that we do it in this case considering that Public Safety Vehicles has historically been ignored maintenance has deferred maintenance have been ignored the lack of purchasing of vehicles has been ignored and then when you don't have a maintenance provider that's going to provide you the proprietary Parts it's only going to further our delays and response times potentially not allowing for police officers to have their necessary equipment and tools and vehicles so that they can respond appropriately I consider this not to be an operational necessity I consider this to be as a matter of life and death necessity for the public and so I think it's incredibly responsible for this body to move forward with this contract however I do want to say that I'm very concerned with some of the comments I heard today I would urge Council and the mayor to trust the process I would also urge you to disclose any potential conflict of interest because when we are highlighting one contractor over another whether it's intended or not unattention or not it's perceived to be a prefer a preferential preference and that's how our bidders and people who are watching our meet our meetings are going to do to determine the city not making fair business decisions that is fair to the community and so I'm really sensitive to that and I wanted to state that for the record what relationship or what conversations have you had with the current provider of this contract are they expecting that they have met all the obligations and requirements of this bid proposal today yes ma'am okay so if we say no no thanks go back out and rebid will any of their the the their proposals is that already made public is there cost per service or cost for admin fees things of that nature it's what's available and it's back up to the agenda okay so there could be a potential concern about competitiveness or competitive disadvantage because you've just demonstrated all of your costs for services so so that's another concern I have is that you have a bidder who's gone through the process fairly was irresponsive but this the city does have the prerogative to enter into private negotiations if no one has responded as a matter of public safety and then say thanks no thanks is showing that the city is not responsible with business practices while that may not be the intent of some members of this body today that is certainly what the public is going to feel so I take great concern uh with that perspective of the city because we want to be credible uh Fair members of this body of this community and doing anything other than approving this contract today would send the wrong signal to the public so I just wanted to share my concern about the public safety component about your due diligence and making sure that we've gone out not once not twice but three it sounds like four times and that there is a concern a clear need with labor shortages that have been demonstrating traded not only with the city's practices but businesses Citywide they don't have the staff to even respond to bids and procurements I've seen complaints about that I have seen severe debt delays and motor vehicle parts having gone through a recent accident in my vehicle I waited almost I want to say six months to get excuse me not six months six weeks just to get a I'm not I'm not in the car industry and I know mayor Lisa you are but whatever the offender is called so it took six weeks just to get that so I was in a rental for six weeks so there are clear supply chain operational challenges that not only this community is facing but Nationwide I would agree that some of our current contracts would probably need to be Revisited because of that nature and I've seen that in the past six months but just three months ago or four months ago we had the same exact issue come forward no concerns from this body same exact issues with their weeds the only difference now is that it's parts for a vehicle and so thank you for the information I ask again from this body to trust the process everything is transparent everything is made available online and let's let the public know that we are a organization worth doing business with and we're not up against everyone and the community but I just wanted to share my comments because of some of the comments I heard today thank you thank you for your comments I think it's important to remember on the beach the the company that that we were doing business with terminated their contract and that was the big difference they terminated the contract and we were up against we need to get a new contract so that was a big difference they terminated the job to do with us that was a big big difference if you remember correctly right they did terminate their contract with us the company we had and we had to go out and get a new company because they didn't they didn't they couldn't do what needed to be done if I'm not mistaken but the difference here is everything is equal when you talk about you know a and I don't really care who gets it it doesn't matter to me I have no I have nothing in either you know none of them I have nothing in any womb I just have a problem understanding it and it has nothing to do if everything's equal and if it was airplanes then it's airplanes if it's lawn Morse then it's lawn mowers this just happens to be cars and parts so everything is equal and I have a hard time understanding why it happened and I think you're right that people need to understand that we are asking questions and we have the right to and we should ask questions and it's not questioning who got it because who got it gets it that's okay we don't have a problem with it but I have a hard time understanding and maybe the other guys didn't want it and they may be the deal I just have a hard time believing that with them if I may mayor Ellen's my chief Transit and field operations officer on the weed we had gone out for bid prior to the contracts expiration date and we didn't receive any bids so by the time we did it the second time it had expired and then nobody bid again and so the third time is when we did the contract similar to what we're doing today but they net no but they didn't terminate the contract we didn't terminate it somebody terminated the contract was inspired we had a contract that terminated we had the same issue I don't remember which one and I'll figure it out and I can always bring the item back okay yeah when the weed works so that one just terminate it because we had no one that would bid on it right the contract term expired just coincidentally right you know before that but there's a lot of different moving parts to that compared to all the parts of the same at Ford Motor Company that's totally different but mayor I think you're asking great questions and I'll just say that across the board because of the supply chain inflation and just with the covet impact in those areas we're having this issue across the board so you'll see more of this and that's the reason why we instructed staff to do the bidding process earlier in the process that's the reason they did it all the way back into March and the other one in April so that they would have plenty of time I will further instruct them to go even further back on on dates so they have even more time so they can have it can he have even more time for outreach but they've already we've already moved that back once we'll do it again in order for them to have even more time for additional Outreach the Outreach includes an annual conference that we do with small businesses and that was as a result of us attempting to get more people involved locally that's the reason those numbers are so high prior to covet when covet hit obviously it was impactful and then those numbers did dip down a little bit but now they're Rising back up again but when you're talking about a part that's built by one maker everybody's I don't disagree I think I think pragmatically your points are very logical I'm simply saying that we're having this issue all you know with notwithstanding this item we're having this issue across it has nothing to do with who exactly exactly I'm not even that's what I'm trying to explain I know someone's trying to make it no sir who what or when but it's got nothing to do and I tell you what I have a problem with that if I vote no today which I I would like to do that if I had an opportunity then then I jeopardized the contract I jeopardized the police vehicles I jeopardized the motorcycles and shame on us for not giving this board an opportunity to say yes or no because you're telling me today that if I say no I'm jeopardizing the safety and the maintenance of vehicles so aren't you tell me that I know he did that if I don't do it today I have an issue so you're not giving me an issue to vote Yes or No you're telling me if I vote no I'm creating a problem for our community if I vote vote Yes then we're okay so you're not giving me so I'm not sure why we even bring it for a vote because we don't have a choice because then we jeopardize as representative redunda said it would be very irresponsible the body to vote no again I don't have an opportunity to vote Yes either I mean I I just want to make sure that moving items forward this board has an opportunity to make a decision and if them say no for whatever reason may be and it's got nothing to do with this item again whatever reason it may be that we go back and look at what opportunities we have and don't you agree Mr Gonzalez yes sir and that's the reason back in March of 2020 I know I explained to council that things you normally used to get in 24 in 24 hours would take 24 days because covet was going to have a health impact a financial impact and then an operational impact and unfortunately we're still working through the operational impacts I totally get your questions and that's the reason as I said we've moved the times that people departments rather bid the item and move that back I'll further instruct that they got that gets moved even further again this process was the same process utilized in other ones that we've that we've had issues with in terms of people bidding but yes sir I totally get what you're saying and we'll we'll make those adjustments to to give people even more time and by people I mean the Departments and then also those that are bidding and again we did move it back already we'll move it back even more in order to make sure that there's optimal time and again there was time here but again the bidding process and people you know that having been done three times that's what uh caused the process to take place the way it did this go around just like it did with the weed situation yeah sure and and again I just want to make sure this Council the elected officials that were elected by the public have an opportunity to vote on an item and not been told that if they vote a certain way they've irresponsible elected officials and they're going to create an issue that's that's a bad deal right and the team was just simply responding to the question no y'all I know I get it no I get it but I've just got it going on the answer yes sir represent molinar thank you very much mirror and so um on slide eight I understand completely what you talked about thank you very much Miss Cody on everything you've done so far for us all as always the post-covet economic uncertainty the supply chain issues the inflationary pressures and things like that and so going now to a slide 10 anyways those items they impact not only city the city managers that the health-wise the operationalized financial you go to any restaurant now pretty much prices of food or it's gone up you go to you know like you said go the gas pump fuel costs more it's across the Spectrum about all this and so this is the reality that we're living in and I don't want to say it's post covet but in a world of vestiges of covid and I get that and I understand that completely but in slide 10 you talk about the police motorcycle parts services and maintenance so if this item does not pass today and let's just say a motorcycle and you're probably not the right person to ask but let's just say a motorcycle was down for tires okay or the gentleman is standing up so anyways so we technically the police department could take that vehicle motorcycle to a dealer or the vendor and get that part or that motorcycle serviced but at a higher cost would that be correct to say could be at a not only a higher cost but remember that we have limits based on the commodity type so we would need to be able to um ensure that maybe that's an isolated situation but then what happens with the next motorcycle yes and then after that it's a repeating pattern yes sir the service that is necessary to be able to and so and I understand it's not just a car part of the vehicle parts but it's also the labor involved yes because you're going to have to spend more time it's going to be more an increased downtime for that vehicle and now I'm talking about a fleet not necessarily the motorcycles and the gentleman mentioned a certain number so the same thing you're going to have a Down vehicle that is not being able to move it's not being able to operate it's not being able to be on patrol it's not being able to do anything and going back to the motorcycles you know the police department they do need them these motorcycles for they're not necessarily Patrol but they're accident investigations their traffic control and different things that we really need those people out in the streets and like representative Hernandez said this becomes a public safety issue for me because those people when they call 9-1-1 or there's an accident they need response times you know it could be a critical information the life and death situation and things like that and as far as the Ford proprietary part assume I have been trying to get Ford products or parts from vehicles and trust me they just look at you and tell you it's not available it's not available you know if you go there and you're willing to pay more money they just tell you no it's not available so once again thank you very much for your presentation we I hope everyone can understand here on the days that we really need to pass this item regardless of everything that has already happened or not happened or how it happened but a possible solution for you ma'am because I noticed you mentioned you had the website you have a training for these the vendors and things like that but is it possible to send out an email to forecast something that's going to come up and then maybe a secondary email to the actual vendors past vendors to say Hey you know someone's inbox that says hey this is the parts general manager or whomever or someone absolutely so we do have that as I mentioned the procurement forecast and so maybe we need to look at kind of pulling it apart and looking at those major categories and giving them a reminder that this is coming up this is what the forecast looks for City contracts for the year and so that way they do have that prior notice and that way it's documented in an email that hey this is why we put it out the date this is the subject matter this is the content of the email things like that so thank you very much I have no further questions thank you and just one thing if it's not available for one dealer from the factory it's not available for any dealer which is unfortunate so it doesn't matter who you have a contract with if it's not available it's not available there was a time before any of you had thought about running for office that uh most of our uh purchases were out of state and we worked very hard small business owners people like me coming in and complaining about sending our tax dollars out of state now we're spending more of our money in El Paso and now all of a sudden nobody wants to bid so where did you all advertise this anything further than just El Paso foreign do I get an answer to that question oh yes ma'am just ask all your questions we'll answer we'll answer your questions we got Miss Cody back there so just let's um go ahead and finish your three minutes Ms Turner and then she can sit with you and answer some of the questions for you yes is all that effort we put in to start buying from El Paso providers and then all of a sudden uh no one wants to bid makes all that work we did useless and I do have to say this it wasn't really coveted it's that in 19 in the 70s business went to the just-in-time inventory system which set us up for you get a major disruption everything falls apart and that's what has happened everything has fallen apart because we had a just-in-time inventory system we didn't have anything stocked in a warehouse where we could go get it simply because it raised our costs so we tried to do things onto cheap and now if we find out what happens when we do things on the cheap and I am very interested if we actually went out further than just El Paso nationally I'm quite sure somebody would love to have this business thank you thank you Miss Turner Miss Prine yes mayor that concludes public comment on these items item 29 there was a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Hernandez to approve item 29. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Salcido not present for item number 41 there was a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Molina per item to approve item number 41. on that motion call for the vote oh there it is in the Boating session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to page number nine to item number 31 item 31 is discussion and action to approve a resolution to create the appropriate City policy which honors and protects the right of pregnant people this item was placed by Representatives anello Canales and Rivera mayor can we take public home item first okay we do have 50 people that signed up to speak on this item first person is Jesus Reyes followed by Wesley Lawrence and it is careno Caleb Harrelson Jesus Reyes Wesley Lawrence followed by Andy tiscareno Caleb Harrelson Daniel Flores good morning Mr Lawrence you have three minutes uh good morning Council good morning I stand today to ask you to support item number 31. it's an issue that as someone who is unapologetically pro-choice and someone who stands firmly with the lgbtqia plus community that I think we pass we had the opportunity back in July to be one of the first cities to stand firmly with reproductive freedom and freedom in the state of Texas after the tragedy that was the reversal of the Dobbs decision um let me be clear that our police force City funds and other avenues should not be used to create vigilante tasks Force to attack people that are seeking or having abortions in the state of Texas right now as as we sit and breathe with the reversal of the the Dobbs decision women both cisgender and transgender are having to flee Texas to seek gender affirming care and to seek abortion access not only is that an American it's untexten and it's deeply against freedom we we have a duty to ensure that people in our community feel safe regardless if you agree um with abortion or not Public Safety is something we should hand uh be holding safely and firmly um I I commend representative nello and representative sriveda and kanalis for putting this item back on the agenda and I only ask that those who voted no on this item last time representative molinar representative Salcido um put your religious aspects in the past pass this item today and allow for freedom to continue here in El Paso and to allow women that are seeking help the opportunity to do that um lastly I would add this um I look forward to to holding people accountable again if this measure is is voted against it is deeply undemocratic it is deeply against what makes El Paso special and and I hope that today we pass this item thank you thank you very much the next speaker is before um I'm sorry before we um representative Canales which was one of the people that put the item on on the agenda would like to um have the resolution read into the record so as people talk there and they see what the resolution is coming forward is there a resolution represent Canales well yes just the resolution in the backup Miss Prime would you mind reading that into the record for us please yes the resolution rate whereas this El Paso city council honors the right of pregnant persons to bodily autonomy and control over their private medical decisions and whereas access to safe and legal abortion is a major factor in the long-term health safety and quality of life of pregnant people and whereas the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned The Landmark ruling Roe versus Wade which previously prevented individual states from directly Banning such care and whereas on June 16 2021 Texas governor Greg Abbott signed into law HB 1280 which took effect Statewide 30 days after Roe v Wade was overturned and whereas said act criminalizes abortion at the level of a first degree felony carrying a sentence of up to 99 years in prison with no exceptions for rape and insist and whereas people have a basic human right to medical treatment up to and including abortion and whereas eliminating legal access to abortion has been empirically proven to dramatically increase the risk of death bodily injury and infertility while doing little to reduce the incidence of abortion and whereas the resources of the city must always be dedicated to the health and well-being of its residents and whereas in the 1973 Roe v Wade majority opinion Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman stated the right of privacy whether it be founded in the 14th amendment's concept of personal Liberty and restrictions upon State action as we feel it is or as the district court determined in the ninth amendment's reservation of rights to the people is Broad enough to Encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy and whereas a right to privacy should protect doctors patients and all others involved in care from any criminal investigation as long as those decisions occur without coercion force or or negligence and whereas Equitable access to abortion care requires financial and logistical support most often provided by abortion funds and practical support organizations who have been targeted for providing these services and whereas the city has a responsibility to protect its residents from any violation of their human rights and any prosecution for the free exercise thereof now therefore the city council the city of El Paso hereby resolves that the El Paso city council formally condemns any action intended to abrogate the fundamental Liberties of its people and affirms its commitment to protecting people's rights to make reproductive Health decisions for themselves and their families including abortion care be it further resolved it is a policy of the city that accept to the extent otherwise required by state or federal law City resources including for example funds Personnel or Hardware will not be used to number one create any record of any information related to an individual seeking abortion miscarriage or any other event that could be could be prosecuted as a violation of state law criminalizing or creating civil liberty civil liability for pregnancy outcomes sub bullet 2 provide information to any other governmental body or agency about pregnancy outcomes unless such information is provided to defend the patient's right to reproductive care including abortion care or the health care provider's right to provide such care and so bullet 3 conducts surveillance or any use or any electronic surveillance device Hardware or software that is capable of collecting capturing recording retaining processing intercepting analyzing monitoring or sharing audio visual digital location thermal biometric Behavioral or similar information or communication specifically associated with are capable of being associated with any specific individual or group or any system device or vehicle that is equipped with an electronic surveillance device Hardware or software for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred except for the collection of aggregated data without personal identifying information or personal health information for purposes unrelated to criminal investigation enforcement or prosecution it is the intention of the city of El Paso that this policy does not apply in cases of conduct that is criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care or coercion or forces used against the pregnant person be it further resolved it is the further policy of the city that investigation of or support for the prosecution of any allegation charge or information relating to a pregnancy outcome or any party there too will be the lowest priority for enforcement and for the use of or assignment of resources and Personnel accepting cases of conduct that is criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person or where the pregnancy outcome is not the crime being investigated but evidence of another crime such as sexual assault be it further resolved that the city manager is directed and permitted to take appropriate steps to implement this resolution and to provide an oral presentation and written report to Council on the implementation of this resolution including changes to policy and procedures by March 27 2023 and to provide a written report to Council on the implementation of this resolution by May 23 2023 the city manager returned to the council for authorization of any needed policy clarifications or changes in the event of future changes to federal law state law or technology that affects this resolution thank you Mr praying yes sir we'll continue with call to the public Mr public comment I'm sorry the next speaker is Andy piscareno followed by Caleb Harrelson Daniel Flores Ray Baca Rebecca Vasca Vasquez good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning um my name is Andy tiscareno I share her pronouns and I identify as a transgender woman I um Texas has been a very politically hostile State toward uh people like me uh putting their authority over people's bodily autonomy now I bring this up because when Governor Abbott and attorney general Ken Paxton advised for family Protective Services to investigate families of transgender youth for child abuse uh El Paso stood against it El Paso leadership stated that they would not frivolously investigate families of transgender youth for abuse because we knew it was wrong for our government to abuse their power in such a way do the same here this isn't about whether you think abortion is right or wrong it's about protecting your citizens Austin passed the grace act which stands for guarding and the right to abortion care for everyone which is very similar to this item they did it so let's do it too there are people here who say they would never get an abortion and I hope you never have to but Abbott said no excuses and that stands for victims of sexual assault and incest who end up pregnant as a result there are there are children whose childhood had been have been ripped away from them and they're expected to be responsible for the pregnancy that was forced on them that's that's disgusting they shouldn't have to be responsible for what happened to them people are dying because of this people who need medical abortion because they already lost their baby through a miscarriage they're still at risk of being investigated that that in itself is inhumane doctors are still hesitating about helping people whose pregnancies have turned for the worst because most processes are defined as an abortion causing those people to run the risk of deadly infections medical complications and irreparable Trauma if you really stand against abortion fight for things that help people who are struggling create programs that help those who are struggling that actually help them so that abortion isn't the only realistic option the one Speaking against this item could do so many better things with their time other than terrorizing clients outside of clinics advocate for change in health care advocate for better birth control stop limiting adoption access and invest in Youth Services Family Services why don't we actually fight against things that make abortion the only option and maybe stay out of people's medical business let's be honest here we have more important things to worry about pass this item thank you thank you the next speaker is Caleb Harrelson followed by Daniel Flores Rebecca Vazquez Martha Rico Ashland Myers good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor good morning thank you for your time this morning in the 18th century slavery abolitionists made a medallion that said am I not a man and a brother this is the same issue today in regard to our unborn neighbor we are talking about the intentional not miscarriage the intentional taking of an innocent human life in the womb and calling defending this life of frivolous activity thus I move that the resolution for item 31 be rejected and replaced with another one because this resolution does not affirm the personhood of all El Paso residents and two it condemns True Justice for All unborn humans first let's define our terms Justice impartially rendering to All Humans their unalienable rights that are endowed by their creator to protect to to defend or Guard from an attack frivolous of little or no weight Worth or importance human person those specially created in the image of God as male or female with the soul and body who have inherent dignity value and worth regardless of class ethnicity status circumstance in which they are conceived or degree of dependency or location life according to Dr Jaime Gordon from the Mayo clinics his life is present from the moment of conception observation one this resolution does not affirm the personhood of all El Paso residents evidence one this entire Revolution a resolution equivocates on true health care and calls abortion a right and in the sixth whereas it says that people have a basic human right to medical treatment then it refutes Itself by implying that abortion the intentional taking of an innocent life is included with that care question what is not included in this statement and thus implied there are unborn neighbor does not have this right to life and must not truly be a person it's wrong to intentionally kill innocent humans abortion intensely takes the life of innocent humans therefore abortion is not Health Care is our unborn neighbor not a human and our brother and sister observation 2 this resolution condemns True Justice for unborn neighbors evidence one the 14th Amendment states no State Should deprive any person of life nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws if someone intentionally murders a two-year-old shouldn't that person be held liable under the law would it be just or equal treatment under the law to make this case low priority why shouldn't pre-born humans have the same protection under the law that a born human born two-year-old should have this is partiality this is not Justice I move that this resolution for item 31 be rejected because it does not affirm the personhood of all El Paso residents and two it condemns True Justice for unborn humans and be replaced with the resolution of equal protection under the law for all humans born and unborn thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Daniel Flores Daniel Flores Stars sixth place to a major telephone good morning you'll have three minutes yes yes good morning mayor and good morning City Council Members my name is Daniel Flores and I am the President of the binational pro family league I want to thank you for the opportunity to address our concerns it starts getting very suspicious that this item was allocated in the agenda again even though it was already rejected by this governmental body not allowing the right of free investigation to the police department on any matters specifically this topic of abortion will not protect the rights of pregnant women is the other way around this will benefit mafias and criminal networks of human trafficking this also will protect abusers that compel females to undergo an abortion against her will some investigations of women women abuse violence and sexual assaults are correlated to abortions this is supported by the national Center for biotechnology information under research document 26710370 which is named the relationship of abortion and violence against women violence prevention strategies and research needs and the states whereas abortion is a form of violence and has occurred by government policy in China and as a result of violence against women sex trafficking and War situation yes these research paper mentions China as an example but we don't want this research paper to say to say China or a passive right please remember the state will not prosecute women that have had an abortion please vote against item 31 because this only creates an adverse environment of protecting the criminals and not the most vulnerable people also please don't bring back this item again thank you very much for your time have a good day thank you the next speaker is Rebecca Vazquez Rebecca Vazquez followed by Martha Rico Ashland Myers ivy magana good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning today to speak up against this item first off this agenda is out of line coming from City Council Members stick to fixing our roads secondly this agenda item is to honor the right to pregnant persons but if I recall correctly this item was presented by the same two council members on July 5th of last year in the name of protecting women's Reproductive Rights and last I checked only women can get pregnant thirdly to further expose how idiotic this agenda was presented as in the agenda summary form you all put in a quote stated from the Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman which stated that the right of privacy founded in the 14th Amendment and the reservation of rights to the people in the ninth amendment is Broad enough to Encompass a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy it does not fight for the right of abortion to pregnant persons and if you want to argue with me that times have changed that I am stupid to believe or think that there are only two genders then in that case accept the reality that abortion is illegal here in Texas times have definitely changed since 1973 we will continue to speak up for our most vulnerable until abortion becomes Unthinkable until abortion clinics become our today's Holocaust museums remembering the 65 million lives lost and until those who were for abortion become today's modern day Nazis thank you for your time thank you thank you the next speaker is Martha Rico Martha Rico followed by Ashlyn Myers IB magana good morning you have three minutes good morning um good morning um may your Oscar and also the city council thank you so much for allowing me to speak today and I'm here to speak against uh 31. you know yesterday when I saw a sanctuary of abortion I really stopped and and was thinking about sanctuary a sanctuary is a place of refugee a sanctuary is a place of safety not a place of death so can we just stop and think for a moment where our city is headed to where are our values where our values as human beings abortion abortion destroys not only a child process it without just go ahead sorry sorry about that so abortion destroys not only a child growing in the mommy's womb but it also destroys a smart as mother itself me as I'm standing here I am a pure counselor and I have face this women that have had abortions and facing them and seeing what what abortion has done to them it's it's fatal um having thoughts of suicidal thoughts seeing the hurt seeing the Brokenness so as I stand here today as a Hispanic most of us are Hispanic so if we look back is this the culture that we want to bring to El Paso a culture of death or a culture of life thank you for your time this morning thank you the next speaker is Ashlyn Myers good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning I know the type of world that I'd like to build I think it's a world that we all hope to build and see together I think that we all want to see children loved and mothers and women who are happy and can achieve their goals I feel like I've seen a lot I'm an only 22 yet I've encountered and talked to hundreds of women before they received their abortions every woman has a different story some women experience great tragedy in situations that are seemingly hopeless while other women are fine and just don't want the child or feel like it's not the right time while there are many factors that cause a woman to choose abortion I realize that what is going on in the heart of every woman is very similar women are hesitant and have to convince themselves thoroughly that they're doing the right thing the women and doctors in this situation see abortion as the necessary evil something that no one wants to do but they feel has to be done while all the diverse situations may make a nurse or doctor or woman feel like this is a necessary evil this is untrue children are necessary good for this world children are the strength of our people I'm not a parent but the testimonies that I hear are that if we choose to love our children with Open Hearts we become better people and I have good news for so long our country has believed that Women's Health Care is solely abortion and contraception and there is an alternative Women's Healthcare in El Paso does not look like abortion and contraception I work at gunning star Southwest which is a medical facility serving pregnant women and it's helped me to realize that healthcare does not have to look like sadness hopelessness and hesitancy like it does at abortion facilities while the resolution that I'm speaking against is supposedly the opinion of the people of El Paso I am not someone who supports this resolution and the following is why I strongly urge others to also not support it this resolution is problematic and that it makes the point to still consider a Supreme Court case that is no longer relevant Roe v Wade which was found unconstitutional in the 2022 ruling of Jackson versus Dobbs for these three reasons because the Constitution does not explicitly consider abortion a right one two the Supreme Court has historically only upheld explicit rights stated in the Constitution three the Supreme Court ruling of Roe versus Wade aired in the quality of Reason reasoning workability and its effect on other areas of law to distort interpretations of unrelated legal doctrines also this resolution implies that any woman seeking an abortion can be criminalized under house bill 1280 which is blatantly untrue no woman in the state of Texas can be criminalized for seeking or receiving an abortion only her abortion doctor in the state of Texas can be criminalized for giving her the abortion since abortion is outlawed under this bill the human life protection act of 2021 or house bill 1280. and so I strongly urge all who will be voting against this resolution as they outload as the outlawed goals of this or to set the standard for safety and secure a secure a safe City and promote Health thank you thank you Miss Meyer thank you guys the next speaker is Ivy magana followed by juding Burkhart Sophia Meyer Mark Cavalier ivy magana judine Burkhart Sophia Evan Meyer Mark Kevin I think she's coming up yes ma'am followed by Mark Cavalier Michael labodaka good morning you have three minutes my name is Sophia and I'd like to say that I'm in favor of item 31. taxpayer dollars should not be wasted on the harassment of pregnant people in El Paso getting an abortion is already a difficult enough process for all parties involved and the last thing abortion Seekers need is their privacy and autonomy violated please allow pregnant people to make their own decisions regarding their health and well-being there is nothing pro-life about endangering the lives of those having to live in a marginalized Community who are seeking a medical procedure uh people will get abortions whether or not you like it that's just a fact people have been getting abortion since the dawn of time and they're going to for the rest of our time so allow them to do it safely instead of needlessly risking their lives thank you thank you the next speaker is Mark Cavalier followed by Michael labodaka good morning you have three minutes thank you Mr Mayor and esteemed members of the council good morning on behalf of the Southwest Coalition for life um we have a petition that was started in the last 20 hours that's collected over 600 signatures 68 of which are women opposing and asking you to stand against item 31 on the agenda and to either table this or vote against it as it's outside the purview of the council reading the resolution makes it clear that the goal is to protect abortion providers in violation of Texas state law all the arguments that are presented in this item that is to protect women are based on a lot of false political misinformation that as stated earlier the Texas Human Life protection act only criminalizes abortion providers not women for seeking nor even obtaining abortion whether in state or even if obtained illegally in the state of Texas it's actually the political misinformation exactly like this item and even false Notions like the idea of women being investigated for natural miscarriage which my wife and I have suffered that is what's causing the fear and confusion that's leading women not to seek legal and medical support you know it's not Texas state law these actions also expose the city to liability from failure to investigate it's asking police to violate their oath the Dallas police chief Eddie Garcia recently told the Dallas City Council that a similar resolution required police to violate their officer's oath furthermore over 1 000 medical doctors have signed the Dublin declaration affirming that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a woman and that the prohibition of abortion does not in any way affect the availability of Optimal Care to pregnant women because there is a fundamental difference between an elective abortion in the necessary Medical Treatments that are carried out to care for pregnant women which Texas law takes into account if the city intends to support pregnant women's equality rights and opportunities we agree that we should be focusing on removing the expectation that has been burdening women for the past 50 years under Roe versus Wade that they have to alter suppress and destroy the normal healthy functions of our Natural Body in order to conform to a male based definition of success instead we need to shift that expectation to the employers and universities in our city to be the ones to conform to actually support rather than destroy a normal healthy function of a woman's natural body please know we will be contacting the Texas Attorney General now I've already started doing so to vocalize Our concern over this abuse of power occurring in El Paso also Bishop Mark Seitz of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso was unable to be here considering the short notice of this item but he did ask me to extend uh that to let you know that he is praying that you will not support those who make a living quote killing onboard children and calling it Healthcare finally I find it interesting that this resolution quotes the the repealed Antiquated 1973 Road decision but not the 2022 Dobbs decision which has been updated based on Modern scientific legal and medical ethics stating that Roe was quote egregiously wrong from the start stating which stated that the word person does not include born this is no different than this body quoting the Dred Scott versus Stanford case it states that quote the Negro Is Not a Human Being please vote against item 31 thank you our next speaker is Michael Apodaca followed by Jessica sifuentes Melissa Bailey Ricardo cincuentes good morning you have three minutes good morning Mr chairman thank you uh mayor and Council thank you for bringing forth this issue again my name is Michael blocker and I'm the chair of the El Paso County Democratic party and we are speaking in favor of this item as you know the state of Texas essentially has made a woman's Choice illegal in our state but the legislature created a great boundary on how far our law enforcement can be used to survey women who choose to seek an abortion and as this new legislative session starts there will be numerous bills titles that will potentially create a way where those seeking their choice and their potential allies could uh be prosecuted in their law at this point the issue is whether or not Choice should or should not happen it becomes an issue where we feel government overreach on potentially using our police to become surveillance when a person is making the most personal decision in their life outside of our state and we believe this is completely wrong last time we were here six months ago we asked for the same resolution to be passed by Council while there were votes against it for their personal beliefs and I accept that I disagree with it but I accept it but that's your decision however there's comments that were made that there was not enough time to study this issue and the impact and I hope that these last six months that members have taken the time to consider this issue because within these last six months the cities of Austin Dallas San Antonio the Harris County Commissioner's Court and even the City of Denton Texas have all voted for a similar resolution within that time I will end with this comment our County Attorney Joanne Bernal once talked about saying up to the governor saying up to the governor and the Attorney General about the state's opinion against trans children and their parents she said as a leader you have to stand up to make the decision that is right and not the decision that is easy this is a similar case where we're asking you to stand up against the state of Texas and the wrong decision for women in our states and I hope that Council will vote favorably on this item thank you thank you the next speaker is Jessica cicuentes followed by Melissa Bailey good morning you have three minutes good morning thank you so much good morning opportunity to speak I am definitely against article 31 and uh for many reasons but what I've been able to gather is that the city of El Paso has not been successful in their suit against the governor's Bill Banning Sanctuary cities that are in violation of state law this notion that El Paso will be a sanctuary for abortion is another attempt to violate legislation and it will not stand by pursuing this action the city of El Paso will be trying we'll be tying up precious resources in legislation process when the state enforces the heartbeat bill these same funds can be used to support women and families in need these same needs that led these families to desire to terminate their pregnancies such as homelessness drug addiction mental health issues lack of child care and lack of quality Women's Health Care Services so which is at El Paso do you believe that everyone has the right to pursue their lives you said that they did when you fought for this city to be to be a sanctuary City for immigration do you value life so little that it is easier for you all to support killing babies whose mothers are struggling rather than help them solve the issues that are causing them to feel so much distress we are ranked the lowest in the state for access to Mental Health Providers at one for every 930 residents and declining our schools are so grossly underfunded and the child care cost burden is at 24 percent of household income for a family with two children there are only four child care centers for every one thousand children in need of care for in this country and 15 percent of our residents in this country do not have a reliable source of food so even pro-abortion group gun match gut matcher in 2015 wrote that women believe that they need an abortion because of their circumstances such as lack of housing fear of losing their jobs lack of child care or ability to afford it support and completion of their education the need for drug addiction counseling or mental health supports so why not make the sanctuary city known for helping women and families to pursue their living regardless to pursue their lives regardless of whether they are pregnant or not then we will not be known for a city of death but rather a city that supports live hoods and ultimately life guiding star here in El Paso provides these services and connects women to resources that help them address these needs your proposal simply tells women come here and we will help you kill your babies so that you don't have to worry how a child will impact those needs their problems of lack of housing mental health issues drug addiction and food insecurity have not been addressed you simply help them end an innocent life I'm asking that you please reject this article and really think of the lives of the innocent children that are asking for you to vote in their favor thank you so much for your time thank you next speaker Melissa Bailey Melissa Bailey submitted a statement and it reads city council mayor Lisa why do we find ourselves here again do you figure you can change things because you have new members who will fall in line well Veronica Escobar has made it clear that unborn children don't matter and that the County Judge along with his ungodly court but let me remind you merely so that it was God who gave you a miracle by giving you a healthy child how do you thank him by allowing this to come to issue again let me remind you the city manager and city council while you can lie to El Paso citizens lie to Media act like you're doing great things by pushing agenda 31 the open border raising taxes God knows you your heart the truth whether you believe in him or not he will be your final judge you are showing hate for him by condoning murdering innocent lives the Bible is clear due to due to term Deuteronomy 5 9 I the Lord thy God and jealous God visiting the inquity of the fathers upon the children on to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me when you kill a life God created you showing hate for him Psalm 139 13 ESV for you for my inward Parts you knitted me together my mother's womb Jeremiah 1 5 ESV before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you I appointed you a prophet to the Nations Proverbs 6 16-19 ESV there are six things that the Lord hates seven that are in Abomination to him haughty eyes a lying tongue and hands that should innocent blood a heart that devises Wicked plants feels that make haste to run to evil a false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows Discord among Brothers will your legacy be your sins that you bestowed upon your future generations of your tree is the gratification of this world more important in your eternal life maybe you hope you'll have time to confess and make you men before you die and after you have gotten what you wanted in life unfortunately it's not how it works you could die anytime hit by a car heart attack in your sleep you may not be able to confess or right your wrongs but the generation will surely pay for them so as I am an El Paso citizen against 31 we need to preserve life we need resources and better care for women I pray you all will not allow this to happen Melissa Bailey the next speaker is Ricardo sifuentes Ricardo cincuentes if you're in the Q star six Ricardo sifuentes star six to unmute your telephone I don't see the phone number in the queue Blanca sabusa followed by Alberto Hernandez J.C Carpenter Jose Miguel Reyes Valerie Bowers good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor and city council I appreciate you all and those that just recently took off his congratulations I identify as a woman just for those that needed to hear it I am Latina and I am against item 31 because I am a firm believer of how dignity always wins I find myself having what most would call Deja Vu except I did actually endure another meeting like this prior to today I recall on July 5th we discussed this same item except the wording is slightly different the wording though different is just a demonstration of another way that women continue to be stripped of the dignity that makes them well women this method of deception that pro-abortion people use is nothing new to me and the supporters of the pro-life movement we know the truth enough is enough you cannot turn a blind eye to the truth that all people do not have the biological ability to carry a child only women do that's the truth it is quite frankly one of the many things one of the many things that brings women dignity you also cannot make policemen and women make investigations a low priority and still try to achieve your strategic goal number two to set that standard for a safe and secure City because abortion is not safe in fact all abortions are intended to kill and there is no dignity in that your strategic goal number eight is to nurture and promote a healthy sustainable Community you cannot nurture and promote a healthy sustainable Community when our society and El Paso Community is protecting or making it a low priority of these abortionists that kill the generations and generations of children speak truth the goal of this item is only to protect abortion providers in violation of Texas state law there is no dignity in that we are here again to discuss this item and to deliver truth and no matter how long these meetings get to be we will always be here reminding you all of the Dignity of the voiceless vote against this item the next speaker is Alberto Hernandez Alberto Hernandez if you're in the Q star sixth Alberto Hernandez star six to unmute your telephone I don't see that phone number in the queue the next speaker is JC Carpenter followed by Jose Miguel Reyes and Valerie Bowers good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning council members can you hear me okay so I am uh JC and I'm here in staunch opposition to this bill and would urge you to definitely vote against it I'm here as a woman who has been wounded injured um almost killed by abortion at 18 years old not long after I had graduated high school with a 3.86 GPA supporting myself I found myself pregnant I know that uh had abortion been illegal at that time that my law-abiding grandmother the person that I trusted most in the world and called when I found myself pregnant would not have suggested that I kill my child when my grandmother suggested that I end the life of my child the man that that I was pregnant by whether he was trying to support me or just get out of his responsibilities as being the father of my child said whatever you want to do what I heard was I don't care what I heard was you're not worth fighting for and my child is not worth fighting for that choice sent me into a prison of my own mind that lasted for over 25 years and not only did I attempt suicide multiple times in fact teen girls are 10 times more likely to commit suicide after having had an abortion women are six times more likely to commit suicide after having had an abortion but I while I wasn't actively trying to intentionally kill myself I was using drugs and alcohol numbing and ignoring and trying to stuff the emotions that ending the life of my child had caused in fact it wasn't the first time or it wasn't the last time that it happened because my second abortion because I had so many quote reasons if I wouldn't have aborted that second child I would have had to admit that what I had done at that time the first time was wrong and I was incapable or unwilling to do that because I was so busy being stuck in Risky behaviors and drugs and alcohol I know today that the value of humans is just because they're human and the Constitution says that all humans are created equal that we all deserve protection under the law and we have rights endowed by our creator and I would urge you to actually protect the rights of your citizens and the Mockingbird has a 500 fine and six months imprisonment for just you reached the three minutes thank you the next speaker is Jose Miguel Reyes followed by Valerie powers [Applause] Jose Miguel Reyes Valerie Bowers if you're in the Q star six please to unmute your telephone Valerie Bowers star sixth place hello this is Valerie Bowers good morning you have three minutes thank you thank you council members do you know I am fairly disgusted to have to speak again about this matter before you our police chief Greg Allen crowd rest his soul is against breaking state law by looking the other way when babies are murdered yet less than a week after his burial here we are absolutely shameful Representatives another Canales and Rivera why are you so obsessed with linking El Paso with the unlawful killing of the smallest Among Us I know you struck the language from this agenda just now regarding items one through three however I would like to visit item line item number two that City funds shall not be used to solicit catalog report or investigate reports of abortion this is ridiculous because you definitely are willing to waste our City's funds by being putting us in a position to be sued by the state for breaking state law which we will surely be doing and which I and many others will tirelessly report you for doing let's talk about the rights of those who are pregnant and have made their voices heard about this issue you know this ideology is not overwhelmingly supported by El pasoans who do not value this false right to kill you know I don't often feel ashamed of my city but you make me feel ashamed right now we may be the underdog of the state's big cities but we have heart we have Corazon your heartless insistence on trying to wear us down to sneak these things onto our agendas to force things upon us that you know are not popular with your citizens are the opposite of our values furthermore how dare you use Turtles like Sanctuary the meaning of the word Sanctuary is Holy place a place of Refuge a place of protection not a place where babies should be trapped to be butchered how dare you twist words in such a manner representatives anello and Rivera I know this is your prep project and um and that Mr Rivera's wife Dora former chair of the democratic party is also very involved in these idea ideas you do not get to speak for the rest of us Mr Nella you're not from here you're from Boston and you come here thinking you're going to teach all us Mexicans how to think like you because you're so much more educated and from the East Coast we're getting ready please refrain from personal attacks okay right their personal attacks are not allowed especially on someone's spouse Miss Bowers please refrain from personal attack the truth is too easy to see all the arguments have have been revealed babies are Alive babies feel pain it is barbaric to kill them and we all know it the only argument that is left is the people argument that one should have the right to kill for convenience which is just to avoid possible discomfort but we need to realize it will become another group Next that is inconvenient thank you to reached the three minutes the next speaker is Alexis Acevedo Alexis Acevedo star six to unmute your telephone and we've before and I know you mentioned this uh Miss Prine but please uh stay respectful and I know there's uh separate viewpoints and we um we welcome everyone's Viewpoint and we respect your your opinion and um I thank you every one of you all for being here and I thank everyone for for taking your time to talk to council but please no personal attacks thank you for the reminder mayor I don't see Alexis Acevedo in the queue the next speaker is Carol Cassidy Carol Cassidy if you're in the Q star six to one major telephone I don't see Carol Cassidy's phone number in the queue Veronica Esparza star sixth place to a major telephone Veronica sparza star sixth place good morning you have three minutes hello good morning you have three minutes I'm not sure if I'm unmuted or not you are mad go ahead you have three minutes okay good morning I'm calling to oppose item 31. and I will begin with the facts the opposite of Up Is Down the opposite of black is white the opposite of the opposite of a man is a woman the opposite of life is death here are some more effects the definition of reproduction is the act or process of reproducing specifically the process by which plants and animals give right to Upstream and which fundamentally consists of a segregation of a portion of the parental Body by asexual or an asexual process and it is subsequent growth and differentiation into a new individual but the definition of abortion is this the termination of a pregnancy after accompanied by resulting in or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus such as a spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus the lie or the false claim that plants Parenthood is providing reproduction Services must be addressed after all the word transparency transparency transparency was at the beginning of these talks abortions are the complete opposite of reproduction because abortions kill baby life you can continue to lie to yourself and call an abortion health care but the truth is that killing a person even a baby person is not caring for the baby's health you can continue to lie to yourself and call abortion pro-choice but the fact is that abortion is pro-death here's the number one fact about abortion children in the womb are Unique Individuals but the transference fact is that instead of a child growing and developing in what should be a safe safe the billion dollar money making abortion industry enriches Itself by sucking babies out of the wombs with vacuums or expelling babies into toilets and homes and dormitory bathrooms or brutally tearing apart perfectly formed babies with forceps or poisoning babies with deadly shock to their Beating Heart or morbidly leading babies delivered alive to die alone and gasping for air the opposite of following the Texas state law is violating it or breaking the law which is what I pray thank you you've reached the three minutes thank you the next speaker is Edward Garcia followed by Yvonne Diaz Michael Gutierrez Allison Rivera Edward Garcia good morning you have three minutes good morning city councilman orders good morning mayor um just wanted to thank you for stepping up and representing I know their difficult positions but who's going to do it The Bold and The Brave I know you go through a lot so going over um what's proposed going straight to City funds shall not be used to solicit catalog report or investigate reports of abortion um or unless we are finding that selective abortion is doing more harm to women than good I mean who's doing the studies as a counselor I get to hear it all I get to see it all we're there for pregnancies we're there for post-abortion we love them all we're not here to judge um but we see the effects of it period we do miscarriage programs the effects to women for miscarriages natural miscarriages it's it's brutal it's a lot and nobody's talking about it so the verbiage in the language what we're really representing for our city everybody's going to run with it and we need to be selective in how we're wording things because our children are listening and saying it's a free pass to use abortion as birth control number three police shall make investigating abortions their lowest priority why don't we make parking tickets our lowest priority why do we make jaywalking our lowest priority why abortion it's dealing with mental Health PTSD loss grief why should it be our lowest um priority wording investigating abortions as lowest priority continues to send a message to our daughters and our sons that abortion is acceptable and has no consequences pregnancies can continue being an inconvenience a problem it encourages people not to worry or be responsible with sex but instead irresponsible number three can be rewarded police shall make investigating abortions necessary when a law is being broken as any other laws are broken not categorizing them why because our tax dollars are used to uphold the law any law an abortion law that is broken can suddenly become a priority depending on the severity of the offense wording shall not limit law enforcement to go against their own judgments when any law is being violated El Paso should be the example and send a better message so I'm against item 31 just because that's my world I understand it and if you study it a little more I think your wording would change too to support both sides in preventing abortion from happening to begin with thank you the next speaker is Ivan Diaz followed by Michael Gutierrez Allison Rivera Veronica Carvajal Tomas Calderon Aurelio Valdez good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning my name is Yvonne Diaz I'm a regional organizer with Texas rice in Adel Paso and last year I was here when this item was introduced and I shared my story with you I said that it was the story of a friend when in reality it was my story I didn't want to talk about this because uh this area is mine because of the stigma and condemnation of the people including the testimonies you've been hearing today saying I need therapy without them knowing me and even if I needed therapy he will be from here in the hate words so after sharing my story last year I went on to organize my community I demanded a former district attorney to meet with me we had a sitting in outside her office because she wouldn't meet with us when I finally was able to meet with her I was searched I was ordered to take up my shoes I was placed in a room full of attorneys and I was intimidated and no one has to go through this no citizen no person nobody has to go through something that I went like for like something I went through and that's today is just simple separately religious beliefs from the state duties to protect lives of everyone including mine including those who have abortions and might die in the quest of unsafe alternatives please don't fail to protect the health of pregnant people once again the Goodwill of medical providers and the people that they need city funding for better use thank you thank you my next speaker is Michael Gutierrez Michael Gutierrez submitted a statement for representative anello hello Council my name is Michael a Gutierrez a constituent of District 2. unfortunately I was unable to attend in person with my colleagues as I am a full-time student at UTEP but despite my absence I am writing to voice my support for agenda item 31 item 31 is a policy measure that not only protects pregnant people within our community but shows them that we support their right to choose what they do with their own body there's a significant support to discriminalize abortion and to utilize those tax dollars for people in need in our community not for harassing people in need of reproductive Health Care access this item presented today before council is well within the city's legal right other cities within the state have passed a similar policy the grace act which was passed by representatives in Austin is a prime example Council It's Time We join our colleagues from across the state it is your responsibility to protect all people of our community and to ensure that people can people who can become pregnant can make their own health care decisions without the fear of legal repercussions it is time to support people who who can become pregnant period La Fontana needs you the state continues to fail communities like our own what choice will you make counsel thank you the next speaker Alison Rivera submitted a statement for representative Eden on this thank you um it reads good evening I'm writing this email to indicate that I would like to provide written comment on item 31 additionally I request that City representative Hernandez read the following into the public record during the January 31st city council meeting for comment on item 31. I'm asking you I'm asking for you to make abortion your lowest priority and to not criminalize it in El Paso County assigned by Allison Rivera thank you the next statement was submitted by Veronica Carvajal for representative anello my name is Veronica Cabot I live in District 2. thank you Representatives another Rivera and Canales for introducing this important item I hope the rest of council votes in favor of these measures abortion is Health Care Fair criminalization leads to women and people who are pregnant and not just not to seek and not to receive timely medical care when they need or want an abortion this is particularly important for pregnant people in our community who are undocumented please focus our law enforcement resources on things that will actually make our community safer thank you Veronica kamaha thank you the next speaker is Thomas Calderon Thomas Calderon star 621 major telephone I don't see the phone number in the queue next speaker is Aurelio Valdez Aurelio Valdez Joe pokman Joe Parchman star sixth place twin major telephone Joe Parchman good morning you have three minutes Joe Parchman you have three minutes yes thank you Mr Mayor members of the council my name is Dr Joe pointman I'm the executive director of Texas alliance for life I wish to speak against agenda item 31. we urge you to oppose it as you know in 2021 the legislature passed the human life protection act to completely protect unborn babies from The Dredge of abortion under no circumstances can a woman on whom an abortion has performed be held criminally or simply liable under that law or any other law in Texas it is our understanding both licensed divorcement providers in El Paso have ceased performing abortions indefinitely that is the new reality the only abortion providers going forward will be those who perform or assist in illegal back alley abortions or traffic abortion inducing drugs intended for desperate self-induced abortions these chemical abortions when unsupervised by physicians carry great risks to the health fertility and the very lives of women risk of infection from incomplete abortion when the body of The Unborn Child and placenta are not expelled leading to life-threatening sepsis in the woman's body risk of future infertility if unborn babies Rh factor is different from the mothers possibly leading to an immunity response from the mother's body against future pregnancies that can cause miscarriage risk of the woman's death if her pregnancy is actually an accountant pregnancy which can only be diagnosed by a physician and must be addressed at a hospital to prevent life-threatening hemorrhaging in addition to extreme pain by de-prioritizing and limiting the investigation from those who perform or assist in these illegal back alley abortions this Council through this resolution will place women at a terrible and unnecessary risk to their health their future pregnancies and their very lives and the responsibility for the harm to those women will rest on this Council rather we urge you to this Council to promote compassionate alternatives to abortion helping the women with childbirth keeping their baby replacing their babies for adoption like the ones you have heard about from previous speakers thank you thank you the next speaker is Joe Nava followed by Sylvia Herrera Vanessa Medrano Cami Gonzalez good morning you have three minutes good morning sir good morning thank you mayor and city council um I'm a pastor and as a pastor you tend to look over your flock and as I've been witnessing today there's a variety of age groups here and we can kind of more or less know how this country was was founded and all of us here may have a a god-given image and we were all created in the image of God male and female we have natural laws that can't be changed and it's one of the speakers said time changes which is true but our nature never changes and the natural laws of God don't change we can change the laws we can change immorality into a political rival but you can't do that to God his word stands and because it stands the Bible says in the Book of Daniel that you all were chosen for a time as this to be leaders as almost like God's in the sense of counsel and judges that whatever we do because God gave us a free will that's how much he loves us he didn't give you a free will so so that you can do whatever you want but he wants you to choose to love him but because we don't we still will have to give an account for what we do I was a police chaplain and a County Fire Department chaplain and one of the greatest things that I've seen as a police officer or a fireman when they see a child die and now you're saying we're going to move our laws to ignore what is there then all I can say I gotta give an account because I'm here now I put myself in this situation and I'm asking you God's giving you a conscience but it's up to you what you do with that conscience that's all I can say but I do love you and the Bible says that God gave us Grace in order to find him but that Grace is not given so that you can continue to sin sin is given to where it causes us to repent that means change your mindset Look to Him God hates death but did you know that God is a pro uh Choice a god of choice it's in the Old Testament but he says I am a god of choice and then he says choose life thank you you've reached the three minutes the next speaker is Sylvia Herrera Sylvia Herrera star six please two and move your telephone good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor and city council this morning I'd like to connect and respectfully remind you and encourage you of the duty that you took an oath for to uphold the law your creator the king of kings and Lord of lords the god of Heaven and Earth whom you swore by while taking this oath stated in his word in first Timothy 1 8 through 11. understanding this that the law is not laid down for the just but for the Lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners for the Unholy and profane for those who strike their fathers and mothers for murderers for sexual immoral for men who practice homosexuality for enslavers for liars for perjurers in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the Blessed God rescue those who are being taken away to death hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter if you say behold we did not know this there's not he who weighs the hearts perceive it does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it and will he not repay man according to his work evil men do not understand justice but those who seek the Lord understand it completely if one turns away in his ear from hearing the law even his prayer is an Abomination I stand against this so-called Women's Health Care and planned Parenthood and all they stand for in this resolution let's call it what it really is murder who can we sit here as a community and even consider access to major factor in the long-term health safety and quality of life of pregnant people pregnant people only biological women and Pregnant can become pregnant let's keep our words in terms in line with reality what about the health safety and quality of the life of The Unborn our most vulnerable neighbors whom indeed are living human beings whom they are trying to dehumanize who have their own body and who are blameless why should they suffer the sins of their parents why are we crushing the heads and pulling them limp from limb for simply being a consequence of two adults whom in the majority of abortion cases who did have a choice and yet because of inconvenience and their lack of responsibility they're being slaughtered by the name of Health Care and women's choices how foolish for anyone who has any morals or ethics or a conscience to even entertain the substant Abomination before all I plead with you to repent of this sin of murder and of abating and abetting of this heinous crime for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret but when anything is exposed By the Light it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light therefore it says awako sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is therefore there is forgiveness with thank you for each of three minutes thank you you reached the three-minute limit the next statement was submitted by Vanessa Medrano for district 7 representative Henry Rivera and I'll be reading it on his behalf and it says my name is Vanessa Medrano and I am a voter in District 7. I was raised and confirmed in in the Catholic church and I'm in favor of item 31. I am less active in the Catholic Church currently because of some loud hateful voices that tend to speak over the kind loving teachings of the church the last time City Council Members brought the decriminalization of abortion in El Paso up to discussion a friend of mine made a public comment only to be called a slur by those hateful voices during her time with no repercussions for the individual that interrupted and harmed her I hope the city council can maintain the Quorum as they receive public comments regarding item 31. I hope those that come here in hate can reflect on the teachings of Christianity and how criminalizing someone with few to no other options is hateful the decriminalization of abortion does not mean you agree with abortion decriminalizing it simply means you do not wish for every person regardless of their circumstances to be unjustly punished for a procedure that you do not know the reasoning for City police should not be wasting time or Resources by seeking out punishment for those individuals and their providers El Paso is already facing a doctor shortage and laws like this further discourage providers from coming here and practicing here all we are asking is that a simple procedure is decriminalized to stop scarring people and providers from seeking medical treatment and assistance thank you Vanessa Medrano the next speaker is Cami Gonzalez Cami Gonzalez star six to enrich your microphone please good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning good morning mayor and council members my name is Sammy Gonzalez I am a homemaker mother and member of the bi-national pro-life pro-family lead I'm calling to let you know that I oppose item number 31 on your agenda I beg you to please really listen to the people of El Paso the people who you are supposed to be representing time and time again you have been shown that El Paso is pro-life El Paso is not a city that wants to be known for the killing of innocent babies we are a pro-life and pro-woman City abortion is not health care we don't need or want abortion in El Paso if any woman in El Paso and I assure you it's not the majority wants to get an abortion they can easily drive for 10-15 minutes to the abortion clinic in Santa Teresa again we do not need an abortion clinic in El Paso there's a reason why the ones we had were closed El Paso is a pro-life City we do not want abortion clinics in El Paso I do not understand the obsession of this Council not all of you I do recognize that insisting over and over on the same topic killing of our our innocent babies could you please tell us why the obsession I'm sure there are many interests involved personal and political is that it please tell us I'm asking you please do your job right and not just user positions to do what suits your interests please really represent the citizens of El Paso understand that we are a pro-life City and vote no on item number 31. do not make El Paso a sanctuary for the killing of babies again please do your job and vote no on item 31. thank you and may God bless you in our city the next speaker is Dora Oaxaca followed by Josh Simmons Lisa Turner Susana Acosta Nidia Correa Miguel escoto Carlos montijo Luis Ross Joseph Gallegos good afternoon you'll have three minutes good afternoon for the record my name is Dora Oaxaca a woman and a resident of the city of El Paso and a strong proponent of Health Care I want to thank the three City representatives for sponsoring this item and returning this item on the agenda for consideration this item is a simple and straightforward item to support women's rights and prevent girls young women women of all ages from being targeted and shamed this item ensures all women in El Paso have a safety net it creates a welcoming and safe environment for girls young women women in general I ask you mayor and City representatives to not inject your personal beliefs your personal stories to justify a fall narrative that strips women from their fundamental rights to make their own bodily decisions I commend the newly appointed women's commission members for supporting a women's Reproductive Rights and ask the members of consult to include the request to rep to support Reproductive Rights in the city State Legislative agenda I asked your support for this item and to carry forward in your city legislative agenda also support for women's Reproductive Rights thank you the next speaker is Josh Simmons Josh Simmons star sixth place to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes good late morning mayor city council and distinguished my name is Josh Simmons I am speaking today and comment on item 31 representative myself and myself only with my opinion upon this item I want to throw my support um in favor of this item along with all the other voices that has voice search and their concerns for far too long this society as we know it has a misogynistic and patriarch um uh has been led by the patriarchy and where they have continuously villainized women and their bodies a women's choice to do with their body whether it be in pregnancy or any other decision between should be made between herself and her doctor a qualified certified professional that has the right insight to make those decisions with Consulting with their patients and along with other services to allow these women to uh maintain and Achieve proper mental health as well as physical health must be provided the true issue is not that women should be burdened with um accusations or any of these things revolving around uh the natural function of the body to go through pregnancy but should be redirected at the men we continuously villainize the women but it's also the men's fault children are not conceived in my Immaculate Conception that is impossible is illogical irrational so it takes two to tango and there must be a participating donor of spermin or for a pregnancy to occur so that male me and myself as being a father and understanding the responsibility that it is to care for children to undergo all the experience of being there as beside the partner which is should be the mother of that child it is up to the men to be responsible to take account for their actions and to they themselves be responsible for their own reproductive genitalia if you can't handle it then remove it if you can't if you're not ready then get a vasectomy it is not that hard it is not that expensive quit attacking women but the true issue that exists in this country since its sounding is the mental illness and the delusion of God invoking and the theologists that plague our country with the dissent into almost primitive times we are trying to move into progress between more effective efficient society and those ideals of theology hold us back thank you thank you next speaker is Lisa Turner Lisa Turner followed by Susana Acosta nedia Correa Miguel escoto Carlos montijo Luis Ross good morning you have three minutes mayor council outrise in support of this amendment I've heard people sit here and talk about well only biological women can have babies well what happens if you can't bear a child are you a man I've heard people talk about uh basically trying to cast the spurgeons onto people like me no I cannot give have give give birth and it eats at my soul that I cannot but I can't nourish the child I can and I've kept something secret from you all I'm the descendant of two major religious figures in this country the Reverend John Lothrop and Joseph Smith and I'm a pastor myself we talk about well we talk about you can't kill these people well let me remind you of something Genesis 2 7. you're not human until you take that first breath and you quit being human when you stop breathing this is not about the children this is about power over women if it was about children in this city would not go hungry every night the gentleman back here made reference to the good Bishop he goes to bed with a full stomach there are children in this city who don't these Pro-Lite people talk about this they talk about the bible let me remind you of the seven major religions that are sex within those religions Christianity is one where female genital genital mutilation correct a freight and honor killings are okay those are their religious beliefs now there are some 4 200 known religions in the world if you make considerations for one you have to make considerations for all and that is impossible what we have in the state of Texas is a state forced religion and it's what the far-right Christians believe that's their belief nobody else would consult it so you can't have a state religion that's unconstitutional that's I don't know how many grades back the Reverend Lothrop is but he was teaching something different and the church of England put him in jail kept him in jail with all of his followers and his other pastors and eventually I will let you out of jail but you've got to go to the colonies so they went to the colonies put them on a boat and sent him overseas got him out from under their hair one of the reasons why we have the First Amendment one of the reasons why you have that religious thing is Turner but that is personal belief Turner you've reached the three minutes you can't force it on anything the next speaker is Susana Costa Susana Acosta good morning you have three minutes yes hello good afternoon or almost afternoon um I'm calling because I love my fellow women and their future as well as cute little babies with little tiny toes no hint here okay I was standing there on July 5th and I was five months pregnant back then and now I'm here right now nursing the same little life now three months old outside of the womb and again watching how much you are forcefully pushing for this resolution to pass in El Paso with new council members El Paso is not what you are pushing for we are not Austin Dallas Denton aren't we El Paso strong do you realize that generational hurt and Shadow you want to impose on this city and I use the word impose because the people do not support this abortion hurts a woman's core being and it kills a child period it intentionally relates a tiny innocent life into pieces and the mother will never forget the emotional and psychological pain will remain and yet you want to enshrine abortion here no no you need to represent the people as you were put there to do you should not you should not be activists pushing personal agendas or that a specific organizations I.E Planned Parenthood that they promise you money or status you need to represent the people we all know that El Paso is welcoming in all there's a Spanish saying some take advantage of the people's trust and kindness some of you come from outside the Border area and the people of El Paso welcomed you with Carino and open arms and all you are trying to do here is transform and to figure this family-centered city and one of you has a wife or a person picking up in favor of this item this is a conflict of interest Mr Rivera you should recuse yourself from voting stop playing politics please speak up for The Unborn and for the women who suffer in silence for believing the lie that abortion is liberating and painless it is not and I can't believe I need some insane emphasize that only women those with two copies of the X chromosome can get pregnant if this offends you please retake a biology class there's no such thing as praying at people council members don't allow others there with a louder voice and bullying tactics to coerce you or pressure your vote refers to those you know that voting against this item is the right thing to do so please be on the right side of History thank you have a good day the next speaker is nedia Correa neria Correa star sixth place to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes yes good morning can you hear me yes ma'am good morning oh okay yes good morning mayor and um city council reps thank you for this opportunity to speak um and first of all as stated already this item has already been discussed um last year in July 5th and is completely based on falsehood once again the Texas Human Life protection act only criminalizes abortion providers it does not criminalize women for seeking nor even having abortions even in Texas and other states that have voted abortion to be illegal this is a clear violation of state law and just because other cities in Texas are in violation does not mean El Paso should follow suit second of all all the people speaking in favor of this agenda item speak of Health Care and protecting women but since when is the intentional killing of a human being and yes it is a human being it is now seen other look at your scientific facts it is a human being when does the intentional killing of a human being fall into either of those categories additionally they they also say that that this is a religious decision that everybody speaking here is making a religious decision and yes and although we it can fall into that category we can't be so narrow-minded and again when does murder only fall into that top and I'm sorry into that category it is not just a religious decision it is a religious decision because it's murder but again it is a human rights issue thank you thank you the next speaker is Miguel escoto Miguel escoto Miguel escoto star six to one major telephone if you're in the queue I don't see the phone number in the queue Carlos montijo star six plays to unmute your telephone star six please good afternoon you have three minutes can you hear me yes I'm a pastor of Thorncrown Covenant Church and to those struggling with unfriend unplanned pregnancy and abortion our church is here to help please contact us at thorncrownministries.com but my message to those of you pushing this agenda is simple stop making this issue about women's rights because the real issue is about the right to life of the innocent unborn stop the lies about abortion stop the hypocrisy stop the identity politics stop demanding the right to kill your unborn stop incurring the Wrath and Judgment of the very God you prayed to this morning and saw an oath of public office to and do the right thing by making El Paso a sanctuary City for The Unborn I find it so ironic that according to your public comment criteria all persons participating are expected to displace Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language the irony is that the most threatening language of all according to your own standards is to threaten the other person's lives which is exactly what this agenda is a blatant threat against the lives of unborn children in order to ultimately against the lives of women men which are physically anatomically and biologically different and undermines the Very Foundation of human society the nuclear family that nurtures their children instead of killing them your strategic goal for this resolution is to nurture and promote a healthy sustainable Community answer me this how can you nurture and promote healthy sustainable communities the very words that you chose to nurture nurture healthy sustainable communities by killing your own children your own flesh and blood instead of raising and actually nurturing them nurture your choice of words to describe your agenda to kill unborn children reveals the best of the worst of political double speak the resolution also claims that eliminating access to abortion has been empirically proven to demonstrate dramatically increase the risk of death bodily injury and infertility these lies are twisted and even orwellian you are basisly claiming that abortion is actually safer than giving birth this is a demonstrable lie that has been empirically disproven on the contrary there is no such thing as a necessary abortion in any sense all abortion is a heinous crime against our own innocent and most help helpless Humanity on the contrary it has been empirically proven that life Dynamics and others have published documented reports about how women are raped inside abortion clinics in many cases suffering irreparable damage emotional mental spiritual and physical because of abortions how the abortion industry traffics aborted baby parts and how minor girls are taken by rapists for abortions while the clinics illegally refuse to report them and how the abortion industry overwhelmingly targets minority neighborhoods your agenda also states that City resources will not be used to criminalize abortion but there's only one problem you cannot wipe the stain the crime and sin of abortion clean by sweeping it under the rug by turning a blind eye to Justice you have neither the power nor the authority to absolve the murder of unborn children the only thing that can wipe your slate clean from the abortion and all other sin is the power and blood of Jesus Christ thank you the next speaker is Louise Ross Luis Ross star six pleased to unmute your telephone thank you very much good afternoon you have three minutes I'm speaking against item 31 under the subject honor and protect the rights of pregnant people uh we need to safeguard the current laws and Texas Human Life protection act law uh it already protects women it does not take any freedom away from a pregnant woman uh this current law as any law should be upheld and all elected officials and councils should not be promoting breaking laws or promoting fear uh and instead why don't you share the truth about the ACT this this act uh and provide all manner of support to the pregnant mother and child the Texas Human Life protection act does not criminalize women they have the right to travel to a site that allows abortionists to operate and perform abortion no and if there's not abolish Women's Health Care which abortion is not Health Care uh it doesn't abolish any of their rights it simply States the pregnant person is free to seek an abortion in a state that does support it Texas does not yeah nowhere does um does uh it say as far as uh there's nothing in that act that says there's going to be prosecution of women seeking abortion uh or or a prosecution of treatment for a topic or or a toxic pregnancies or miscarriages uh if they do not they have the they actually have privacy their privacy is protected no one knows about that they've gone to a state that does it and it's there there's private that is their choice this effort of item 31 is a way to protect the abortionists and the industry making money on the act of abortion item 31 is written to confuse and put fear in people elected officials through this uh item are promoting the police violate their oath to protect the laws in place and uh and uh I I I actually um believe that um that the um you know I don't want our police to be given a pass to violate current laws we've all witnessed and have just recently witnessed the degradation of a society when that happens we need to support the police and the laws and make sure they're doing the right thing I oppose Council giving support to abortion industry over the protection of human life protection act uh it does not honor and protect the right of uh pregnant women as the ACT does if the ACT does support them in countless Services giving thousands of dollars the support is there for three plus years after birth from nearly 200 pregnancy centers maternity home center adoption agencies let's support that law not not degraded what is taking place in America thank you speaker is Joseph Gallegos Joseph Gallegos followed by Elizabeth Crawford Marilyn Ortiz Ruben Aguirre good afternoon you have three minutes good morning good morning good afternoon um when I heard about this this morning it struck me in all and then brought back some deep feelings into my personal life about 20 years ago my ex-wife and I she became pregnant and through that course of that pregnancy she ended up having a miscarriage about midterm but one thing that struck me from that was that 20 years after that we were 19 at the time 20 years after that she still had very deep emotions and the loss of that child and I did too um not as deep as hers but I could feel the scars in her heart I could feel the scars in her emotions and I asked to you today to oppose this resolution it doesn't we talk about Let's help mental health for women in its Health Care in reality it's going to scar women God created life when he breathed life into Adam and Eve well to Adam then he took a rib and gave it to Eve that's how we are connected spiritually between a man and a wife and when a child is formed at conception during sex during love or during whatever you want to call it life is created and there is a spiritual connection with that child that mother and that father and I'd ask you today to pose this because it's not helping women it's scarring them intentionally deeply in their hearts and their emotions and I've seen it firsthand and I thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford Elizabeth Crawford followed by Marilyn Ortiz Ruben Aguirre Terry Ramirez Sabrina bustillos good afternoon you have three minutes hi good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to share um um I just got back a few weeks ago I was back home in New Jersey um and New York City has just erected I've seen in the news a golden statue above one of the courthouses just to honor abortion um I back about six weeks ago I stood with a group outside what used to be called the market Sanger Abortion Center there's a group with a group called love life we stood out there they've renamed the Abortion Center um they've renamed the street because a lot of what has come out about Planned Parenthood does reveal the Eugenics and we all know if we study enough that abortion is a target against the African-American race against minorities but primarily the African-American race and I don't even like to use the word race we're a human race um but the African-American group of people will say um We Are All One race um I'd like to speak about the whole emphasis on my body my choice um that that theme I was born in 1973 um the year abortion was legalized by God's grace my parents chose life I was a high-risk abortion and abortion was thrown out as a viable option to my mom by God's grace my parents did choose life um I just want to share a scripture that probably many of you know if I get stuck on any of it you can help me I think I think I can get through it um but it's it's in reference to this whole matter Psalm 100 Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord All Ye Lands serve the larva's gladness come before his presence with singing know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that has made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture enter into his gates with Thanksgiving into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name for the lord is good his Mercy is Everlasting and his truth endures to all generations in that Psalm we see that we are not our own masters we are not our own creators we in my body my choice is not something that's going to stand before a holy God on that day every one of us will one day stand before him he is our creator we will answer to him one of the things that impressed me most when I first came to El Paso was that that mountain that you will look out on frequently from Juarez in in Spanish and I won't try it in Spanish my Spanish isn't good but read the Bible it's God's word I plead with you read the Bible it's God's word every one of us will stand before our creator a holy God please act today based on that truth thank you thank you the next speaker is Reuben aguija Ruben Aguirre the next statement was submitted by Terry Ramirez and it reads El Paso City officials I'm writing to speak strongly against item 31 on the agenda for January 31st 2023 the subject is to honor and protect the rights of pregnant people however the full resolution makes it clear that the goal is to protect abortion providers in violation of Texas state law all the arguments that is to protect women are base false political misinformation the Texas Human Life protection act only criminalizes abortion providers it does not criminalize women for seeking nor for having abortions whether out of state or even if provided illegally in Texas these actions also violate 42 U.S code 27 1983 exposing the city to liability from a failure to investigate and ask police to violate their oath Dallas police chief Eddie Garcia recently told Dallas City Council that a similar resolution requires police to violate their officers oath this is egregious overstep on behalf of the city council police promised to uphold the law and you are asking them to do the opposite it is apparent that El Paso city council members are prioritizing abortion providers over the general public and those who want to protect and serve in their City furthermore over one thousand medical doctors have signed the Dublin declaration affirming that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a woman and that the prohibition of abortion does not affect in any way the availability of Optimal Care to pregnant women because there is a fundamental difference between elective abortion and necessary Medical Treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother if the city intends to support pregnant women's equality rights and opportunities we should focus on removing the expert the expectation that has burdened women for the past 50 years under Roe versus Wade to alter suppress and destroy the normal healthy functions of her natural body in order to conform to male based definitions of success instead we must shift the expectation to employers universities and our city to instead be the ones to conform to actually support women by focusing on pregnancy Health Resources residents support and education programs that cater to the unique needs of new and expecting moms Family Life resources and assistance Fair wages and maternity leave programs supporting lactation and fertility awareness and life-affirming health care that supports rather than destroys our normal healthy function of a woman's Natural Body I will be contacting the Texas Attorney General and vocalize my concerns over this abuse of power occurring in El Paso thank you for your time and concern the next speaker is Sabrina bustillos Sabrina boostios will be followed by Valerie Vasquez Eden Klein at City Reyes Jose Miguel Reyes and Claudia Rodriguez good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon uh good afternoon council with a belated congrats to the new members of council who've already begun doing great things like the El Paso climate Charter in protecting durangito my name is Sabrina bustillos and I'm here in my capacity as a community member and an advocate with the Texas Freedom Network and their just Texas program which works to change the narrative surrounding abortion and Faith communities because we believe firmly that there's no room for hate and faith I'm here to urge Council to support this item there seems to be a lot of confusion about what this item's actually about I'd like to point out as many before me have the other major cities including Austin and Dallas in the state of Texas have successfully passed measures like this the reality is we can debate abortion all day but wherever you stand on the issue using City funds and resources to terrorize and harass those that believe in reproductive freedom is wrong the reality is abortion is going to happen regardless of the state's attacks of bodily autonomy and regardless of anybody in this room's personal Viewpoint it's important to note that Texas is trigger law and pass legislative items like the Texas Bounty law are intended to create frivolous lawsuits considering the vagueness of Texas's laws and its history of abortion criminalization citizens are worried that they could be put at risk for investigations or police intervention by simply Distributing information regarding abortion this is why we need our city to pass measures that would clearly State and protect our rights plainly this agenda item is really the least we can do for communities that have been impacted the most by the overturning of Roe v Wade and I'm really appreciative to have a council that can acknowledge that and put an item forward like this so again I really urge you all to vote in favor of it so thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is Marilyn Northeast Marilyn Ortiz will be followed by Ruben Aguirre Valerie Vasquez Eden Klein alcidi Reyes Jose Miguel Reyes good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon for listening um there have been many eloquent speakers today speaking about the truth of life simply put abortion is murder abortion is murder I was born in El Paso I married somebody that came to school from Santa Fe and we lived at one point in San Juan Puerto Rico now I'm back to this area again um but my experience with Planned Parenthood started with with having an iot in place when I wasn't even sexually active and it ended up being it was shoved all the way into my diaphragm and luckily I didn't die I got hospitalized and got that extracted over some time that I can't remember exactly but then when when my husband and I were in San Juan Puerto Rico I became pregnant we had two beautiful children already a son and a daughter and my husband wasn't a practicing Catholic and I wasn't a practicing Christian I guess we both hope to change each other if it became important about by the time my son was four or five and a bad word came out of his mouth I realized oh my goodness you know I'm not being responsible as a parent and so my life I sought to do to do God's will um when I became pregnant with our third child my husband was overwhelmed with the financial responsibility and and said okay you can carry this baby to term and we'll adopt it out about that time we would hear radio reports of how men were getting more more rights in custody and so he threatened me that that if I if I went ahead with this if I took a plane if I returned to the states you know where my parents would support me and I told that I couldn't take our our children so it seemed as if my two children existing children were held hostage over over the coming baby but all these all this was just excuses for my sin for my cowardice and not being a mother to that to that baby and so it's a deep regret of my life and many women are harmed physically and emotionally by abortion it's not it's not just a simple procedure abortion is murder so think of your your kind consideration choose life vote against this item 31 God bless you all thank you the next speaker is Ruben Aguirre Ruben Aguirre Valerie Vasquez Valerie Vasquez if you're in the Q star six to unmute your telephone Valerie Vasquez I don't see the phone number in the queue Eden Klein Eden Klein will be followed by a statement from at City Reyes Jose Miguel Reyes and Claudia Rodriguez good afternoon you have three minutes thank you my name is Eden Klein I was born and raised in El Paso as a registered voter living in District 2 domestic violence attorney court appointed special advocate for the Youth here in my personal capacity I support this initiative it should be clear this agenda will not support abortions fund abortions or erect new abortion clinics this is only going to stop tax money from Prosecuting and jailing abortion Seekers and haters similar initiatives have successfully passed and many other major cities in Texas El Paso must follow suit in Texas there's already severe abortion restrictions restrictions written into vague and confusing laws the Texas trigger laws and sb8 set up a bounty for various lawsuits and possible jail time for people who Aid and abet abortions or even just spread information and it is not in vain to assume that abortion Seekers are next in fact sb8 is attacking pregnant people and haters and abetters is evident because people have already been jailed for miscarriages and abortions in April 2022 lizelle Herrera of the RGV had been arrested and charged with murder for allegedly having a self-induced abortion the D.A dropped those charges after community members and Advocates advocated for it and this is only going to keep happening as these kinds of laws roll out laws roll out and we as a community must rely on each other to protect and advocate for ourselves if our city leaders protect us from this tyranny and attempt a misogynistic power over pregnant folks as much as they can it will be another stronghold that we need in El Paso people seeking abortions go to doctors social workers organizers and lawyers these are the same people who may be required to report a report abortions or will be jailed for helping people get these abortions spending tax dollars on criminalizing abortion means people who go to these resources they trust for safety and protection and Health Care will not be able to and will have to seek out dangerous ways to protect themselves and have an abortion it means they risk going to jail it means sending doctors social workers organizers and lawyers to jail for protecting and serving the community spending tax dollars on criminalizing abortion will not stop abortion it will not dissuade abortion it will only create more populations in jail more people dying from self-induced abortions and parentless children subject to our horrific foster care system we must use our tax dollars to support those already here we must protect the communities who are already here we must support each other and be there for each other when our federal and state government is not if we stop tax dollars from investigating and harassing abortion Seekers and haters we can protect each other with safety and health care without being put in jail I urge you to vote for this agenda item in favor thank you thank you the next statement was submitted by at City Reyes for representative Kennedy thank you good morning my name is aziria Reyes I'm a D1 constituent represented by a city rep Ryan Kennedy and today I'm here to speak in support of item 31 and ensure that El Paso protects the rights of pregnant people as a person who is raised mostly by women I find it extremely important that their rights are enforced and their choices are respected growing up for the most part without a dad I watched my Mom struggle and stress about basic necessities for survival I watched my sister become an adult when her youth was meant to remain working studying helping out my mother buying her little sister that venti matcha she was begging for I heard similar stories too from my best friends but one stood up for me and said my mom told me once she wouldn't have aborted her first child I would not be alive and my sister wouldn't either and so with this I can confidently say that abortion is not like under analyzed argument State and irresponsible or cruel act to a board is to acknowledge that as much as we would like we are not yet equal in as long as we aren't minority groups will continue to struggle women will continue to struggle the lgbtqa plus Community will continue to struggle and experience the bad end of laws such as the abortion law that do not acknowledge this evident power imbalance so I asked today's city council acknowledge today's price of adversity and at the very least protect the rights of pregnant people use City funds and use my tax dollars to create a positive change and empowerment for our community not for programs to criminalize strong individuals who are only doing what is best for their health and future not to solicit catalog report or investigate reports of abortion and not to disempower our people make abortion the least of priorities for our police force and please remember our people thank you thank you the next speaker is Jose Miguel Rodriguez good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon May year and City Council Members my name is Jose Miguel Reyes a constituent of District 7. I am present today to advocate for the decriminalization of abortion for those who seek it uh abortion is already as stigmatized as it is in part contributing to People's Choice of opting out of abortion due to unjustified cultural or religious shame criminalizing abortion just compounds the amount of hardship to those already succumbed by the stress it comes with obtaining an abortion if you do continue to persecute abortion uh Seekers you'd be spending on amounts of taxpayer dollars on police detaining those mostly single parents who do not wish to be forced into pregnancy which end up ends up costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical fees I want to emphasize that abortion Seekers do not hurt anyone um if anything abortion Seekers I would argue most of the electorate population in El Paso agrees is according to a Statewide poll from September of last year by uh periodun over 60 of Texans support abortion being available in all or most cases I want El Paso to be a place where it's uh people know they have the freedom and support to choose their Futures without fear I want to leave uh I want to leave you all with one of my favorite quotes by met this Pastor David Barnard it goes The Unborn are a convenient group of people to advocate for they never make demands of you they're morally and complicated unlike the incarcerated addicted or the chronically poor they don't resent your condensation condescension or complain that you're not politically correct unlike widows they don't ask you to question patriarchy unlike orphans they don't need your money education or Child Care unlike aliens they don't bring all the racial cultural and religious baggage that you dislike they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work or creating or maintaining relationships and when they are born you can forget about them because they cease to be unborn you can love The Unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own health power or privilege without reimagining social structures apologizing or making reparations to anyone they are in short the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe prisoners immigrants the sick the poor widows orphans all the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible they all get thrown under the bus for The Unborn thank you thank you the next statement was submitted by former city council representative Claudia Rodriguez and it reads good day everyone and thank you to everyone that has come back for round three of this item and speaking to you all today to let you all know that despite your general genuine efforts to humanize The Unborn I hate to tell you all that this time your efforts here today will go in vain please look at our elected officials faces and remember them because to them this feels good and they are proud of themselves yes this is a sad day but we can't change people's hearts and unfortunately yes the state of Texas will descend on El Paso and even worse we will all pay for this decision in our upcoming legal battle Council does not understand that abortion is a state issue and that this battle does not belong to them it is shameful that it's happened this is happening again please know that when this item passes today that hope cannot be lost El Paso keep the faith and know we all we got this because a greater one has us it's going to be okay I love you all Club Rodriguez former city council representative the next speaker is Carol Cassidy she's in the queue I don't see her in the queue the next speaker is Valerie Vasquez star six to one major telephone good afternoon you have three minutes hello can you hear me yes good afternoon um good afternoon good afternoon mayor and City Council Members I'm sorry I was uh under the impression that I was not going to get to speak today so I'm a little unprepared at this point but I did want to just call in and say that my name is Valerie Vasquez I'm calling in from District Four I'm a constituent of Representative molinar and I am calling into a post item 31. and I would like I'm actually quite frustrated that we're at this again and um we had already I think decided this back in July that this was not going to pass so I don't understand why we're here doing this again but seeing that we are I'd like to just reiterate but uh Claudia Rodriguez just said and that this is a state issue and Texas has already decided this it is illegal in the state of Texas and I don't think El Paso should be a lawless City and I think you all understand that and I think you are in agreement with that and so I would really encourage you to stand up for El Paso stand up for El Paso being a city that supports Family Values a city that is lawful in a city that defends um The Unborn the most vulnerable vulnerable and innocent Among Us and I just I really want to just say don't put El Paso on the map for a city that is completely Lawless and some in a city that is not going to defend life I just oh hello go ahead ma'am we can hear you okay I'm sorry I think I was just getting some feedback um please please support life please defend life and please don't do this uh Representatives please listen to your hearts listen to the people who are pleading with you not to do this you know what is right and you know what needs to be done half the courage to stand up for The Unborn have the courage to stand up for life please don't do this thank you mayor as that concludes public comment I've called everyone that signed up to speak thank you and I'd like to thank everyone that called in and everyone that's here and uh for everyone respecting everyone's Viewpoint um with that uh you know Pro Tem Carol Cassidy would like to speak it thank you mayor um I have the wrong ID number Miss Cassidy's in the queue I'm tired in here Ms Cassidy's in the Q she had signed up to speak but she had the wrong conference yeah go ahead please go ahead Miss Cassidy you have three minutes well thank you so much and uh and good morning of course to our good mayor and uh the other city council people and uh I mean again your resolution is a mockery for a safe and secure City you're promoting lawlessness uh you better take a look at your agenda five I'm not going to go through that because I only have three minutes and of course we need to reinstate our original five minutes that we used to have with city council uh in any case um okay I've said that so who submitted this felonious resolution must be arrested by the good El Paso police because they're promoting law business on August the 25th 2022 Texas State abolished abortion fully with civil criminal professional penalties for abortion providers who violate the law it's a felony folks both both of our City attorney and our Texas Attorney General will be contacted regarding a lawless lawbreakers that are attempting to overthrow Texas law here our beautiful city of El Paso so I think enough people have preceded me on on of course life and uh and uh and there it is so uh I have nothing else to say except I am going to throw in a few things I should have come in today but but I incurred uh stupidly a dog bite yesterday so but in any case I'm also looking at Agenda number 37 oh my goodness they want to throw in a Civil Service Commission well I'll be there uh trust me and get as many people to understand the turnout from February the 7th that's outrageous now people that you can't fire uh and then they said they began it with uh following state law well they have to follow state law and so forth regarding our ordinances let me think a climate director oh my gosh on that item Miss Cassidy please remain on top all right well thank you so much and uh that's about it I think enough people have uh pronounced uh God's order and male and female and uh and none of you people are ever gonna change that so uh anyway uh the Lord blessed thank you no thank you and now Miss uh uh remember Tim thank you mayor um I wanted to do public comment first this time because last time we heard a lot of language from public speakers about how this would not protect individuals in criminal situations that language was in the previous item and is in that language now it takes absolute account in protecting individuals in any situation um on January 22nd 2023 would have marked the 50th anniversary of Roe versus Wade instead Texans are now navigating one of the most restrictive and punitive bans on abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe many Texas cities including Austin Dallas San Antonio Denton and the county of El Paso took action to use their homeroom powers to put in place protections to ease the criminalization of abortion but El Paso did not take action what is being presented today is the grace act that we heard referred to several times it is the exact language passed by those other cities so we do know that has gone through much legal vetting and is well within the powers of the city of El Paso as elected officials most closely connected to our residents need it is our duty to implement policies that are focused on promoting health and safety of our communities this item does not make a determination on abortion it recommits our City's values and ensures our constituents can make the health care decisions that are best for them and we must pass this resolution today and so I'm going to make a motion to approve second uh who seconded it okay thank you representative Kennedy um a couple of things the first thing I wanted to point out to people is reading through the resolution I had concerns initially about the urging to violate state law this resolution is very clear it says except to the extent otherwise required by state or federal law it carves out anything where state law would supersede and the requirements it also it says it doesn't apply to cases of conduct that is criminally negligent they're making sure that it carves out illegal activities it's not saying that it's urging lawlessness I do want to say that I'm concerned when political parties make support or opposition to an item like this the litmus test for if you're a good person in that party I worry that sometimes people come up spend three minutes get Applause but they don't spend the rest of time actually putting their sweat and work where their mouth was I see people that are endorsing this greatly and then walk out the door and forget about it I would say to both sides continue doing the humanity work that you propose should be done whether you're for or against this item you know I I've seen too many times items like this will fire somebody up and they have a great fiery three minutes in Applause and when you say what have you done in the next month after that to assist those that you think you're helping and the answer too many times is well I'll get to it so I would urge everybody to put your statements today into action and take the actions that are needed to help those people who are in need no matter which side of this issue you fall on that's all I have thank you representative representative Canales a lot of what I have to say today borrows heavily from the words of uh mayor Steve Adler and and uh from Austin and Austin council members Vanessa Fuentes Paige Ellis and Kathy tovo and so I want to properly credit them and thank them before I start um and and I I want to note that the language in the agenda posting itself uh has been struck that was done in the revisions to the agenda today so we're essentially just voting today on the text of the resolution itself and nothing extra um the the full text of the resolution was read earlier but I I just want to read the resolved statements one more time um so we all start again from the same Baseline uh now therefore the Council of the city of El Paso hereby resolves the city of El Paso sorry the El Paso city council formally condemns any action intended to abrogate the fundamental Liberties of its people and affirms its commitment to protecting people's rights and to make reproductive Health decisions for themselves and their families including abortion care be it further resolved it is the policy of the city that except to the extent otherwise required by state and federal law that emphasis is mine City resources including for example funds Personnel or Hardware will not be used to uh one create any record of any information related to an individual seeking abortion miscarriage or any other event that could be prosecuted as a violation of state law criminalizing or creating civil liability for pregnancy outcomes two provide information to any other governmental body or agency about pregnancy outcomes unless such information is provided to defend the patient's rights to reproductive care including abortion care or the health care provider's right to provide such care and three conduct surveillance or use any electronic surveillance device Hardware software that is capable of collecting capturing recording retaining processing intercepting analyzing monitoring or sharing audio visual digital location thermal biometric Behavioral or similar information or Communications specifically associated with or capable of being associated with any specific individual or group or any system device or vehicle that is equipped with an electronic surveillance device Hardware software for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred except for the collection of aggregated data without personal identifying information or personal health information for purposes unrelated to criminal investigation enforcement or prosecution it is the intention of the city of El Paso that this policy does not apply in cases of conduct that is criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care or where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person be it further resolved it is the policy the further policy of the city that investigation of or support for the prosecution of any allegation charge or information relating to a pregnancy outcome or any party there too again emphasis mine will be the lowest priority for enforcement and the use or assignment of resources and Personnel accepting cases of conduct that is criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person or where the pregnancy outcome is not the crime being investigated but evidence of another crimes such as sexual assault be it further resolved that the city manager is directed and permitted to take appropriate steps to implement this resolution and to provide an oral presentation and written report to Council on the implementation of this resolution including changes to policies and procedures by March 27 2023 and to provide a written report to the council on the implementation of this resolution by May 23 2023 the city manager May return to the council for authorization of any needed policy clarifications or changes in the event of future changes to federal law state law or technology that affect this resolution so sorry I know it's long to read it all out again but I think it's important that we hear it again so that it's very clear what it's trying to say this proposed action does not supersede or contravene state law uh it's a statement of policy that provides guidelines for the city on how to prioritize enforcement of the abortion ban in state law among hundreds of other important and and significant crimes it does not conflict with the state's designation of abortion as a crime and it does not prohibit the investigation of a crime there are exceptions specifically stated for data collection and Reporting required by state law or federal law the action does not stop the state of Texas from investigating alleged abortions some of the the speakers today said that detection only discusses a pregnant person seeking abortion but the text of the resolution clearly discusses uh deprioritizing the investigation quote of any party there too as I emphasized before when I read it so this action is is designed to protect everyone involved in an abortion but the provision of the abortion will still be an illegal act under state law and I think this very clearly understands that um we're completely confident that this action is legal under current law in the Texas Constitution this is evidenced admittedly not concretely proven but I think strongly evidenced by the fact that the the state attorney general has not taken any legal action in response to these several other large cities uh in Texas who have passed nearly identical policies um there will still be significant legal risk involved in in any abortion procedure in Texas to the individuals involved this can only try to mitigate legal risk not eliminate it completely um the the proposed policy uh does not protect residents from SBA the the heartbeat bill that allows private citizens to sue people who perform abortions after six weeks of gestation and Texas cities don't have the power to decide who gets to file a lawsuit um so this instead addresses the Texas trigger ban formerly the uh the human life protection act which establishes extreme criminal penalties for all abortions as well as other similar similar criminal laws like sb4 which restricts medical abortions I've heard some of the speakers today ask uh that the Texas trigger ban has an an exception that protects the the person receiving an abortion from prosecution so why does the city need a policy uh to protect uh women and pregnant people from prosecution if the state law already does so uh under the current laws on the books those receiving abortion uh ostensibly cannot be prosecuted that's correct but it's important to note that the language of that exception is is very purposefully ambiguous uh women receiving abortions are protected but that exception is written in the passive voice and the trigger ban is silent on whether a woman who self-manages their own abortion or even drives themselves to their Physician's office is engaged in performing an abortion and therefore at risk of prosecution um additionally Texas never repealed its much older pre-row statutes which criminalized both the the performer and the receiver of an abortion so those are also still on the books uh this proposed policy then protects everyone involved uh with an abortion as long as that abortion is not criminal in other ways um I hope that my my comments here have furthered the the understanding of what this policy does and what it doesn't do of what is legal in the state of Texas and what is not legal and of what actions a municipality like us is the city of El Paso can take and what actions we can't take uh this proposed action is a step that I think is is prudent is legal and is within the curfew of us as a city council as a body um that's why we've proposed it and that's why I intend to support it today thank you thank you sir representative um [Applause] thank you mayor and uh thank you all for all the public comment that was shared here today but I do want to be clear that the question before us is not if we are pro-life or pro-choice the issue before us is to do with it being legal matters involving state law City policies and policy and police departments you know the Supreme Court has already spoken so none of this has changes that you know I've said in the past that I'm personally pro-life but I don't believe the government should be telling people what to do with their bodies but Ms Niemann I I wanted to make sure that all the legal concerns are answered before I can support this resolution um it is my understanding that we cannot neglect or ignore state law so I continue to have like certain legal concerns here and so I want you to kind of go one by one by on these for me so on I have a concerns over this line it says it is policy of the city that accept to the extent otherwise required by state law or federal City resources including for example funds Personnel or Hardware will not be used to again it is my understanding that we are not allowed to ignore or neglect state law as our lawyer do you believe this line or any line in this resolution violates state law so the manner in which the resolution was written was used also by drafting what other cities have passed the language specifically to the extent permitted by law will allow if this action of council passes here today will allow us to go back and draft the policy that would Institute the resolution so so council is directing the city manager and the city attorney's office to come back with a policy that would abide by state law that is what the the intent of the resolution is accomplishing also as a matter of course all of the council resolutions are reviewed by our office the resolution was reviewed by various members in my office in regards to the validity and the legality of them and it is being proposed here today with those things in mind for them to be set legal correct so so if it passes here today we are being directed to come back with um policies that would carry out the direction that the resolution States and then we will also be reaching out to the police departments and those other cities to see what their policies look like that fall in line with this resolution and so does does any of this language um well in this policy ask police officers not to violate their oath of office so again the policy would be written in order to allow the police departments to still carry out um the laws of the State of Texas and their oath of office so we would not write a policy that would allow an officer to not follow the law okay so basically you're just saying that the intent of this is to go before you you create the policy and you come back with only language that does not violate state law correct okay thank you what's your time frame Miss Sean Neiman what's the time frame according to the the resolution mayor it's in March and then there's a second um reporting deadline in May okay thank you in the resident and it's um I don't remember the second date it is March 22nd and then May 24. that's good enough that's good thank you for that thank you all right with that we have a motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Canales and this is to approve the resolution on item 31. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes seven to one representative Molina voting the remainder of council voting out of the motion carries you didn't need me to break a tie thank you again everyone for being here and um I think it's important what Ms Neiman said that this will be brought back in March and then again in May so I think it's important that we um in what representative Kennedy say stay true to your beliefs and you know continue to Advocate thank you and with that uh we'll go to a call to the public yes sir the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons and attendance 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 use this 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 propose that a topic commented on be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have 13 members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Wally Schick followed by Ron Como Barbara Valencia Ephraim Salcedo meshek's topic is right or wrong save America good afternoon Miss check you'll have three minutes it can I please have the alma on looks like a platform here I don't think we need it good day God bless you and God bless you for America good afternoon Miss Chuck please today make this a Memorial Day for our chief police put a corner Memorial there you have only one corner in the city hall here and please excuse me this is not the timing this is from a priest at the same Joseph perish from all the children in the parish for every one of you and I asked him to give me the flowers and the three minutes that he cannot be here so this is not my three minutes this is the three minutes for all of you thank you the parish okay thank you and and please with the memorial from the chief put on one side all the people who served as a representative just like you have for the mayors here and over here and this one put actual the letters that you write to the people you represent this was my first meeting and December the 18 to 12. and I think this should be Mr Mayor put either boil and I'm sorry these three minutes business bothers me to no end because in 1944 my father came from Russia and I was working for Nazi and she gave me 15 minutes to speak to him and said your time is up and if you don't leave I put you back in town and this is what upsets me this is a rule the three minutes from the city miniature Wilson and I can't tell you this is my 359 times that I'm here forgive me this is from a priest for all of you one more time thank you Miss check we never had a mayor like that before sit right right thank you may check the next speaker is Ron Cuomo Ron Cuomo's subject is exercising my right to the First Amendment freedom of speech he will be followed by Barbara Valencia Ephraim Salcedo Nicole Jordan Tracy Martinez David Hill Colt de Morris good afternoon Mr Como you have three minutes good thing good afternoon sir and thank you for being here yeah I know you guys don't want me here and you know what sir you want to be here we want you here I I as you said I'm a very passionate person for the problems that we have and that's why I want you to be here sir thank you and I find it very interesting that the lady in earlier was talking and she discussed the discuss the fact that she was bit um there was a conversation about we should work together at the last meeting I don't think any of you realize what the rescues have done for the city of El Paso not just local but out of state my last meeting with our director we were discussing the amount of Strays in El Paso his comment to me was I don't want to house a bunch of Strays I had a couple of things come to mind if you don't want to house a bunch of Strays you're the director in the wrong City the other thing that came to mind is is if he wanted to not house a bunch of Strays he should have gone to some place that only has about 10 or 15 kennels like the county however thinking about that I realized that the county of El Paso hired a director that was qualified had Animal Welfare Sheltering experience at no point the fact that the person they hired was a friend had anything to do with them being hired unlike what's happened in the last two directors in El Paso City shelter I'd like to draw the attention to the entire city council you're here you're supposed to be protecting our communities I I'd like to ask a question when was the last time we had six serious dog attacks in the city of El Paso and a five-month period never exactly and why is that is it because the community changed no we all know the community hasn't changed what has changed is the ability and the want to and the desire to do the job of animal services we all know for a fact they are not picking up all strays you cannot leave unaltered unvaccinated Strays running our streets and not expect problems we have been telling you for years we were going to get more Strays and there's going to be more disease and people were going to get hurt when are you all going to fix the issue somebody have to die before you realize how badly we've screwed up we need to get rid of the Haas program we need to get qualified people it is time for a clear the shelter but this time with the people that need to be removed I hope thank you thanks speaker Valencia Barbara Valencia's topic is we deserve better regarding the director of the services position go ahead Miss Valencia you have three minutes hello I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog restaurant good afternoon we deserve better I'm going to talk to you today about the director of Animal Services position with the salary of approximately a hundred thousand dollars per year paid for by our tax dollars for the city of El Paso's HR department these are the these are the requirements and qualification one must have for this position bachelor's degree in business management or public administration relevant zoology and raid and related animal care and control field Car Wash certification within one year of appointment over to you zoonotic disease experiencing their best practices and delivery of animal care and Welfare knowledge of animal welfare and Disease Control and knowledge of animal behavior Anatomy hygiene nutrition and first aid for animals let's go over the college certifications in order to become College certified you must possess a minimum of five years work experience as a high level manager for a not-for-profit or government organization and at least three years of Hands-On work experience must have been acquired at an organization that provides animal Sheltering and or Field Services the current director as well as the previous directors has no previous experience working in a shelter environment so he can't even qualify for the required kawas certification as well as not be meeting the other requirements needed for the position of director directors present and past the current director has risen up the ranks of the fire department transitioned from emergency operation duties to Administration where he was in charge of purchasing everything from toilet paper to PPE for the fire department he is unable to qualify as a Kawa and he doesn't have the experience and qualification the city requires to be director of Animal Services the previous director has a Bachelors of Arts in mass communication he spent most of his career in News broadcasting he did not have the experience and qualifications the city requires to run the shelter and he too was unable to qualify as the required Kawa and the director before that she came from Parks and Recreation Department she did not have the experience in qualifications required by the city to run the test shelter and she too was unable to qualify as Kawa and her lack of experience and qualifications made national headlines for her cruel and inhumane treatment of the animals so we have a fireman a news broadcaster and a Parks and Recreation supervisor all having no previous shelter experienced and does not or did not make the city's requirement to run the animal shelter yet they have been put in charge of running the animal shelter we are paying somebody with absolutely no experience a hundred thousand dollars a year money that comes from us hard-working taxpayers who does this it's no surprise why Animal Services is failing our tax dollars pay for the director's salary and as such we not only have a right but an expectation that the person hired has the experience in qualifications required for the position it's time to hire an experience experience competent and qualified director it's our money we deserve better and in closing two weeks ago this current director stood in front of the news camera and indicated he has no plans or solutions for the animal crisis the three-minute limit the next speaker is Ephraim Salcedo thank you ma'am it is thank you very much I don't see him in the audience thank you very much speaker is Nicole Jordan Nicole Jordan followed by Tracy Martinez David Hill Colt de Morris Scott kralink Michael Castro Paulina Medina Austin shindo good afternoon you have three minutes foreign good afternoon I'll turn on Okay okay thank you good afternoon mayor and city council my so the brand advocate for a high horse cannabis company I have been in the Cannabis industry for a little over three years now and during my time working in the medical industry in New Mexico I have heard countless stories on how cannabis has not only improved the quality but the length of life for many patients I've also gone up to speak in front of the Las Cruces City Council and I've met with accounting Commissioners from Tonya and account from the county and I have found a passion in advocacy it's incredible to see the power our voice holds and the difference in mixing communities but going up to those communities and seeing the people I realized this is not my home El Paso is my home so coming up here I would like to really emphasize on the importance of the site and release program we are one of the many uh cannabis dispensaries that are going to be opening up in the surrounding area and the limitations a record holds is not only traumatic for a person but having the site and release program will bring a lot of it'll save a lot of resources for not only you but like I said it'll save trauma in January of 2020 I was arrested here in El Paso for cannabis charges it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life which is why I get a little nervous coming up here just recounting the excessive force and male officers having bruises on my face and then at the end having facing felony charges it was not something I was expecting at all and it changed my life from one day to the next and I'm very thankful that I have found an opportunity and career in cannabis as opposed to letting it be detrimental to my future but not a lot of people have this opportunity so I ask you to please see the importance of the site and release program to save the future of our fellow pestilence and also resources for this city thank you thank you the next speaker is Tracy Martinez followed by David Hill Tracy Martinez's topic is cannabis prohibition good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon city council my name is Tracy Martinez and I am the social media and special events coordinator for high horse cannabis company located in New Mexico I am an El Paso resident and I was born and raised here my entire life all 34 years I just want to say that cannabis is medicine and when it comes to the healing plant itself there needs to be more education behind it uh there is what is known as the Texas compassionate use program that allows Texas residents to obtain their medic their medicine from New Mexico under qualifying conditions such as anxiety PTSD chronic pain cancer the list is endless the problem with that is that patients from Texas are afraid to bring their medicine home because they are afraid of being arrested denying patients a natural form of medicine as an alternative rather than obtaining prescription drugs that in turn can cause a bigger side effect or even Addiction in the long run is just plain cruel and unjust we owe it to these patients to have an overall better quality of life without the fear of being arrested thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is David Hill David Hill Colt de Morris followed by Scott kraling we get Michael Castro Paulina Medina Austin shindo good afternoon Mr damoris you have three minutes good afternoon Council mayor my name is Colton Morris and I'm the director of retail operations for high horse cannabis as well as the executive director for El Paso normal I've been here many times over the last four or five years and one of the last times I spoke with you was when adult cannabis use and high horse cannabis company was about to launch a New Mexico in 2009 El Paso City I mean 2019 El Paso city council passed a resolution in support of a site and release program for misdemeanor amounts of cannabis and in May of 2020 they gave their stamp of approval to implement the program there's only one issue the El Paso Police Department didn't want to or have or have to follow city council suggestions to the program and officers were still arresting at will I can say it has been used to some degree but I still hear horror stories of people patients getting arrested for no other cause than misdemeanor cannabis possession as of April 1st 2022 the New Mexico cannabis Market became a free-for-all anyone who was over 21 years old and has a valid ID and wants to purchase cannabis in New Mexico can do so that is why Texas patients are choosing what are Texas patients are choosing today they want to choose their medicine regardless if they have to pay adult use taxes or not for patients that are in the Texas compassionate use program the medicine is too expensive for them to use Texans are limited to tinctures topicals and Edibles the cost of a 30 count 10 milligram 10 milligram gummies 3 300 milligrams total in Texas is roughly a hundred dollars for a hundred dollars I can provide patients a total of anywhere from 500 milligrams to a thousand milligrams in just gummies alone now when you go to grocery shopping you look for the best deals don't you patients do too the only issue as a city we continue to arrest citizens and patients found with cannabis in any form now although site and release won't help patients found with gummies or any other forms of THC it will free up law enforcement and judicial system resources that's something that we definitely need after this last district attorney in office and how how that office has become starting this Saturday Texas patients will have access to cannabis 24 hours a day 365 days a year at high horse cannabis company just down the road in chaparral New Mexico current law in Texas isn't stopping access to cannabis but we must take a stand and stop putting these people in jail with that being said I asked you Council to do three things pass the city ordinance that enforces site and release pass the city ordinance to restrict City funds from being used for testing of any assumed cannabis products and pass a resolution demanding that the state of Texas reform its cannabis laws to stop the prosecution of non-violent violent cannabis users and patients just remember and this goes from more than one issue being heard in Chambers this morning prohibition doesn't work cannabis is medicine and high horse is cannabis para El Paso thank you my next speaker is Scott kreiling good afternoon you have three minutes his topic is also cannabis prohibition good afternoon good afternoon thank you sir counselors um thank you for the opportunity to speak at your meetings my name is Scott kraling I'm the director of public engagement for high horse cannabis company and I'm a New Mexico resident I'm unlike my colleagues who are here who are actually from El Paso but but I've lived in Las Cruces for I don't know 25 years or so my wife is from El Paso my best friends in college were from El Paso my colleagues are from El Paso El Paso is my home too the only real difference is maybe a couple of farms and an imaginary line and so as we've um as we've as we've grown more active in New Mexico talking to our leaders about the important role that cannabis plays in our lives and the help that it provides in boosting our quality of life we feel like we're neglecting El Paso if we're not here also encouraging our El Paso leaders to join us in the efforts to educate and inform our community about the value of cannabis about the benefits that it offers to us what we've seen in in New Mexico or in Southern New Mexico in Las Cruces with our personal experiences is that the Cannabis industry will make our communities safer the Cannabis industry makes our community safer because most of the fears and concerns that we have that revolve or relate to cannabis and cannabis use emerge from the the War on Drugs emerged from criminalizing Cannabis and the problems that have emerged from that decision around organized crime and so the legal industry is what's going to solve all of those challenges it's going to make it's going to reduce access to minors the legal industry has has barriers to access that that obviously the traditional Market does not have and so um it makes our community safer we operate a 24-hour dispensary in Las Cruces what we've seen in the time that we've been doing that is that there's need for medicine at all hours and that it's really not our place to judge when somebody needs their medicine we've helped people who have come out of the emergency room late at night we've helped parents who work random hour shifts there's there's need and and that need for Access isn't just in Las Cruces and New Mexico it's also in Texas it's also in our community here on the side of the border and so we just want to encourage you to please consider joining the effort to try and convince the other leaders in Texas that we should end this this prohibition cannabis is good it does a lot of really really good things for people I struggle with depression it saves it saves me it saves my family like nothing else it changes my world for my family like nothing else and it's healthy and and it's safe and so please join us and in addition to that I want to let you know that we also realize that there are other community leaders it's not just local elected officials that need to hear this message and we've started to develop Partnerships with other local leaders to try and widen the the scope of our efforts thank you very much thank you for New Mexico thank you sir the next speaker is Michael Castro Michael Castro Stars sixth place to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon sir hello hey good afternoon mayor good afternoon city council my name is Michael Castro it's been a a while since the last time I um got on one of these calls but to basically just follow up on everything that coach said everybody else before me at high horse New Mexico is um cannabis is making a difference it always has been it'll continue to make a difference um I'm part owner and the head of cultivation for Astro Bus New Mexico which it's another dispensary I believe it's like one of five now that sits right on the line over here in chaparral New Mexico and that's not including the other dozen more that sit on the New Mexico El Paso State Line in Sunland Park New Mexico I mean there's dispensaries right behind Western Playland I believe there's three or four if I'm not mistaken um and as a city you know what Colt said that we need to stop we need to basically start to implement site and release uh there's no reason why we're wasting time there's no reason why we're wasting police officers time um going after people who are smoking cannabis who are eating Edibles whatever the case may be however they're consuming their medicine they're doing it for a reason um and you know Texas Texas needs to come around in a general as a state but regardless if they're they decide to do it tomorrow or whenever they do it's not stopping anybody from coming for their medicine like I said I'm the head of cultivation so I grow thousands of plants you know I've already grown and harvested over a thousand plants this year in a span of six months and um we've had channel seven channel nine KFOX and I know high horse as well you know all these news stations have come out here to talk to us and the same question always comes up and it's who who are your customers right who's coming to buy cannabis well yes there's people from New Mexico coming to buy but pretty much 70 to 80 percent it's El Paso Texas residents and every single day we're getting new customers right every dispensary seeing new people a new flow of traffic every single day so it's just one of those things that cannabis is here it's not going anywhere especially with New Mexico being legal especially with people growing thousands of plants selling pounds of cannabis it's it's happening and we need to as a city I believe protect the people who can get in trouble and it's the moms it's the dads the uncles the kids um in college right that can ruin someone's future just being arrested for simple cannabis possession and that's not right right I think we know that as a country more and more states are going legal I think as a city we need to do something to maybe just follow up with the rest of Texas and what other cities in Texas are trying to do like Denton Texas you know they're they're trying to decriminalize or they did but you know they're having issues as well with police officers the three minutes sir thank you thank you guys you'll have a good day the next speaker is Paulina Medina also speaking on cannabis decriminalization followed by Austin shindle on the same topic good afternoon you have three minutes hello good afternoon good afternoon my name is p and I was struck by a car walking across the street just a few blocks from here in 2014. I do suffer from chronic chronic pain from you know these long-term injuries of course and I do medicate with cannabis as well I live in El Paso and I do work as well for a dispensary in Las Cruces named 420 collections um you know and Las Cruces you know it's already been a year where cannabis has has been legalized um and I am here now to show my support you know as an advocate as a patient as a hard-working mother um for the decriminalization of cannabis in El Paso and we need to push for the education and encouragement of the utilization of the Texas compassionate youth program which is the limited medical program that is offered in Texas now and to take advantage and take our Focus off of promoting alcohol and bars which is killing and injury many of our own people every weekend and we need to request we request that you take all of our stances seriously because we will continue to stand for this plant our medicine and legalization were prohibited excuse me where prohibition started we hear in the news you know how much New Mexico is surpassing sales every month that you know will eventually be used as resources for the state resources that we know we need as a city alone and you know we need these resources to bring peace and balance to our community please start decriminalizing cannabis and press education for the city of El Paso because we deserve to have access to this tool and agent for healing thank you thank you the final speaker is Austin shindu also speaking on ending cannabis prohibition good afternoon guys good afternoon just wanted to say I'm a bud tender from high horse chop it out I've lived here my whole life I believe cannabis is medicine I mean there's other worst things going on here there's alcohol deaths overdose overdoses on fentanyl I mean three years ago we had the most drunk driving deaths in the country and you guys are worried about cannabis it is helping people with arthritis Ms cancer I mean the list goes on and on from little things of anxiety and just want to chill out people are coming from El Paso to our Chaparral store and it's going to be 24 7. so they don't want to be getting arrested and also for our vets to get better and not get them hooked on opioids Fort Bliss is our largest training area in the United States so we're having a large influx of Veterans as well so they're just hooked on pills and it's not doing anything for them and I just want you guys to hear our words and understand that we really mean it that's helping people out here there's reasons countries are legalizing it there's States legalizing it cities I mean get on board on it be a progressive City we're trying to make an impact and make Texas a medicated state but thank you for your time guys thank you bless you mayor that concludes call to the public thank you and thank you everyone for being here and taking your time and the Sheck we'll see you in two weeks no in a week we're going to be here February 7th Miss check so we'll see you in a week thank you no why no go ahead you want to break to how long would you like 15 minute break back a quarter to two there's a motion to recess is there a second there's a motion in a second to recess the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 1 27 pm foreign foreign council is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to recalling the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in back back in session at 1 48 PM may or may we go to item 35. no ma'am yes thank you item 35 is presentation of newly created Community Health assessment document identifying key Health needs and issues through systemic comprehensive data collection and Analysis good afternoon sir and thank you very much for your patience I know you have a lot to do and I and I really do appreciate your patience and for being here it is a pleasure to be here with you and thank you very much for giving us this opportunity and I believe online we should have the consultant Mr Brian Ackerman from us Indian who was the one who put together a more comprehensive presentation of the community health assessment we extremely happy and proud of the product and you will be hearing in just a little bit about the presentation in Mr reckerman solute somebody Ryan Ackerman foreign for me I apologize for the way I think your three minutes are up sir very good hey good afternoon how are you all doing all right are we good to go ahead and jump in it looks like the screen is up is someone else going to advance for me on that side perfect very good all right well I appreciate the time this afternoon we'll jump right in and get through a quick introduction and then really walk you through the heart of the work that was done for this community health assessment uh and we'll kind of work through the findings and conclusions when we get to the final few slides next slide uh if you want to go to the next uh just real briefly an introduction to our firm Cindy and Healthcare advisors my name is Brian Ackerman I'm a partner with ascendant we focus exclusively in the health and Healthcare world and having an opportunity to work on needs assessments throughout the nation uh through our two office locations here in DC which where I'm at as well as North Carolina next slide uh in terms of we serve in addition to health departments like we've worked with there with you all we do work with a variety of other health and Healthcare organizations doing similar type of work uh related to assessing the needs of the population and planning uh to improve those going forward next slide a brief overview of our process in terms of the steps that we went through uh there's a few key pieces to keep in mind uh I'm not going to read every word on this slide but there's uh some key sources out there the public health accreditation board being one and has put together some some key standards related to the things that you want to make sure you're including when you're assessing the needs of a population and so that includes things such as getting input from the community quantifying needs best you can using secondary data tools and benchmarking needs relative to other populations and things of that nature so we went through a process to make sure we were accounting for that throughout the course of the few months that we were working on this project next slide what that process really looks like is a summary here uh a couple of different components there on the left hand side but I'll draw your attention more to the right and just the funnel approach that was used starting with a really a vast amount of data and information that we collected from the community via secondary data that we'll talk about in a minute as well as primary data a lot of survey results that we'll talk about as well and getting some information from Key leaders throughout the process all that information came together to help us identify what some of those preliminary Health needs are and we had an Advisory board that I'll talk about in a minute that really helped guide the process and prioritize based off kind of all this information what they felt uh was coming to the top in terms of the priority needs before we ultimately got to the final report next slide the key phases of the work one was really just assessing the current situation including previous work that had been done we worked through that into phase two where we were coming up with those preliminary needs and ultimately we work through that polarization process to develop a draft report so what you see here today is really a high level summary a much more detailed report is obviously available with more specifics related to some of the needs that were identified next slide this is The Advisory board that I spoke of earlier and really I think one of Paul is and just thank everyone that was on this list for their participation we met with this Advisory Board four times during the course of the engagement going from kickoff through information and data analysis this group also provided a lot of input relative to the community survey questions that were asked and helped us kind of spread the word and get the word out relative to some of that surveying as well and I'll play this group in the fourth meeting was the the team that really helped prioritize and coalesce all the information that was gathered up to this point next slide so real quickly just Define the community before we get into some of the the findings and you can move to the next slide on this one please uh you all know your community well uh we started looking at the city of El Paso and then we'll talk in a minute about uh how we expanded really looked at the whole County uh but not in its entirety we wanted to focus also on some different sub markets and by ZIP code and so the information that we've got again more details on looks at the county as a whole as well as some specific zip code information as well but that's just a quick definition of the market next slide uh one key piece of information that we really started the process with is called the community need index it is a source that is uh pretty unique in that it it provides information that is available for every zip code across the United States and really that kind of the standard information you can compare how different geographies are doing relative to other areas of the country and it looks at those key barriers that often impact one's ability to access health and health care and you can see those listed there I won't read through all of those uh but based off that standard information for all the ZIP codes in the country uh it gives you a score from one to five with five being the highest need areas biggest barriers to access and Care uh for a given market so the bottom left of the slide just illustrates a few uh specific markets that you all may be familiar with just to kind of give you some perspective with Dallas being at 4.3 Austin 3.6 in San Antonio at 4.1 and so that's kind of a quick look at a high level cni the next slide speaks a little more specifically to your Market uh and again um you all are sitting at about a 4.5 cni out of that scale of one to five so certainly on the higher level as we kind of see some of those barriers um which is certainly echoed as we worked our way through the rest of the analysis that we'll talk through but just as important as that overall score of 4.5 is making sure we're understanding how that need varies within the community by ZIP code and so that's what I mentioned a little earlier uh looking at it as zip code by ZIP code basis to understand again as we're thinking about planning for needs and improving needs going forward being real targeted with how those efforts can be put into place next slide so we'll talk first about secondary data and then we'll jump into the primary data but from a secondary data perspective we first looked at the overall rankings of the County compared to others in the state and so out of the 244 reporting counties in Texas you all scored 56 in terms of health outcomes perspective which is made up of two primary components length of Life which you're doing really well 33 out of 254 or 244 quality life a little lower 125 kind of more the middle of the pact at least as it relates to the rest of Texas so again kind of a high level look at Health outcomes the next slide I'll look at Health factors some of those key things that really play into the ultimate outcome so next slide please here are some of those factors and and what you can see here is a bit of a dichotomy and you're sitting at 77th from a ranking perspective uh to the rest of the state but that's really composed of a doing really well and it's ranked at 10th from a health behaviors perspective um so that's things such as exercise smoking levels of smoking and things of that nature play into that number but we see clinical care social and economic barriers again that links back to that cni that we talked about before and then some of the physical environment things brought brought you overall score again still doing pretty well but brought it down to a 77 overall as compared to that Health factors which was sitting at 10th so this type of information again we're starting at the high level we'll drill down a little bit as we work our way through and get into this a little more detail in terms of what some of these are looking like next slide please uh so here's that next step so we had well over a hundred different metrics that we began to analyze from a secondary data perspective from a variety of different sources that are available and we analyzed that and began to say okay for these metrics that are available these metrics include things like uh diabetes incidence rates uh obesity prevalence things of those nature so some some real specific measures so we try to get our hands around all that information by comparing it to a number of different benchmarks just to see how well we're performing across all these different categories and so if you can advance one more uh we'll kind of look at the different marks again all this is relative as we kind of think about the different measures and metrics so that was kind of the process from a secondary data measure perspective and the next slide if you will will give you a little bit of a summary of where we landed so we're not going to go through all 100 measures but we did categorize those measures and metrics into some different areas uh the first section relating to what we call kind of lagging indicators kind of following back up on what you saw a little bit ago from Health outcomes things like length of Life maternal and infant Health mental health physical health and the items that are in red are the ones where we we weren't performing as well to those benchmarks as we might have on the other so the red are those things that begin to elevate to the surface as being a higher need area so we think see things like mental and physical health from an outcome perspective from a factor side of things access to care really came through pretty strongly that includes measures related to a number of Physicians per population dentists and things of that nature as well transportation and some of those concerns that we'll we'll kind of hear echoed when we get to the primary data it just helps us begin to get our hands around okay based off again all those hundreds of measures what are the things that really begin to from a secondary data perspective rise to the surface as potential need areas and these are the conversations that we shared with The Advisory Board and talk through some of that and so as we get to this information we've got this in hand and then we wanted to begin to ask questions of the the public and the community to to get their sense for what the needs are and and ideally as we work through this process the the needs that we're seeing from a secondary perspective as well as a primary perspective you begin to align ideally and so those are the steps that we started to take next slide so one other thing that we looked at kind of on a more qualitative aspect before we talk about the the survey results is again we're doing our own Community needs assessment process here but others in the community uh have done some in the past uh and just wanted to begin to understand what their findings were and so you can see I won't read everything on the slot here but essentially we went and gathered all the needs assessments that we could find related to your Market uh we even went out to the Texas state health plan to see from a state perspective what some of the needs were and begin to see if we could align what others are coming up with from a need perspective with what we were beginning to see from the secondary information I talked about on the previous slide uh next page so here's a summary that kind of begins to pull all of it together that that very first column after priority area those Health outcomes and factors those were those red bubbles that we talked about a minute those are the things from a secondary data perspective that really Rose to the surface as you kind of work your way across the slide to the right these are those other needs assessment and evaluations that were done by different organizations we just kind of check marked the things that Rose to the surface within their work and then if you'll Advance it one more you can begin to see a pretty clear distinction in terms of the items that are not only from the secondary data we saw from other sources as well um are beginning to kind of rise to the surfaces as potential priorities so again sharing this information with the advisor and board and a lot of good conversation around that you see mental health behavioral health company the service access of BC and a lot of those social determinants that really relate back to that those barriers from that cni work that we talked about earlier so we'll come back to this in a minute in terms of these priorities but we can go ahead and advance to the next slide please I have all that secondary data in hand and now we switch to primary data and I'll give you an overview here of the things that we targeted from a primary data perspective uh you can advance one more thank you uh Community survey so we wanted to make sure we're getting input from residents of your community and I will tell you we we walked in targeting uh a thousand for just based off the population within your community and we're really Blown Away by the work that the health department did and and our Advisory Board helping to get the word out had nearly 4 000 surveys completed uh and again those were provided electronically the health department did a great job going door to door and getting some of those on paper and so we pulled all that together uh and began to kind of analyze what folks in the community are thinking the needs are Advance one more please uh so we've got that qualitative aspect there and then we've also got another set where we had some focus groups with key leaders in the community web survey was distributed this is where the advisor board was really helpful uh Distributing that uh survey to other key leaders across the community and so we can begin to see okay that kind of this General Community survey results and then we've got key leader input as well and again ideally we're able to kind of work through and see our folks um kind of across the board seeing similar things from a need perspective next slide uh and the answer to that is yes I think we were we were really surprised at how similar the surveys came back and so that Community survey there in the middle uh when we asked folks to identify their top health needs we asked folks to pick from a list and pick their top three we kind of pulled together the the overall top five here based off all that work just a tremendous amount of similarity between those Community surveys and the key leader surveys and so um I think good to see a lot of consistency here uh and a lot of what was coming up from these surveys was being echoed from that secondary data that we talked about earlier so a lot of consistency through through all the different sources that we were talking to uh next one uh we also asked the question a little differently in terms of three areas impacting the health of your community the most and again a lot of similarity here from the general Community surveys and the key leaders uh income rising to the surface as a limitation on the general Community surveys we'll see that again as a pretty consistent theme uh but access number two diet and exercise so a lot of consistency here as well particularly in those top three areas of income access and dieted exercise as folks thinking those being the areas that really impact their health and the community itself excellent uh hard to kind of digest the results of you know four thousand nearly four thousand surveys but a word cloud is somewhat helpful to do that and the thing that continued to came come through uh here as we began to pull all things together and really uh articulate the key findings here was was access uh limitations around Access Nutrition mental health education Outreach coordination those things began to really come through so uh some other key pieces there on the right that we heard was uh you know access as it relates to locations a number of sites Transportation being another key issue and concern as well as access to healthy foods and affordable Foods thanks a lot of information on here I won't read every word on it but at the end of the day we wanted to understand why might you as a community member not seek care for your physical health care needs uh and of the 3600 or so responses you can see the distribution the the overall takeaways you kind of look at the top few as inability to pay for services came to the top so that linking back with those income limitations that came up on the previous slide can't afford medication so there's more income conversations along with the fourth one which was insurance so a lot of those some consistency has related those financial limitations in addition to the third one which was long wait times kind of lack of access to a provider so that's what folks said when we asked about physical health uh next slide please same question was asked for mental health because again by the time we got to this point in the process we had already seen mental health uh coming up pretty significantly through all the other work and Analysis that we had done so uh very similar here in terms of the top answers that were pretty consistent with what we saw on the physical health side uh in terms of that inability to pay and financial considerations actually if you want to advance it one more I think we'll have those pop up just so you can see the areas that are starred where the consistency between the physical health and the mental health question so it's pretty consistent on that next slide uh from a both a community and a key leader perspective we ask folks it's like what's the one most uh clinical care need that you see that that could be improved in your community uh both key leaders and community members that the availability health providers that you saw the long wait times come up from at least the physical health perspective in particular that's coming up here again again pretty consistent with the key leaders and the community members I think one piece that's a little different if you kind of look down to the third section here that that Community awareness of preventative care and screenings that dark blue line is where the community is feeling like that may be an area for improvement more so than what some of the key leaders felt there so again that Outreach and awareness something that we want to continue to keep in mind studio is we're thinking about activities to to improve the health going forward next slide so beginning to pull all that together from a community perspective and a key leader perspective you know these are the things that that really are consistent again a lot of check marks across both College because there was a lot of consistency across uh both of that in those input sources and so if we marry that primary data if you can advance it one more uh with the the secondary data that we saw as well uh Advanced side please here it is um the stars represent what we talked about on the front end that secondary data measures what came to the surface so um again I think certainly a lot of strength in terms of these priorities because we're seeing it from all the different sources that we're looking at both the secondary and a primary data perspective so we had all this information in hand to really work with The Advisory Board to then get their opinion to ultimately prioritize the biggest needs uh for purposes of of the final needs assessment next slide so I'll walk you through that process as we wind up really the the key considerations that we ask The Advisory Board to keep in mind again this is meeting four at the kind of seen all the details throughout was the urgency or seriousness of solving the problem problem from a health department perspective their their ability to impact is going to be important and that relates to sort of the return on investment the ability to impact that from a reasonable cost perspective as well as the other things that are listed there so kind of walked everyone through that the next slide please as well as keeping in mind those social determinants of Health that really that cni piece hit on and some of the other things throughout the the work really hit on so you know what are some of those things that we need to be mindful of as well from a prioritization perspective excellent So based off all that input we did a live polling uh exercise with that Advisory Board and asked everyone to pick their priority areas uh there was also that exercise we're we're really uh consistent with all the work that's been done to this point I think everyone was agreeing with what the public felt with the key leaders felt what the secondary data uh were saying and so we did this work and we had a lot of conversation you know so cardiovascular uh disease diabetes hypertension leading the pack uh from my Advisory Board perspective along with obesity being right there and so we had a lot of conversation about how related those two are and how we might uh think about consolidating those from a need perspective similarly when you look at behavioral health and mental health very 15.8 for both so again they're they're obviously different but as we think about prioritization we had a lot of conversation about combining those two as a priority need area and then access is really the next one that kind of made it to the top of the list in terms of the overall priorities from an Advisory Board perspective so with that information at hand we talked at The Advisory Board and worked our way to a final decision from a priority list and that's on the the next slide and that's where we landed here so overall the top three uh priority needs to to be addressed in the coming years uh was chronic health conditions so that's really summarizing and pulling together a lot of that cardiovascular health diabetes and obesity that Rose the surface throughout all the work mental and Behavioral Health obviously a huge need so that needed to be flagged as a priority and then so many of the comments around access to care particularly from the public I wanted to make sure that made its way to being a priority need as well so kind of the conclusion of the process or these three areas again now with work to be doing from an implementation and health Improvement plan to continue to address these areas next slide so with that I'll say how much I appreciate your time um if you have any questions please let me know a lot of more detail is in the report which I know is available to you all so thank you for the time this afternoon represent Hernandez followed by mayor Pro Tem hello good afternoon um Cassandra thank you for the presentation I'm very very thoughtful um lots of really good data and it's it's really telling just based on the alignment based on from the respondents from surveyors and then from Healthcare professionals that there's clear gaps and services for not only access to care affordability care but also mental health care which is something I know a lot of us have struggled with personally and within our families and I could share my years and years journeys of trying to access pediatric mental health care but I will save that for another time now um I'm just curious just on on your expertise and what you have seen Nationwide through your company based on some of these findings are you prepared to discuss or to share any best practices um that municipalities have actively done whether that be campaigns whether that be programs offering monetary support for Health Care access I'm just curious of what you've seen in Texas if any or states that are similar in terms of our policies and access to health care similar to Texas yeah it's it's a great question so we're doing some work now um in Tarrant County as well as Dallas with a couple different clients there um I think the the there's no as you know one size fits all answer to the question I think you know the work that you all are going to do next on on the health Improvement plan is going to get more specific to what will work best for your community uh but resources in areas such as Transportation uh being one key Focus area uh again and and some similar markets we've seen some success with that in terms of that being such a limiting factor to access um and then you mentioned some of the campaigns and again we kind of linking it back to what we saw from the community surveys uh there there is maybe a lack of awareness of what is available I guess we know there's limitations uh in terms of the amount of resources that are available but we did hear that even with those that are available there's some concerned around uh folks just aren't aware of it so I do think we've seen others continue to push in that area of promotion and Outreach again we were floored with with the amount of surveys that the health department was able to get responses from one of the highest rates we've seen because they got out into the community and some folks are willing to share kind of their thoughts and be be engaged so I mean those those areas again no no kind of Silver Bullet to fix it all but those types of things have helped to get some Traction in community similar to yours have you seen as part of these potential Health Plans Improvement plans any recommended city-wide policy or temp templates let's say like a like a policy that could be easily adopted by a school district or another quasi or governmental organization have you seen something come from these type of Assessments like a recommended policy or recommended actions for such organizations providing support for populists we have and I can kind of find some more specifics for you on that and share that um and get that to you later this week but there have been some efforts in that and that full community approach um I think is important um we've seen it to kind of that theme in terms of the whole Community approach more and more uh Partnerships between kind of the health departments and local hospitals and other organizations trying to kind of Ensure some continuity with the improvements because again a lot of those organizations are saying the same type of needs uh within all the assessments that they're doing so continued partnership and kind of again that that full community approach has been been very successful but yeah I can look and find some more specifics uh for you all to share I'm I'm only interested because I think um El Paso has an opportunity here once we identify a baseline our needs what the gaps are we really have an opportunity to share through the influence of this political body to share what those as was mentioned earlier the social determinants of our community and what are the lack of access but also I want to point to the public health department and the work that we do hoping that this plan will incorporate a greater a greater emphasis for mental health care as well as obesity related and diabetes related illnesses I know that just in my family every every single member experiences those I guess challenges or illnesses within their lives and is very much an epidemic in our community I think we have a duty to grow awareness of this create a campaign similarly to how we have live active El Paso I think it's a wonderful campaign I think that we could grow it to its own department or or grow it to a function of the public health department along with Pio because a lot of it is just campaigning an awareness of your personal health so I'm very proud of that program having participated in their annual anniversaries and some of their challenges whether that be walking up Scenic Mountain the trails also challenging you to run marathons which I have always resisted but eventually participated in just to grow that awareness of of our health and how important it is for our overall economy and access to Affordable Care I know Texas we can't change much of what Texas does but we can as a community bring that very much needed awareness not only in English but in Spanish I also wanted to thank the the group here who Who provided this information 3 400 or so more service is not an easy task to accomplish and so I think this is a really good I guess an understanding a really good understanding of what needs our community has when we think about how we can make a difference to my fellow members of this Council I think here's where we can make the greatest difference for our community so many people are in much need of more access to Quality Care not only physical but mental Care thank you for your efforts and your time thank you Richard none this mayor Pro tem thank you mayor thank you all so much for this presentation um I do a lot of work on the healthcare side outside of my role and I'm really happy to see a lot of the conversations and I know happen in silos a lot really happen with the city and with the Health Department transportation is a big one that I've been kind of talking about since the pandemic happened and would love to see I know that our our sun Metro last council meeting brief dust Dr garanza on kind of their plan for the future and how we're working with them on that would love to see that um I don't have a lot of questions and I I don't have a lot of follow-up questions for the actual study what I would like to see though if you have it it doesn't need to be now you can send it over to me but on like side 16 you rank El Paso based on the state do you have those rankings based on population are the large cities um you know Texas is its own animal and and some counties are so different especially when it comes to health care so we'd like to see that in kind of a more representative category if that's possible um yeah and that information is available across the U.S so we can we can kind of stratify that and more more appropriately to to your Geographic size and get that back to you that's not a problem great and then that's just something I'd like to have for me but I guess my only other question and I do want to thank you so much for for all the work on this and taking the time to present um but if you could talk a little bit more about the health Improvement plan that might be more of you Dr okonza and how you plan on kind of rolling that out and doing that data and where that's coming from yeah so so as of now we're in terms of our firm we're not currently involved in the Improvement plan process so so there may be someone else that can answer the specifics of how the health department is going to roll that out um but uh typically when we are involved it's taking those priority areas um leveraging existing things that have been working already making sure those continue to be pushed forward and and then getting back into the community and understanding and analyzing what the additional activities may need to be based off best practices that that are working elsewhere in the country and that are appropriate for your geography so I I don't know any of the specifics for for the next steps here because we're not as involved but that would kind of be a high level look of how we would expect it to go forward thank you for that and I don't know if you have anything to add Dr okaranza No I want to thank you each and every one of you and and those who are great questions because as you can see this is not just going to be the work of the public health department it's going to be everybody's work and he's going to be everybody's project because this community health assessment it's based out of the surveys and all the responses that we got all the participation that we got shows how the community is engaged how the community is committed to the health and even each and every one of us and covet brought to the attention that is not just the public health every single Department within the city and the county were participating in the covet and will be participating in this how we write this this road and how we're going to accomplish all those goals is going to be up to each and every one of us and definitely we this document will serve as the foundation of what we're going to continue doing in the next years and how we can apply to the Sun Metro how we can take all those people that don't have access to the healthcare that don't have the transportation how we can do the live active El Paso and bring it to some of the neighborhoods how we've been able to access roads in in and make it accessible for bicycles make it Parks accessible to people to be walking in this way controlling their diabetes and their high blood pressure so there's plenty of plenty of opportunities plenty of work to do this is just the foundation that we're trying to bring and from there we're going to build up great thank you do you have a timeline on when we can start to see some of those implementation plans or studies well first we need to finish with this community health assessment and from there we're going to be working on a strategic plan and goals I don't have a specific timeline for that but definitely we will continue providing input and information to council so they can see the progress of this okay thank you thank you more for city manager I know when we were um sorry losing words when we were talking about arpa funds A lot of that was put aside for this study was any other put aside for the outcomes and the next steps I'd have to look at that list again yeah I would like to see what we put aside and I know that we put a lot for the different non-profits that we work with out in the community and we've already invested a lot with other non-profits but to that specific question relative to this particular study I'd have to look at that yeah because I I did go through my notes um and and looked at past meetings and when we had discussed those arpa funds I know the healthcare was a large number and a lot of that wasn't defined because um I think your comments were we want to see what comes out of the assessment so putting money aside so just I would love to kind of keep on track of that as well because I think it was definitely smart to put some money aside to follow up with this I think I was hesitant then and I apologize because I think that was the right thing to do but just want to make sure we're putting those dollars towards um this work because this this is an amazing presentation and the outcomes are really great and I want to to get to them very easily it was very comprehensive and yes I just want to scrub that list before I respond yes thank you thank you thank you very much mayor council Prime item 49 I think was requested yes sir 49. is on page number 16. and it is discussion in action on a resolution approving Capital Improvements updating the document known as a five-year Capital maintenance Improvement plan for the ballpark for FY 2023 through FY 2027 and improving the use of five-year ballpark revenues and proceeds from the sale of capital assets members of council San Rodriguez chief operations officer we're starting to look in the presentation again we did submit hold on one sec please representative Canales um I will be abstaining from this vote and recusing myself from the conversation zone I'll depart thank you go ahead not sure chief operations officer we certainly uh bring up the presentation again uh or uh just share with you the changes that we've made uh based on the last discussion uh two weeks ago with city council we have modified our recommendation to match the revenue that is associated with the ballpark specifically for a new revised five-year total of five million 847 000 140 140 162 dollars um a concerning go through the presentation again and share some of the the funds or happy to answer any questions uh mayor thanks um uh thank you Sam so I just you've said this you just said it but I want to clarify so the um agenda item says the last line is uh and proceeds from the sale of capital assets two million 78 352. so you will not be using any of that Capital assets that's correct that was part of the revisions that we submitted that were right into the record earlier today mayor Pro tem okay I just wanted to double triple check I guess because a lot has happened since then um I did also want to thank you for getting us over that information um that I had asked for on the renovation of the Suites you know I don't think they're necessary but it's within the the budget that they have and if that's what's requesting that's the agreement and so I will support that today but thank you for getting that to us so quickly is there a motion Mr Prime yes sir there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative molinar to approve item 49. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously with representative granalis abstaining Mr Gonzalez thank you again for listening to council and bringing it back within the perimeters yes sir thank you for that absolutely the next item on the agenda is item 32 and this is on page nine item 32 is discussion in action regarding a resolution that the city of El Paso reappoint to the Camino rail Regional Mobility Authority Sylvester Reyes to position two James L Smith to position four and Dorothy M bird to position six whose terms will expire on February 1st 2025. motion to prove there's a motion made by representative Fierro motion made by representative Pierro seconded by mayor Pro tem anello to approve item number 32. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Canales not present item number 33 is a budget update on Workforce Focus good afternoon Araceli Guerra managing director for it and for human resources fit could please bring up the presentation for item 33. so today we have a short presentation for you on a budget update and also just a reinforcement of the workforce improvements that we've been making throughout last year that we've been back to report to the council as well and a refresher for the the newer ones today this relates directly to our strategic plan goal six to set the standard for governance for sound governance and fiscal management specifically to recruit and retain a skilled and diverse Workforce and Implement employee benefits and services that promote Financial Security so today what we will be covering is our continued investment in the workforce Miss Cody will be providing a compensation analysis and an update on the upcoming budget process our continued investment in our Workforce has been focused on three key areas of compensation benefits and our development of our Workforce we continue to take a look at our wages and increase those wages to ensure that we are competitive understanding that covid and the pandemic had a really large impact on how we do business as a city and across the country currently when we did a lean Six Sigma project late last year we looked at our service time increase and we listened to the surveyed employees that really provided feedback on what they would like to see in terms of their compensation package for the city and made improvements in the service time increases so we were able to increase the the service time percentage that they were getting based on the 5 10 and 15 20 years we also implemented a performance for pay systems so we have our performance evaluations that are done annually and we are able to provide again based on the feedback from our Workforce that they would like to see that put back into their pay as well we continue to focus on our benefits ensuring that we offer these Wellness clinics we've increased from two to nine our shape It Up program really although their pandemic kind of put a stop to it in person we were able to do a lot of that virtual information have podcasts make sure that our employees maintained a wellness incentive throughout the pandemic as well and then currently we've been working on a lot of improvements for the development of our Workforce in improving our tuition assistance program offering several different online trainings and again focusing on Improvement processes for our lean Six Sigma projects so this slide here shows you a total of the improvements that we've been able to make continuously over the year most of these are new except for maybe about two of them and the total available compensation available to our employees has now reached up to fifteen thousand dollars and this is if they can participate in all of the different programs that we offer across our Workforce so again being able to focus on our key areas of compensation and benefits making sure that we are able to offer competitive wages include updates to our shape it up wellness program the health and safety of our employees is key as well and then increasing the number of Wellness clinics making it possible for them to seek medical care if they need it quickly and our focus on our development we continue to focus on our talent pipeline making sure that we promote a growth and learning culture for our employees we've made several different improvements to our tuition assistance program increasing the total that they can receive now from three to five thousand dollars if they are a full-time employee and now part-time employees are also available to participate in this program we continue to offer several different online trainings throughout the city but we also have our learning team that provides lunch and learns to a lot of our Frontline staff that don't necessarily know how to participate in the program or don't know how to get enrolled so on this next slide you'll see a little bit of those improvements just what we were doing back then making it easier for our employees to really provide an easy way for them to apply for this program provide them the information that they need and also include now continuing education certificates and also include that money available for for books that they might need in the future we're looking towards really increasing our career coaching our mentoring program having a job shadowing program so that they can receive the information that they know how to plan their succession professional career throughout the city so again just to recap of the different tools that we have available for all of our Workforce they have Eva capacity and the ability to log into any online training they might need we have all of our our information centralized on the my El Paso page for them and they have all of the different help that they might need to enroll in the different classes that they're they're looking at so with that I'll go ahead and turn it over to miss Cody and she has an update on the compensation and the upcoming budget process as they're transitioning what I'd like to add council is that we talk about the transitioning of what's next as far as tuition assistance in the training and development we're also focusing on our middle management that's called The 500 they're middle managers throughout the city that lead our 7 000 employees when we're fully staffed and so we have been focused on them and developing them and that's led to hundreds of promotions from it within internal promotions you've seen a lot of people who now present in front of you who were not in their positions that they're in now and so that program's been very successful as part of our talent pipeline management system thank you before we go on representative Pharaoh has a question for you from a scanner please so first of all Mr Gonzalez congratulations on your training program during one of our onboarding sessions now we weren't together I don't think one of our onboarding sessions there were some people in the room who took advantage of the the tuition reimbursement and it wasn't just for their AAA the ba was well beyond and I think that the city benefits by by that tuition reimbursement so thank you for doing that my question to you though is yes sir um what percentage are we on the Manning table uh because of covid because of different reasons sure can you tell me what percentage we're up to now sure and I believe Miss Cody has some of that information in her slightly okay well then I'll wait till after a presentation thank you thank you thank you mayor thank you good afternoon mayor and Council Nicole Cody managing director of budget and strategic sourcing good afternoon question one day huh yes sir let me go ahead so today we're doing a bit of a recap initially and we're looking at um council did approve as part of the FY 2023 budget really a focus on helping our community and it's truly a council-led strategic economic recovery and so these were the areas that were focused on by Council as we developed the adopted 23 budget to include lowering utility costs ensuring that we identify savings for seniors for our property tax exemptions as well as utilizing federal funds to assist vulnerable residents and small businesses so as we see in the as part of the FY 2023 general fund budget you'll notice that 72.9 or 73 percent represents personal services and so as we talk about personal services this is the salaries and wages and benefits for the employees for the city of El Paso and this represents truly the heart of the organization they're the ones that are making it happen right that are delivering the services to our community day in and day out and ensuring that we are delivering results and exceptional services for our community so when we look at that segment we break it up into these major areas and so you'll see the executive the general service and professional and managerial areas and then included in other are there elected officials so that includes City Council so it's a total of um not including uniform 5311 positions and of those 76 percent are what we consider general service so those are their hourly employees that really represent also the that are the entry-level positions for our organization so the recent recent actions that Council has taken since the beginning of FY 2022 have included a minimum compensation increase of one and a half also at that time you were able to address through Equity adjustments in a compression that had occurred in all of the pay ranges then in December of 2021 there was also a one-time lump sum payment for all employees both full-time and part-time then in May of 2022 we had an increase of our minimum wage from 10.36 to 11 11. now this was really critical and it was something that we knew was also a priority for Council but it was also critical for the organization because we wanted to ensure that we are adjusting the salaries at the minimum wage to ensure the entry-level positions that we are starting to work towards being more competitive January of that year we did present to you that the vacancies as you know were higher higher than normal we saw a tight labor market for our organization as we see in our community in our state and our nation and in addition to that in August of 22 we saw position adjustments for Aquatics animal services in addition to new incentives so we started as soon as August of 22 as part of the adopted budget being able to really Target uh specific positions that we were seeing the inability to recruit or difficulty I should say a difficulty in recruiting so we wanted to ensure we maintain a competitiveness so what was adopted as part of 2023 includes another adjustment to our increased our minimum wage and with a minimum increase of about 1.25 percent and then in March of 23 effective this march on March 12th will be another increase to our minimum wage to a maximum of 12.11 or a 17 increase so Equity adjustments why are they important so Equity adjustments where as part we're really the implementation of phase one of the classification and compensation study in the sense that we identified each and every employee and truly evaluated where they at on their salary range so plus we added on top of that a compensation increase of one and a half percent so if you had been with the city for 10 years in that same job they should be at a certain point along the range right so if you were below where you should be we made sure that they were adjusted plus they received the same compensation increase that everyone else did across the board and I need to remind you all again this is non-uniform employees and so in addition to that the annual estimated impact was approximately 2.3 million dollars and we were able to impact 2270 employees with this adjustment so as I described on that slide about the recent actions that have been taken by this Council you'll also see an increase in the minimum wage as you see here it does represent a 17 increase that really has impacted and you'll see on the next slide the majority of our civilian Workforce over 76 percent of our Workforce received an increase of about seven and a half percent and they're receiving an increase of 6.4 percent as part of FY 2023 so in addition to that as the sitting manager mentioned we're also seeing that increase in the managerial so we want to make sure that as the hourly employees are also moving up we keep Pace with our supervisors so it's not only through competitive wage increases but it's also through those Equity adjustments that we identified and talked about as part of the the major change we made in the fall of 2021 and then what we're going to be looking at as far as recommendations moving forward in addition to that you'll see that just like Araceli Miss Guerra has covered we also show changes in other benefits other incentives for our employees which include of course the lump sum payments now for performance evaluations that we talked about that came from our employees that came directly from the voice of our employees in addition to that we increase service time pay increases or percentages where every five years we're ensuring that they do receive an increase to compensate those long-term employees in addition to that we continue to have for the fourth consecutive year no health care cost increases and continue our shape it at wellness program and live active El Paso so on August 1st Council approved a motion to direct staff to implement a competitive wage analysis for quality of life and animal services employees after this was approved that August as part of the budget we also the city council also adopted staff's recommendation for the wage adjustments for animal services and Aquatic positions and as included in the budget resolution there is an incentive for immunization requirements so if their position requires them to be immunized for their safety and animal safety then they also receive an incentive of ninety dollars per pay period or 2 340 annually so the competitive wage studying what did we find out so as part of part of this study it was five departments Animal Services Library mcad Parks and Rec and Zoo and over 829 ftes were evaluated as part of the study and we looked at 20 different cities included in that is 44 job descriptions evaluated and we looked at and compared the market salaries for our peer cities to the salaries and the minimum salaries that will be occurring on March 12 2023. so what are the results for over 545 employees impacted on average we are 2.88 cents per hour under market for similar positions so the average increase per person would annually be 5194 dollars or an impact of 2.8 million dollars and so it's important to note that this is one segment of the workforce of the 5311 positions we're only looking at to the 545 and it's not all positions it's important I make a distinction it's not all positions in these departments we're really looked at those most common job descriptions Within These departments So based on the findings of the quality of life and animal services competitive wage study as well as the progress that's been made as part of the FY 2023 budget and the 22 budget we are recommending that we continue city-wide for city-wide non-uniform employees we continue to evaluate Equity adjustments annually to address compression and also continue to increase our minimum wage based on available resources and the approach that we've taken by not looking at a percentage but instead continuing with a per hour increase or the dollar amount really ensures that every individual every employee continues to move along their salary range at the same rate and that ensures our GS level employees receive a larger percentage increase as well so the economic snapshot so continued we continue to see economic uncertainty there are tight labor market and we're going to cover some slides on unemployment rates through our continued vacancies are affected by this tight labor market as well we'll discuss those as well and then the continued inflationary pressures and but the fluctuations and changes we've seen in fuel prices as well so unemployment this shows unemployment comparisons to their National and Texas rates as for the El Paso MSA and we continue to be in line in the sense of just percentage changes with um both the nation and the Statewide Trends over the past months we are at 4.2 percent as of November in 2022. so for Consumer Price Index we talked about that a little bit this morning and so this slide really represents what we've seen in comparison year to year as far as a percentage was 6.5 percent of December 2021 compared to December of 2022. our fuel fluctuations that we talked about you can see here graphically the average fuel price remains highly correlated with the Statewide prices at 4L for our city and it continues to fluctuate while we're seeing slight increases we did we have not seen the the increases that we saw in the summer of last year so here this is really an important slide so we look at moving forward looking forward I should say so what are those Workforce costs going to be so we presented this back on August 23rd of 2022. and what it's showing is based on the budget that we had adopted as part of 22 and then now the budget for 23 just for uniform and civilian employees what we're estimating as far as an impact for 2024 and so you'll see a large increase of that of course is going to be for uniform employees as part of our collectively bargained bargaining agreements but also the Staffing that we need for the public safety bond that is coming up the the completed projects that we're seeing as well as the increase on the civilian side to maintain and to be able to continue our aggressive competitive wage progress that we've made and again I just want to reiterate that these increases of 26 million dollars approximation were provided last summer and it would be the budgetary impact that we may see as part of the budget for FY 2024 so as I noted before we talked about the compensation strategy to continue our Equity adjustment annually as well as to continue to increase our minimum wage and then continue with the same strategy of a dollar amount or a per hour increase on our minimum wage to ensure that we're addressing the competitiveness of our GS employees as well as ensuring that we're addressing all employees as they move along the salary range now I know representative Fiero you had asked regarding our vacancies so So currently when we compare January to January so we're looking at January of 2022 to this month we have um 7179 positions in January of last year and we have slightly more than that this year at 7 568 of those which are 500 5841 are filled 1727.25 are vacant and so it is less than where we were at last January but only slightly where it's at a 22.8 percent and January of last year when compared to 2020 we were at 23.2 does that include police officers policed and fire it's everyone okay from city-wide yes sir in just one one last question Samir on page 25 it says police and fire Staffing increases what does that mean so for fire station 36 we needed to make sure that we were adding the appropriate number of firefighters to make sure we open the new station so that's part of those Staffing increases so is additional 31 firefighters to be able to open the West Side Station on station 36 and then so for police we want to ensure that we continue the net 30 initiative that the city manager has talked about so those were ensuring that not only are we meeting the attrition how many officers that are leaving due to retirement various reasons but we're also increasing their Staffing by a net 30. in addition to that we do know we're going to have the Far East Side Regional command and that will take additional officers as well so we want to make sure when we look at the projections that we're always including the future needs as well okay great but when you're looking at the future needs you're not we we're not including as increases the positions we're feeling because aren't those already on the on in the budget correct we wouldn't double count okay all right absolutely That's Mike thank you no perfect Tim oh I'm sorry yes ma'am I wasn't sure if you were finished with the presentation or if you had jumped off um thank you so much for doing this I know this was something that was very important to me I wanted to be able to understand where we were with inflation and Workforce um I have a few questions I think we've covered some of them in the presentation that y'all gave me or the briefing that y'all gave me but I do want to kind of go over them again um so we mentioned you mentioned that in 20 FY 23 we did two increases in September and we'll be doing one in March what was the budget impact of that one dollar increase for non-uniform so it was approximately 2.5 to 3 million dollars was that per um increase so we do prorated so that would be the annual annual okay that's good I asked because I wrote down six which was not correct so um so you were saying that I'm sorry yes Robert Robert just corrected me you're absolutely right 6 million is the full year the amount that I gave you would be the prorated okay because look at the two the 2.8 is just for the five departments that you mentioned not the entire not all non-uniform employees correct correct and so and that's why it was critical I mentioned that it's only for 545 employees and it does not address one it doesn't address the entire input the entire department because we did not evaluate all the job descriptions and then secondary it's it's only a segment of them of the workforce yeah yes that makes absolute sense I'm sorry um and so for you're saying 6 million annually does that are you also budgeting for those vacancies or is it 6 million just for the current um employees every year we work with the Departments to see what what vacancies they're projecting they're going to need to fill and so instead of it doesn't make sense to bench at all vacancies at 100 percent so we're looking at as we work with the Departments where of course we're going to ensure the ones they're going to be filling at 100 and then we prorate other positions as well okay just wanted this all just for my brain um Okay so I had a follow-up question and I lost it um okay so I want to talk a little bit about those vacancies so you said it was 23.2 percent in 22 do we know what it was in 2019 pre-pandemic it was 13.3 13.3 have we done at all a survey to understand kind of what I mean we saw obviously wages have changed since the pandemic inflation is an issue but are you all hearing anything else I mean um and I'm going to just give you my follow-up question while I asked that is are we allowing for remote work positions because I know that's a real desire from the workforce today right if it's possible to be remote and are we kind of capping those salaries if they're remote or are we just saying this is the position it can be remote this is what we pay for it right so we currently have our telecommuting policy in place and we are currently at the phase one still where employees only need to come into the office one day at a time it is up to the discretion of the department head depending on the services that they provide to the community and there isn't a change in in their pay for that and that's all departments or or correct all departments that are available or can have that access to remote work okay okay well I thank you all for this I do think that we need to stay on top of this right I when I had brought this up you know I'd looked at kind of um what we had considered historically low-wage hourly jobs and how we've seen those increases since we've done the presentation right Walmart has announced that they're going to 14 to 15 dollars an hour across the country um that's I mean that's huge that's going to have a huge impact especially on those part-time hourly jobs that we have that are really essential um and so one I know that this study was kind of based on what things look like now but really wanting a plan to look at that in the future to make sure we're always kind of on top of it so um but I really do want to thank you for all the data that you collected and the time you took for this I really appreciate it um remember Tim if I may the that's the reason why we also take into account what we do on the benefit side and why we're so aggressive on that end of it as well and there's a lot of opportunity with cross-functional teams and how we train our folks in order for them to have opportunities for promotion but we're also paying attention to the the hourly wages on the minimum wage and we've increased that in the last several years and been very aggressive but yes ma'am we need to probably be even more aggressive and look at that in the next budget year as well thank you representative Canales yeah thank you for the presentation it had a lot of great information um uh Miss Cody I think I've I've warned you of what's to come what I'm working on I think I have this the city manager and everyone else as well um but uh I I do plan in the coming weeks here to to put an item on the agenda to set us a goal to to increase our our minimum wage even further we've made really great steps I think over the past couple of years and particularly this year with the with a full Dollar Jump um it's it's shown to me that it's possible and I want to work um let me start here you know MIT has a living wage calculator that's available online um that Taylor's City by City and it shows that the the minimum uh the livable wage I'm sorry for El Paso uh for one adult with no children is is 14.34 cents that's the lowest amount that's considered a livable wage here our minimum is still considerably lower than that we're getting closer um but but I want to reach at least that livable wage of course we don't have to do this all at once I think this can be phased in over time um but I do think a dollar a year until we reach this goal and I think maybe a goal of an ultimate goal of 15 dollars um as a minimum uh is is feasible for us again I I recognize that these things are expensive um and and maybe a goal of a dollar a year until we reach this or something of that nature would would be the way to do this I think it's a combination you know it's a balancing act and it's just I know that there's been a lot of discussion about the values increasing in the city and then also the property tax uh rate increases and when what our response to that is that if you look at the Historical Trends in terms of the investment or lack thereof whether it be in public safety whether that be in parks and streets a lot of the higher priorities for the community it's it's been lagging um and it's been lacking substantially and so the the increases that people talk about if you just take into account what we've done for Public Safety uh that would account for all of the increases and then it would also show that we've absorbed over millions of dollars I think it's over 30 some odd millions of dollars and still done all these other things that we're talking about so those things are possible it's just that that's why we do this year round in terms of talking about the budget so that Council has eyes wide open on a lot of the things that they want to do we don't disagree I think that the your your goal is a good goal and one in which our employees deserve I know that when I went through trash with some of the employees there was just one one young man that I can't get out of my head and he's got two little kids and you know he's got a lot of energy and he was running up and down with the the trash I was jogging I was not running like he was and it just had a lot of admiration for him to your point about a living wage he's married has has two kids and a wife and that's the reason why we really increased the uh the tuition so that we not only just I mean I know that when when we started pushing for the increase I know staff was like well these employees might leave I said well that I don't care I mean that's good they'll remember who paid for their their tuition who paid for their school and they may come back we've had a lot of people come back by the way and so that just really warms our heart in terms of that that that program is really working and it's helping El Paso as a whole so that's the reason why we put more money into the tuition assistance program to help our employees help themselves and also play for pay for books before we didn't pay for books and so we just been adding more to that program but we definitely agree with that that's a goal of ours as well to increase that so I'm glad you're bringing it up I know Robert had something to say I'll just turn over to him that was some of the comments I was going to make so we talked a lot about through the economic development strategy to increase the wages in the community we talk about how the city of El Paso is an organization is the fourth largest employer in the area so it's important that we're being competitive increasing the wages for our city employees something that's very very critical something we've done and we'll continue to do one of the points that Nicole made and I just want to reiterate is that as we begin to develop the budget for next year sort of looking back where we were and she did a little bit of a recap we'll have a little bit more discussion as I present next week on the first quarter update of looking at what we've seen you heard Mr Gonzalez talk about the property value growth that we saw this past year unprecedented the largest property value growth that we've seen in El Paso in probably 40 50 years we've never seen anything that high even during the Brack expansion we never saw growth that high that combined with the unprecedented growth in our sales tax collection almost five times what we typically see in an average year that we've seen in the last two years in our sales tax so our two primary revenue sources property tax and sales tax have grown tremendously in the last two years which provided the ability for us to do those things invested in employees in the quality of life and our police and fire however we know as Nicole talked a little bit about this morning and right now about what have we seen as far as inflationary pressures what are we seeing as far as economic conditions with you know increasing cost of goods we're not going to continue to see sales tax perform at the level that it has in the last two years and so being realistic about what Revenue sources are available to ensure that one would minimize the impact on our taxpayers to that we have to be very very conscious about as we're developing the budget that we stay within that three and a half percent property tax cap that the state did pass a couple of sessions ago so these are all things that go into developing the budget this is obviously the largest cost driver you saw Nicole talk about that 73 of the budget is our employees but something that we'll continue to invest in as we develop the budget for next year and the thing that's connected to this is also the the I mean we've talked about collective bargaining agreement and we we're going to have to uh be aggressive there because we want to make sure we can attract and retain the police officers that we have in our in our charge but it's also important to talk about how some of the facilities that are so old that the council really has to have a discussion uh on the Deus and maybe a work session to really talk about some facilities and how they are going to exist going forward or not exist and then maybe you build new facilities where there's there's trends that show where the families really are at because when those facilities were built way back when they were built at a time where families were there and now they're not there anymore and there's different services that need to be provided maybe less Services maybe different services but there's a lot of buildings that have that have lived their useful life and you have to either retire them or build a new one and that's the reason why the whole discussion of about a bond election for that is something the council really needs to to talk about because that's something that it's just going to be frustrating for the council whenever they say why is this facility closed and it's not going to open back up and then this increases that we're talking about with pay we have to look at the number of employees we have and maybe if we reposition the numbers based on services that are being provided and we do provide high level quality services and Facilities that we have at optimal levels because I know you all have been out to new facilities that have opened and they look really nice compared to the older facilities that we have that's because the new facilities are state of the art the other ones are not and so it's just a matter of what level of service we want to provide to our community and in what areas of town based on the population trendings and the needs there based on the number of families that are there so that's another discussion but that's that's part of the budget and and it's interrelated to this discussion it is and of course I understand the The Balancing Act um you know if we want to be providing excellent service I think uh Happy Well compensated employees also play into uh to providing Excellence absolutely I agree 100 it's something that I intend to bring forward soon yes sir I'll be happy to speak with with you all about it soon thank you thank you representative thank you for the presentation I just wanted to clarify again one more time the cost drivers on this slide is it the 26 million um for the upcoming fiscal year um that includes or does not include any potential increases for the workforce it does it does assume a minimum increase of one and a half percent one and a half percent and then any potential agreement through the collective bargaining process also it's an assumption at this point yes ma'am okay all right I've noticed uh Personnel related cost drivers have been anywhere from 10 to 15 million and so um I I do want to highlight the fact like you have already that these cost drivers are very significant are going to impact potentially impact our tax rate and but we have a duty to make sure that our contracts are issued we have the funding for the contracts our collective bargaining agreements and then the competitive salaries for employees um but I'm just very concerned with that that amount I haven't seen a great amount like that before in the past so so recognize Council that there's going to be some tough decisions to make thank you absolutely thank you thank you thank you no Pro Tem I'm sorry I'm just going to repeat a question I already asked just for clarification and for edification in FY 22 we put six million dollars in the budget to increase wages by a dollar in FY 2022 23 I'm sorry my question was exactly so if we carried that over for the next two years we would be at fourteen dollars if we did the 50 cents in September and the 50 cents in March for the next two years yes ma'am we would be at 14.11 if we did I mean we've done that we've been doing it you all I want to highlight that you all have been doing the work right the study did not come out of the fact that you were all not doing that I just wanted to understand what that looked like big picture um and so it doesn't seem uh unrealistic or unattainable to continue to do that until we are where we want so thank you so much again no thank you and and I'd like to thank both araceli's team and my team for their work on the competitive wage study thank you thank you have a good day thank you both thank you both the next item is number 34 and this is presentation and discussion on Title VII semi-annual report good afternoon Chief good afternoon Council I.T if you could bring up the presentation okay thank you and again good afternoon um today's presentation we're going to go over Title VII uh requirement here and some statistics that's required on that Title VII so this presentation is requirement of Title VII specifically section 7.04-0.110 it requires a semi-annual report to Council on impounds and outcomes it also addresses permits regular registrations and enforcement activities so this is going to be a brief presentation on those on those measures there so the first one we have are intakes and outcomes the comparison is a period on these are all from July of 2022 and 2021 through December so those first numbers are intakes from 21 to 22. you can see we had an increase of 25 percent on our canine intakes and less on the on the cats then we have our live outcomes that's any time animal leaves the shelter whether it's through adoptions through transports to another Community or even the our RTO process where we return them to the owner whether it's in the field or they come to the shelter to pick up that animal um that then we have our euthanization numbers our adoptions transfers again just wanted to break out a little bit of those live outcomes so you can see where those those came from a little bit of it was again the adoptions we went on our canines at 81 increase on that same time period compared to the previous year and 27 percent more on our cat adoptions from the previous year as well and then the last measure there is microchips that micro there so that's through our events um impounding animals every animal that comes to the shelter if it's not already have a microchip we do provide that microchip so that includes those numbers and during our microchipping events through the community throughout the whole year so part of the requirement here too is to report on our euthanizations these are numbers that we don't like to provide and we want to see that dramatically decrease but uh the reasons for those euthanizations are are broke out below there for our canines and for our cats so again we had you can see the numbers there and they're based on trauma uh Behavior infectious and non-infectious infectious would be things like distemper and parvo where the animal is just too sick and it's not responding to treatment those types of things non-infectious would be things like tumors and Cancers kidney failure those types of things another requirement is on our registrations so our registration numbers we broke it out in two sections here we got our shelter registrations those are the tags that are sold at the shelter and then we also partner with the clinics throughout the town the veterinary clinics and you can see the numbers that are sold to our community um again at the shelter we we increased at the clinic level it did go down a little bit and again I wanted to reiterate this is a requirement by ordinance this is done annually for the pets in care so it's for your canines cats and ferrets and part of that requirement is is the animal has to have its current vaccination which is your rabies vaccine and it also has to be microchipped in order for them to get this registration tag you might hear a lot of times people call them rabies tag it's not a rabies tag it's a registration and again you have to have a current rabies vaccine for that and the microchip some veterinarians will provide a three-year rabies vaccine but that still requires those the the owner of those pets still have to register annually even though it's a three-year vaccine so then these are the types of permits that we've given during that time period there not a whole lot of the foul and rabbit types but the the groomer permits you can see those 152 and 25 and also the previous years so we give it out a few more permits from or a few less permits from 2022 than we did in 2021 for that science same time period and then these are some of the enforcement activities that we did so these are the citations that we give out um so we did have it increase from 27 47 um this uh past current year um and same time the in 2021 it was only at 24 48. some of the newer citations that we've been issuing out starting last year were the ones on the uh grooming grooming ordinance so that grooming ordinance was put into effect in 2021 that was like a beginning year we were working with the groomers and the PA and the shops as well working more with enforcement of that instead of the penalizing them with citations so starting in 2022 we started doing that so that's where you see the list a little bit larger um and then just to clarify a little bit too the title Title VII miscellaneous violations those are going to be some uh violations that aren't uh set out on our software that we use so it's going to be things like animals left in a vehicle um unreasonable uh restraining the animal like using the chain or too short of a tether and with that in closing we continue to enforce our city ordinances state laws provide resources to the community and with the support of the of council and the community we've been able to save over 111 000 animals since we've started our life-saving programs in 2016. so with that if you have any questions correct yes sir six percent so those numbers that number of 75 percent what are we doing to change that or why is the number so high so a lot of this is um if we look at the slide here on the euthanizations large portion of those were from infectious so we did have a big time period at the beginning of the year through June we had a part-time vet and then in June we lost the vet altogether so now with that new veterinarian it's a lot with that infectious and getting the Disease Control and having those protocols in place to prevent those types of euthanizations yeah it's just you know the intake is so much bigger and the life out is just you know okay just kind of shows up a lot right there but mayor to to the numbers in terms of the live release rate for the whole calendar year uh or for the last 12 months I believe it was in the 70 percent for the year 2022 uh 2022 2021. we had uh for 2022 we had a live release rate with 73 percent by the end of the year uh the past two months now so in December it was at 83 percent and this month we're looking at we're going to be right around the same about 82 can you do you know what the euthanized number is for those two months you just I mean those are good numbers but as the euthanizing animals down I'd have to check the exact numbers yeah I'd like to see that number because that number just keeps we're still we're still unfortunately euthanizing if there's infection or if there's I see that but yeah 75 over the prior year still shows a lot and that's the biggest issue is that last year we had a December last year we had in November so and then this year we have a December and November and the numbers are up so much so I just want to that just glares right at me and I'd like to see if those numbers are improving every you know the last couple months that you're talking about the life for late uh the live release rate yes there you go thank you it has increased it has done better um so again it's based on that that um how many we do bring into the shelter and how many we're euthanizing so those numbers have decreased over the past couple months and it's taken us a little bit to get that disease under control and getting new uh those new procedures and just getting all that I just like to see those numbers by month yes if you don't mind because I think that that would show a lot yes sir and then you showed me a number on the last slide um that showed saved lives 11 000 for 22. but in six years that 16 to 12 is six years I mean 16 or 22 or six years which is roughly about 18 000 so we're down in 22. by quite a bit if you divide you know six in the one one eleven you can end up with what roughly eighteen thousand and for 22 we only had eleven thousand so those are numbers that really show up a lot and I'd like to see the monthly numbers see how we're improving on that and that's exactly what we're doing we're putting all the pieces and parts in place uh with the veterinarian getting all of our positions filled um getting everything in place and we are seeing those numbers uh increase so again our life release rate for 2022 ended at 73 percent the year prior to it was at 84 percent we are seeing uh you know those improvements we're working you know day in day out to get to improve our our processes getting more uh Partners so like this year again we're reestablishing a lot of our Partnerships so you get these animals out of the shelter we're going to be doing the expansion which is going to help a lot with euthanization due to disease because right now we are full um and that compressed environment uh the animals it brings a lot of stress which to be just like anybody else just like a human you know you get a lot of stress your immune system drops so it makes it easier for them to get sick and it's harder for them to get well so with that shelter expansion coming on board that's going to be giving us that space so that the animals have more uh room and they'll be more segregated as well what's the square footage of the addition I don't have that exact number but it's going to be we're looking at 400 new kennels okay well so those are just the numbers that kind of glared at me so thank you for that and I look forward to looking at the monthly numbers see how we're improving yes sir thank you sir and mayor the just that adding 400 new kennels isn't going to be the answer we're also looking at you know getting more aggressive with even hiring even more vets that's going to require an increased a significant increase in Pay there so it's not as you know and as the council knows it's not just a one single approach to this issue it's just it's multi-prong and the beginnings of this issue this problem they were at 23 no kill and at one point we were in the high 80s but I think annually I think the highest we got was 85 percent 86 percent and um and then covet hit and then we're recovering from that we were even in the 60s during covet I think mid high 60s and now we bumped up into the 70s this whole last year was in the 70s and you know the goal is to be in the 80s minimum and that's that's a go for the year so that's going to be what we shoot for in this 23. thank you and I'm glad to see the expansion and you know and we do know that there's multi-facets to what we need to do and that's always a good place to start so thank you representative Fierro Mr Mayor Mr Gonzalez I'd like to request a work session where we can come to some answers in regards to the dog attacks that we've been seeing on the media how we're going to address the the issues that that really Mr Gonzalez just brought up but but I think the public needs to be included and and of rest of the of what we're doing to address these issues absolutely we can shoot the late February for that thank you yes sir representative Hernandez thank you representative and Mr uh and and representative we will make it a comprehensive report we'll we'll answer the questions with regard to dog attacks but we'll also uh address these other points that I've mentioned okay you're welcome thank you for the presentation um I think um just based on some conversations I've had from Animal Advocates I wanted to just share my concern regarding behavior related um reasons for euthanization and I think that might be where we have the greatest impact if we can look closely and I know that in the past I have inquired um and some of the types of behaviors that lead to euthanasia as explained to me was related to often aggression self-mutilation mutilation severe mental decline bite history endangered to human and other pets and what you mentioned earlier I think is is pretty significant that you know when when animals are too stressed um they can react right they can react in in ways that are harmful um but also I think we need to look closely at the number of times we go and check their behavior I know that was a concern I heard um you know I hate to use uh these parallels but you know like three times are out type of scenario is what I'm understanding but I I really do believe that if we can have more folks like volunteers and folks who who want to take the time to help if the pet is eligible to receive additional support I think that would go a long ways I think animals who have experienced significant harm by their irresponsible pet owners I think have a natural reaction to act this way so I don't want to Discount those animals who have severe trauma related behavioral issues use to see if there's any way that we can save but if you have any other programs related to the behavior in euthanasias I'm happy to hear that but I know that is a point of concern for me for some members of the ASAC along with the pet Advocates of the community okay yeah and we do have our volunteers that go out to the shelter they constantly help us with that enrichment of the animals so they come out they do walking they go in the play parks with them so that's a big stress reliever so we we're always looking for volunteers to help with those types of things and anytime we do have an animal that you know like you said it's they came from a abusive home or something and they're just tied you know just sitting in the back of the of the kennel afraid just snapping and shaking we do uh social media outreach on that as well looking for those Fosters people that can come and have experience with that as well so it's also finding those those individuals with that experience making sure they're not going to get injured taking this animal to their home making sure they're the right fit but obviously we're giving that information up front uh to the community that we're looking for those types that type of help so we're always looking for that we have our uh everybody in the in the uh at the shelter they're our eyes and ears they're as they're anything from cleaning the kennels or walking other animals they're watching that behavior and they're reporting that to our behavioral specialists so that they can do assessments uh check on them and it may be as simple as they're just not getting along with their kennel mate finding some other kettlement that they're going to get along with uh it's drastically reduce relieves their stress we also have some other candles that they can be by themselves and and de-stress as well so we're all kind of programs that we're looking at we have students going there we have uh high school students and with that enrichment they're they go and they they make the treats and stuff for them and take them out whether in summertime and even the winter time we make frozen treats for them and and it's that one-on-one interaction with the uh mainly those canines and making sure that they're we're giving them the best opportunity we can and as we see any kind of behavior decline as well because sometimes they come in not so bad we're constantly putting those out we work with the sheriff's department on our most wanted to help advertise those and again using social media to find and contacting our Fosters that have that expertise and that type of thing but with you know the pet population that we have right now it is difficult to get through around 800 dogs yeah no and I don't want to Discount the value that you bring to the department with your many decades of experience in the mental health realm environment as in the fire department um disagree with a lot of the statements that are said about you I think you bring a lot of tremendous value to the department so those are just some concerns that I have as well just two quick questions this might be Capital related um Mr Hernandez representative if I may uh with respect to uh Mr kipshaw he was involved and I placed him on the um cross-functional team when the live release rate was at 23 when we had issues out at the kennel uh with parvo and disease because the fire department has extreme knowledge in and medical protocols for people we felt like they would be experts in having medical protocol for Animals As a matter of fact the partnership that the fire department and the animal services has enjoyed we take advantage of 30 plus units 30 plus facilities rather that are out there in the community where we have different Partnerships whether it's with cats whether it's with dogs other communities have asked how do you do that what have you all done that that makes it so easy for that to happen and it's because of that Confluence of energy and Synergy that's created through that cross-functional team that was put together in 2015 and so as I mentioned before at one point we were at a very bad live release rate I understand what the standard is today and that the Baseline isn't 23 anymore but we have had a journey through this process with regard to the challenges we've had we had a long conversation about covet earlier and how it had a Health financial and operational impact and I also know that people have grown weary of hearing about covet but at the same time we have a tremendous team and we need to give them the resources that they need I just sent an email just now with respect to additional resources that will be brought to bear again that will be a cost associated with that but I do understand and hear it's a priority not only for the for our for our team but I understand it's a priority for the council as well and thank you um city manager for those statements um Capital related question what was the total budget for the expansion of the kennel the new kennels and then what was the source of funds I don't know the exact numbers right at uh yeah it's escaping me too and so so if you could just get maybe we could just talk about it tomorrow and that'll lead me what was the question again um just the the source of funds for the the animal services extension I I know this information is just for them that's general fund money and that's money we set aside in the capital project Improvement program so the council has approved that already so that was the CEO of 2019 I think I think it was 18 but but yeah you're you're generally in the box there was a certificate of of applications and forgetting my words a CEO um approved by Council so that we can have the funding to address this need and it it's just it's important to note because oftentimes we don't have our general fund to supplement a lot of these efforts and so when used responsibly could help save lives and so that was one this was one of the projects it takes time even though we approved it in 2019 a lot of these things take time but I'm excited to see the future of of the expansion of animal services and then I just wanted to note for the public that yourself Terry and Jerry demuro will be talking about that at our community meeting tomorrow Wednesday February 1st at 5 30 at lunchbox on Buckner off of Montana and so as part of the new inventory if you will and areas that I represent Animal Services is one of the areas I represent now so I thought it was important that the public have an opportunity to hear the plans to talk about the progress of animal services and all the opportunities we have moving forward thank you for if you wanted to add anything I just wanted to add on the that approval for the expansion of the shelter that also included the HVAC system so there's HVAC system that's also the entire system is going to be revamped at the shelter as well that's going to help also with that Disease Control because right now it's the way that system was built is just a you know it's a HVAC system just blows the air from one room to the next this new system is going to have the positive pressures negative pressures to keep the diseased areas separate from the healthy areas and improve the smell yes thank you and I think you forgot one volunteer city council rep District 8. I think you were there this Sunday even before he got elected he told me he actually loves to go over there and volunteer and spend a Sunday star with the animals so um yeah thank you and then another thing is um Mr Gonzalez we didn't have any doubt that who you put in there would do a good job and continue work and one thing that it's important none of us in this room know everything but as long as we're willing to learn and move forward we'll succeed so we thank you for that Chief thank you thank you representative thank you very much mayor Chief kevshaw thank you very much for your presentation I know you've been here quite a few times and that's great that's fantastic but since the time that I've been here I've heard many things happening and not happening um I know we have a website I know we've had free adoptions we've had free companies come in do microchipping we've hired a veterinarian we didn't have one we've increased the salary of compensation for the people in Animal Services we're doing all these good things wonderful things but yet we're still having problems issues things that are not necessarily coming together cohesively at least in my opinion I'm not blaming you sir but I think we still need a long way to go and whether it's the expansion the HVAC system a more education educating the public different things I mean we need to really start beefing up whatever we need to do to help these animals you know there are four-legged friends and I just it's it's it's hard to see all these numbers and you know death rates and um it just it's for me it's unsettling you know I do like dogs but it's just very unsettling to hear all these things over and over and over again and I'm not like I said blaming you or your staff or anybody but it's to me it's like a huge Community effort and we really need to polish it up and please reach out to my office if there's something that I can do to help you sir the facilities or anything like that you know please feel free to do that and I would invite you Mr Chief Capshaw to come to one of our community meetings out in the Northeast we usually have very well attended meetings we're also going to start having meetings at night perhaps you can bring some of your four-legged friends and you know draw help us draw that attention because seriously we need that you you know there's a lot of dog lovers we're going to be opening the dog park in Northeast that Joey barasa and Vino Park on Saturday March 4th I believe you've probably already been contacted for that as well and so we need a lot of emphasis from the community a lot of teamwork I think representative Fierro when he mentioned about dog attacks and because that is an issue in our community thank goodness that we haven't had anyone pass away as a result of the trauma the injury or anything like that but it could potentially happen in the future so we really need to work together on different issues so thank you very much Chief appreciate your time and answered the question earlier Miss Hernandez was correct I stand corrected it was in 2019 in December of 19 when it was approved it's 10.9 million there's a 8.2 million for the expansion of the housing there's almost a million dollars for the shelter HVAC there's 1.4 million for medical houses and a transport vehicle 364 thousand for a total of 10.9 million the HVAC is under construction right now and the expansion is under negotiation with job order contractor thank you thank you and and I do agree there's there's always room for improvement uh we're never going to be 100 satisfied we're going to move forward and we are looking at you know these dog bites that we've had recently they're not Strays like it's been publicized these are our own dogs they're escaping from yards and it's unfortunate and it it's it's it's it brings the negative light to our community on our pet ownership but we're working on that so we're going to continue with that education make sure that people know whether it's we're going to have to be a lot more diligent and forceful on our enforcement of of the canines and just working as a community together again uh you know looking for the why are these animals escaping making sure that they are vaccinated against rabies so that you know when somebody does get bit they don't have to go through the process of getting being the rabies treatments at the with their doctor and stuff like that if they've already you know had the rabies vaccine and stuff like that so there's lots of things where we can that we're looking at that we are already improving getting that vet in place continuing with our clinics uh through uh Partnerships throughout the community we've reestablished the visiting vets and our partner vets that come to the shelter again when we didn't have that vet there they couldn't come to the shelter because we weren't able to provide them with those drugs to do spay neuters but that's all back in place and those Partnerships are are well on their way and we're continue to to improve and we thank you very much for all that sir thank you and all your team thank you representative Canales yeah first of all thank you Mr capsule it's a really informative presentation has a lot of good data which I love to see um first just to the mayor's concerns um looking at the euthanasia rates from last year not the rates but the raw numbers in euthanasia from last year to this year and seeing a 75 change I know that it looks really concerning and I don't mean at all to to downplay the the issue here of of an increase but it is more valuable I think to look at euthanasia as a as a rate and it's a seven percent increase euthanasia as a uh you know that we look at the 714 uh uh euthanizations in in 2021 over the intake puts us at 18 percent and that's 25 for 2022 so more like a seven percent increase it's still very concerning um but the I mean the shelter had a thousand dogs more in intake so uh you know to your credit I would say it's it's not necessarily a 75 percent jump It's like a seven percent jump in in the euthanasia rate right um so just to that this is my my soapbox for the beginning um one thing that I'm going to look to do uh during my time in office but soon uh is is look at strategies uh and and you know cooperation with with you and your staff I think will be really important here uh strategies and enforcement particularly for backyard breeders um I know you know we you I'm looking at slide eight here and and um you know we have robust enforcement I think in in some areas uh 600 July 1st to December 31st of last year 658 citations for no registration 767 citations for no vaccination 383 for no microchip look those are good robust enforcement numbers but I I'm a little disheartened when I see things like uh only 21 citations for no litter permit and then only three citations for animal selling no permit um you know just driving around on a Saturday I'll often see more than three people uh selling puppies out of the back of their car or something parked on the side of the road and so I think we need to find some new strategies particularly for backyard breeders people who are breeding dogs at home you know not not spaying and neutering their animals and then either mistakenly or intentionally having litters of of dogs at their homes and and going to sell those um I think that's a huge driver for a lot of the other problems the increased intake increase in disease um and so uh it's not so much a question but just you know as of a few hours ago at the passage of the the consent agenda I'll be the new appointee to the to the animal shelter advisory committee um and so I really look forward to working with you on these things um again I'm at the shelter typically once a week uh you know I'm a rescue Runner so I'm out there on Sundays uh running dogs and walking dogs it's a great program and you have excellent both volunteers and staff there at the at the shelter who make so many good things happen but I really look forward to where I'm sure you'll we'll see a lot more of each other here going forward and I look forward to working with you on a lot of things but again particularly this this backyard breeder issue and and again I think addressing that one problem helps it has a big knock-on effect into a lot of the other the other issues that you face on the back end as you have to deal with the with the Fallout of you know unfortunately people in our community yeah breeding and selling animals yes and I thank you for that and I thank you for volunteering at the shelter and I and looking at the city ordinances is another priority of mine is looking at those uh ordinances see what's working so as of right now it's ever since the one ordinance was passed on on a Breeder's permit we've never issued one so there's never been a breeders permit and those are very minimal uh what those would qualify to be a breeder those would be like for specialty type dogs you know whether it's for police or for uh you know helping people that type of thing so it that is one of my priorities is going through that with the fine tooth comb see which ones are not working and which ones need more teeth so how can we get that done to to enforce that and and it not an excuse but it's it is an underground uh business and it's just like anything else they use a lot of uh false phones false addresses that type of thing so pinpointing some of these are very difficult uh at best but we're looking at ways to how can we improve on on stopping those illegal activities all right and I'm again I'm happy to be a partner with you on these things and and especially in terms of going through uh and and seeing in in the law what what changes we need to make I think uh I look forward to working with you on that I look forward to it thank you thanks and I just want to and I couldn't really hear your numbers you were saying at first but I I can tell you that we had a thousand and nine and take more from that number we had 659 additional animals that were euthanized which is 65.31 of the additional animals but it's still 81 over last year and that's something that I'm I'm glad to see we're improving on thank you thank you mayor Pro tem thank you mayor yeah I mean I kind of wanted to clarify something about the concerns that the the ASAC is having about euthanasia because it's not actually on this slide um you're seeing the numbers from euthanasia what one of the largest issues from ASAC was was the the like so you have uh you know 26 cats euthanized from Behavior which is an adjusted number um but they were kittens so we were seeing a lot of kittens euthanized for Behavior which was a concern of the animal services committee and puppies and so yes trauma really plays a factor in how some dogs are raised and the trauma that they have but the concern was how does a newborn kitten have behavioral issues and why are they being euthanized so I just wanted to clarify that was the concern I know you were going to look at that data that might be why there are some adjustments here that hasn't been brought back up well I haven't looked back into it since then but that was what the big concern was was the reasoning in the age didn't really make a lot of sense um I'm not going to be your appointee on the ASAC anymore I know you're not going to miss me that much Terry but I will still be involved um some things I I do want to bring up that I I get on you all a lot for and haven't brought up our council is the website and the adoptable pets I don't know why we're using um that uh application for the photos I don't think it's benefiting us at all people still send me pictures of cats um and are like what is this monster and I'm like it's just the application that they use uh takes out the background and it's really weird but I just I don't think that it's a benefit I think it's doing us a lot more harm the animals don't really look appealing as adoptable which you know you shouldn't be really shopping for your pets on the internet but it's a thing that I hear about a lot and I'm always going to bring it up until it gets better I do have a question though Terry I'm not just up here to yell at you or we'll tell you about the website as I always do um we had a moment in time where we did not have a vet right and so we had a lot of backlogs of animals being spay and neuter um and for a lot and I believe it was mostly cats right we were doing a lot of Fosters out and I think you were really great about the situation we needed to get animals out by law we can't adopt them unless they're spay or neutered if someone fostered a cat that they were willing to adopt and they brought it back you would neuter them I think you would that that was dealt with really well I just wanted to know if we kind of have any understanding on where we are with that kind of backlog if we feel like we're on track um because you know we weren't having a vet for a few months and we were still getting a lot of animals if you just kind of knew the data on where we are I don't know the exact numbers but we did uh back in October I think it was we had a spanthon so we brought in a lot of veterinarians from other parts of the country and we did do a large catch-up at that time so like right now with our cats it's pretty equal and cats and dogs that we have out in Foster that are the Foster to adopts is what we refer them to because they're just waiting for that spay neuter so we can complete that adoption we still do have uh quite a few of those and we knock a bunch of those out every week so we're doing those we're doing the uh animals at the shelter and we're also doing the TNR cat so it's a it's a mixture of all those animals so that we can keep up our cat population at the shelter right now is significantly down from the summer months so we're right at uh just below 100 actually so our cat population we're doing really well we're really caught up on those spay neuters it is just now keeping up with those TNR ones so that they don't reproduce come here in the springtime helping out our other partners as well on those spay neuters and so we have caught up significantly and again we're using utilizing our our in-house vet and we also have a vet that comes in from the Humane Society and he comes in two or three times out of the week to assist us with those pay neuters as well and we have another vet that's in uh she's licensed here in Texas but she lives in Las Cruces and she comes in at least once a week sometime twice as well to help out so those are the constants we also do have other vets that do come in when they have a chance the one from Bissell in particular and she'll come and spend a week or so with us and she's a very well versed it's our old veterinarian who you know she can do you know 60 cats in a day no problem so she'll come in and assist us when she's not in another Community assisting them okay great and then I have a question about the vehicles how many of the mobile pet Vans do we have that are working right now we have one mobile pet van but one of them is out of commission correct we have two or just one no we only have one and it is working we do have the transport vehicle but that's not uh mobile events that may not be the the ASAC person anymore but I'm still going to get the emails and so I guess I'm very sad to be leaving the committee um we got a lot done uh went through three directors I think since I was on the committee um so I'm glad that you are there um but I do just ask that you know I know that the the members of the ASAP committee are very committed sometimes to their own fault but I do feel like there's been a lot of resistance to them I do think that they want to help some of that's not you some of that's legal but I think that I just I I think that they deserve a lot of respect they really do care and they you know have been themselves kind of bashed in the community for not doing enough and I do really want to leave by saying I would leave that committee by saying I hope that they are given the space and the opportunity to really help in these issues and help with Partnerships because I know that they're very dedicated and very concerned um so thank you for working with me with my time on the committee I really appreciate all the information and I may not be on the committee I'm still going to ask you a ton of questions Terry and I will stop by and come see you all the time as well thank you thank you for the service on the ASAC hey chief um to volunteer do you just show up or is there a way to go online and sign up to volunteer either way you can go online there is a sign up for the volunteer or you can come to the shelter and there's form that pamphlet that you could pick up and talk to somebody as well one of our volunteer Personnel I get some more information but either way great appreciate that info representative Canales yeah one final thing and mayor I'd love to have you out on a Sunday morning I already said I'm you already invited me perfect so I'm gonna have to oh I'm gonna go out there with you because I figured I needed to sign up for that one you can just show up all right I'll take you out there um I did have one more question I know last either August or September uh Council uh passed a I guess it was an mou or a cooperation agreement with the Veterinary Medical Association um is that that's still active and ongoing yes that's uh still active and going that's uh part of that our strategic partnership with the clinics um so that's what we're still utilizing and that pays for when uh whether it's a foster or a specialty type surgery we're still utilizing that do we uh and forgive me if it's baked into the the data that's already here but do we have numbers of in terms of how much that's been utilized since September whenever that agreement began it's not in here but I can get that information yes yeah that'd be great thank you and we we currently still only have the one staff veterinarian correct we have one full-time veterinarian yesterday and we're still actively we're still actively uh looking for another uh we have a position for three more um but we're also in the interim if a veterinarian wants to work part-time with us that's still being advertised as well okay and in terms of capacity on that agreement with the Veterinary Medical Association we still have plenty of dollars left on that and capacity to continue working with them as much as we need yes sir perfect okay thank you and I would appreciate if you can get me some some information about how that agreement has been going and again our utilization of it yes I'll get you that information there has been a little bit of change in the uh epvma they lost one of their personnel that was uh managing the the funds and stuff so right now they have a uh they're in the process of hiring somebody new and they just have a veterinarian that's a kind of filling in excellent okay thank you thank you sir and thank you Chief thank you that brings us to the first reading of ordinances these are items 36 to 38. mayor can we take these individually motion to approve item 36. it's the first reading there's a motion on item 36 is there a second thank you there's a motion made by mayor Pro Tema anello seconded by representative Molina to approve item 36. the introduction on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Salcido not present but I believe we have public comment on the next item correct on item 37 we received a statement from Veronica to be read into the record by Yuma thank you I am requesting that each council member and mayor acknowledge having received our suggested amendments in our analysis to the limitations of language used in other cities as you see among other things we have omitted limitations a second document explains the reasoning for the Omission should you still decide to include limitations we suggest keeping a minimum number of limitations with the language such as this alternately if Council would prefer excluding certain subjects the recommendation would be to keep them to a minimum for example any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with state federal and local law however no ordinance May initiate it through this process if the proposed ordinance authorizes in levies levying of taxes or granting franchises in addition we are requesting Pro attached document one a cap of 5 000 signatures to 365 days to petitioners to collect signatures since signatures expire in 180 days this additional time allows petitioners to decide when to collect signatures three that the proposed ordinance be heard at the next city council meeting four since the city clerk will have 60 city clerk working days to validate there should be no further delay after that and the proposition should be placed on the next city council agenda five again there's no reason for delay in such the proposition should be placed on the next uniform election six amending or repealing the proposition should be available to council after two years not one seven councils should not be obligated to consider a proposition more than once of every year instead of two thank you Veronica carbohall Rick Bonar Carmen Rodriguez reserved the right to call in during public comment thank you with that do we have motion to approve the item move to approve there's some motion in a second approve item 37. sorry I requested a speaker pardon me I requested to speak and there are people signed up nope uh there are people signed up for a public comment too I remember that from the list that you provided earlier for 37 we had Veronica Carvajal and Dr Rick bonart I'm not sure if he's in the queue I don't recognize the phone number as the one he signed up with Dr bonard are you in the queue star six to unmute your telephone Rick bonart star six to one meet your telephone I don't believe he's in the queue thank you okay I had some questions are you done oh no okay I'm gonna keep you all here all day um Miss Hamilton I did have some questions about uh the language in 3.1 I understand that you added that one word and I don't have it in front of me I do have it in front of me you added the word required appropriation or allocation um I still think it's a little vague and my concern is that the people will not do a citizen petition because they believe it requires City funds but I do have a question about the zoning and rezoning and I guess I'm going to ask an overall question but it is in regards to that so of these limitations are those all limitations clarified by the state or are those our own limitations per this document uh to your first point uh Kristen Hamilton Karen for the record uh regarding the you're talking about 3.11 yes the first paragraph I apologize the we did not add the word required we deleted that so now it says regarding there cannot be an ordinance allocating or appropriating city funds okay but Council directed you to add language and I'm looking at the backup and the backup has the word required so that you didn't add any language or this backup is wrong Council directed us to clarify the language the language previously said there cannot be an ordinance regarding the required allocation or appropriation of funds Council directed us to clarify that that does not mean a project that requires money but means that the ordinance itself cannot appropriate or allocate City funds so we changed it to say that a petition cannot be instituted re that allocates or appropriates city funds allocating or appropriating city funds okay well I'm looking at the backup and the red line version that you all submitted it has the word required correct is that it should be read and slashed through so if you look at the clean ordinance oh maybe that's where I'm completely confused um the clean ordinance says regard regarding appropriating or allocating City funds okay let's pull that up um I will take full responsibility for that that was no problem but I just I think it's less uh and it's less clear now by taking out required it just says however no ordinance May initiate it through this process appropriating our allocating funds um but I'm gonna let that go for right now I guess my overall question is how many of these like are limited by state law and how many are limited by this document as we've discussed under state law the requirement is that if there are required City calculations detailed calculations or city processes and procedures that need to occur in order for such ordinance to be passed that is not that is eliminated from the field of appropriateness for initiative petitions all of these items require City processes calculations or procedures to occur prior to an ordinance of that type being issued for instance when the city is allocating or appropriating city dollars there are the budget office the finance department has to review and conduct calculations of the expected revenues and the expenditures and allocate that money to specific projects or they have to move money from budget to budget zoning rezoning as you know is eliminated from the field taxes is eliminated from the field property again if you're if you're selling or purchasing real property there is required state law state law processes that have to occur prior to selling or purchasing property by the city so I guess that's where I were a little concerned because I know that um well one of the things is zoning has recently been brought up in court with the city of Plano and it was a referendum on their comprehensive plan and their rezoning they were also told that they couldn't do zoning and they brought it to court and I believe a circuit court of appeals ruled in the community's favor and so I'm I'm a little concerned on what is in the language and what is actually like I mean law is always changing right we can't determine well we put this in our Charter but a law somewhere else that it was allowed so I guess what I'm trying to say is what you said is true that that you cannot do a referendum for something that requires a city process um at that at this time it is X over time that may change but those things would be true whether they were listed out or not correct because that is the state law correct and this this ordinance provides information to the petitioners so that they're aware of the types of things that wouldn't be appropriate but you are correct those things under state law would be eliminated from the field of what's appropriate and I guess my thinking is just because these laws are changing when things come up in court because courts are always changing the law does it protect us more to not list them out individually even though there's protection still exist through state law right because laws are always changing and I mean what is prohibited by state law is prohibited by state law until it is not and will we someday you know let's say that this court of appeals this final suit in Plano comes out and says you can petition for zoning I don't agree with that I am not that court I'm not advocating for that but then our Charter could potentially be out of compliance with the law because we're listing that is what I'm saying makes sense I understand yeah we've discussed that matter um I'm not familiar with the piano case we're looking at it now um but the field of zoning has been many times repeatedly upheld by the Texas Supreme Court as being outside a petition initiative so I'm not exactly sure that the Plano cases is directly on point we were directed to provide further Clarity to the public in terms of the subjects that they can or can't I don't believe that it hurts to add the list of subjects that are outside of the field of petition simply because it saves a lot of time and effort for the public to go out and do this and then they find out oh you really couldn't do this yeah I mean I guess I just don't think that also the language is as clarifying as I would have hoped for I think it's less clarifying what that word removed and so I would just like to strike out the language about appropriating or allocating City funds I believe that that motion would be most appropriate at the the public hearing but we can prepare that we will have that motion be heard at that date because the typical practice is the action is not taken on the introduction but I just don't want to show up at the first hearing and say I have all these changes I just wanted to to let you all know and I I know that there are other speakers in me but I did get the call that that Mr Bowen is in the virtual queue out there somewhere just so you're all just so you're all aware I know but let's go ahead and finish what we're doing he just showed up so we'll go ahead and continue and then we'll go back to him um that's all I had and I mean I I'm trying to understand Mrs carbajal's comment or about the 360-day five days repetitions to collect signatures so is there I know that signatures expire in 180 days is it possible to do 365 days because then they would just never expire correct or they would expire on the year I uh you are correct the signatures under state law do expire after three after 180 days so under the proposed process if a committee if if the council considers the ordinance that was proposed and does not adopt it or adopts it in its amended form the clerk will notify the person proposing the ordinance once the clerk notifies the person notifying or proposing the ordinance we would give them 180 days which is this so they would by that process that day they could start their put their signatures Ms carbajal's proposal is saying if they delay they're not ready to go out and start procuring signatures at that time when the city clerk provides the notification she doesn't want to be bound by the 180 days say the first signature isn't for another two weeks she would then have 180 days from when she gets her first signature rather than I see okay it makes sense but you're saying that state loss is 180 days state law says 180 days from the date the first signature is received and when you say state law says that you mean it it guides us through that or that's like the state process for when someone does a state referendum under the elections code uh 277 a signature expires after 180 days so if somebody is seeking to petition the government for an ordinance in this manner the first signature that they receive is dated it's required that it has the date that it's received 180 days later that signature is no longer a valid signature the petition is no longer uh considered valid they have 180 days to get all of the required numbers of signatures under the state law okay thank you for clarifying that I just wanted to be very specific about what we meant by that um and I I don't think that it is not reasonable to extend um the amending the repealing process proposition to two years not one and just again giving you the heads up that I will make that motion at the next meeting I'm sorry representative I'm sorry so um we we added with something that was not added in our language I believe you all added it that said that Council cannot change in ordinance within one year of its passing the request would be to change that to two years representative um Kennedy thank you that item is not a new item the two years that was already in the charter did we change it to one year it was presented to us as one year it says two years oh no it was one year I believe it's two two years I'll I'll verify yeah I was because I don't want to miss the windows on processes we have 180 days if I have 180 days to figure it out that's too fast um on 3.2 OB internal audit which is city of El Paso measure J I have some concerns over wording in both two and five but my understanding is that the place to do that is at the next at the public hearing next time is that correct yes sir would it be beneficial if I forwarded what my suggested language is going to be or does it make no difference whatsoever so I should just you can shame if you'd like and then but we're not going to take any action on them until next week yeah I mean I can just forward them because I'm looking at stripping the second half of two out and okay changing the um changing oversight and operational oversight in five but I will I have suggested language but what I'll do is I'll forward it to you and I understand that we then read it in from the floor amendment is that the way it's done [Music] okay and then the council will vote whether whether they uh right or whatever they are the motion right the other question is is it too late for any additions to this because of timing nothing new can go in yes we were discussing it the the 72-hour window is Beyond you now since we have the next council meeting on the 6th and the seventh so there's no more time to post additional meetings between now and then to get additional items on the does it have to be by the seventh could we have a meeting after the seventh but before the 14th when our normal hearing was it's required that it be the ordinance being heard on a regular city council meeting for Council to adopt ordinances under the charter ordinances must be adopted at regular City Council meetings okay and we we moved the 14th to the seventh because of El Paso days right yes sir does that remove the 14th then as a regular a regular date the 14th would still be considered a regular city council date because it's every other question the question was whether we were going to have Quorum is that right correct that's why we moved it so I mean I and I'm not I'm not trying to be difficult I swear I just am um if I mean if if we were to proposed something on the seventh had Quorum on the 14th even for a single item which would be a regular city council date we could ostensibly then approve it then and have the public hearing is that right and and I am wandering in the woods here so I'm looking for Direction 14th I think we moved all the meetings to next week because people would be out so the next regular city council meeting is the seventh and then it's the 14th was eliminated because of the lack of quorum could they on the seventh if there was going to be a quorum on the 14th make it a regular meeting even for a single item I think Council would need to agree to a group for a meeting and then 14th okay I think we need to amend the resolution that the mayor submitted the last at the 24th well it's moved but we could we could schedule a regular meeting even for a single item if we chose right correct we would need to amend that resolution that was approved at the last city council but we could do that on the seventh yes if that item is posted right you can't do it today but you can note on the subject on the agenda if you want to but I'm just I'm not I'm just we all know where I'm going so ostensibly you could you could put an item on for the seventh as a first reading with a public hearing on the 14th if there was going to be a quorum however on the seventh then we would also have to make the 14th a regular meeting even if it was for a single item yes sir I know it's kind of going through the back door but the concern that I have is that Council directed every Resolute every Amendment that's on the ordinance it was thoroughly vetted um so we would need to have a council meeting that Council directs any further amendments I I don't but that would be on the seventh correct we put it on the agenda and deal with that on the seventh but then the introduction would need to occur prior to the 14th so I'm trying to go through it my head we're doing these Charter amendments a lot of vetting and a lot of steps that occur so Council directed every every amendment that we placed onto the ordinance was very specifically directed by Council the language representative vanilla was discussing every step every every Amendment every section of the charter that was amended was specifically directed by city council and then vetted through a committee for several months and then the committee worked on that language and then we came back and then Council made specific changes in a work session and then we brought those items in an ordinance so we would need between now and the 14th an item that Council discusses in direct staff to include as an amendment the body and then the introduction would be after that and then the public hearings what would be the absolute last day you could approve something is it the 14th the last day or is it isn't it the 20 something the 17th is the state deadline however under our Charter again it must occur on a regular meeting so the 14th is the last regular meeting prior to the deadline right my and I understand what the process was my question was if we if something was submitted we couldn't take action on it today because it's not posted is that correct or we could take you can't take action on anything that is not posted today so it would have to be on the seventh but there's not enough time to have a first reading and a second reading before the 14th the only option would be another special meeting for the introduction if there were time we can't do introductions with special meetings yes they can you can introduce at any meeting you can introduce at a special meeting but you can't approve finally except that in a regular schedule so the last meeting that you can to our last regulator deadline drop dead date so you could add an item on the seventh okay but whatever action you take on the seventh it needs to be put on the seventh it can't be um a generic like you need to put the action that you're seeking to have the council approve so that we could then introduce it but then we would need to have another meeting to introduce so they're asking you all approved okay I so on the seventh we could have something introduced have a special meeting as a first reading right between the seventh and the 14th and then approve it on the 14th on the seventh it's not an introduction you would need to put an item on the agenda to discuss whatever subject matter you wanted to add to the Charter ordinance okay and then if that passes then we would need to call a meeting to introduce that Amendment into the ordinance right and then the last meeting that you could call to actually approve the ordinance is February 14th okay so I got it so if you call a meeting or you post an item it needs to be the specific subject matter that you're seeking to add to the Charter amendments and it would have to be dealt with on the seventh to have Council thumbs up or thumbs down that a special meeting would be the first reading and we would also then have to decide we would have a quorum on the 14th to adopt is that correct yes okay thank you sorry I didn't mean to be but I was doing and I would again remind you what the window was the posting deadlines again we would have the same issues that we talked about last week like we can't do a extreme extensive non-publicly vetted without clear direction from Council on specific details because we would only have a couple of hours to draft an ordinance for introduction and for adoption so I have a quote just because I want to I have another question is it possible to call a special meeting and then cancel it can you cancel a special meeting I think if you call it and then you don't have Quorum then it cancels itself right okay sir okay thank you representative to clarify you needed a specific ordinance language right we would need to have very clear Direction absolutely okay so you would need clear ordinance language I just want to say again for the record that any City Charter amendments you know I would ask to to see any of the proposed revisions with ample time Additionally the public should vet any changes to the city Charter but most importantly I thought we all decided that we would change the date of the meeting to allow for members of council to attend El Paso days I would find it incredibly disrespectful to bring City Charter changes without you know having your full Quorum and four full members of council given the the gravity and the seriousness of the city Charter our governing document and so I would just ask members of council to please consider some of the members of council's wishes who would like to be president for any such conversations any discourse any discussions or any action related to our city Charter and I would find it highly offensive if I weren't allowed to participate in that having already prior vote from this Council to make a decision not to meet on February 14th we did that in all in good faith and so I would just ask for for you all's respect so that we could be part of that discussion thank you now if you had an item that you want to bring forward whatever that item may be full Council has the opportunity to voted down and not bring It Forward so whatever writer may be whoever wants to bring an item on the seventh Council has the opportunity to say no we don't want it we're not going to be here we don't want to vote on it and then it doesn't move forward correct that's true okay so at least you know it's not an item that you don't have an opportunity to vote on you can vote on and turn it down before it even moves forward that way there's no item that's being found someone's trying to pass something because there's not going to be a fool which would be important and I agree with you know if that was in the process that you have the opportunity to vote it down so I did move forward yes sir representative well mayor uh what you're saying is then you're you're asking a broad suggestion there and I believe right now it's just representative Kennedy that wants one I think we're adding more work to our staff if you don't like it you go we don't want to vote right we don't so you'll have that opportunity you know I can live with just representative Kennedy's suggestion but when you say anybody then everybody's going to come with one of their own so I suggested we just stick to one yeah well that's just a with the mayor that's that that'd be just one suggestion for staff because they're the ones working out hours on into the night and whatever you're while you're at home pondering what's going on thank you thank you sir and with that I think remember security there was your line back on okay with that um we do have a motion in a second on item 37 yeah but someone already the motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Salcido to approve the introduction on item 37. American I make one more comment I apologize I I just this might clear some of it up rep Kennedy for what it's worth uh I I don't we've already rescheduled these meetings I think even if you stayed back from El Paso days I I probably will not be available and I think you would still fail to make Quorum on the 14th well that's what I'm saying you can vote it down on the seventh and it never moves forward and then we don't have to work or yeah I just just for clarity's sake I wanted to communicate that you know we rescheduled our meeting and now I don't think I'll be available yeah no and I just wanted to know the parameters we were dealing with I just wanted to clear clear that before I put the I think we've already had commitments to go but okay yes mayor the motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Salcido to approve the introduction of the ordinance for item 37. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 38 is also an introduction of an ordinance we did have three people signed up to speak I don't see them in the queue there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the introduction of the ordinance on item 38. on that motion call for the vote mayor I just have a question for our legal team really quickly was there um anything outside of what what was shared with Council were there any changes to the language other than what was already previously shared with Council are you asking for item number 38 correct uh I'm sorry I don't know the yeah that's what we're on item number 38 was as prepared by us at the last council meeting um as one subject matter okay thank you thank you Miss Prine the voting session is open Council and the voting session the motion passes seven to one with representative Rivera voting the remainder of council voting I the motion does pass that brings us to item number 39 and this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for Professional Services between the city of El Paso and hntb Corporation for a project known as design for intelligent transportation system infrastructure at Sarah Wilson Bridge of the Americas International ports of Entry second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 39 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro 10 anello not present item number 40. is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2023-0026r customer service call center Staffing and management service operations to datamark Inc representative Kennedy yeah I just I mean I had some questions because I'd gotten some calls from constituents on this one um these are the guys running the 3-1-1 is that right good afternoon Paula Salas with purchasing and strategic sourcing yes sir um has there been cost analysis on if we brought it in-house I will have to defer that to the department to the fire department is is there an out in this one or is it a locked on three years do we have an out clause in it yeah so this this contract is for three years with an option to extend for two what's the penalty on on if we pull the plug on it early uh we can just either continue or terminate by default or we can terminate for convenience so depending on the situation um the only penalty for for termination for default would be if the vendor is not perform okay we have a termination for convenience too right correct that would be earlier than the three years yes and that is that the discretion of the city correct I was just wondering if it was again this is a wide open question if it had been looked at about the possibility of bringing it in-house because I've had some people calling me about issues so absolutely representative Kennedy this is Nicole Cody from purchasing and strategic sourcing and OMB I'm sorry I'm upstairs um but actually I had to look I had to raise my head up because you're at the bottom of the screen but I I saw you you're like where's she hiding so but but no sir um originally when this this contract was first introduced to the city so uh the issue that we were facing was that they do cover non-emergency PD calls and that really represents almost more than half of the calls that are covered through 3-1-1 and so we've got Chief killings on the line and he can explain more on the difficulty we've seen in the past in order to be able to hire these specific type of call takers go ahead Chief killings yes good afternoon Council and mayor uh good afternoon chief this is Chief killings El Paso Fire Department yes sir so we have looked in the past uh at the possibilities of we've looked at all possibilities in regards to Best Service delivery model for our three on one um and yeah there's the the as Miss Cody was talking about the the challenge is going to be uh hiring and retention of Staff um and it's not cost effective it's more cost effective to have the the third party vendor uh be able to perform that uh the training as well um the level of training that's needed for them to to maintain um the um the ability to handle PD non-emergency and fire non-emergency calls they have to be certified as telecommunicators um and that's just an added burden and an additional cost um if we were to bring it internally and try to do it um it just would not be cost effective what would the cost be I mean the only reason I'm saying is data Mark obviously doesn't have a problem finding people and training them yes their data Mark is a a call service provider that that operates um in that realm only um and and we just have to manage the contract with them as far as the exact cost I don't have those numbers like I said this was something that was looked in uh years years back um I don't I don't have the exact cost I just know that it was looked at and we we the determination was made that it was it would not be cost effective do we know what the pay rate is for datamark the pay rate uh for each individual person is outlined within the contract as far as what the the contracted price is uh I don't know what they pay their employees uh on the back side though okay I I'm not going to hold it up I know we've been here all day long but uh yeah I mean I do too I mean I've got a million questions on this one but um since there's a convenience clause on the out I would like to take a look at that and sit down with purchasing take a look at the contract I mean I just it's it's here's the other thing when you see in a in a bid like that the prices were so Divergent for the same issue it makes me either concerned about pay rate concerned about uh size of Staffing or can we expect a change order and I have problems with all three but What's the timing on this when does the current contract expire that would be on um February uh I believe it's February 23rd so this will it's there's it's the previous vendor so it will be the same vendor um there will be no transition period so yeah as soon as the other one ends this will start my concern is so we're three weeks out and we probably wouldn't have a transition period if we were to award it somewhere else I I do get concerned when the prices are that Divergent from anybody else and are that significantly lower because I wonder then about Service as well as if there's change orders coming in but I'm not willing to hold this up and shut down the 3-1-1 in the non-emergency calls at this point but so absolutely representative Kennedy this is Nicole Cody on the item of the change orders uh we did not see change orders with the previous contract I'm not saying that it would not happen with this contract but historically with this vendor we did not see change orders and we did ensure that there were specific improvements that went into the scope and requirements for this contract per the city manager he's very sensitive to the issues that have been brought forward by Council as well as by our community to ensure that we're improving the service delivered by 3-1-1 which includes the resolution of items so there's certain metrics that we have added into the contract per the department as part of the scope that includes a customer satisfaction survey that includes improved requirements for callbacks and also call answer rates as well in addition to those items we did increase the required Staffing to ensure that we're able to meet the requirements that we have as far as the demand for the non-emergency calls so there is an increase in in a certified Staffing that would be able to handle those calls and so it is something that we're very sensitive to um and we know that the department was very sensitive to as well and have built that into the scope and it's part of this contract can I get um and I know that because he it all ends up on your desk so if you're really sensitive to Performance analysis can I see the performance analysis from the previous contract in the in the entire new contract just could you send it over absolutely we'll we'll get the okay yes sir that's all I have for questions to all of council please if you absolutely so we have a motion no motion and no second there is a motion made by representative connellis to approve item number 40. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes 721 representative Kennedy voting name the remainder of council voting I the motion does carry item number 42 remember to approve is a public hearing on an ordinance granting a special privileged license to the county of El Paso for the construction installation maintenance use and repair of 540 linear feet generally along a portion of First Avenue and Campbell Street motion made by mayor Pro tem anelo seconded by representative Kennedy to approve item 42 there's no public comment call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 43 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 15 Public Services section 15.08.160 mobile Billboards to extend the current permitting pilot program by one year lift your proof there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 43 there's no public comment pardon me I think representative canale said some questions oh go ahead sir thank you sorry everybody I know you all I want to be done um I I do actually have I have a lot of concerns about this one actually um I think this this was a quite a long uh hearing last time when when we first created this pilot program um am I looking at the wrong one I'm looking at mobile billboards okay yes and it was quite it was quite long um this one is this is an extension of of the pilot program that's been around for the first year um uh I I have some issues with with being asked to approve a second year of a pilot program without a look at the performance in in the first year of a pilot program um I do too that's the reason why we are recommending extension of the pilots who will get that report and as a staff as senior staff and then be able to report out to council and then bring something back uh within that year our plan is not to have that full year extension run its full course we want to bring it within that time frame and we want to do that expeditiously do we have any data at this point in terms of I have not been reinforcement I have not been briefed and so therefore whenever the item when we whenever we were reviewing it um that was one of my questions about having not been briefed in the fact that there was going to be made permanent I had a problem with that and so that's the reason why I wanted to make sure that we just extended it we got the reports at this at the senior level senior staff and legal and then we'd be able to then make a sound recommendation pursuant to that based on the numbers and we we don't have that information at this point at least we haven't been briefed okay because I I mean I'm sure PD has and that's the same issue with the other one I'm sure they have it too I'm just telling you we've not been briefed okay it looks like this one is set to expire on February 15th we have one more meeting before then I believe they're both set to expire this one and the next one so right so yeah we we've not had the proper briefing I think that uh that's not how we do our business you know we we review the items very carefully before we make a recommendation and we weren't ready to do that especially with a new Council and so I asked staff to Simply extend it okay and to be clear I I'm not ready to extend the pilot program without having I understand but I think that means for for the next however long until we review it we'll have these vehicles on the road and I want to make sure that the data is showing that that that's safe I mean again we are the only municipality in the United States that permits Mobile Billboards currently uh Clark County Nevada is the only other other place in the United States that allows these that's the Las Vegas Strip and even they have been putting much stricter uh restrictions on and they suspended their pilot program in the past year because of issues that they were having um and and so again I I want to look really closely I've looked at Clark County's data again they had a lot of a lot of citations being issued and a lot of complaints received from from the public from business owners from drivers so I just want to make sure that if if this is persisting we're not approving something without having seen any of of the data and so I I I'd like to again we have it's a short time frame but we have one meeting between now and then I'd like to postpone this until well for one week until next week's meeting and I know it might not be comprehensive but whatever amount of of information we can see about uh performance and again permit holders and and how many vehicles we have on the road and how many incidents there have been whatever we can get in in a week's time frame I'd like to see that I think you get a better report if you if y'all if you extend it if you approved it and simply maybe added I don't know if legal can will approve of something like adding an addendum to have us bring back a recommendation within 60 days or within 30 days or you could adjust for us to have a report put together that's going to be useful uh not only to us but also obviously to the council I I agree that it would be better to have more data later but I I still feel I I don't feel like it I would be doing my job if I approved more time of a pilot program without understanding the safety impact and and every other impact that that we need to consider so if we can if we can again I moved to postpone this for one week um and again whatever I know what again I know it won't be comprehensive I know it won't be all the data that we could get if we waited longer but I'd just like to see what we do have Senator Miller thanks um I don't disagree with representative Canales and I don't even understand I have so many questions for the second one and I don't understand how the comment that we don't have data considering this is the fourth year of a pilot program um I'm going to ask direct this question to either Miss prime or Miss Neiman who can answer it correctly can we approve a 30-day extension only giving them 30 days to come back with data that way because I'm not comfortable approving for a year and asking you to come back next quarter with data but I would approve it for a 30-day extension Council and there is a motion and a second to postpone for one week so therefore the discussion warm enough to be limited to the postponement at this time okay what if I pulled my motion to approve I want to be clear too my motion I only intended that for uh item 43 and not for item five oh yeah we're only on 43 right now 43 right right there's just Motion in a second second by representative Fiero correct motion was made by representative Canales seconded by representative Fierro to postpone item 43. for one week on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes five to two Representatives Kennedy anello Fierro Rivera Canales Representatives Molina Salcido voting name representative Hernandez not present the motion does carry so now we have to approve item 44 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 15 Public Services section 15.08.150 shared Mobility devices to extend the current permitting program by one year good afternoon Maryland city council Kevin Smith with planning inspections um with consideration regarding the conversation um that was yesterday as well as some of the conversation today we would recommend that um staff or staff would recommend that you approve this item so that we avoid a lapse in the program and that you direct us to return within 60 days with a new ordinance to um to make this program permanent you pointed at him I wasn't sure if that meant yeah hi Kevin how are you it's always great to see you however I am going to disagree with your recommendation um I'm going to make a motion to do what I suggested for the last item is approve this extension and I'll say 60 days um so you have time to brief us but I mean I have so many questions um which I'm going to ask right now too you don't have to answer them but um you know I I would like to know how many companies are participating in this program we currently have three providers which is per the rules and regulations the regulations of the pilot program correct recommend okay have we allowed over the three years any other companies to join no no we have not uh again it's based on uh looking at the data the the pilot program uh capsid at three providers we've had interest when one of the providers but again as we look at the data and I think we've briefed Council before to expand The Fleets it has to meet certain criteria of Rights per day for scooter and as of right now there are um 300 scooters in the city of El Paso that are allowed to be deployed and they're the other companies have not been able to demonstrate that they've been able to reach that threshold to expand their Fleet I understand that but I think that we're also limiting um like free market laws by continuing this pilot program but my motion stands to approve this extension for 60 days and have you all come back and brief us and give us a second extensive data representative Canales to make this change do we does it have to be a formal floor Amendment or I mean I know that there's a red line with the dates the date swapped for one year later you have to make a formal amendment to change that date in the pilot program Miss demon uh there's there's a red line provided that has the date the expiration date January 31 2023 that 2023 is crossed out and it's replaced with 2024. if we're if we're only extending for 60 days we would make the change if Council approves the most motion to extend it to a certain date if it's six months or however many okay at this point you'd just be for 60 days and be brought back okay um I think that's all thank you thank you we have a motion and a second extend for 60 days Mr Pine so there's a motion made by mayor Proctor ivera this this to amend the ordinance to change the expiration date to 60 days from today is that correct yes and it was also to direct staff to come back with a a an ordinance a permanent ordinance or a plan to make it a permanent program correct well to brief us yes can we also make sure we said 60 days that we bring it back prior to expiration yes so we need to make sure it's brought back prior to expiration so they need to bring it back in like please yeah there you go perfect so the motion was to amend the ordinance to change the expiration date from January 31st 2024 to 60 days from today and to direct staff to return in 45 days with an another ordinance to make this program a permanent program correct I'll say yes I like the program I like the scooters but I will say yes okay thank you on the amendment call for the vote voting session is open mayor Pro temanello aye thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present is there a motion to approve the ordinance as amended some moved there's a motion made by representative Canales seconded by representative Salcido to approve adopt the ordinance as amended on that motion call for the vote voting session is open and the in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 45 is a public hearing on an ordinance vacating a portion of Allegany drive right away adjacent to Lots three and four there's a motion made by representative Molina seconded by representative Rivera to approve the ordinance on number 45 there is no public comment call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 46 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement between the city of El Paso and Better Business Bureau to administer an American Rescue plan act funds second we do have public comment yes mayor we do have Miss Mary Beth Stevens that signed up to speak on this item good afternoon Miss Stevens you have three minutes afternoon um I will not keep you here by commenting too much only if you have questions these programs are fantastic the new program that would be added will be a game changer for small businesses in our community I'm happy to answer any questions you have but I don't want to talk for talking's sake so there's no questions and thank you for being here good to see you thank you and with that Mr Prime yes the motion was made by a representative or mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Salcido to approve 46 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 47 is discussion in action on a resolution that the city manager be authorized to execute a sub-recipient agreement between the city of El Paso and project beta to administer American Rescue plan act funds move to approve there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Molina to approve item 47. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present item number 48 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement between the city of El Paso and live fund to administer American Rescue plan act funds second go ahead microphone's not on I apologize I think Miss Triggs is here to answer questions sorry you moved seats and it confused me um so I see basically a gender item that 2.5 million dollars are going to lift fund from arpa is that total this is a new 2.5 million yes that is total okay and how many how how many cares act dollars were put into lift on um I don't have that number in front of me but we did extend it was a little over 21 million dollars was allocated to small business grants that were administered through five different organizations the majority of those grants were administered through Lyft fund but I will get the exact that's why no no you answered but I needed answered and that's I think you um of the 2.5 million how many of that is Grants and how many of it is set aside for loans and so to be clear about that program if it can bring up the presentation I'll go directly to the slide on the particular program and then when they're pulling that up I can ask another question okay quick so quick today I'm just flipping through to find the slide so what I want to be clear about is that the loans there are not loans that will be issued with this program what is there are dollars to buy down the interest rate on loans that lift fund does with other funding sources that they have so we know that the interest rates have gone up pretty significantly for everyone this would enable us or lift fund to buy down the loans to two percent so that's a really good interest rate and again that would it's not to issue loans the remainder of the money will go to Grants so when you're saying that like the average business loan right now is about 9 to 12.5 percent so you're going to buy those down to two percent um do you need to pay back that interest yes the business will be required to pay back the two percent interest that's correct not to us though not to us okay um this is interesting and none of my questions make sense now um but I I did someone to reach out uh a few people reached out from different organizations saying that there was we weren't really spending down this money because people don't have money to pay back the loan I'm now confused if I misunderstood them and they're saying they're just not taking out business loans um but I'm 90 positive that's not what they were saying they're saying that they you know they didn't have the money to pay back the lift and so my concern was that we were using arpa dollars for a loan in in recurring or occurring and I can't what is the word I'm looking for occurring interest on that um that's not the case you're saying thank you well I couldn't figure it out in my head um so this program specifically will buy back that buy down that interest for them they will be responsible for the other two percent we have not done this in any case yet this is new um I believe in the past and media is here who can speak to it a little bit more but I believe in the past on a program we've worked on with Lyft fund we did do a program where we bought down the interest on those loans as well but that again that was in the past and I believe we used the impact fund as a funding source okay I mean let's say I was completely wrong and misunderstood these people which never happens with me um the concern still I think from them is that people are not so much getting loaned you could argue that that's because the interest rates are so high um so can I just have could we um this is going to be implemented when if approved today it'll take a couple months to get it up and running so it'll be a couple months before it's ready to go okay because this sounds great to me yeah um so I'm just going to circle back with you okay um on my own and if we need okay to have some comments publicly after that we can do so I apologize for that confusion and all these notes I was ready to get into no that's okay I think um just one thing I want to highlight is that midday has done a very good job our assistant director in working with businesses getting feedback and it's still very clear that small business grants are a need which is why you see 2.15 million going to small business grants um I will say that the other thing to note there is that we've worked out so that small businesses that did not receive cares grant funding or a form of federal funding previously will be prioritized first um once they are prioritized if within a certain time frame there's still dollars left then it'll be opened up to other small businesses hey Sarah are you seeing um like a common business that is really struggling or is it just all small businesses really Staffing is hard and I mean based on the survey data that we have from the grants what you're seeing is the very very tiny small businesses so micro Enterprises um that are struggling and have taken advantage of the city sponsored Grant programs and again that's probably because they don't have the credit to go to a bank and so that's why it's really important that we work with cdfis on these types of programs in developing this program were you all like 2.5 is a good number for interest or do you think that the money would be better spent on grants so individuals do not need to be taking out loans to begin with well so I think the the grants are are limited um to ten thousand dollars so that we can stretch those funds as far as possible there are loans available through Lyft fund again not funded by arpa funding but through separate funding that they have and I think that makes sense for other small businesses that are perhaps trying to grow because some small businesses are doing okay and they're trying to grow and if we can give them that extra boost to grow by buying down the interest that makes a big difference so that that is why and it's only a hundred thousand dollars that we set aside for that the good thing is we have a very good relationship with Lyft fund which is why we chose to work with them um and they'll provide us continuous feedback on how that's working if we see that the buy down is very successful you know we have some wiggle room to come back to you all with the remaining arpa funding we have that was allocated to small businesses and recommend we put more towards that buy down if we see the grants or what is really needed then we do have that flexibility to come back and the data that Lyft fund is is kind of is getting from small businesses is from direct communication or are they kind of pulling that from Workforce as well as our collaboration so they I mean they pull direct communication because they work very closely with their clients it's a different kind of relationship from a traditional bank there's that but also just like we did with the previous round of funding we'll have a survey that that clients are required to take so that we can get actual qualitative information from them or quantitative information from them about what what their issue is moving forward okay because one thing I remember hearing of the concerns of the loans was that a lot of people especially these micro businesses don't have the credit to be able to get the loan and so we can buy down that interest all we want but if they're not being approved it's not helpful so we're we're you know where are those people who are kind of stuck in the abyss but I end up taking up way too many people's time I'm going to circle back with you and we can do kind of a comprehensive walkthrough so thank you very much for that you're welcome thank you representative Canales one question it'll be fast um are we is this only uh for buying down the interest rate on new loans that are originated through Lyft fund or is this kind of can a small business take advantage of this on a loan that they already have or a loan that they have with some other outside no it's for new loans moving forward and again we wanted to address that some businesses need more than the ten thousand dollar Grant whether that's because they're trying to grow by Machinery or those kinds of things um and so yeah it's moving forward that that they would be able to take advantage of this and it would have to be they would have to receive the loan for through Lyft fund as well or could that be yes okay it's through Lyft fund yes okay thank you yes sir thank you no other questions mayor we do have public comment please we have a public comment from Lupe Mares yes hello good afternoon you have two minutes hello can you all hear me okay yes thank you so much and uh great questions congresswoman uh excuse me not my apologies anello councilwoman anello um and good afternoon mayor Lutheran council members on behalf of Lifeline I would like to thank you for entrusting us to administer funding for the city of El Paso I also want to thank you mayor Lisa for being a big proponent for the interest by them you have provided listen to pass on to the small business owners with this interest rates continuing to go up this has been a big help for the business owners it provides them with a few extra dollars in their pocket each month I also want to thank you for taking the time to participate in congresswoman Veronica Escobar's Roundtable for small businesses at the live fund offices it is so well received by small business owners that you take the time from your busy schedule to listen to their concerns I hope that city council and the city of El Paso continues to support small businesses and councilwoman anello I'd be happy to meet with you and uh you know provide you the information that you've requested and so I just want to remind everybody to please shop local and support small businesses thank you thank you anyone else no sir thank you and I think it's important that these loans um if they qualified anywhere else the rate would be so high that all they would do was service the loan and not be able really to be able to operate their business with uh with the right and I know that we've worked really hard to make sure the rate is makes sense because we don't then it ends of custom that all they do is pay for rate and never be able to operate their business based on that with that do we have a motion already Representatives on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 50. is discussion in action that the citizen participation plan for the city of El Paso Bay revised move to approve foreign she did a good job briefing and Mark you didn't have to shave your beard for this I know it was a lot longer no Motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Salcido to approve item number 50. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously the last item is 51. and this is discussion in action that the mayor of the city of El Paso Texas be authorized to sign resolutions of support and or resolutions of no objection for regional competitive low-income housing tax credit application to Patriot Place two can I make well do you need an action right so emotion to send a letter of support for Patriot Place two on behalf of the city council you'll figure that part out good point there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Rivera sorry Canales to send a letter of support yeah but there was no actual act you just motioned to approve but the item is not posted for a specific action so you needed to make a motion for a specific action correct yeah and everyone gets to vote on this on that motion call for the boat in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday January 31st 2023 is adjourned at 503 pm thank you Council we'll see you next week