you e e e e good morning Miss PR we have a couple minutes what do you think I'll prent it but I'll let you read it how's that since it was your idea put it down and I'll take a quick picture I know cuz it's hard to see let me put this behind it maybe no that didn't help yeah can you shoot good so you can read it yes sir I'll hold it and then you can theists of Al pass are I mean it's hard to see that very hard to see oh jeez didn't even come close you wouldn't believe that I played basketball Miss PR it's 9:00 a.m. so we will begin yes sir good morning mayor will everyone please rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police senior chaplain David Mayfield morning sir let us pray Almighty and gracious Creator We Gather here today as humble servants of this community we ask for your guidance as we make decisions that will affect the lives of the people we serve unknown participant is now joining may we always remember that leadership is not about power or Prestige but about service and sacrifice help us to listen with Open Hearts and to act with wisdom and compassion may we be guided by the principles of servant leadership putting the needs of others before our own and seeking the common good Above All Else Inspire us to lead with Integrity to speak truthfully and to act justly let our decisions be a reflection of our commitment to serve this community with fairness and empathy grant us the strength to work together to respect each other's perspectives and to remain United in our shared purpose may we always be mindful of those who are most vulnerable and strive to uplift every member of our city we ask for your blessings on our deliberation today that they may be guided by wisdom kindness and a true Spirit of service amen now for the pledge thank you and this morning we have students from Emmanuel Christian School invited by City representative Cassandra Hernandez and we have Emelia Moran Gabriela Stevens ran dag Angela Delgado Tamara Simmon Christopher agir Sebastian Montes Victor Diaz Adrian Caro Brianna alridge and Danielle Ramirez [Applause] flag United States ofice [Applause] Christopher you Simmons J West Gabriella Stevens you want to get piure s again than [Applause] thank you good morning this is a meeting of the AL Paso city council for Tuesday September 10th 2024 mayor Lisa is present and presiding in council chambers along with mayor protm Kennedy representative ACO alternate mayor Pro mol sorry representative Riva and representative Canales it is 9:07 a.m. mayor we have a quorum thank you ma'am and with that we'll start with the we'll start with the the mayor's distinguish award I'm going to start with that um you want to call yes sir this morning the mayor's distinguished award goes to Dr Richard V tesner will you come up Dr tesner also joining the meeting is representative ernandez good morning Dr tesner morning all good morning you are receiving the mayor's distinguished award Dr Richard tesner the citizens of a Paso are eternally grateful for all your unwavering support in making our city a wonderful and beautiful place to live work and play your decades long efforts in making C range a national monument in 2023 is a Testament of your vision and Leadership we and our future Generations thank you September the 10th 2024 signed the honorable mayor Oscar ler and I and I'll hand this to you but I I do want to um welcome you to city council you've uh you've been a big part of City Council in our city for many years and of course UT and um I do want to thank you for everything you've done and Cas range you didn't give up and I know you used a lot of your money and a lot of your time and support and we're very thankful is now it's a national monument because of the work you've done about the work you did and um you've been involved in City politics for many many years and uh we're grateful for everything you've done and I do want to thank you uh I didn't know you till 2013 when I ran for office and it's been a great honor knowing you and and thank you for everything you've done Dr tesner good morning sir thank you very much mayor liser thank you very much alternate mayor Pro Tim Joel molar and with your permission I'd like to say a few words uh let me put my glasses on so I can read those few words an old high school friend from Milwaukee recently phoned me quote we'll be driving around Texas later on this month he said and I've heard that Midland Odessa is a much more interesting urban area than El Paso why is that the case keeping my temper I responded thus Midland Odessa is a great place for oil wells and flatland ranches but if you're looking for the timate and urban scenery you can't do better than El Paso why so he responded simply this I answered in what other American city does a protected 16m long six Peak mountain range run right on through it beginning less than a mile from downtown and ending at the New Mexico State Line he said he'd take my word for it and include our city in his trip but keeping the Franklin Mountains protected did not come easy El Paso's Old Timers remember exactly what it took for Ron Coleman and many others to make a state park out of more than 2third of Franklin's back in 1978 and 79 and El Paso's younger timers all know the history of the conservation of the nap lands of the lost dog lands and especially the large and Scenic castner range whose save it all campaign began in 2003 with the newly created Frontera land Alliance and ended just last year with the Declaration that the rain as a National Monument Frontera as it's commonly known is El Paso's largest and longest active land conservation organization its board of directors is once again chaired by Scott Cutler active in conservation since 1998 Scott is with us today its executive director first ever and on the job since 2011 is Jan renod field she is also with us today board members are John rendes Manny Rodriguez Harrison plur Marshall Carter trip Stephanie Chavez Cindy Hoffman Christina labor Gilbert Moreno Sonia ranel and Kylie rendes frontera's three paid staff members are Kya Gonzalez development director Viana orona education manager and Roos Kio open space manager but frona alone could not have achieved nor continue to keep achieving its goals without the longtime Firm support of key members of city council and the city's mayor now completing his second four-year term mayor ler has been especially supportive as have been over the decades City representatives from District 4 Carl Robinson Sam Morgan and now Joe molinar until recent redistricting the nap PLS were part of District 4 and all of castner range has long been District 4 territory other District 4 organizations that have been supportive are the castner Heights neighborhood association and the Northeast business Alliance so a million thanks to you El Paso for your persistent and laudable foresight in conserving the Frank mountains and keeping them safe and our belated congratulations to Midland Odessa for doing such a good job with its well-oiled economy representative molar followed by representative Canales Dr tesner if you could come back up if you know this gentleman he's always doing I call him tesseris but you just heard one of his classic quence good morning sir uh if you could just stay right there by the podium but good morning sir um for those who do not know Dr Richard tesner he is a true gentleman just by his words alone right now he gave credit to others that's who this gentleman is the work that he's doing is behind the scenes but he's a very powerful force in getting things done he's a stalard in our community and he never never never gave up he had a goal he had a vision and he never gave up I met this gentleman in January of 2022 and he's been my friend ever since he's also been a mentor to me he supports Us in District 4 uh just just a great man altogether every time I see those Franklin Mountains I see Dr Richard tesner uh theim treaser preserve that's your baby as well but making KAS range a National Monument we all owe you a debt of gratitude on behalf of the molard family sir my thanks my prayers thank you once again thank you Joel for everything you do have long done and will continue to do go ahead sir thank you mayor uh Dr tesner just a a brief thing that you didn't mention you talked about a lot of conservation efforts that you were a part of C range the Naps many others but you didn't mention the one that bears your name that's the wae waim tesner Nature Preserve at wrestler Canyon I have the distinct pleasure of of living next to the canyon and using it regularly um and I I can't imagine uh that Canyon with with development running through the middle it would be a completely different uh a completely different experience of of my neighborhood and my my part of town um the the effort that you put into preserving not just wrestler Canyon but uh as as has been mentioned m mple times uh numerous places throughout the city and in the mountains uh really have transformed what Al Paso looks like and so thank you for your efforts well thank you Chris and uh both Scott and Jana are here with us today and you can volunteer and you can volunteer for the next cleanup now we get to see you do you have a sense of humor Dr teser have known you a long time thank you thank you it was thanks everybody honor working with you we appreciate everything you've done Miss PR yes mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations did Council want to take a photo with Dr tesner e e e [Applause] that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is Constitution week Constitution week repres Senator Canales thank you mayor Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the Constitution of the United States of America the guardian of our liberties embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law and whereas September 17th 2024 marks the 237th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention and whereas it is fitting and proper to Accord official recognition to This Magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the Patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it and whereas Public Law 915 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the president of the United States of America now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that September 17th through September 23rd 2024 shall be known as Constitution week signed by our honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning you want to you want to anybody want to say a couple words uh yes so we are um Daughters of the American Revolution here in El Paso um our organization is non uh political non-religious um charitable organization um it actually has been in existence um over 120 years here in El Paso um we are the Stoddard Del Norte chapter of the national societ iety of Daughters of the American Revolution and we're very honored to be here today to um have this Proclamation and uh this uh week is or next week is our week to celebrate we have a meeting every year for the Constitution we also put kits together for some of the schools or some of the teachers to hand out to the kids that include the flag um the flag code the Constitution book it's just a way for our organization to give back to El Paso thank you all' you want to come on up and we'll take a picture I think Sarah's getting the hang of it what do you think Sarah getting the hang of it than are you and for those receiving a proclamation this morning your group will have up to six minutes collectively to speak at the podium the next Proclamation is National preparedness month representative May proam are they come on down guys I thought you'd be prepared what I couldn't resist um whereas the city of El Paso proudly joins communities Across the Nation in observing National preparedness month an annual campaign held each September to highlight the critical importance of preparing for emergencies ensuring all residents are equipped with the knowledge and tools to protect themselves and their loved ones and whereas this month provides a crucial opportunity to empower individuals families businesses and communities with essential information and resources to effectively respond to and recover from disasters thereby reducing their impact and enhancing our community's overall resilience and whereas the 2024 National preparedness month led by the ready campaign is centered on the theme start a conversation this theme emphasizes the power of an open dialogue in encouraging more provocative emergency preparedness proactive emergency preparedness sparking discussions that motivate individuals and families to take action share best practices and Inspire others to do the same and whereas El Paso faces unique challenges including natural disasters Public Health crisis and other unforeseen events which necessitate a comprehensive inclusive and Equitable approach to preparedness ensuring all residents regardless of background or circumstances have access to vital resources and whereas the city of El Paso's Department of Public Health the office of emergency management the El Paso Fire Department's Community risk reduction team team and numerous local organizations and leaders are dedicated in providing culturally competent and linguistically accessible resources training and Outreach to educate and engage all residents on the importance of preparedness and whereas building a more resilient El Paso requires the collective effort of every resident business and governmental entity to plan prepare and practice for emergencies ensuring the safety well-being and Readiness of our entire Community now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of September shall be known as National preparedness month signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning and you know as mayor potim reads the proclamation it it makes you you know realize that what you guys are preparing for and we talk about this a lot is the unknown and the prepared to take be take taking care of our community taking care of our citizens so I thank you all for for being ready being prepared whether it's a pandemic or whether it's uh the immigration wherever it may be we we've been very well prepared this city has been more been prepared better than any City I've seen and and and you can go from here all the way up the real Grand Valley you can go up San Diego you can go up anywhere and this city did the best job I we've ever ever seen of any City being prepared the tackle the unknown so I thank you all and um I know the Dr okar you always seem to want to stay out in the back but you've done a really great job and when you were the interim um um Health Department running the health department you did a great job and and prepared for the unknown you were there during the pandemic and uh we went from the worst city in the nation to the first to reach her immunity and we stopped losing lives and that was the important part we were back in 20 we're losing more lives than anyone and uh we were able to get that under control and make sure that all our loved ones were protected because of what you all do and um Chief Rodriguez thank you also you've uh you've done a great job of preparing and we've made sure that we treat people humanely we treat people with respect and make sure people have a roof over their head and a warm meal and that's been so important so everything y all do and and you know I named a couple people out but without you all they would have failed and we know that so we thank you all for what you've done thank you good morning good morning good morning my name is Christina Maas I am with the emergency preparedness program with the Department of Public Health thank you for this recognition for September 2024 as National preparedness month in the city of Paso I want to thank I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the preparedness efforts from First Responders and Public Health professionals to community leaders and volunteers collaboration among our departments local organization and the community at large is essential to fostering resilience over the past few years our region has faced multiple disasters from covid pandemic to the Walmart shooting and the Rosal fire our goal is to be fully prepared for the worst and respond in a way that ensures everyone is informed and feels included so no one is Left Behind during crisis FEMA has chosen to highlight how asian-americans native Hawaiian Pacific Islander communities can prepare for disasters and build resilience as a theme for 2024 in our community this Focus emphasizes the need to address specific vulnerabil vulnerabilities these groups face ensuring they are well prepared and supported during emergencies Health Equity and emergency preparedness is vital as it guarantees that all individuals regardless regardless of their race ethnicity socieconomic background have equal access access to critical resources and Care in times of Crisis disasters often hit vulnerable populations harder deepening existing disparities so incorporating Health Equity means creating emergency plans that are inclusive and tailor to the needs of the community by PRI prior prioritizing Outreach resource allocation and protection for vulnerable groups we can ensure that everyone is equipped to withstand and recover from disasters and keeping Al Paso strong National prep aess month is more than just a time to raise awareness it is the opportunity for each of us to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that every resident in El Paso is equipped with knowledge resources and tools to to respond and recover from emergencies but our efforts don't stop here preparedness is an ongoing process that demands the active participation of the entire Community I encourage you to take proactive steps developing a family emergency plan building an emergency kit or participating in community trainings these small but significant actions collectively enhance the safety and well-being of our entire community in closing I want to express my deepest gratitude to the city of AP Paso our partners and most importantly our community members for their continued dedication to making our city safer more resilient place for everyone together we can and will rise to meet the challenge that comes our way thank you thank you and Dr T I just want to congratulate you you you inherited a great team and a team that's ready and prepared so welcome sir thank you yall want to come take a picture mic is on hold on before you get on okay sir right there you go perfect all right ready one all right ready one two three one more one more all right ready one two three thank you [Applause] and the next Proclamation is El Paso International city of Peace Day got it good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the city of El Paso has a history of people working together for our city to become a focus of Peace sustainability equality and prosperity and whereas the international city of Peace organization its volunteers support communities around the world through nurturing sustainable practices providing a focus on love abundance resilience and peace bringing together government law enforcement business Education Health Sciences and Community organizations and whereas humility and openness to learning together will show us how to create a true multi-racial Multicultural multiclass democracy the city of opazo as an international city of Peace aims to create op Paso as a city of peace sustainability equality and pro Prosperity building leadership and Green Technology Innovative education Humane immigration practices climate Justice and cultural diversity and whereas op Paso as an international city of Peace aims to amplify and support the op Paso community's value of family in whatever form that they may take and aims to create Citywide conflict prevention and resolution practices that can be implemented to maximize the benefits of conflict resolution tion healing divisive wounds and discovering Collective solutions that Propel El Paso forward and whereas El Paso as an international city of Peace aims to transform the brain drain the population loss of El Paso by harnessing its creativity Prosperity compassion and unity El Paso as an international city of Peace joins 389 other communities around the world already recognized as International cities of Peace who are striving to increase their communities emotional intelligence as sustainable prosperity in the face of an uncertain challenging future and whereas op Paso is an international city of Peace places the common good and the safety and prosperity of every person of El Paso including uplifting the voices of marginalized people at the center of their work now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and counsil of the city of op Paso that September 10th 2024 shall be known as op Paso International city of Peace Day signed the honorable mayor leer c o Pas good morning and I want to welcome you all the city council as you see the name a lot of people just have a name but you guys have more than a name you guys lead by example and everything that represent molar said is so meaningful and if more people did and felt the way you all did we'd have a lot of Peace on in on Earth and a lot of Peace in this country so thank you for not only putting it in work but leading by example thank you you are so welcome and I see a theme Here my name is Lori Marshall and I'm the founder of unity through creativity foundation and from the beginning of the meetings today with the beautiful invocation of servant leadership and then the honoring of the castner range and being having peace with the Earth and then all the people that are preparing us for being resilient in the unknown and disaster it's all one big hole that we're um we're focusing on today at Unity um at the city council meeting we wanted to share that September 21st is going to be a celebration of International Day of Peace where over 5,000 communities in the C in our country are going to be celebrating the day of peace we're having a symposium at UTP and everyone is invited it's free uh 160 people will be gathering and four have signed up so far we'll be discussing peace with the Earth peace with each other and peace within and we would love for everyone to come you can go to Unity through creativity. org's events and register we want the biggest crosssection as possible we welcome high school students and up we want this to be intergenerational and we know that El Paso has a unique culture of service and care that the rest of the world can learn from so we're very honored to have this day thank you to come up and take a [Applause] picture for for and I do want to welcome representative kintana she um she served city council and did a great job and uh represented her constituents in District 5 but she informed me due to redistricting she's not in District 3 but thank you for serving our community thank you [Applause] Rachel M PR the next Proclamation is National disability voting rights week think be better oh you have thank you may good morning I have the honor of reading this Proclamation um for those uh who are welcome to join and I'll start reading into the record the proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas there are over 61 million people with disabilities of all ages living in communities throughout the United States and whereas there are over 38 million Americans with Disabilities who are eligible voters and whereas the disability Community has a critical interest in policies and decisions made and enacted at local state and National levels that impact our lives directly and whereas the disability Community has a critical interest in policy policies and decisions made and whereas making sure people with disabilities have access to voting an essential is essential if these policies are to meet real needs of people with disabilities in our communities and Ras voting is one way for the disability Community to have a say in the policies that impact our communities and whereas rev up which stands for register educate vote use your power is a national effort to build the power of the disability community and whereas members of the national disability rights Community are organizing the seventh annual disability voting rights week and the City of op Paso Texas supports the growing involvement of the disability community in our political process now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that September 9th through September 13th 2024 shall be known as National disability voting rights week signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations good morning and uh thank you all for being here I know that um voting is so important not only to you all but to everybody but one thing you all do more than just vote you get involved in the community and you're part of our community and you've been on on a lot of groups and and uh so I do want to thank you all for being here and making sure that we continue to advocate for the rights of people and continue to advocate for voting rights so thank you for being here but also thank you for being part of the I've been a part of the groups and some of the panels yall have been on and I thank you for serving thank you mayor and city council um for presenting the proclamation and um we just want to emphasize the fact that if every person with a disability was registered to vote we'd be uh driving force and uh the political process and that's actually um statistics from uh rudberg uh a redberg uh research paper that was done but um I just want to thank again city council the mayor and um for supporting us as always and helping promote the rights the rights to vote for people with disabilities and those around us because rev up is not just about us as people with disabilities voting it also encompasses our neighbors our friends our families um our uh professionals our doctors everyone around us um making sure that we vote and things that um would benefit people with disabilities and such as more affordable accessible uh housing access to transportation and access to um more medical uh medical needs for people with disabilities thank you very much thank you and and again thank you for being here you all want to come up for [Applause] picture yeah pretty good sir yeah e e all 2 [Applause] than bye people and the next Pro clamation is Thomas Jefferson High School's 75th Anniversary thank you mayor yeah you're right thank you mayor are the many proclamations that we made I am so proud of this one uh my alumni will introduce themselves later as I need to read this Proclamation Proclamation city of Al Paso Texas whereas in 1949 El Paso the end of Al Paso Independent School District established Thomas Jefferson High School and appointed Mr JM Whitaker as a principal of this institute and it became one of most prominent high schools in the city of El Paso and whereas there is a long list of proud alumni foxes from Thomas Jefferson High School who represent the school throughout the last 75 years many of the Thomas Jefferson alumni both men and women have gone on to serve in all branches of the US military with distinction to include fighting in Foreign Wars such as Korea Vietnam or the many other conflicts that have followed in the years after as a result many Jefferson alumni lives have been lost in the struggle for liberty and justice and those foreign lands and whereas many Jefferson Alum alumni have held numerous public offices such as District Attorney's Office law enforcement agencies both local and federal correction facilities ensuring that the community can sleep peacefully at night knowing that they're on the job 24/7 the alumni have also served as Engineers educator Educators medical doctors politicians Business Leaders and entertainers in various communities across the country and for asked for the last 75 years faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to enriching the lives of students to become productive citizens and pillars of the community now therefore be be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that September 10th 2004 shall be known as Thomas Jefferson High School's 75th Anniversary kival Jeff I'm from Jack all right before you go all start I want to make sure you all remember the fight song you all remember all right I want to hear it let's go let's do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it a good morning good morning good morning mayor good morning city council Representatives we're so honored to be here today um and uh letting you recognize 75 years that Jefferson opened back in in 1949 September 4th open stores and ever since then generation after generation have attended that school I was a class of 67 Mr riva6 76 a little younger than me but when Jeff opened it was Far East El Paso at that time valde was the city uh boundary at that time so it was a small community then but ever since then it's been growing and growing and growing and and like uh Mr Riva said we have tried to be um part of the community in every way we can and because of that Jefferson means more than just a building it is a community it's a community that is still uh with us as you can see we have a lot of young people with us here today that are just as proud as we were when we attended school so thank you again for having us here here tonight but I I won't take too much time I'll let uh herard say a few words and then uh and then our student council representative as well will say a few words so thank you okay hi I'm I'm hero h i I will Express why this school is important for me but also for the community I will say on Spanish because it's my preferred language and also I want I don't want to be limited by describing my schol schol because I have so many things to express [Music] ass thank you very much for the minut hello I am isab Frid I am student co-president of Jefferson Silva High School however I am proud to say that I am a student from Jefferson I am proud to say that I could live on the Legacy and become a proud alumni once I graduate this year I'm also proud to say that with my student council Offices here we are so proud to be able to represent the one and only L Jeff so for my final notes I want to say thank you so much for allowing us to be here with alumni and the representatives of all parts of our community and we are grateful to be able to expand this community and make sure that our community becomes the best community in a pasle thank you my name is Alonso FAS and I'm a class of 75 we're Sher B our 50th reunion in conjunction with the 75th and I just want to say thank U Henry Retta for uh for this Proclamation mayor liser and Dr Asel for for for honoring us with this uh Proclamation thank you thank you you still have time can you introduce yourselves yes hello class of 75 Irma Salado Anaya I remember Henry just wanted to let you all know the functions that are happening tomorrow will be our our Parade from 6: to 7:30 8 and it will start at Tobin Park all the way to Jefferson we will have fireworks at the end Friday will be our meet and greet at uh Borderland Steakhouse on 7600 Alabama from 4 to 8 and finally our Jefferson uh big dance will be at the Coliseum on Saturday the 14th from 6: to 12 and it will be um entertained by aukar daa and R City okay so hopefully y'all can join us and thank you so much for all of you thank you thank you Mr thompon Thompson for being here Mr Thompson do you want to introduce yourself or Mr the other Mr joah no did you introduce your staff from the celebration well we're a big well we recognize the guys with the furry head yeah and the Furry say fox and I am is student council co-president my name is Isabella Grandpa and I run the social media account we have siia there you go this is our outstanding next this year this is our outstanding X aliciaa thank you so much for having us here I'm so proud I've been at Jefferson forever since probably since uh it was founded my parents were one of the founders of Jefferson High School so I was like five or six and so I grew up there at Jefferson and our community there and I'm still there so I'm still at the community there and fighting for Jefferson and our community thank you so much and I'm very honored to be this year's outstanding ex thank you so much thank you congratulations may and with that we're going to go to represent oo well okay I had I hadn't yielded yet but I I just wanted one factor real quick and I learned this through they all told us some fast stories about you know I learned this through uh chief police of Pete pasas his dad was the first wrestling coach at Jefferson High School who actually introduce the wrestling program to the city of Al Paso thank you sir thank you you and thank you all we have a couple people like to say thank you mayor so I have the distinct honor of having Jefferson in District 2 so I'm very excited for everything that's happening Alisia you have been a Trailblazer in the community and I appreciate everything that you're doing for Jefferson for district 2 for just El Paso in general and I'm so so happy for you for being the outstanding X especially on such a landmark anniversary so I appreciate it I look forward to being in the parade tomorrow and enjoying more and celebrating everything that Jefferson has to offer thank you uh very quickly I was just going to say that my son is a graduate of Silva uh magnet and uh yeah he showed his his love for medicine he is I took a picture and just sent it to him he's in his second year of residency at Northwestern in Chicago and he answered me with Dad I'm on shift so some things never changeed but his love for medicine was uh thriving at Silva and and he's now a doctor so thank you and thank you all um The Silver Fox Pride shows thank you you want to come on up I hit it from you did you take a photo of the I did yeah absolutely s think we're good all right break ready one two three okay I have 17 more all right ready one two three thank you very two three thank you thank you hey class of 74 74 and Miss PR and the final Proclamation this morning is for gold out for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month thank you mayor welcome hello so if I can just read this paragraph real quick in 1997 a group of parents of children impacted by cancer chose gold to represent their Childhood Cancer thus the gold ribbon ever since then supporters around the world go gold to represent Childhood Cancer Warriors and heroes and you all are heroes for being here thank you so much may this whereas each year many parents hear the devastating words that no parent want to hear your child has cancer we gold out El Paso want families to know that they they are not alone during during this difficult time they have our support we will try our hardest to help families in need in any way possible whereas gold out El Paso honors all children families affected by Childhood Cancer we honor all Warriors survivors Angels who have courageously fought this battle we honor families affected by Childhood Cancer because no child should fight cancer alone and whereas gold out El Paso will continue to make its goal that the city of El Paso turn gold every September and whereas children fighting cancer should never feel alone with the support of our community all children fighting cancer will always get recognition especially in the in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month for our children are our future and whereas we ask El Paso Community to join and go out gold out El Paso's model when one fights we all fight when one cries we all cry when one celebrates we all celebrate and we are all here to fight together now therefore be a proclaimed by The Honorable mayor and Council the city of El pasel this month of September shall be known as gold out for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month thank you I think that Proclamation had a lot of great things in it and a really strong thing but one of the strongest things I see is that we're all here and we're all here to fight together that's important part thank you and welcome here thank you thank you city council and mayor for our Proclamation again we are the first organization here in El Paso actually bringing Childhood Cancer Awareness to our city and it been with the help of the city school districts and Community um of course we go gold um like Mr Fiero said for the for gold is the color of childood cancer um I would like to invite the community on SE on September 26th at 6:30 p.m. we'll be meeting at the UMC patient parking it's our fourth annual parade we go up to the fifth floor and wave to our kids on the seventh floor so I invite all the city and Community it's very touching and moving but I would like to introduce let our families that have accompanied us today give a little bit of their story good morning hi good morning uh my name is Lydia Rios this is Tamara Rios she's holding a poster of our son Noah uh Noah got diagnosed with leukemia when he was 17 months old uh that's when we met gold El Paso um since then they were there for monetary support but more importantly emotional support now four years later our son's been in remission for almost four years now three years and um you know they're still there they're still our emotional support um but you know more importantly their family they're um they're always there for us and um sorry I'm trying not to get emotional um something was said this morning that kind of you know stuck with me uh during prayer he said um leadership is not about power it's about service and success and that's the first thing I thought of was gold out this is a nonprofit and they are completely voluntary you know all these Founders do this with no pay for themselves and they are on call all the time and I know that because they get calls still from me when my son gives us a scare so I mean they're always there it's they don't you know they don't sleep with this it's not just September that they're doing this it's year round um you know they're such a blessing to us and they deserve all this recognition um they're a huge blessing to all the families we call it the uh family that no one wants to be a part of and we just we love them so much so thank you guys for this thank you [Applause] good morning my name is Alexander Martinez I was diagnosed with previous acute lymphoblastic leukemia on October 15th 2021 at the age of 12 and I rang the bell this past January 2024 at the age of 15 today is an important day for me because Childhood cancer isn't talked about enough did you know 47 kids are diagnosed with cancer every day in the US did you know that there are over 200 chemos approved for adults of that 35 can be used for kids but only six of those 35 are actually approved for us by the FDA we need more awareness to help with more research we only get 4% of federal funding out of all the funding raised for cancer research so we are all on adult protocols and we're not adults so treatment is very difficult I suffered with difficulty walking I fainted for months anytime I try to sit or stand because my blood pressure and heart rate didn't know how to work together I spent a week in the Pediatric ICU because my triglycerides were over 5,000 and they should be less than 100 I also suffered from toxicity that affected my brain and this is just a very small example of my two and a half years in treatment 95% of us will suffer from long-term side effects as we become adults with the lack of research cancer is our number one killer awareness is important so we all have more of a chance to survive I've lost friends during this journey for them and for kids like me we're the future we need proper protocols you never think it's you or your kid until it is go gold in September and spread awareness thank you for your [Applause] time hi my name is Karina ernandez my husband Robert our daughter is about uh Diana she was diagnosed January of this year she was burly four with a type of brain cancer our whole world changed I'm sorry and right away this group called out Al Paso helped us out so much my daughter loves the Hulk and she we tell her she's strong like the Hulk to smash cancer and she keeps her spirits up she says she can do it she's still going through treatment she's still fighting she's has to learn how to walk again she lost the ability to talk to all her motor skills slowly everything's coming back we ask that everybody in Al Paso go gold for kids cuz our kids need to live longer they can't be going through all this and we just want to thank gold Al for just showing up when they did nobody has to go through this I mean no one's prepared for anything like this we were just blindsided and they just showed up out of nowhere and just straight up helped us and in any in all capacities and we appreciate that and thank you all for coming out thank you all and thank you gold out for what you do and I know that right when you first started I had the opportunity to meet with you and um make this happen we you've been here every year and we let the lights on Airways gold and it's been very important and um I know that um you will always continue to fight but you'll fight for the kids and thank you all and may God bless every one of you all thank you represent better thank you mayor and and another note if you all aren't aware that every time there's a home football I know you guys are every time there's a home football game at Jefferson High School um it's beautiful they do the wave of Hope thank you football players and staff will turn around to the seventh floor at Paso children's it is the oncology floor and the wave lights um and the kids will wave back call it I believe the wave of Hope and it's just beautiful it's moving just to be able to give these kids some normaly and we have fames like the real that I don't know if Alexander witnessed it one time they were inside the building inside the hospital in their hospital room couple years later they're outside with us waving at the kids giving the kids hope it's very touching very moving and it'd be amazing if we get the community out there just to show the love and support for these kids and families thank you for finishing it I'll sure a quick story I went to um to school to talk and right before I left I went and I talked to the school and the next day I was going to MD Anderson having surgery for cancer and this little boy came up to me and he gave me a little yellow ribbon and he said I want you to have it cuz I beat cancer and I know you can't and then he pinned it on me so and I still have it sit on my desk and I was in 2016 so thank you thank you [Applause] okay hold on I already got the all right ready right this way one two three one two one two three thank you all so much yes of course all right ready one two three here we go perfect thank you [Applause] all yes sir Council may we have a motion to recess in order to conduct the mass transit Department board meeting there's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed yeah I'd like to speak on the motion to recess please mayor proam all right mayor Pro I requested to speak on the motion to recess go ahead thank you um I'd request that we take the uh consent agenda with the revisions first I know there are some people who are waiting to see if an item is postponed I know I wouldn't want to waste their time any further um we I think we've lost some of our members at this point um how long do we how long do we think this is going to take agenda is short it's only five items right yes okay we'll plow through it quick okay so the council meeting is in recess at 10:15 a.m. good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board for Tuesday September 10th 2024 it is 10:15 a.m. present in presiding is chair liser and also present in council chambers or board members Kennedy acedo ernandez molinar and Canales we do have one member of the public signed up to speak for the mass translate agenda and this is Mr Strummer and I don't see Mr Strummer in the que all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by mass transit Department board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding team items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved the mass transit Department board May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting and consent agenda items one through three second there is a motion go ahead ma'am representative nundes there's an item on consent agenda I just want to clarify it is item number three on the consent agenda because I have questions on that yes it is yes okay may I make a requests to move that to the regular agenda uh I move to move item number three to the regular agenda okay so we'll just vote on the consent agenda as revised for items one and two and then moving three to the consent to the regular agenda and motion was made by representative by board member Kennedy seconded by board member Fierro did I get that right no who's second molar molar voting session is open Mr Canales Mr molinar I okay thank you and the the consent agenda has been approved unanimously moving on to item number three and this is a resolution that the mass transit Department board approves and adopts the city of Al Paso san metro substant abuse policy so have motion approve but you make a motion second I a motion second we also have on this has some questions thank you um I there was there has been concerns in the past about drinking in those shelters and so I know that Sun Metro has taken steps to put signage in some I'm not sure if you've done it in all um could you just briefly describe what the I know it's required um but can you describe what the policy is is there any is it more guidance or is this have any policy teeth in it regulations in it or can you just describe that please uh Jered deuro Deputy transit officer for Sun Metro uh this is a policy that's geared toward it's an internal policy dealer toward staff and staff's consumption of alcohol and or having consumed alcohol on the premises or while operating Vehicles it strictly prohibits U alcohol usage and other sub other um drugs and substances and it is mandated by the Department of Transportation and so are you is it required to to do testing regularly yes ma'am we do random testing and then after accidents we also do testing okay all right thank you uh that it's only geared to internal drivers and to address drinking in the shelters we do have roving security guards we've identified the shelters where it seems to be most pre prevalent and the robing security guards will will clear those areas out when they see them understood thank you thank you representa Canales thank you Mr deiro this is um a requirement for uh municipalities who receive financial uh assistance from the FTA correct yes this policy is essentially the standard policy that FTA mandates yes that is correct and we took one extra step in the development of our policy and one of our staff members who took the lead in it actually met an FTA person at a conference and we actually got a a peer review even before we finalized it excellent okay thank you with that we have a motion in a second yes we do voting session is open and we have a motion made by represent by board member um rera seconded by board member Canales right it's not open yet though it's not no it is Mr Canales I thank you sir and the item has been approved unanimous ously with board members salido not presing for the vote item four is discussion and action to issue purchase order for solicitation 202 24-19 janer support agreement to janer LLC and this is a three-year for an estimated amount of $184,500 motion made by board member Fierro seconded by board member Kennedy no board member molard molard voting session is open thank you and the item has been approved unanimously with board members alido not present for the vote and last item is item number five and this is discussion and action uh to submit an application to the FY 2025 2026 El Paso Metropolitan planning organization requesting funds from the Federal Transit Administration section 5310 enhance mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities grant program in the amount of 448,000 with a required match from the city of 112,000 motion made by board n just got question just one question what what is the source of funds for the grant matching the 112 the 112 are City match funds within the Sun Metro F balro funds Sun Metro it's cash on and it's not pulling from any other project or okay thank you thank you motion voting session is open and we have a motion made by represent by board member Rea oh I mean Fiero seconded by representative rea and the item has been approved unanimously with board members salido not present for the vote move toour second all those in favor anyone oppose and the mass transit Department board meeting for Tuesday September the 10th has been adjourned at 10:23 a.m. move to reconvene the regular city council meeting there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10:2 3 a.m. that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routined and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor Pro page five item 11 revised per city clerk's office and that revision is to note that the appointment is an alternate member page six item 16 revised per representative Isabelle Salo and that revision is to clarify that the $100,000 loan is a personal loan to the campaign page 14 item 28 postpone two weeks per planning and inspections page 15 item 29 delete per capital Improvement Department page P 16 item 34 move to the Forefront of the regular agenda for representative oo second there's a motion made by mayor protim Kennedy second it by representative Canales to approve the consent agenda as revised on that that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously we now turn to page 16 item 34 was moved to the Forefront and this is to discussion and action that the city manager or designate be authorized to effectuate a budget transfer attached to the resolution as exhibit a to allocate budget for Modesto Gomez flat Fields Project M Cody good morning mayor and Council Nicole Cody managing director this is a request for Council to approve a budget transfer as it was read into the record for uh mesta flat Fields project you want leave that would you like a presentation it if you can please bring up the presentation for item 34 good morning mayor and Council you added n this Capital Improvement Department good morning ma'am this presentation is the request for a budget transfer this is for the central flat Fields project um to provide a little bit of background um we have done the city of Al Paso has done work at the mod Modesto project it was an identified project uh for quality of life uh we started and we've termed the first portion as phase one um which was not constructed this was awarded back in February of 2021 and if you remember uh CID asked to terminate this contract back in uh 2022 and we are currently under uh litigation the original scope of that project was the walking trail um amenities picnic tables trash receptical park benches trees uh Petway station exercise station two baseball fields Hydro Seating of the park uh to include two soccer fields so once we terminated the contract we went back out to rebid and this was awarded to Keystone um this was awarded in April of 2023 and Keystone has currently finished the project um the project at Modesto Gomez included um two baseball fields that were SED Hydro Seating up to um the park resurfacing of of the parking and also the trails so when we're looking the reason why I'm bringing that up is there is some available uh funding for this program of the central flat fields we have 169,000 uh remaining at Modesto there is some remaining Sports field lighting additionally if you'll remember back in March um it was a request for a phase two for Modesto that was for 6615 none of those funds have been uh spent as the community decided to move forward with Hydro Seating was not um favorable the quality of life um project identified Central flat Fields has $4.2 million this is part of the 2012 quality of life bonds and then we also had some project Savings in um a quality of life project so the total is 7.3 million that's a total available but bear in mind there are also soft costs so the central flat Fields project will be designed to approximately $6 million and so what that would look like um bringing in the additional uh programming is we're currently working on musco lighting um we should receive the 30% design today and that is for lighting around the baseball field um as I made mention the quality of life project of central flat Fields is the design and construction of additional Park amenities to include picnic tables pet weight station exercise restroom facility and Championship Sports field meaning this is artificial uh Turf to support football and soccer should Council approve this budget transfer we will work with the community host Community engagement design sh similar what we do with all our uh Capital Improvement projects so the recommendation is the authorization to effectuate the listed budget transfer for the capital Improvement Department in support of the project needs associated with the central flap fields and just quickly to go over some of the advantages of uh Synthetic Turf Sports um the improved technology makes turf fields desirable um we are now approaching 20,000 turf fields in USA uh the turf fields one of the things sustainability they last for 18 to 15 years and can last up to 20 years depending on maintenance and usage um they have a year round play which is very important to the program that we're developing with the city of El Paso to have uh consistent playing conditions no downtimes um it meets ADA requirements and also lower maintenance costs um higher initial costs uh than the natural Turf they offset over time uh water use uh provide Cooling and cleaning of the synthetic uh Turf it's not necessarily needed to grow but it's to to cool the turf um eliminates the need to patch and refurbish natural grass over the 13year estimated lifetime um and we wouldn't need to error rate Fields so that's one of the thing also about Ro rotating fields and that's why this would be available year round so we're asking to place the central flat fields at the Modesto Gomez location and transferring um the quality of life funds and capital funding plan into this project any questions thank you mayor I thank you for all the work work you've been doing for the past months I know we been having discussions on this and I'm finally happy to see this coming to life and I think the the big piece here is that we are um getting about $7 million for molesto Gomez with all the different budget transfers and if we remember correctly it was about 2 million to start with and I think that this can really give us a state-of-the-art park um that we could have in this community that really deserves it right and I think one of the things that um I'm I'm seeing here is that about a million of the 7 million or so will go toward the design and the engineering and stuff like that so that makes complete sense so it's part of the entire cost and I'm mainly explaining this just in a different way that you did um just so we could just get the affirmation that that's what this is and I think um hopefully this passes today and then I think the big next step is to really engage the community and I'm happy to help with that um to make sure that we have Community meetings um we could go Lo and kind of discuss the the next phase that will really make this park whole and then get feedback on what the recommendation here is right I know there's a lot of different questions that I've been getting from my community members constituents that um they're they have questions about the turf and I feel that we can really answer those in a in another setting through one of my community meetings and I and I think the the idea there is to make sure that the the recommendation is so strong that this could give us a really lasting um field to be used two Fields specifically right on top of the baseball fields to be able to use them for soccer for football I think some of the stuff that I've been hearing is they've been doing a little bit of research around the safety of running on Turf and people having accident so I think we really need to address that as we kind of move forward and then really see how the community feels engaged I think the the key here is that I don't want to um just say this is what you're getting and that's it I I think it's more let's have this conversation let's answer your concerns and then let's figure out what the next steps are so really appreciate you doing all of this and and I thank you and my office will be in touch with with you on kind of setting up the meeting hopefully we'll do it within the the next two three weeks just depending on people's schedules um but we'll we'll talk about this more and I know that they've signed up for public comment and we could listen to public comment after and Council ask questions or any other comments from other council members thank you yes sir thank you and uh Mr nundes thank you very much uh this is no different than so many of the quality of life projects in 2012 they run to funded and you're able to find the funding and make sure we did it right because just like represent was talking about that uh it um it will really provide such a great service for the area I played um Baler back in the70s and I can tell you back then it was U it needed a lot of uh help and needed a lot of assistance from the city and uh here we are uh what um 50 years later and we're getting it done now I'm a little bit tool to play out there but um I tell you it was it was a great park for it back then and um so I thank you and like I said just like so many projects that were so underfunded to be able to find the funding and do it the right way and I know weal we start talking about this what nine years ago and to get it finally done today is a great accomplishment so thank you very much ma'am they got we got a motion in a second I did not hear a motion mayor I I moved to approve I should have made the motion we almost had one I think there's four people saying iove thank you sir would you like to go to public comment next we have four people that signed up to speak the first person is Jose Nunes followed by Anna Dominguez Dora Vian NOA and Alisa via Jose Nunes Jose Nunes Anna Dominguez Anna Dominguez yes okay go ahead good morning ma'am you have three minutes good good morning mayor and city council my name is Anna Dominguez I am a retired Elder rights Advocate by profession more importantly I was born and raised in val in the Valverde Community where I still reside I am a member of the valde neighborhood Association I am here uh rejoicing at the support of our city representative Josh oo and his efforts and the cooperation of capital Improvement efforts to seek essential additional funding for a much delayed completion of Modesto Gomez Park Modesto Gomez Park is on territory that is his historical it was given this land was given to the city of Al Paso in 1931 as a result of the 1933 Rio Grande International reification project of the US in Mexico so it has a very rich history the park was established in 1975 it's named for Modesto Gomez who is an outstanding um El pasoan who was a lifelong resident of of the Valverde community and we are very much uh grateful to the city council and to the uh of course our city rep and so forth uh for support for our park it has been a long road starting since starting since 2019 but our community as you saw Jefferson High School which is within our area um we're still a vibrant and contributing community and we appreciate the acknowledgement of our needs and the park as the mayor said the Senior League which is rich in 600 seniors who played at Modesto Gomez and have not been able to play because our Park was closed two over two years ago I'm sure that they're going to be delighted and so we will have hopefully upon completion those those teams coming back to the park and revenues from their uh use for city thank you so much we appreciate it and we hope to maintain an open dialogue with capital Improvement and we hope to and we will be keeping an eye on the adherence to time uh to time limitations for completion of the project thank you so much thank you the next speaker is doraa okay good morning good morning mayor I want to you don't know how I want to thank you so much okay good morning ladies and gentlemen we're here and we hear this news and I can tell you mayor every time I appear before you I have have I have had a good outcome of the city council I especially with the elderly out there we have a lot of elderly that are watching right now and they want to know what's going to happen with us with the park and everything out there at the valde neighborhood association as you know I'm the president of the valde neighborhood association I will fight for my elderly till the end I guess until God says I can okay but I want to thank you very much because this is something that I didn't expect and our District representative I want to thank you you've been in office so l little and look at all you've done but then I thank Chris also because he tried and he was trying hard but then he had to leave okay that's fine but you know what every time we come to the mayor we get a good outcome and I want to thank all of you for working together and giving us what my community needs especially that we have a lot of elderly out there thank you very much thank you speaker is Alisia via I'm back again did you go to Jeff by any chance pardon did you go to Jeff by any chance um I think so you see my car you look familiar jewelry and I'm all Fox but like I said my my grandparents my grandparents my parents we all lived in the area and we have always fought for our community especially my parents uh we fought for Jefferson uh they were one of the founders my dad was really active in the community and he fought the city council and anybody that would not hear us to get our better to better our community and that's our goal and I guess I'm following their footsteps because I went through what they were when they were fighting for everything so I thank you for that I hope that this part park because we don't have a park down South Central and in one of the meetings when one of the uh city managers went I said could you please you know in your budget put money for our original neighborhood and then after you fix all the things that we need then you can go and budget for the other parts of the city so thank you so much for that um it's going to be a great Improvement for our kids and we do have a lot of seniors there um but we have new families coming into our neighborhood and I you know I am so proud that you are going to be able to give us that and so they could have a better life in our community thank you so much thank you for what you do the next speaker is Marie me good morning I know nobody knows you by my real name what is your real name Mar May lawi good morning may Jos everybody all the city raps um I'm just here to say thank you uh I'm part of the I just volunteer I'm the volunteer I guess for everything better I want to say thank you so much we it's been a long road I I I uh got involved because my brother Andes was used to play there and I used to go there every Saturday to see him play so thank you so much thank you Peewee nice to see you okay that concludes public comment Mayer thank you now I know we have a motion in a second I just um Dora's comments reminded me um I know this was District 8 and it became District 2 and repano had started on the work when it became the the district 2 Park and so it's been a lot of years and she passed the Baton on to me and I think she did a lot of the instrumental work to get to where we're at today so I just wanted to acknowledge that as well thank you thank you sir there's a motion made by representative AO seconded by representative Rea to approve item 34 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously thank you and um M Mr nandes and your team thank you very much for everything you've done I know you made it happen with a lot of your team so thank you again next item turn to page 10 item number 21 and this is discussion and action to direct the city manager and City attorney to draft an ordinance at prohibits the use of Residential Properties as entertainment venues the proposed ordinance should address issues related to Neighborhood disruption zoning compliance and Public Safety and this item was submitted by representative Fierro represent Fierro thank you mayor colleagues um after numerous and many many many complaints from neighborhoods neighbors residents about homes being used and for large scale entertainment venues they alleg that there's the noise ordinance is being um not being adhered to that there's underage drinking going on the traffic has become an issue people are parking in driveways people are double parking and that there's safety issues with the neighbors in regards to these party venues you know these are single home dwellings homes that advertise on social media for up to 200 guests for events like weddings um um indoor pool parties and they're becoming a public nuisance some of the renters or or some of the ads go as far as for renting for 4our intervals and I know that a lot of my colleagues up up here have received um some complaints also the intention of this agenda is item is by no means intended to infringe on anyone's personal property rights you know I I hope to continue mayor to to invite my my family and friends I don't have 200 of them but I have a few that will come over a rare occasion but it's it's really to make the neighborhoods safe and make the neighborhoods what they should be let's keep businesses in commercial zones where where they have to get permitting where they pay taxes where they have in a proper Insurance where they're not a safety concern for their neighbors I encourage our new city manager our City attorney and the department heads that they will they will have to uh work with to up with a a an ordinance that will um keep the public our neighbors our friends or taxpayers safe but will be fair to the private um property owners and I hope my colleagues will support this item because it is necessary for our neighborhoods to keep them safe uh would that may or I make a motion second to approve the agend oh thank you Chris thank you representative um pharoh I um I think this is a really important item that needs to be brought forward and it U it's not being confused with short-term rental this is people that are abusing the system people that are abusing the neighborhoods and as I um as I ended up U as the item went on the agenda I received numerous numerous letters and uh text messages and phone calls of uh residents that have been affected by parties and and other other things where they can't even get out of their home and um I even got one from a former uh City employee that um told said that he actually moves out of his house on weekends because it's uh he the noise is all night and sometimes he can't even pull out of his driveway so it's I I think that this is a really very important item that really needs to be looked at to make sure that uh neighborhoods stay neighborhoods in commercial areas continue become commercial areas and they don't get mixed in together because it just like represent F just read the safety of uh the residents and the children playing out in the streets is so important and and there's really compromises that and we never want to we want to make sure that it never becomes a compromise to any of our residents so I um I know that this items to uh look at U the City attorney and same manager to work with City staff to bring It Forward do we have any time a timeline Miss NE that you'd like to see on that uh mayor I'd work with the city manager uh I think there was a CFT form previously that maybe needs to be um brought back but we would need um some period of time that's what I that's what I was asking because it's kind of left out in the open and I think we need to have some time period to to bring it back correct and the the work that was done the team was preparing to bring a briefing back to you by the end of the year we would then need to go back to ensure that we're including the information that is being presented today so I would want to make sure that we we've had time to consider that in consultation with the city attorney to make sure that information is complete I'd like to see sometime a timeline on this just not to mix it together Mr Mayor I I had intended to ask for if 120 days was duable for the city manager City attorney okay 120 days the it okay thank you thank you mayor thank you for that uh representative oo followed by representative Canales thank you mayor I have a few um questions for our City attorney I I'm wondering I I think the there's importance in in what's being discussed for this item but I'm also thinking in terms of what short-term things can be done right because I know what I have heard in the community is stuff like um gasa Extravaganza on the West Side there's another one on the east side um stuff like that but for me I I see this and I I'm thinking these are residential areas and they're being operated as commercial so do we not have something on the books that we can use to enforce already so the the city has its zoning regulations that prohibit commercial uses in residential areas the public should be um calling and complaining about the noise also depending on the situation in regards to the the amount of traffic on a street um if it's if it's impeding access into the neighborhood then that's something that that could be addressed without um any code changes but it would require that the public call and and file a complaint and then either the police or the fire department or another code enforcement um entity would come out and and investigate whether the people were in violation of various um existing codes so right now it would just be a misdemeanor ticket for doing this or it would just be like a warning you're being too loud that would depend on the officer who's issuing the citations or whatever is happening at the at the facility or the at the home okay so you think that we could do a lot more to strengthen it through something like this and research through your office and with the city manager's office um my understanding is that we're being asked to see what other enforcement mechanisms are available to us uh we would need to do some other benchmarking in regard to what other cities are doing and then there's also um some limitations on um whether we can Outlaw these completely okay okay that's good to know and and I think that um I'm I'm wondering as we're doing more of this research what is going to qualify as an issue under the proposed ordinance because I I think about obviously large Gatherings parties and noise and stuff like that but I feel that there has been enough that has been happening throughout some of these residences that were having um kinas and other big events and so I I wonder how we go about kind of listing all those different things um just overall as you're doing your research that that would be important and I also think that um the short-term rental Alliance that has been doing work in the last year we we got uh letters in support of this item but I think it would be crucial for them to be involved in the conversations on this cuz I know that they've been doing some work over the past year on kind of self-governing and stuff like that so if we could include them as a an engagement piece I I think it could really strengthen this um ordinance or potential ordinance and then um if we are going to allow for this to continue uh through whatever research you do or if we can't completely prohibited are we going to look at permits for this giving people permits to do this so I think that that's something that's important to consider so I'm just trying to ask all these questions right now just so we could have a good path forward if this item does pass and then also what enforcement is going to look like is it PD only or we going to be sending code enforcement um stuff like that thank you represent Canales followed by represent molard thank you mayor yeah I I still have a lot of questions as well I mean in my understanding the residential zoning of of a property would already prohibit a commercial use like a rental for a for an entertainment venue or a party venue um and then we simply have an enforcement problem with you know enforcement of our zoning regulations um don't get me wrong I think there's definitely a problem here I think it plays into the same conversations that we had uh when we discussed the the issue of short-term rentals in general last year I know these are not the same type of short-term rentals that were the the focus of that conversation but these are short-term rentals nonetheless if people are offering their residential property uh for for short-term use in exchange for money that's that's a short-term rental of a of a residential prop property um and again we run into the same issue that we did last year where we don't have a a definition in our code um that's specific to short-term rentals and so it's hard to Define what fits into this category what fits into the category of the overnight short-term rentals um you know how are we able to write an ordinance that would prohibit this but not prohibit the other uh if we don't Define what either of them means in our code uh I I think you know this is just a a problem that that we're left with because we didn't deal with the definition question last year um you know I I think this gives really this agenda item gives really really broad language it says the proposed ordinance should address issues related to Neighborhood disruption zoning compliance and Public Safety um I don't totally know what direction we're being asked to give you in terms of an ordinance and what it would do um you know this this says it would address certain things but not specifically how or what what it would do um and so I'm left with with questions still um I did plan to bring up next uh next year it will take several months and you know I want to make sure that I do a good amount of Outreach including to the the short-term rental Alliance um but I I did plan to bring up in the next several months uh the issues that we discussed last year and and folks asked for a year they said they wanted to see uh how things changed with the introduction of the the pilot program for complaints I for want to continue to hear a lot of complaints um about short-term rental property in general and many that are like this you know what is being described in this item that are even shorter term rentals right for for party essentially for party venues um some are being done directly some are being done through the the popular uh apps Airbnb uh vbo the the different short-term rental apps um again I I struggle to understand how we would put forward an ordinance that differentiates between the different types of short-term rentals if we we can't even say what a short-term rental is in our code um I guess uh I'll ask questions that I hopefully can be answered by the the author of the of the item and uh you know I just want to understand more so like what is the intended outcome of an ordinance so not necessarily of enforcement of of our current zoning codes but of a new ordinance what what is the expectation that that new ordinance would say in order to address this issue in a way that's different from the ordinance that we have on the books now uh so I I'll leave my comments there for the moment I I hope to hear some clarification before uh we take a vote thank you thank you sir represent molinard followed by represent Kennedy thank you very much mayor um thank you representative f for putting this item on the agenda today I uh do support it however I have a problem with having a resident to go seek a permit uh kind of like what representative Canalis is saying um why would if they seek a permit and they pay the permit fee then all of a sudden we're like saying oh yeah go ahead and do it and that's what we're trying to do is prevent it the other thing too is I say we already have enough ordinances on the books whether you have underage drinking alcohol um you have parking that's illegal whether it's 18 Ines from the curb double parking facing the wrong way uh noise violations I think we still need to come back and get that done we haven't finished that one so I think it's a step in the right direction but we do need to talk about it and make sure that we're doing this in the right way for fair to every everyone I know in District 4 we do have a lot of calls where people are having parties and they're going on 1 2:00 in the morning and we're getting emails on it well I can't send it I can't send the police out there but the next day it's like it's a little bit too late so um I think we really just need to take an in-depth look of what's happening and not happening and how we are approaching this to make sure that everyone's fine the gentleman that the former city employee Mr Rodriguez you know um I mean he's upset for his family he worked for the city for x amount of years and for his once his wife his kids his grandkids to make sure that they can enjoy life a quality of life that's sustainable that's something that they look forward to um that's that's what's that's what being opasan is all about uh now are we going to go too far to restricted hey if your child's going to have a birthday party that you can't do it you're going to have have to seek a permit that's a little bit overreaching I believe so we really need to take an in-depth look on what's Happening and how we approach this thank you may prot um a couple of things because this is something that a a concern that started and I've spent probably more time driving up and down Canyon Springs for a non-resident uh checking this out yes this is a broad item and I think it needs to be broad to give staff the availability to look at all options to say okay here's the goal this is not a short-term rental do not conflate the two I understand you could use the definition if you rent it for 30 minutes it's considered a short-term rental and I think that's an incorrect statement I think that this is not for short-term rentals with these are commercial properties that are used a residence as a commercial property and while I don't think we have the ability to say we want these things inspected 247 if that's the case then we need to start Staffing and paying for the staff for somebody to be available 247 for these things but what I think is we've given enough broad direction to staff to say here's the problem people are using houses as commercial venues we're going to leave it up to the creativity the knowledge and the research of our staff to say do we find something that is under definition that sends it down that road is it the definition of here's where it goes from a birthday party to a commercial rental I've got pictures of signs in front of one of these house that say welcome to the kinetta welcome to the wedding reception with a big sign that doesn't necessarily sound like what is traditionally a short-term rental or even a personal use that's a commercial property yes zoning is also involved there's so many parts of this that are involved that's why I think they needed broad access to okay you go where you want here's the problem the problem is really a definitive it is people using a home as an entertainment venue and I think that if we can carve that out I agree there's some other things we want to talk about in the long run but for this one it is simply if you go up I could give you the address on Canyon Springs to go take a look on almost almost once a weekend Friday or Saturday night you'll see that it's a pretty easy definition difference between somebody having a party and somebody having an entertainment venue and I think that that's why we want to give a broad stroke to staff and say here's our problem I'm not going to say so what are you going to do with the problem what's the answers going to be we don't know the answers until they bring it back and it may be something that we say we are happy or unhappy with but rather than presume I know what they're going to come back with I'm just going to say you know we need to get a game plan together for people using residential as a commercial entertainment facility we don't have it yes there are parts of it and maybe binding them together is what we're asking but I believe in in the legal research and and the new city manager to come back with a proposal after touching all those bases to say here's what we think we can do to fight it thank you representative rea thank you mayor um well said representative Kennedy well said uh and that would be my my complaint as well that they're using homes I understand they're they're buying these homes not really actually living in them and simply renting them out I those are kind of calls I've been getting and I've even had photos sent to me hope she's here to speak publicly on on okay I she'll speak publicly on on on one that she has near her house and uh these homes are just what representative Kennedy just said they are being used as commercial property not to not necessarily to reside in but uh just to throw their their their their rental name out there where they can use them and use them for those kind of purposes uh I totally agree on this uh this would be the the main focus that I would ask as well for for staff to look at if they're not going to live there hopefully you can prevent how somehow prevent those events from happening that would be perfect but uh it's so it's so wide uh hopefully we can come up and I also want to thank representative f for bring this up bringing this up because in the last couple weeks I have been my office has been getting several calls on this so I I thank you mayor thank you very much thank you and I think it's even a little further than that and when you talk about let's say someone lives in the home and then every weekend they rent it out for a huge party and a huge venue would be the same thing so that's why we really have to look at and try to figure it out and that's why I think we need to sit as a group and come up with a solution that uh it's not just someone not living in the house and renting it out but people that live in it and decide they can rent it out and allow weddings kinettes or you know whatever may be in them also creates a problem for the neighbor U representative ernandes thank you thank you mayor um yes I do share the same sentiments as uh representative Canales um I think that you know we need to call it what it is um you know there's there's no concern here of conflating the issues because if you go to these online platforms to rent out backyards and private property it will say directly that they are short shortterm rentals and they are hourly rentals um and so you know when you try to apply an ordinance the definitions really matter so then so think about this logistically you're going to send out PD or code enforcement how are they going to know number one that it's considered a short-term rental or an online platform because there's no definition number two our short-term rental is in the pilot phase it just ended and so I asked has to look at that data um and so I have very uh little data and so what it states is that there has been complaints that the city has received and over 10,200 complaints the city of El Paso receives so that means 10,000 complaints related all of our resources our PD our code enforcements they're being deployed for these complaints and in if you break down those complaints 5,300 of the residents do not know what kind of home or establishment it is and so my expectation is well then has anyone done followup on those 5300 complaints because we can very much do site visits as part of your evaluation because we really need to determine what is driving the complaints the notion that we're not getting complaints from short-term rentals is false there it shows here that we're receiving the same type of complaints related from short-term rentals as we are with the online platform so that you can rent backyards courts or other amenities in private households so this really feels like the alternative to pushing forward a short-term ordinance which the city of aasa does not have and many other cities across Texas do including smaller municipalities in the city of El Paso what you're seeing today are concerted efforts to circumvent that and we have been clear that we we're in a pilot stage and we need to address and Tackle where these complaints are being driven and how the city is responding and so I I want to correct the record to say no one is conflating it here residents see someone using a private property regardless of what platform they're using their livelihoods their overall quality of life is being impacted and we're hearing from those amilies and they are struggling and yes we don't want to see Residential Properties being used for entertainment venues that's what representative canala said we already have enforcement regulations so it is it is a matter of deploying resources to the city departments so that they can respond to these complaints and also we need to do our due diligence and determine where of those 10,200 complaints we're receiving where are they concentrated what is driving those complaints are they coming from short short term rentals because the preliminary data says yes it also says that there's a lot of residents who don't know I also want to remind the public that yes you can have your household parties I've been getting calls all weekend thinking that they had to cancel their private household parties with their family members and so this is a study that there is nothing written in an ordinance yet and when the city proposes an ordinance we need to do our due diligence and we need to determine what are the legal um requirements what a city can prohibit what land use assumptions we have what is the operational component and the framework of how we're going to deploy these type of services and then the most important part is to Define to Define what a short-term rental is I assert that the definition of a short-term rental is you're utilizing it for short-term purposes you're not the private property owner and you're renting the facility whether it's to sleep or to utilize the amenities in a household and so that is critical in order to move forward I agree with representative molart yes this is a good step in in in the right direction but when you say give broad latitude to City staff well then that broad latitude needs to be what else um is driving these type of complaints these entertainment venues and we're going to be able to see it in the data as we already see it here 10,000 complaints from from residents who are concerned that their neighborhoods are being gentrified who are concerned that there's too many short-term rental or these online Platforms in one street we are already facing a a housing crisis and so we really need to be honest and open and genuine with the public about what the what the intention is here and I'm hearing from all of the discussions we had over the years there is a deliberate effort to circumvent short-term rentals but we do know that there's a concern with entertainment ven venues and residential homes so let's check the box and let's move forward with the prohibition Although our laws in the books already say that and so fine let's do the studies come back and give us um some recommendations but don't like don't insult the public the public understands what's the problem and yes we have a strong short-term ordinance or excuse me short-term rental Alliance and I appreciate that we need to work together but we also have problems with those Bad actors that need to be addressed we're not saying everyone it could be true both facts we have responsible short-term rental owners and we have irresponsible short-term rental owners and a self-regulating organization has proven that they need support from the city that is your purpose of your government is to deploy these policies and to deploy these services and now we have 10,000 complaints on the book that is a call to action from Council to do what's best for the for the community and what's best for the community is to Define it Implement a short-term rental ordinance make it as lenient as you want but don't avoid it you know put in the policy what you want to regulate what you don't but don't avoid it and be honest with the public I'll support this today because it gets us the information and the data that we need but I am not in support of not addressing the fact that we have these short-term rental platforms whether it's swimly Airbnb vbo there are several and the public doesn't care what platform they're using or how they're using using it they care about their quality of life thank you thank you mayor and mayor um represent Hernandez is completely correct we cannot insult the public this is an issue where there's a hole in the ordinance it's not a short-term rental issue this is a business a venture issue this is someone running a business next to my home that has inviting 200 people that come over and park in front of the whole neighborhood's yard to play music to have events this is not about somebody renting it for the weekend to sleep and to visit family in the hospital or or this is not a short-term rental issue this is a business issue there's holes in the ordinances that we have to fill and we have to address if I heard two my colleagues um make refer to it as another issue you should speak to the people who are calling our offices with their concerns who can even who have people climbing over their fences who have people looking over their fences who have people throwing beer cans and beer bottles in their front yards their kids can't even uh ride their bikes in the front yard they're afraid to let the kids play in the front yard because of uh all the cars going in on the the street this is a a business venture issue this is you entertainment issue and if you want to I encourage everybody to to be in business to try and make a um a dollar to try and and um improve your family but not in the backs of your neighbors there's commercial areas where they'll be in they'll they'll be forced to have the correct permits they'll be forced to have the the right Insurance they'll be forced to follow the laws the other issue I heard right now is about we have ordinances in place to address these issues that's not true and now and all the the people who are calling who have called 311 numerous numerous times who have called the police officers numerous numerous times and yet the issue has not been resolved so for us to say that we have ordinances in place that need to be uh that can address these issues are not true and lastly I'll leave any you know anybody who thinks this is about your private property rights it's about art having an event a birthday party uh whatever it has nothing to do with that it has to do with mayor liser renting his house every 4 hours having a pool party having 200 cars in front of his house that's the real isue issue thank you mayor thank you representative canel is followed by representa molard thank you mayor I had uh I think just about shed my reputation for being the one who reads the code during the meeting but I'm going to do it again um I'm looking at Title 20 this is this governs our our zoning regulations um I you know I just heard that there there is a hole in the code that our code doesn't address this I'm putting these sections together it seems pretty well that IT addresses is it so we have uh supplemental use regulations so this this is chapter 20 uh10 defines what types of activities are permitted in different zoning districts including residential zones like this um part of 2010 is is section 280 this is temporary uses so this outlines the regulations for for different temporary uses that are uh allowed with a permit within a residential or any any zoning District but in this case a residential zoning District um and people can apply for a temporary use permit for a short-term activity that doesn't conform to the zoning so like a commercial use in a residential uh zoning District um the the permit requirements you know the the applicants have to meet specific conditions they have to agree that they're going to comply with health and safety and public welfare standards including things like the noise ordinance um we we already have that permit process in place uh in fact I was part of a lanc sigma project a couple years ago to improve the issuance and and speed up the issuance of those temporary use permits um so I know them fairly well uh we already have uh further down in in 20 uh Title 20 it's chapter 26 section 020 penalties for violations uh so if uh there's violations of the temporary use regulations uh each day of violation constitutes a separate offense with a fine of up to $2,000 uh again we have very specific uh very all-encompassing uh description of what is supposed to happen for a non-conforming temporary use in a zoning District it's exactly what we're talking about today there's already enforcement uh information there's already daily fines what I'm hearing is we have an enforcement problem about this I mean I that's I I don't see where the hole is in the code that we're we're going plug with a new ordinance um we already have the ordinance I mean maybe it's a change of the fine or whatever I think you know this is a standard fine for a nuisance violation up to $2,000 a day that's that's already a significant fine um you know I I I'm not sure what this direction for a new ordinance would change within section 20 or supplement section 20 uh uh chapter 20 I'm sorry with so again I'm like uh representative arandes said I'm happy to support this today because I do think uh you know we can we can ask staff if unknown participant is now joining we can ask staff if there's anything that they find that can be that can be fixed here um I will say I know staff for several years has been working on uh you know revisions to the zoning code in in chapter 20 I keep saying chapter I'm sorry in Title 20 of of our code uh and this is something that they could look at as part of the revisions that they eventually bring forward to the council um but I I don't know what we'll accomplish from this this direction I'm happy to do it because I think it's a step in the right direction but it's one step of I think many many steps that we need to take in looking at uh short-term rentals again whether we're talking about residential short-term rentals or short-term rentals for an entertainment purpose or anything else um you know we we have a lot that I think we need to examine and this is just one small piece of that so uh thank you thank you mayor thank you sir represent molard thank you very much mayor um I do offer this solution unknown participant is now joining welcome um I believe I see Chief but see us here so I know when I was on the police department I was the commander for crimes against children one of the components of that was the underage drink and initiative it was a grant we call it Udi but uh let's just say there was 12 15 officers that would go on a weekend Thursday Fridays and Saturdays and but before we did go out deployment we gathered intelligence and back then there wasn't social media how it is now but either way we still were able to be successful in gathering intelligence and strategizing how we were going to deploy resources and we've deployed resources throughout the city of El Paso and I can tell you when you just sat back and watched what was happening in the front yards whether were they're fighting whether they're urinating consuming alcohol possession of alcohol uh it was great we made arrests uh forget the citations we made physical arrests we confiscated liquor we confiscated beer uh told the DJ it's over period it's done uh we held the uh homeowners or whoever was in charge accountable uh you're going to shut this thing down and that's the end of that period and it worked and uh I know that time Chief uh assistant chief Umberto talamantes was a sergeant under me at that time so we can talk to him about it and we provided great stats but we are also an enforcement tool and we were operating under a grant so Dr olain if you pick a note of that I don't see Omar here but uh we did have a grant for the underage drinking initiative and we did great work thank you with that we have some public comment yes mayor we do we have 13 people that signed up to speak the first person is Robin Cooper Robin Cooper followed by Roberto Lopez excuse me ma'am can are you um signed up to speak I'm sorry I can't she signed up to speak ma' she signed up to speak mayor what number is she to speak she is number nine nine yes can you please give room for the people to speak and then we'll call you up in a minute thank you thank you ma'am we'll proceed with Robin Cooper Roberto Lopez Steven Greenberg Gabriel Rodriguez good morning ma'am you have three minutes good morning ma'am good morning ladies and gentlemen of the city council thank you very much uh for letting me speak today my name is Robin Cooper I'm a homeowner in El Paso who rents out my pool to families in our community I'm here to voice my strong opposition to the proposed allout ban on this practice in treating all of El Paso like an HOA first and foremost we provide an invaluable service to families in Alp Pasa who do not have access to a pool many of these families cannot afford expensive Vacations or memberships to large Resorts with public pools being torn down due to maintenance costs we are stepping up to fill that Gap providing a safe and affordable space for our neighbors to enjoy homeowners like myself take immense pride in maintaining our properties we invest time effort and resources es to ensure our spaces are clean safe and beautiful for families and we are always on the property this proposed ordinance feels like an attack on the little guy targeting those of us who are simply trying to help our community we bring more joy to locals than the trolley and we don't cause the taxpayers a dime we are not making huge profits from this endeavor we are merely trying to keep up with the skyrocketing property taxes which are among the highest in the State personally mine have doubled in the past 10 years insinuating that these pools are rented morning noon and night is an exaggeration along with the fact that every single one of these rentals is over 200 people we're talking about people five people families who are enjoying a unique experience for locals who choose not to own or maintain a pool our rentals offer a much needed escape from the heat they appre appreciate having a nearby station and we are happy to provide that service why do we need new regulations when existing ordinances regarding noises and parking already are in place please don't prioritize disgruntled neighbors who have Code Compliance on speed dial whether a code has been broken or not in those 10,000 numbers that you're talking about please tell the truth and tell us how many of those are the exact same person additionally letting let's not forget the protections afforded by the 14th Amendment which ensures that no person can be deprived of property without due process we have broken no laws and our operations are transparent and responsible the majority of ours El pasoans have been renting out their backyards for weddings kinetta birthdays etc for Generations last year the council faced significant push back from Airbnb owners who successfully fought against similar restrictions I I um conclusion I urge you to reconsider this proposal at all of an all outband let's work together to support our community and right thank you ma'am thank you very much thank you thank you for being here the next speaker is Roberto Lopez good morning Mr Lopez you have three minutes hello yes sir go ahead you have three minutes oh yes um my name is uh Roberto Lopez and I'm a resident of El Paso Texas I've been a resident since 2012 um I I was actually told that there was a uh proposed ordinance based on uh certain uh Properties or I guess properties in in no Paso to host events um in their property and I guess following some ordinance uh to prevent that from happening um as a as a resident in op Paso we've all noticed that you know property taxes have risen tremendously over the last couple of years um and to no avail um by doing this I think you would actually limit a lot of property owners that use their property to actually get some type of Revenue to actually pay their property taxes um I do feel that you know as as owners of of our properties we should be allowed to do as we need because it is considered a private property and I don't think the city or any and any other type of government should try to impose any type of ordinance that is already established as far as like nuisance or any any uh any parking violations or anything like that um we we do host events at our at our house uh fortunately and I think that by doing that it would actually take away some of the revenue that we would actually use to actually sustain ourselves and actually keep uh doing this so I I do appreciate if you take this into consideration I understand that you know we do have uh ordinances in in place that prevent us from you know being too loud or or having excessive Vehicles outside but but I we've never had any issues whatsoever with either law enforcement or any uh any uh codes that that pertain to the actual city thank you thank you the next speaker is Steven Greenberg followed by Gabriel Rodriguez delarius montz good morning good morning sir thank you members of the city council and mayor liser uh to address you um most of my comments which you have in written form here you um I won't uh discuss since many of you have already covered them as well as some of the comments I'd like to focus on a few cities like San Jose and Palm Springs in California Dallas Texas Glen Cove New York already have developed very detailed ordinances that affect effectively ban the short-term entertainment venues and so I would recommend that the uh city manager and her staff and the City attorney study those ordinances that have been very successful in cutting down on the complaints so that's one issue another issue is that my wife and I live next door to swimley property it's a property that has already been spoken for by your first speaker and until June of this year we were very happy with the Coopers ideal neighbors but that changed in June where we had as many as 20 or 30 people coming right by our kitchen window going into the backyard we Overlook Thunder Canyon in Upper Mesa Hills my wife often goes out there to meditate and commune with nature and she can't do that during these parties our insurance premiums could potentially go up because of the U elevated risk uh a parasol from the party came flying over fortunately no one was hurt no property damage but we really worry about the enhanced risk to neighbors as well as diminishing the property values in our neighborhood thank you very much for the opportunity to speak thank you sir the next speaker is Gabriel Rodriguez followed by delas montz Heidi SE good morning good morning Council morning mayor I wasn't really sure how I was going to address Council on this but I'm a host my wife and I are swimly host we' been doing this a little over a year I wasn't sure if I was going to advocate for the hosts here or if I was going to advocate for the public who comes and enjoys our space that we do offer on swimly but now I just have more questions my question is my home has a pool is my home now an entertainment venue because I have a pool is it an entertainment venue because I have green grass and a Pergola back there the city's going to have to Define what is an entertainment venue now because I have a pool it's not entertainment I don't offer alcohol we don't have a stage I have a live band so my question is or the comments that I want to make is how can the city Define what an entertainment venue is 200 people at a home that's somebody abusing whatever it is they're offering my home 40 people at the most it's all we allow our part is in at 10:00 I mean is that an entertainment venue I mean the council has to ask what the finds an entertainment venue you all are going to have to do that and I think it's going to be extremely difficult to do so now with that I want to let you guys know like the people who do enjoy our home you all talk a lot about quality of life the people who come and enjoy our space are people who are just celebrating birthdays they're going to have a birthday party anyway whether it's at our home or somebody else's it's it's people celebrating their twins birthday party it's a veteran who has PTSD who loves to enjoy our jacuzzi who brings his family just for a couple of hours a weekend when he can who who doesn't want to go to a public pool because the the people around him give him anxiety the people who use this are people who really need this service that we are able to provide we are the community the community who hosts these or have these what you all are call an entertainment Vue we are the community we are El Paso we are who opened up our homes to the community that is quality of life when our community has to come forward and offer our homes not cuz I'm saying we don't have to but we do we offer our homes for the quality of life for the quality of life of our community we are El Paso We Are Who open up our homes to the public to our friends to our neighbors to this entire Community people from all over El Paso come and visit stay enjoy barbecue have a good time enjoy the residence that's who we are those of us who host these things are El Paso I'm born here I've lived here I opened my business here I'm a part of this community not only as creating Revenue while owning my business here but by offering up our home my home to the community to have birthday parties for Mio birthday parties for Miha having graduation go away parties thank you Council thank you sir the next speaker is deliris montz followed by hiid s Sabrina Maldonado good morning good morning maam good morning city council uh congratulations to the city manager um the home is the clearest example of a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy a person doesn't have to be a homeowner for the law to protect that expectation tenants who Rend their homes also have a protected right of to privacy people are people are allowed to use their property in a manner suitable to their lifestyle as long as it's not interfering with the rights of others I love to do research and uh my dad is always talking about talking logically right so there's an abstract that I'm going to live with a city manager so it will help her with uh her research but this abstract is from 2010 and I'm going to reach you a little bit of what it says the US Constitution provides protection for private property owners when the government intervenes Through official regulations restricting an owner rights in land or housing when the government acts through reg regulatory intervention that restricts the private use of land and housing the property rights are affected owners are protected under the 14 Amendment and the taking Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and some of you city council members are attorneys so I'm pretty sure that you guys are going to appreciate this abstract the Constitutional protection of private property rights in the United States is thought to promote economic prosperity and efficiency as well as basic fairness and individual liberty in this sense private property rights are institutionally considered important human and civil rights that operate to protect a this favor minority from favorite M and unfairness CA by majority by majority legis legislative action courts have recognized that land value consists not only in the title ownership and possession but also in the rights of an owner to use enjoy and develop the land government interventions that regulate hous are generally permissible if they leave the owner with an economically viable use of the land such government interference with private housing decisions produ several negative consequences generally excessive regulations mothers the creativity of marketplace actors whose decisions fuel economic growth additionally regulation fails to enhance personal Liberty since the government exercise of police power inhibits it and there is the conclusion thank you and I will leave it with the city manager thank you very much ma'am the next speaker is Heidi sings I don't see her in the queue Sabrina Maldonado Sabrina Maldonado thank you followed by Deborah Torres Carol Powell she had a con thank you hi well good morning city council my name is Sabrina Maldonado I am a member excuse me I am a member of El Paso um short um excuse me short-term rental Alliance and I know one of the goals for this Alliance is to make sure that host that offer Hospitality for people coming from all over the place to visit us here in El Paso that we're doing it responsibly and obviously with respect to all the citizens while we're complying with the rules and the regulations um such as noise ordinance uh some of the platforms that are used ban completely parties for safety reasons for a lot of reasons that we we spoke about today correct so we definitely support creating an ordinance which um will Target properties using using their homes as venues as some some some of the Recons discussed as well I think this would help um identify people who are being used as a r as disturbance that that are being used as rental um venues that are disturbing the neighbors and to protect the St Str the host that are being responsible and that trying you know trying to do our best to protect the neighbors I I am proud to say that in the past year the Alli Alliance uh we're doing a good job educating hosts on ways to prevent disturbances to all the neighbors and um and and using different um excuse me um just to just to be able to make sure that we're using that to protect to protect the the ah sorry well the the privacy of the neighbors and also to respect so anyways we will continue doing that and we want to actually also make sure that this ordinance is clear and set that we're we are not just attacking anyone but just make sure that all of the neighbors feel respected and that we as as as host in it Paso we are doing it responsibly and and protecting also our host as well thank you very much thank you the next speaker is Deborah Torres Miss Torres star six please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes good morning this is Jeff thoros can you hear me yes ma'am good morning my name is uh Deborah thus uh I live in district 7 Mion Valley uh in the portion of the district that is south of I 10 uh this is an older District I have lived in my home almost all of my life uh I uh am familiar with the neighborhood and with the neighbors and I would like to uh support uh the item item 21 we have encountered in our neighborhood uh some uh issues regarding uh people using their properties uh as uh entertainment venues and uh charging for these activities that they're having uh the problems that uh they are causing to residences involved uh violation of the parking code and by that I mean uh the the uh because of the large number of folks who are attending they are parking their vehicles perpendicular to an already Narrow Street that has no curves or sidewalks and there for they are increasing they are de decreasing the width because they are these large Vehicles many times trucks are are are uh are jutting out into the into the road uh prohibiting or making travel through that road very difficult uh the other issue is uh the blocking of of entrances to uh other neighbors uh properties uh this is obviously could create a public safety or uh uh public safety issue um and uh of course the item that we mentioned I mentioned before regarding the fact that these venues uh have it has been uh stated by the property owner the one one that is uh engaged in these activities uh to several uh different individuals that he does charge for this and um I know that there was a previous speaker who talked about his willingness to open his home to have people find uh rest and comfort there and I'm I'm just curious to know whether uh he is charging those who come which kind of puts a different slant on it so uh just to uh summarize uh I do support the item and I as as uh do uh other residents in in my area thank you very much thank you the next speaker is Carol Powell followed by Teresa chav Christina Duron and Denise arano good morning mayor mayor city council thank you for hearing me uh I'm one of those Infamous Canyon Springs residents um and I live about 8 house is down from from the house in question the the Party Palace we like to call it um nobody lives there it's uh a very nice looking property it's been fixed up in a in a pretty impressive way it's got all kinds of um amenities in it that that would make it a very nice place to go to if you want to have a big party uh unfortunately some of these parties have been really big and really loud in one case last summer not this summer but last summer we had Valley parking setup to where uh people would drive in and somebody would park their car along our previously very quiet and pleasant uh neighborhood now the neighborhoods are the foundation of El Paso how neighborhoods function um and neighborhoods are composed of people who sometimes throw parties they invite people over they may even charge for a room or the use of a pool as long as it doesn't interfere with the with the quiet enjoyment of everybody else who lives in that neighborhood violations of privacy which have occurred in uh in the Canyon Springs neighborhood we live in a long culdesac which is very quiet a lot of people moved there because uh it's just a lovely place it's really nice nice but it's no longer peaceful no longer a reliably peaceful place because uh we don't know if they're going to have a small kinera where they invite say 15 people it's not bad okay we don't get we don't get a lot of noise from those kinds of things but other times we'll get um trucks bringing bands and DJs and uh lots of noise until 2 am Eight houses down it's still waking us up okay and so um what has happened in our neighborhood is that we started researching it we started looking at it I looked at zoning myself I was pretty careful to try to figure out what you know what side of the law we were on and it's it's actually a little obscure because it's not a party hall there isn't anything in the zoning code which indicates what kind of uh uh venue this is it if it were on Mesa Street it would be a party venue okay but when it's in a neighborhood and it's a party venue then then it's a nuisance then it's a real problem for us um there are a number of elderly neighborhoods not me of course neighbors who live in our neighborhood who would uh maybe need to get out thank you ma'am thank you very much thank you very much I think I've made my point thanks we did receive a statement from Joe Rodriguez in favor of the item which has been distributed to council the next person is Teresa chav followed by Christina Duron and Denise hadan good morning good mayor good morning mayor and Council um I'm going to speak briefly as quick as I can because I have a lot to say um these are commercial properties they're not homes just opening up for Miho and Miha that is not true um my neighborhood has been inundated with a house right next door literally 10 ft away I Live Now um all summer long with parties starting the from Thursday to Sunday I've counted as many as eight parties 10 parties in the weekend um this is um opening up their homes to pool parties one of my main concerns is um and I I have had code enforcement at my home um because um of the parking because of the issues the noise I have called them several times um one of the things that I'm looking as the safety of the patrons who are going to these parties these are paid parties they are receiving lots of funding for these parties making thousands and thousands of dollars the property next door was bought in December uh just this past year it was bought for over half a million dollars and she bought it with the intent to have parties because she stated there are no regulations for her to make money off of that property it's an indoor pool it sits on almost a half uh I'm sorry a yes almost a half acre um she has a large backyard where she holds those parties which her backyard is 10 ft away from my backyard so we're talking about hundreds of people all weekend long I have not hosted not one single Party All Summer Long due from parties being all day every day because of the noise um my dogs have gone crazy I've had to put them in another location because of the they're continually barking one of the things I'm concerned more is the safety of the patrons there's no lifeguards at her home nobody's um going into the pool to seeing if it's being regulated as far as chemicals there's no security alcohol is being brought in there's no security guards and the home these are hundreds of people attending inside a house we don't know what is happening to those children I watch adults drop off children not knowing who's in that home other uh adults we don't know if people are being assaulted and I know I'm I'm speaking from on a professional level I work in law enforcement I'm a retired law enforcement officer you do not know what's going to occur in that home if nobody is watching you are having been people from all walks of life go into that home adults with children with alcohol in a pool and nobody is monitoring what is occurring what is going to happen when somebody drowns who's responsible what happens when somebody jumps over the fence my six foot fence and gets into my pool what happens to me I'm not talking about the money the liability I'm talking about death I'm talking about tragedy this is what we're looking at this is going to be something severe it has to happen before the city takes action this is not short-term rental this is not um people just making a buck here and there they are not accepting the total responsibility to the patrons who are paying money to them to have a party I'm not even worried about parking that's the least of my concerns at this point I'm worried about the safety of these people that go to these parties with they they're thinking that there's safety there is none absolutely none I have to stand outside making sure those kids are not running in the street and getting run over thank you m Chaba the next speaker is Christina Duron good morning good morning good morning Mr Mayor and Council Representatives um thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the band on homes being used as party venues I would like to speak about my experiences um living across the street from a house that is being used as a party venue since the beginning of the summer they have been parties every weekend Fridays Saturdays Sundays and sometimes Thursdays sometimes we have several parties during the day we don't know how many people are there but I can tell tell you how many cars I have counted that park on the side of my house in front of my house across the street and down the street there have been about 18 cars that have parked there plus the nine cars that park inside of the property you can see all of those cars from the street I don't have to to come to go in to see just how many cars are there um these can easi see be seen from uh from the street so you can imagine uh that there is far more than household vehicular parking uh traffic every weekend all day noise nuisance is also a concern because of the frequency with which it occurs and because of how loud the noise has been as I mentioned I live across the street across the street from the house in question and I can hear the noise clear across to my backyard and so you can you can see just how loud those um parties have gotten safety for me is of utmost concern cars coming to these parties Park in such a way that they block and obstruct the visibility of oncoming traffic that is an accident waiting to happen and we certainly don't want that to happen the neighbors adjacent to the house in question have young children and they fear for the safety of their children at times these kids uh at the parties Veer over the rock wall fence to look into their neighbors yard into their neighbors backyard that is an invasion of privacy and clearly a safety issue for those young children living right next door to those homes up until now our neighborhood has been a very quiet and safe neighborhood it is zoned residential not commercial not a commercial area and the home in question is clearly being used as a business for these reasons I respectful respectfully request your support in favor of a ban on homes used for party venues thank you thank you the final speaker is Denise Adano Miss Adano star 6 please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes all right um thank you city council and Oscar and mayor Oscar liser for taking my call um I am the neighbor in question um I did buy this home um in this beautiful um Community it's a very peaceful community um we did it was an opportunity for my family and for myself to create business um here in El Paso and um I do live in the home I do have children myself but having children myself I've done something to this pool which is um refill it uh into creating a a safe place for children and people to come to my home it is indoors honestly um when this property is is being occupied I am here I am walking the premises we do have cameras in place um where it is being watched it is being recorded just for the safety of me my neighbors and the people that are um are booking with me okay now the city ordinance I I did uh acquire to the city and planning an inspection and there is nothing in place um I am a business owner I do pay taxes and I um do provide something here for for families it's something that they see they don't get burned by the sun they have amazing space to have parties and they have that privacy here in my home um it does sit on a half an acre and um it's something that I'm able to provide aasin um so a lot of people are unfortunate they do not have that kind of space in their home where um they can entertain for a child's party and mostly guided towards children's party um I do try to you know sue for the city ordinance which is you know not obstructing or blocking driveways or sidewalks and that's been place and as well as the the noise and um parties End by 9 or 10 there's no 11: 12 1:00 in the morning that's not in place and so I think as a business owner and somebody that hosts if something was in place for us permits regulation we'll be willing to do it this is something this is an investment but this is also something that we provide for people people enjoying my home they say this is this is a dream like coming into the home and being able to host parties and be able to be in family at the end of the day most of the people the kids they enjoy the pool and they don't get burned and they enjoy my home and they book again and again and it's something I I can't um control because it's it's something that they love thank you ma'am mayor protm that concludes public comment on this item Miss Brian we have a motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative fto second it by mayor potim Kennedy and this is to direct the city manager and City attorney to draft an ordinance that prohibits the use of Residential Properties as entertainment venues and return within 120 days the proposed ordinance should address issues related to Neighborhood disruption zoning compliance and Public Safety on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously that brings us to item 22 and this is discussion and action on a resolution that the city of Al PAs will appoint to the Camino Regional Mobility Authority Leia Masters to position three whose term will expire on February 1st 2026 no sir motion to approve second there's a motion made by mayor protim Kennedy seconded by alternate mayor 10 molar to approve item 22 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously I was going to say with that we are closing in quickly on noon for public comment right what time is it it's 11:56 sir yeah I think we're going to need more time for this next presentation yeah can we can we hold that until after public comment item 22 yes sir or 23 I mean would you like to move to item 24 yes thank you sir item 24 is a introduction of an ordinance second there is a motion made by representative Riva second it by representative Fiero and this is to approve the introduction of the ordinance on item 24 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 25 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024 d 0386 M arm poles to techline Inc this contract will allow the purchase of M arm poles for V various locations throughout the city of Al Paso approve there is a motion made by representative Riva seconded by representative Fiero to approve item 25 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 26 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2024-the construction the proposed improvements include demolition of existing structures Americans with Disabilities Act compliant curb ramps a pedestrian Bridge irrigated Landscaping pedestrian amenities and parking and pavement markings and signs there's a motion made by representative Riva second it by representative Fiero to approve item 26 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously item 27 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 20240 483 Medical Center of America's Clinic to dantech General Contractors the project will consist of a new one-story Health Clinic building that is approximately 10,500 Square ft and will house Specialties such as HIV STDs and tuberculosis there is a motion made by alternate mayor Pro Mol seconded by representative ernandez to approve item 27 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously would you like to take the next one it's 11 59 I I'm taking my 60 second time out to make let's take public comment at noon thank you it is noon we now move to call to the public the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meeting ACT public comet is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to display Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public uses forign for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have seven members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Steven Strummer I don't see Mr Strummer here and I don't see him in the queue we'll move on to Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford's topic is remembering 911 good afternoon Miss Crawford you have three minutes good afternoon thank you so much good afternoon as we remember 911 on this 23rd anniversary we're reminded that we live in a world exploding with conflict as the wars and violence in our world escalate we see these things predicted in God's holy scriptures second Timothy chapter 3 this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves Covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unth thankful holy without natural affection truce Breakers false accusers incontinent Fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-m minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof we are reminded on 911 that no one is guaranteed tomorrow God's holy word cries out with these words 2 Corinthians 62 behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation one of the most well-known verses of Holy scripture John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life as we're reminded on 911 of the times that we're living in and of the fact that none of us is guaranteed to tomorrow I would urge you all as as is written on the mountain to read the Bible the Bible is the word of God and and read it in these these last days that we're living in thank you so much you have a good day thank you thank you the next speaker is Ron KOMO Mr komo's topic is constitutional rights to the rescue 1983 Animal Services he will be followed by Hilda Vias Maria Luisa de Amaya SE Dean and Serio contas good afternoon sir good afternoon ma'am so Nashville Tennessee San Antonio Newark El Paso Memphis Shelby County all with an increase in dog attacks all using managed intake where have we heard that before so just bring you updated dog killings or killings dogs killing people have more than doubled since 2019 isn't that interesting managed intake are we surprised I'm not and I've been telling you guys this for four years and yet some people I'm glad to see he probably went to go look at his phone in there instead of here um just for information's sake the one in San Antonio the dogs attacked a Woman They attacked her child and then tore the lights off the police car that showed up on the response yeah we need more managed intake don't we we're going to sit on this more or we going to do something about it managed intake is against the law in Texas period we've provided you with the laws the quarantine processes that are being used by our shelter for bite cases is against the minimum requirements by the state of Texas for dog bites do we do we understand how violated our shelter is I get it the police department doesn't want to charge them so here's my what I think we need to do we either charge them and get them out or just get them out somebody's going to die in the city you guys want to sit here and not do anything while our per persons in charge want a limit intake yeah I I'm upset I'm tired of this guys I promise I'll leave you alone fix the problem and the problem's right here in this room we need to fix it I mean the people that are trying to replace you guys they're calling us making appointments going oh my God this needs to be fixed is that from people outside looking in or is just people that haven't bought into the con I said it last two weeks ago I'm I'm going to say it again get the fire department out of our shelter I have more experience and Animal Welfare than the two of them in here combined which most of the people that come up here and talk do so who should you listen to Google it Google the information I just gave you thank you the next speaker is hildas Hilda via's topic is housing crisis in bario chamisal she will be followed by maraaya Sean and Sergio contas good afternoon Miss Vas neighborhood we all know about that crisis we felt it I grew up on in futa Street and I know my neighbors have struggled trem tremendously because of the conditions um of the tenaments and the way that that we've been forced to to live under those conditions because we have nowhere to go especially with the income that we have Elders having a fixed income of $700 $800 a month women and children that are alone having to support a family with a Min minimum wage of 725 they can only afford $400 or $500 if um yet this these people take advantage of of our residents but the real crisis right now that we face is because it's been imposed by the city of El Paso in 2022 Ang lamea was approved and I would like to think that a lot of a lot of the people that approved it um were not aware of the situation that was going to create without having any protections for the people that are here present today right Anga calls for that development for developers pretty much selling the bario chamisal for the first highest bidder right and so since the implementation of Ang ala we've seen an increase in property values even though the properties are not in great condition and we're seeing people forced to sell their properties to the highest or to maybe the even the lowest bidder and they come in and they're not your typical slum Lord that keeps the families there in deplorable conditions these are people that want to displace their families I saw firsthand an elder being pushed out because she could not pay the rent from $400 to $800 in three months she got super sick she was not allowed any any um any leeway and they had to come and take take her out because she was losing her properties and they're not fixing the properties they're not and so we do need um we have women and children that are being evicted we want to contain the crisis but anward alamea is here INF field development is here and right now we are asking the city to develop a task force to address this crisis we want a declaration of the housing crisis over 7,000 residents of the chamisal the majority like 75% are rent thank you Miss we need help the next speaker is Maria Lisa Amaya she's also speaking on the crisis in bario good morning you have three minutes AB for for B and Miss yamaya is also speaking on the rising rents in the chamisal neighborhood she's a resident of 33 years and she's concerned that she keeps receiving multiple offers from people offering to buy her home the next speaker is s slan also speaking on the housing crisis in bario chamian hi my name is SE Aslan and I'm a resident of bario chamisal I've raised my child here in the chamisal and have dedicated my time to make this community better with uh our neighbors and for her and the families that live here the chamisal is a distinct and unique Community the overwhelming majority of residents are women and children prominently uh Spanish speaking with mixed immigration status and poor in in fact the recent census stated that we're the poorest neighborhood in the nation even your own City staff reported that vario chamisal is at high risk for displacement and the displacement is happening now we're here today to ask you to declare a housing crisis in vario chamisal by declaring a housing crisis you can begin to apply to a variety of funds from other entities to include state and federal funds you have the responsibility here since the onward Alameda plans were approved without an anti-displacement plan in place there seems to be a confusion on who has claimed to our neighborhood the plan was created with developers and Architects it wasn't created with for by the residents here in fact the city had stopped providing loans to build smallscale affordable housing during the pandemic and continue to do so today which has made it impossible for affordable housing to survive in the vario much less get built we are asking to put a stop to onward Alameda plans until an anti-displacement plan is in place without it the city will create a worsened housing situation these are women and children and families already struggling and would have nowhere else to go you could see on the map here the medium income within the vario chamisal is within six and is 1350 sorry 13,500 people are making between 6,000 and 18,000 per year if you look at the other neighborhoods there's nowhere else that they could afford the Working Poor majority here are renters and few the few who own homes are being priced out with nowhere else to go the need for affordable housing is not only a matter of justice but a matter of public health and safety for residents the push out in vario chamisal will create a homeless population why would the city approve a plan without putting the proper mechanisms in place like we were promised to prevent displacement we feel it is because the plan wasn't intended for the residents who live here it wasn't intended for the families that have contributed to this community it wasn't intended for the families who fought for the first community center and library in our neighborhood it wasn't intended for the families who built the economic backbone of this community it wasn't intended to undo the harms of yesterday but rather to exploit them and replicate them chamisal residents have limited mobility and all their resources are located here we have access to public transportation Li downtown General hospitals clinics and other public services that are accessible in close proximity in walking distance thank you ma'am you've reached the three minutes the final speaker is Sergio contas Mr contas topic is defending Sunset Heights neighborhood Improvement Association good afternoon sir hi I just stood with them because I support them totally um we're kind of going through the little things like this in Sunset Heights um I'm here to defend so about a month ago there were a few people that came up to um speak on um against what I guess they perceive was going on to them was happening to them at the neighborhood association meeting and so that's what I'm here to do let me see my favorite victims are I mean my favorite villains are the ones that can play the victims really well kind of like Robert dairo and uh uh Lake you know what movie I'm talking about and um and so that's kind of what I saw right um I've been living in the neighborhood my whole life my uh mother I'm not 50 years old by the way the lady had prev about 50 years I the neighbor for uh quite a while my mother lived there my grandmother lived there so I wasn't around 50 years ago but they definitely were and those people that were here complaining I want to know um where were they when we were fighting a Sarco where were they when the aarco came down and that black smoke covered our neighborhood where were they when uh we were fighting against the AA gang that kicked them out of the neighborhood where were they when we were throwing the block parties you know we' done a lot of stuff in the neighborhood and they were nowhere to be found and suddenly they just show up and they start complaining about what's happening um the neighborhood association and all the stuff they complained about were pretty much things I said um I do not speak for the neighborhood association I barely even go to the meetings but every complaint they had pretty much with things I said Serio Conta said to them the neighborhood association meeting people are very passive they're not going to fight with anybody they're not going to argue with anybody I've argued with them I've argued with h Marcus I've argued with sitto and they've never once come up here to complain to you guys um with that being said as much as I think sitto is a uh leftist uh far-left I don't agree with him I will say that he's a great neighborhood association leader um he has a passion for the neighborhood he's politically Savvy and he does what he's going to say uh he's going to do there's no one better you know and these old people that get together puty tour homes movies in the public neighborhood cleaning fixing up people's houses those things right um the lady had a problem with affordable housing and so you know the people that live in the affordable housing she alluded to the fact that they're rapists uh prostitutes drug dealers um and others nonsource that we don't want but she forgot to tell you that a lot of these people are families like the ones that were up here single mothers um artists musicians uh uh freaking actors the creative class and I bet you they've never once spoken to the creative class in the neighborhood they want the creative class out so you can just have a bunch of born working people there Sunset Heights is in the middle of the city of course there's going to be crime I'm sorry there's nothing they can do and it's definitely not sito's fault um we're against the destruction of any buildings we're against destruction of Dango and every other building that's in Sunset Heights um even though there's somebody in the neighborhood that's for Destruction I don't know how they got on the historic commission Mr contas thank you sir have a great day thank you uh Miss pran with that we are going to break for lunch and we will be back at 120 thank you is there a motion to recess motion recess there's motions and a second second to recess until 1 120 all in favor I anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess at 12:19 and will reconvene at 1:20 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Miss Bry yes sir there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed and the regular meeting is back in session at 1:24 p.m with mayor protim Kennedy presiding we're on page number 10 item number 23 is presentation from strategic and legislative affairs on the discretionary grants program recently funded projects and the grants strategy for fiscal year 2025 good afternoon Council Omar Martinez with strategic and legislative affairs today I have the pleasure of giving you the annual summary of the grants program for fiscal year 2024 and with us is everybody that makes it happen the credit goes to the different team members that are going to come up and co-present with me so you get to know a little bit about more about what the work the work they do very often I have the pleasure of being The Messer but I want to make it clear that it is their work that has made us as a city successful in getting getting achieving the mayor's goal of getting to $1 million in discretionary grants and so quick overview what we're talking about four items just what the grant program is about the effort that was started by um Colonel Weston in creating an office at the city manager's office that would focus on dying the grants programs like like representative hernandz has mentioned before and support in the different departments we're also going to talk about where we were successful where we were not successful and then what we hope to do for f school year 25 so the program the grants program is housed at the office of the city manager and all we do is support other departments we secure funding and build capacity for these departments to get the money manage the money and execute their projects we're there to serve the Departments um really our our our primary benefit is the work that we bring bring to the city the money we bring to the city reduces the burden on the general fund we make sure that key projects important projects for the city are um receive the the the attention and funding they need we have existing relationships primarily with Federal funding agencies you see listed here from Eda with the build back better to us doot and some of the the different uh Bridges and airport and and CID projects that we bring to you and today when we started this program and this was in um November of 2023 when we moved over to the city manag we set a goal that year $50 million and so to date actually by the cut up date of August 31st we have achieved 100, 469,000 6.4% and we still have pending responses $56 Million worth of Grant applications that we did not hear back from from the cut off date there's two announcements uh since then uh one of them is our portlet that's the bigger one but just know that we we unfortunately have to have cut off dates but this is a program that continues onward uh we we were able to achieve these results for for two reasons number one we we have been working hard in creating uh systems creating processes to make sure that the grants program exists uh Beyond any of us our time here working here at the city and so that those after us can keep uh this momentum going and then the federal government had historic levels of funding that we were able to apply to just about everything that was available where it made sense for the city and with support of this Council we this is the success so this is cities win uh I don't think the com controller's office is some some I want to highlight as we start talking about the work that different departments do right now we were expecting to present maybe a little earlier so uh right now they're doing interviews however Elda Rodriguez Hefner at the com controller's office and her team she is the glue that Hol us all together every application goes through her she's the one that helps us submit and then once we get the money she helps departments also make sure that the money is is uh funded properly so hopefully next next presentation we're hoping to do these types of presentations quarterly you're able to meet her and if you haven't already and see what a great uh resource she is to the to this operation and so in summary we submitted that we've heard back from 45 applications of which we were awarded over 73% the principles are that the projects should have minimal to no match requirements as we want to make sure that we get the best bank for our buck 11.7 million of that came from part external Partners like op Paso Electric or or tech. or the county and most of the projects that were successful we learned are those that come from that have that are listed or discussed in in planning documents that Council approved like the downtown outon plan Vision zero and then the different Department's Capital Improvements plans everything we do that all the grant applications we submit through this program are available on monday.com it is a project management soft software clicking on that link takes you to the different dashboards and every link that you see here for example has its own link so so you're able to always see our grant win rate just by clicking on on those and we're trying our best to make it as publicly available as possible so that the public knows that we're transparent about the projects we select how this the taxpayer dollars are used in matches and what we plan to go for in the future and so what what's showing in this slide is a breakdown it is an outdated breakdown of how um the different departments the different applications the different departments said and how much money we were able to bring in what we consider a more um mature grants program for a department is if it exceeds that $5 million threshold and so our goal for fiscal year 25 will be to bring more departments to this level but you can see that pass water uh we work with them closely on these Bridges uh obviously the airport and Sun Metro they have very mature and C obviously and they have a very mature grants program so our assistance to them is less we often do just advocacy get letters of support because they have mature and dedic mature programs and dedicated staff to them some of the other departments uh we we're working with them closer and everything we do with the Grant application process looks like is also available on a dashboard on Monday so there you can see when Council approved the the application for example and uh up until when it was awarded and then we transitioned that to a separate grants project management dashboard that keeps track of the programs that one is not fully up to date we're slowly building it but you should in my next quarterly report you should be able to see where we're at at that point so now we're going to talk about the different projects some of the highlights and you're going to get an opportunity to meet the grant writers the grant project managers that made this achievement happen and so we start with the EV charging Network's Grant it's $50 million from uh the Federal Highway Administration it's funed under the Capital Improvements department and the reason this CES up comes up is because we're close to bringing a a a concept and fee structure and a deal to city council to be able to begin constructing it so we've since we were awarded earlier this year we've been working with Federal Highway Administration with El Paso Electric to make sure we secure the match and build a system that works as originally intended and meets the requirements of the grant program and so we should be done this month in finalizing the site selections we will bring them to council for your review we will explain budgets and how it works and then we we hope to have an agreement with Federal Highway Administration for your approval by the end of the year uh everything included in this grant include there's money for operations and maintenance for five years including replacement theft there's insurance so it's a very complete package after the 5 years that's where we want to bring it to council to see what what you all envision sustaining this program Beyond or should we partner with the private sector to help us sustain this program now I'm going to bring up uh International Bridges we have Roberto dinero and then we also have Samantha Garcia who um we start going over their projects again it's important for for you all to meet the faces the people that actually do a lot of the work thank you Omar um good afternoon everyone uh Roberto tinero uh director of the international Bridges Department uh I'm going to uh contradict a little bit here Omar uh he said it's mainly our work and it's not it's mainly his work and and his team um also for the record I did not choose that picture uh any anyways uh uh more uh to talk about more about a specific projects um uh like I said Omar and his team has uh done a great job uh bringing us a lot of money for the internatural bridges last year fiscal year 24 uh we were awarded $12 million uh from the Department of uh Transportation uh fhwa uh we're working on that that's for a uh pedestrian uh Improvement projects for the ISA Saragosa Bridge uh we are uh now negotiating the price for the design with the consultant that was awarded started the the project so again working towards that uh for this fiscal year FY 25 uh we have two projects on the pipeline uh the first one it's another grant that we were awarded thanks to Omar and his team uh it's a uh a project development study for the two of or downtown Bridges Bas Norte and Stanton uh that's uh $2 million Grant uh no uh City match uh so that that's uh really good uh for us uh it's uh the the scope uh will be mainly for uh by the way we're working towards the agreements we don't have the agreements yet in place but we're working towards that but uh uh the scope of work will include uh a traffic uh demand study uh we will look at all the traffic uh demand for the future we're going to look at safety and we also uh would like to explore uh potential possibly for expansion um conceptual designs for both Bridges uh hopefully we can uh do something later on so this is again a study and another one that is very important for us uh it's another project development study or uh engineering design project for uh this Lea Saragosa Bridge uh this Lea as you may know it's our main Port of Entry in terms of trade um around 70% of the trade uh crosses through uh that bridge so we're we're have plans uh we we would like to start planning for uh expansion at capacity uh we need to modernize the ports of Entry so this is another important um uh study that we're going to be conducting um it's a three million project it's a signature project the uh top rank project from uh the office of congresswoman Escobar uh I will have to note that uh uh the community funding for this project hasn't been approved yet by Congress but we are very confident what we have heard uh is that it's 95% sure that we're going to get it so we're have our uh fingers crossed uh again uh the scope of work it's similar to the uh other others um evaluation of traffic uh future demand and also uh capacity improvements and uh conceptual designs uh for future expansion we would like to also include uh requirements for uh uh the permitting uh we know that once we change the layout of of a breach or do an expansion we that triggers a presidential permit so we want to include also uh the requirements on that and uh that's that's all I have un let uh you guys have questions for me if not I'll pass it on to son Metro good afternoon city council city manager my name is Rudy Reyes I'm Sun Metro's Grant project manager I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly highlight some of the awarded grants for Sun Metro FY 2024 the first grant I'd like to talk about is Sun Metro Bus replacement and facility enhancement project this project uh was awarded over 30 million $3.6 million to purchase 32 new buses and to in construct 420,000 square foot bus canopies to protect our investment at uh the transit center second Grant is the Texas veteran commission general assistance fund and this is a fund to provide free transportation to Veterans surviving spouses dependence throughout the op Paso area this year we were awarded $100,000 due to the fact that in FY 23 our program uh was outstanding and it was increased by 50,000 so we're glad to serve another 700 to 100 uh 700 to a th000 eligible applicants in 2024 finally the FTA uh F cpf Congress Congressman Veronica scar office microtransit project um this the scope for this is a purchase 4 to six electric microtransit van and install charging stations for additional ridership for those individuals that are in the outskirts of El Paso the award was approximately was 100 was $720,000 with a match of 180 finally I am proud to say that Sun Metro was a top recipient of grant funding totally $31.7 million in 2024 that's all I have and thank you for your continued support unless you have any questions thank you good afternoon everybody Shane bricks with the airport um I want to start by thank you for the opportunity to present today it's really nice of you all and Omar's team to highlight the success of this program and I'd like to jump into the side by discussing the recent announcement of the 10.6 million in AIG Bill funding that we were awarded about a month ago this funding will be used to improve the pavement for our general aviation ramp tenant um this funding opportunity and the project has a very special place in my heart because years ago um Terry sharp turned to me and he was like you know there's actually three pillars to a successful airport operation number one a stable and growing commercial passenger traffic Base number two a strong cargo market and number three a general a healthy general aviation population and that knowledge is always stuck with me and it's stayed with me while we've actively worked for opportunities to invest in our GA tenant um the AIG Bill funding is especially significant to me for that reason because it's afforded us the opportunity to invest in critical infrastructure like the pavement for our G ramp tenants that we wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do something else that I'd like for you all to know and understand today that as far as the FAA is concerned our books are at zero meaning that we've secured all of our available AIP and AIG Bill funding which is important because we're going into an election that could bring change and with that change could be a reduction in funding opportunities or maybe some of them even taken away and so I'm happy to report that even if that happened they'd be too late for our program we've already secured the funding and we're investing in key improvements um the second Grant we chose to highlight on the slides is the $850,000 we were awarded to replace the ter Drive Bridge we chose to highlight that grant for two reasons first and foremost it was funded through congresswoman Escobar's Community Project funding program showcasing the strength of our Partnerships that we've built with our representatives and again a big thank you to Omar Martinez and his team for keeping us updated on those opportunities and holding us accountable so we get our submissions in and this project is another example of critical infrastructure that needed to be replaced and the funding received is what enables us to replace an old bridge and bring back a solution that meets current design standards and offers safer geometries the second reason we chose to highlight that project is because a couple of weeks ago it got some unexpected social media attention when a car hauler rubbed the bottom of the bridge and it's counterintuitive but the grants team was particularly excited by this because it's an indicator of a successful grants program um we're being proactive and not reactive to situations like this U because of the efforts of the grants team that's here today we were able to respond to inquiries with the security of knowing that we already have the funding secured to replace the bridge and the project has been moving forward and so now some some really exciting news that came in late last week the FAA announced 26.8 million in AIP discretionary funding for our five node intersection remedi remediation project um this is a major Airfield Safety project and it's one that we've been working on for some time years ago the faa's runway safety and action team which is comprised of FAA staff ELP staff and local St stakeholders identified the five node intersection as a hot spot in response to those findings we committed to designing a solution and the FAA committed to finding us funding this project is critical because it separates commercial aircraft from general aviation aircraft and at the same time it reduces the number of taxiway intersections which helps reduce pilot confusion a major Airfield Safety project but what's most inciting about this investment is it's important to know that this didn't happen overnight this fun Ling is a result of years of communication with the FAA providing them with solid data consistent updates and having shovel ready projects in hand it's been a long journey and I'm incredibly proud because I've had the privilege of leading the team that got us here today since I took over the Capital Improvements and grants program at the airport in 2021 we've successfully secured over 100 million in federal Investments I'm particularly proud of the fact that we now regularly compete for the fa AIP discretionary program which means we're going head-to-head with some of the bigger players in Texas airports like Houston Dallas and Austin this 26.8 million investment means that we're not just competing we're winning by securing funding that honestly could go to one of those airports and then before I move into the strategy we're going to commit um I'd like to introduce our grants team Vicky rise is here today she's our Capital Improvements program administrator she's my rightand we could not run this program without her she manages the project management team who work directly with the engineers in contract contractors to ensure we spend our funds and have well-built successful projects to show for it and then recently we were fortunate enough to increase our grant team by two Alejandra Gorski and FIA Mustafa and they've already hit the ground running they're currently working on a couple of grand opportunities to bring electric shuttles to the airport and to start switching airport fleet vehicles to electric vehicles and as we move forward strategy stays the same we remain focused on sustained growth and proactive planning we'll continue to work on the the relationships we've established with our federal partners and will'll position ourselves for success by consistently presenting datadriven justification and having our shovel ready projects in hand um I think the mayor touched on this yesterday and I'd like to Echo a sentiments by saying that our grants program is more than just competing for funding it's a strategy and we're positioning ourselves in to lead the way in Airfield safety efficiency and Innovation and thank you I'd like to turn the presentation over to M cgo to Mayo good afternoon Council U media y Mayo with uh economic and International Development so I'm very excited to talk about the 500,000 allocation that's giving us the ability to launch our airport boss location um it is our opportunity to Brand uh for our International Market that uh we are here and we're open for business so this space will clearly demonstrate uh to the foreign direct investors that we're here to help um you navigate the complicated process of doing business in the US um the foreign direct uh investment program is managed by Adriana pesio international business and and trade development manager and and she's doing a fantastic job um working with with the international folks um in February of this year you all approved a partnership agreement with aaso delte Foundation uh to be our Fiscal Agent to continue to fundraise for for this initiative following month in March you approved theou for us to enter with our boss U entrepreneur support organizations which is now uh up to 20 2 uh organizations that are supporting our small business Community the grants uh as you see here that we've secured um support our our um economic Mobility programming and next month uh our boss website uh will be unveiled thanks to the contributions of of Wells Fargo final note um I'd like to also uh recognize that this week at the international Economic Development Council uh we are going to receive the prestigious Gold Award and this is for recovery resiliency uh mitigation strategies implemented during covid-19 uh the award recognizes the hard work in advancing El Paso's economic Prosperity so I would like to acknowledge all the hard work that my my team has done they've done a remarkable job getting us over the the finish line and of course Omar for helping us um continue apply for for other grants to to continue this initiative thank you and so for thank you uh and so for this hoping to bring more of the staff that gets a lot of this work done this $100 million do uh work done so you can get to meet them get to know the stories some of the that their day-to-day challenges you heard about M and the fact that you all just approved an agreement and now we're getting money to sustain the boss program beyond the original arpa investment that this Council uh approved and now we talk about the projects that are not funded so this one I'm going to be take the leading on um so what I want to focus this section on is making sure that it's transparency what we apply for that we bring to council that does not get funded is also available online in monday.com um it's important for us to show that we are not always successful even though we have a good uh win rate on on the grants process not every project makes it down to the finish line and it could be a number of reasons um but we are learning from every opportunity so we learned three major lessons that that we keep reiterating and improving upon so the Scopes of work every time we select a project and we bring them to council we they need to be more refined they need to come with the an with the with answers to the questions that you all normally ask like where's this money going to go for how long is it going to take and by doing the groundwork the homework in advance or by taking advantage of the engineering and planning documents that that this Council has has viewed before or approved funding for we're just we're going to be able to select better projects and submit more competitive projects the other thing is um we have to align a lot better with what the state and federal agencies are doing so we do have a great relationships with our state and federal delegations yesterday you had a presentation from the office of congresswoman Escobar we're hoping to bring uh Congressman Gonzalez's staff here or the congressman himself if he's available to also talk to you about these priorities I think we've done a great job there this year where we are where we definitely make improvements is to connect better with the agencies agencies like USD or agencies like the Texas water development board and then connect them to the people that are actually doing a lot of the ground workor by making those connections our applications become more competitive but again uh the same way we were awarded 100 million we were also not awarded $116 million we were very ambitious very aggressive H but we weren't successful every time um the one project I want to highlight that we were not successful and an example of how we turn things around and try again but better is the recompete so the idea we compete pilot we became finalists we were one of 22 selected communities out of a pool of 565 applicants and uh we unfortunately did not make the final cut and so here we have Adriana pesu who led this initiative and we'll tag team and if you have any questions on it but we'll explain our our plan well good afternoon Council and I'd like to start by thanking you for having the trust in our department and in the work that we do to bring this kind of opportunity to our community so as all my was saying unfortunately we did not get funding this opportunity but it certainly led to a lot of learning and there's an opportunity for us to try again in the future and we had a conversation with the Eda and we during that brief that debrief we we learned a lot about the things that we're doing right they were very impressed with our our connection to our community with the commitment that we're seeing from local businesses and in our capacity to identify those areas that we need to work on and that we need to develop in terms of our Workforce growth and development to to tackle a lot of the new things that are coming in our direction as we pursue more in terms of advanced manufacturing a cyber security all of these areas that we want to bring so we're going on the right track so with that feedback and now we're going to be looking at the second a opportunity to submit we haven't received confirmation but we're certainly optimistic that that this opportunity is going to come up and we all have already a plan in place to come at this in a better way so we've already had some conversations with our stakeholders we had 114 letters of commitment from our community from nonprofits from different organizations people that saw everything that we compete could mean and saw as saw it as an opportunity to come together and really pursue this as a community so that's still there that desire to work together is still there those those issues that we identifi the opportunities for growth and knowing that we have all the right pieces in our community has been a a kind of a gamechanging thing and it's brought us all a lot closer together so now knowing that only 187 million was awarded by the Eda out of 1 billion authorized we are looking at that second round and we'll be able to retain our phase two finalist category so we're going to be um I guess avoiding a lot of the a lot of the work a lot of the difficulty that came in with the pilot program and ready for that iteration so yes it's an opportunity for us to really H come together once again with all of everything that we've learned with the Omar's team and all of their leadership and their Vision behind what's what we can do for our community and what can happen when a lot of our departments come together so if you have any questions here thank you and so that's one example we're happy to discuss any project maybe we're excited about that we didn't get it funded in detail during a briefing or we can bring it to council if you feel the need but what I do want to focus now on is for fisc year 25 what we're hoping to do we know that historic levels of funding have pretty much passed us with the November election federal government has been awarding everything that they allocated for like chips act and um the bipartisan infrastructure bill so we are ready and responsive to whatever the politics they take and we will draft a a grant strategy just based on that but there's going to be three things that are not going to change we're going to continue being focused on infrastructure we're going to pay special attention to public health and safety resources bringing them home and then we're going to continue working with Workforce for Workforce Development resources including City staff opportunities for City staff there is money that we haven't tapped into that we're looking to tap into now in fiscal year 25 our goal is again 50 million we don't want to overpromise but I think what we'll be able to surpass it I think it's it's a good deal airports latest Grant definitely means that we're we're halfway there and so we're going to continue um supporting departments building capacity and because things are going as money reduces things are get more competitive and we want to make sure that this grants program it continues to be of service to the public and we continue to save on those general fund dollars uh we're going to focus more on implementing the different depart the capital Improvement plans of the different departments there was an opportunity to tap into projects that have already been taken down further into the pipeline that have maybe been brought to you before or maybe supplement uh things that um funding that has already been awarded through maybe Deb issurance we can supplement with the Grant and reduce the debt burden the offset some of the cost increases there's options that we're going to be working on this year um we are going to also focus on bringing in additional technical assistance that does not cost us any money so instead of hiring uh engineering firms more engine firms we can get them uh the federal government continues to provide them so enr presented recently we have with with our climate office and Fernando that's also sitting back here that's uh we have dedicated experts that can help us better develop our our climate oriented plants and we're going to continue using what the city's Le uh competitive advantages are we we do a great job at using staff as subject matter experts you have them all here we want to get them all together I think you've seen them all all in one place but there's a lot of people working towards this initiative and they're all experts in their own departments their own their own areas use them better uh city-owned assets we have not fully utilized land and Facilities that are used that are owned by the city some of all some of the outdated buildings can be repurposed using Grant funds we're actually doing that with fire station 12 we receive $3 million for fire station 12 it's an example of the strategy we want to make sure that that the the decision makers and the middle managers at fedal and state agencies become accessible to City staff so that the projects we propose are better coordinated and we have a better shot at getting the money and then just work with more Partners we recently we brought to you Partnerships with like El Paso Electric with unan Pacific with the county we have joint projects and so there's a lot of great things happening in this community we want to keep make sure that we bring our partners they come not just um asking for like matching dollars but they come with something to offer to the table uh we are working to establish new sources of matching funds you saw with the business OneStop sh we're tapping into philanthropy into foundations that the city historically has not uh tapped into we want to use the grants that we already awarded and then match them with state federal opportuni so for example we got $3 million for fire station 12 for because it's got a strong link to Fort Bliss we can ask the state the Dak program for additional money to make up the difference and this way we use the federal dollars for the match uh for a state project for example and then any any debt that has been issued out is still an option option for Grants program we'll obviously work with the city manager's office where it makes sense we we can just make sure that things are less over budget in certain situations um well more more details on that uh per uh funding sources that are B identified are the quality of bond we are prospecting with CAD projects at Modesto Gomez those $7 million that were allocated today we want to amp we want to multiply those dollars and so we're working on like with Bureau Reclamation water smart program to see if we can make improvements there uh the impact fund at economic devel that Economic Development manages make sure that those funds continue to be leveraged for the advanced manufacturing district and just continue to multiply those and then any special purpose funds including TS five for for special projects that is the end of the presentation the one uh thesis of this presentation we make sure that this is an end of year review we will come to you quarterly and we were able to achieve the $100 million goal the mayor's goal thanks to the work of the staff that's that's here behind us happy to answer any questions uh representative Canales thank you yeah Omar youve said it so casually a few times that you achieved $100 million in Grants this year you know far and above any prior year uh return from from our grant writing at the city so kudos to you and to the whole team um I'm glad that you brought everybody today today I think it uh Bears you know Bears thaning everybody I see Ian Ved hiding behind the pillar so I can't see him uh but to Mr Tino to uh Mr Rees to Shane Brooks alori Miss Mustafa m too pesio did I get everybody I think that's almost everybody thank you to everybody who's here today to share the good news with us because it's it's really incredible um I really love the dashboarding that you've done in in Monday um you know we had a conversation I can't remember was two or four weeks ago about how uh dashboarding uh everything should be on a dashboard because the the data accessibility is fantastic so I'm really enjoying uh being able to click through and look at again not just the awarded but the the not awarded and and it's a great learning tool for us to to understand uh what we did well well in the the grants that we were awarded and and you know where we can improve um so I love the the data visualization you can do with Monday and and you've put it out for everybody to see so I really appreciate that um you know obviously we've we've awarded contracts on some of these projects already some other ones are still not as far along um every time I see one of these and see that it's Grant funded I'm so excited and I'm so excited to tell people about it because it is making an impact without uh having having a big impact on the local property tax pair so they always when I when I tell them about these Grand funded projects they're very excited as well um everybody understands the the huge impact that you all are having and I'm so happy to see the development of this from kind of a one person to two people into a whole office and team you know inter departmental team as well of folks working on grant writing and securing these funds for us so congratulations to you all again I don't really have specific questions because youve presented it very thoroughly today but um you know I know the goal is not quite uh not quite $100 million next year you know you said it so casually like I said I don't know that we can do a $100 million every year that can't be the the bar for Success um because it's incredible that you were able to pull that off this year so congratulations may Pon thank you representative Hernandez thank you guys um congratulations everyone I know the work it takes to go into these grants and I I do want to share with um Mrs Mack um that having had written many grants before we really need to make sure that all departments all hands- on Deck are prioritizing because these deadlines are are very important and we don't want to leave money on the table so I I appreciate Omar and your presentation that you mentioned we got to get support from all the Departments that comes with making the request a priority because you can't write your grants if you don't have the data from the Departments lots of exciting things and so as you're on this journey looking for opportunities I wanted to share with you some priorities uh and experience I have and finding those opportunities first and foremost um you all are reading the grant requirements and especially the local ones when there are legislative um roadblocks or limitations bring that to our attention so that we can address that like for example um you meent you were talking about the international Bridges Mr a Port Authority I believe the city of El Paso should have a Port Authority because we should be looking for funding that can support this the public transportation uh roadblock that you get when you're trying to cross bisel that's a tech. road and we cannot get to the international Bridges because you're stuck in traffic you can't even get out of downtown if you get stuck in that and so looking strategically about any legislative requirements that could help us draw down funding but may require us to have those you know legislative requirements um so I I just want to lend my support that when you're looking at studying the um traffic the safety with the new grant that you have let's look at decommissioning lights let's look at making streets one ways because your the residents there are are um you know they're suffering and and represent Canales can to speak more to that um the other thing I wanted to mention is EV charging stations that has been um a subject that I think there's immense opportunities in the past 100 years the city of of op Pasa lost the opportunity to have more control over their utility companies thank God for the franchise agreement well you have all of these municipalities across Texas that have funding for their utilities and they're getting automatic transfers directly to their general fund well we're now in that Revolution stage where we're seeing the integration of EVs and now the city of El Paso has the opportunity to not only provide that Network to EV drivers but we have the foresight to see that it's coming and that we need to be prepared for it that also means that we need to have the governance structure and I know you all say you're going to propose that but I really think Dion that we need to have members of council participating in those discussions because I have a lot of opinions and I know members of council have a lot of op opinions about what the governance structure should be for EV charging stations how we should be implementing those rates we should not ever um give away our Fiscal Agent us being in charge of the EVS don't ever give that away to anyone else looking at how we can preserve the the land even consider that you know critical land and designate that for the EV charging stations and then making sure that we are being competitive and providing the level three Chargers I know two works okay overnight but three is really the requirement and and and a major need but we have a an opportunity here so that once we build out the infrastructure then we should be looking at those revenues and how to ensure equit Equitable implementation of those charging stations and then how we can put a plan forward on how we're going to make our city more reliant on renewable energy and less on fossil fuels and so we I want to share all that because as you're constructing that check in with members of council so that we can give you updates because this is a very important topic and this is going to require a lot of legislative um support from our delegation I want to mention that um as part of your your grants when you're doing your debriefing they're telling us you know they're telling us hey what's what's the what's the problem they're letting you know where the opportunities are and then you're saying you need to align that back to the work that you're already doing well does that mean that we need to either change the way that we're drafting the grants or does that mean that you need more policy and legislative support in order to gear all of what we're doing with the boss Advanced Manufacturing cuz if you're looking at it from the outside it looks very siloed right right so then how do you put this all together in one platform so that you can you know make a more demanding argument a more com more persuasive argument that we do have alignments here and everything is working in synergies and I will I will say I don't think that that's the case today I think that we are taking nominal steps to get there which is why I emphasize the need to have support from every Department to make sure that everyone's prioritizing grants so what does it mean when you're doing the debriefings and how do you actually Implement those changes so I will say that the program started in November of last year so we've been transitioning we started with five departments core departments started with CID we started with airport Bridges so you haven't celebrated a year yet no since last we're getting yeah and so more and more we've been uh bringing other departments uh by setting by essentially showing them how we do grants and then we go back and forth and then we start providing services these services are are various we either help them write the application in full we present opportunities for them we sometimes like sometimes there's multiple departments looking to apply for only one grant program and so we we submit multiple applications or we all decide on a joint project so there's a lot of back and forth between departments but that's just the transition period as we bring in more and more departments just last week Animal Services uh streets and maintenance are bringing are coming on board and we're working on projects now so do know that in these quarterly updates that are proposed we'll be able to see that alignment that you're you're working on now you also mentioned alignment on Federal and State programs and and legislatures this historic funding came to us without us being necessarily ready we were not we we the reason we have so many planning grants is because we didn't have any shovel ready projects that we ready to go uh we now we have some but the funding the large funding has sort of expired so we're hoping to be able to jump on any of these new opportunities because now we're ready uh historically Council has um funded the design of priority projects but those used to be funded separately through like certificates of obligation or bonds so we're we're just trying to be able to bring in as added value the grants program to supplement those funding uh gaps yeah and and I'm happy you brought that up because we've talked about this over the last Council meetings and city manager Mac um what I have mentioned in the past and members of I've mentioned in the past we're really great at applying for grants that require very little matching Grant or no matching Grant and so I really do feel that um a lot of their Direction and guidance is driven by not having to ask any department for additional funds however we've seen clearly that there is a huge return on investment if we do commit to have those matching grants and having a dedicated fund for matching grants I think is really important and I I've even suggested I don't even know if it's if it's allowed to uh to reserve those funds in our rainy day fund to reserve it as Grant matching dollars and you just draw it down if you're awarded and so setting that aside and and that's because you know you have a council who's been adamant against certificate of obligations even though they are required for overall capital and maintenance improvements in our city and the majority of the funds are going to critical infrastructure and so for whatever reason that's been politicized but now we have a duty and we have money sitting out there and we don't have those draw down dollars and so it it it's really difficult for departments to eye these grants when we don't have those matching dollars and so I think there's a there's a huge opportunity there so um the the other thing related to the funding is I know there's I know there's more money that requires 10 to 20% but are we really targeting those or are we avoiding those we've targeted those that made sense where the projects ready to go there was very few opportunities that we were not able to buy based on the capacity that we build up over the year what about Environmental Studies most of your grants are from the US Department of Transportation and um Federal Highway are they requiring Environmental Studies before you can apply for these grants every to compete favorably in transportation grants they all require an environmental component so we've been working with fernandoo with the peap that the climate team has put together to be able to draw from it a lot of it also comes from ESD from from some some of some Metro work we've been pulling it from where from the water and flot planning groups also just work that's previously been done to be able to answer those questions and I think we we've come up with some great answers there's some great work happening so for examp to answer your question more more directly uh environmental climate all of that is more of a policy thing every project nowadays has a component of that and so it it's just something that we've become really good that Fernando has been really great at at showing us how you write those how you respond to this and what the city's doing as Synergy so it's not just you're building a new bridge it's also here's everything else that's happening here's the transit component here's the the K through 12 component so that the pro the stories we tell to the federal government are more compelling that way I'm out of time so thank you and to close congratulations everyone for your hard work you should be very proud of the hard work you've done for our city thanks representative Canales thank you I had one last thing that I forgot I wanted to ask um when uh you received notice that that we've been successful with an award um can I request that you send to me or maybe to the entire Council um the include the names of of everybody who's worked on that the grant grant writers uh on up I would love to be able to receive that so that we can give them proper recognition TR thing we will both communicate when we receive them when we we notice any events related to them like press conferences and then the the people that worked on it excellent yeah you've been great at notifying us as those come in um I'm always happy when I see them but if you can let us know everybody who worked on them I would appreciate it thank you any other questions no Miss PR yes sir we now turn to page 15 to items 30 and 31 they're related item 30 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning from C4 c commercial conditions to C2C commercial condition and imposing a condition at Picasso and Saragosa item 31 is an ordinance amending a condition placed on the same property Miss PR yes sir there is a a motion made by representative Fierro and it was seconded by representative Riva and this is to approve items 30 and 31 correct thank you there is no public comment on this item on that motion call for the vote voting session is open in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative molar not present that brings us to item 32 and mayor protm representative would like to take 32 and 33 together if that's okay yes that's okay thank you sir item 32 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement aded and other documents necessary to convey approximately 22.6 n65 acres of land legally described as a portion of track 198 within sections 14 15 22 and 23 Township 27 South Range 3 East New Mexico principal Meridian Dona Ana County New Mexico item 33 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement AED and any other documents necessary to convey approximately 16. 6433 acres of land legally described as a portion of fractional Lots 11 and 12 section 22 Township 27 South Range 3 East New Mexico principal Meridian Dona Ana County New Mexico motion to approve second there is a motion made by representative Riva seconded by representative fedal and this is to approve items 32 and 33 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative molar not present that brings us to the final item and this is item 35 and this is discussion and action on a resolution on authorizing the submission of an application to the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration fiscal year 2024 State Transportation Innovation Council of incentive program requesting funds in the amount of $125,000 with 20% match required and provided by the Texas Department of Transportation with no additional match required from the city for the implementation of intelligent Transportation Systems including lowcost emission sensors at International ports of Entry there is a motion made by representative ernandez seconded by representative F to approve item 35 representative Canales thank you uh very excited about this uh submission that's not why I requested to speak you two are hiding behind the podium when I was thanking everybody I didn't see you I can't see to the all those seats over there so congratulations to both of you too on on the work that you've done and uh very excited for you to continue uh winning submissions like this one so thank you thank you great job Miss priman I I'm sorry I did just barely requested a Speak oh sorry representative hernandes the I wanted to ask about the emissions data um what is the what is the um proposal and how so you're going to you're going to put lowcost emission sensors at the ports of Entry but who is going to have access to that data and what is it going to be used for um if yes uh if I may have my presentation up there please good afternoon everybody drin with strategic and legislative affairs um so I'm sure you're looking at okay so this is pretty much uh What uh we submitted well before I answer your question if I may just uh share with you that we're excited about this one because we won an award and we wanted you we were ready to show you that one and we have the award upstairs you're welcome to go see it it's a pretty uh cool uh levitating light bulb as you can see in the picture but you can go ahead and and visit us whenever you have time so what we're going to do with the sensors um is we're g to locate them at the ports of entry and the the objective of it is like gather that information and then integrated into existing systems that uh could inform us to make uh better decisions about designing and maybe controlling traffic and uh it would also have an impact impact on Environmental Studies and uh um pretty much that's what we're going to do so your question is did I did I no I just wanted to understand if those sensors will be the property of the city of El Paso yes okay and then yes with the grant the grant is going to specifically fund the acquisition of the emission sensors okay so it's going to pay and install them we're going to be able to install them with the same Grant okay now the the actual data of the emissions will it be readily available to the public do we um yes go ahead sure so we're working with UTEP to first of all test the the data it could be that the sensors don't provide accurate enough data if it is your prerogative on sharing these uh this data make it for example another U another dashboard we can the these sensors are solar powered you can install them pretty much everywhere and they transmit data through seller networks so it's going to be very easy for us to move them as needed port to port when they transmit the data that goes to a centralized cloud in the service it already comes with um data visualization like a GIS service where you can see the data sets we are able to make that publicly available if if that is what your prerogative is and what's U tip's role utip is going to help us acquire they're going to help us manage and they're going to run studies on it so what we want to do is present uh good data not test data to the public and these there only city-owned Bridges uh no we are as long as we're able to get like for example the federal government or Tex to agree we can use a rights of way um what about bodha we can definitely ask we have there's already an ongoing study at the M you're familiar with it but they're using observation methodology and then translating a vehicle to its stated emissions uh now we're going to be able to put sensors and coordinate triangulate that dat to to essentially strengthen their findings okay uh but we are able to make the request that no this is really exciting I think this is long overdue so thank you for um applying for this and I'm happy to support Miss bran yes a motion was made by representative ernandes second it by representative F to approve the resolution on item 35 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and that motion passes unanimously representative m not not present we've reached the end of the agenda 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 September 10th 2024 is adjourned at 2:20 p.m.