hmm foreign foreign foreign foreign good morning everyone good morning mayor Brian okay yeah can you hear me oh she has her own Miss Prime oh it's working yeah thank you so much and then obviously if he shows up then we're ready Miss Pine good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday February 7th 2023 mayor Lisa is present in presiding inside council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro tem anello representative Hernandez representative Salcido representative Fierro and representative Canales representative molinar has requested to be excused today and representative Rivera is running a few few minutes late it is 903 am and now while everyone please silencer electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Police chaplain Robert Hemphill Junior good morning sir you're on mute sir there you go good morning everyone to The Honorable Oscar Lee Lisa the mayor of El Paso members of this city council Department chairs and citizens will you please bow your heads while I pray as we begin this morning's city council meeting we come to you in prayer and asking for your help the wisdom and directions teach us the path to follow and the best means to do so as we carry out the city of El Paso's work please assist us in keeping the peace help us to have meaningful conversations and become more bonded as a group and strengthen our sense of community this was in your precious name amen amen and I get to see you twice in 12 hours that's pretty good huh yes sir nice to see you yeah good to see you sir Mr Ramirez can you please lead us in the pledge sir I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God visible with liberty and justice for tomorrow God bless America you know I miss Mr Robinson thank you for saying that I think that every time because she would say that to us every time thank you for doing that sir I didn't see you on the camera last night [Laughter] um thank you all for um for being here and um I think we need the really look at people that impact Our Lives and then look at whose lives we can continue to impact and I think that's that's really important you know I think of what we're going to talk about every day and what we say and how we say it and when we say it what are we going to do to people how are we going to impact our lives and you know I think that some things sometimes we study things that are going to impact people's lives in the wrong way and sometimes we say it that we're going to impact people's lives who will help them grow so I'd like to think about really not only us as a body here but really all of us here that really consider how we treat people and what we say and what impact they'll have on their lives in the future of the youth in the future of our country I think it's really important and sometimes people say things deliberately to be hurtful and sometimes you say things shall help other people so I want to really take a moment of silence to think about things we say and how we can impact people how we can help people really grow and be impactful on someone's life and I think that uh you know as we an item on the agenda I think will will show that we have that individual that's actually for many years has helped people grow and impact a lot of lives so I'd like to you know let's have a moment of silence and kind of think of who we can help and how we can help thank you and may God bless our pastor and may God bless America and if we can please silence all our phones I would appreciate it thank you that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is teen Dating Violence Awareness Month okay who's got the the first one oops I've written on this good morning the proclamation of the city of El Paso if the folks can come forward to the podium as I read this into the record whereas healthy relationships consist of trust honesty respect equality and compromise unfortunately teen Dating Violence the type of violence that occurs between two young people who are or who were once in an intimate relationship and a serious problem and whereas approximately 1.5 million high school students Nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year one in three girls in the U.S is a victim of physical emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner a figure that far exceeds rates of other types of Youth violence and whereas the impact of Dating Violence is a wide-ranging young people victimized by a dating partner are more likely to use drugs and alcohol are at greater risk of suicide and are much more likely to carry patterns of abuse into future relationships and the experience May disrupt normal development of self-esteem and whereas by providing young people with education about healthy relationships and relationship skills and by changing attitudes that support violence we recognize that Dating Violence can be prevented the center against sexual and family violence in partnership with area school districts raises Community awareness and provides training for teachers counselors and School staff so that they may recognize when youth are exhibiting signs of Dating Violence and whereas the establishment of teen Dating Violence awareness month will benefit young people their families schools and the El Paso Community because everyone has a right to stay safe and healthy relationship and to be free from abuse now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso the month of February 2023 shall be known as teen Dating Violence Awareness Month signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations thank you man congratulations please good morning everyone my name is Sandra Nevarez Garcia I'm the executive director for the center against sectional Family Violence and I am honored to be here I'm privileged to be able to do the work that we do in our community as mentioned through the statements from Miss Cassandra is that uh teen Dating Violence is a huge issue within our community and affects more than what we actually realize a lot of the times so a lot of our messages and this is our messaging for this month to speak up so ensuring that our youth are making and feeling that they can communicate those different feelings those different situations that they're struggling with and finding that support within either their family within their schools within our organization is a privilege and an honor that we hold dearly to our heart to be able to provide to our community so with this this morning I have um one one of our programs and I want to make sure that she's able to highlight what we do within the community through our primary prevention program and then one of our Community Partners through the attorney the county attorney's office Mr ainsella thank you good morning and thank you for having us here my name is Marissa Delgado I am the primary prevention program coordinator with the center against sexual and Family Violence what we aim to do is bring initiative and awareness to the community of El Paso HUD Smith County and Beyond to be able to provide prevention curriculum to youth to the community so that way we're all aware of strategies that we can take to help eradicate violence from occurring within our Sun City what we do is we Empower our youth through education through curriculum through activities so that way that we have so that way that they have a voice to be able to have a platform and say what's going on giving them a space that is safe to answer their questions that they have any Curiosities that they have but also to let them know that a healthy and safe relationship is something that they can that they're um available to have in life so we work to empower the community thank you good morning my name is Erin setliff I'm an assistant County attorney I'm the trial team chief of the protective order unit for Miss Joanne Bernal I wanted to just highlight a few of the work a little bit of the work that we do so I I lead a team of attorneys there's five attorneys and 11 support staff that handle uh protective orders on behalf of applicants in El Paso County you know this work is really about intervention the center of sexual and Family Violence they're working on the issue of both intervention but also prevention I want to tell you a little bit about our numbers so in FY 222 we had 2578 applications for protective orders that's a 60 rise from the previous year what's that number again I'm sorry sir what was that number again 2578 applications I think I've provided some handouts for you also you can kind of see a precipitous rise during FY 22 we had as I say a 60 rise in the number of applications we were able to able to obtain 408 protective orders on behalf of applicants related to Family Violence stalking sexual assault and human trafficking I want to also tell you that minors can apply for protective orders their parents can also apply on their behalf but miners can apply for them and then FY 22 we obtain 32 for Family Violence 11 for stalking and four for sexual assault on behalf of minor applicants so this this conversation this the work that I do is really about intervention what Sandra was explaining was that we that they do important work on prevention really changing the conversation around what it means to be a man and a woman or however you identify and really fostering healthy relationships so that's really where it's at I take my hat off if I had one to their great work they're really just doing the amazing work that it takes to change the Next Generation so I'm out of a job that'd be fine thank you and I want to thank you all for what you do and I think one of the key words you said when you were talking was you empower the group and that's so important to empower people to be able to do the right thing and feel that they have an option so thank you all for what you do and tell Joanne I'll miss her me too if I knew that thank you [Applause] Proclamation is new week representative Canales whereas the study of numismatics is an educational Pursuit involving historical perspective represented by coins and currency and whereas the international coin Club of El Paso Inc is now in its 60th year of service to the city of El Paso and has represented the city in a most favorable light in local State national exhibitions and meetings and whereas the international coin Club of El Paso Inc will present its 59th annual International Coin Show educational exhibition and commemorative medal recognizing the 150th anniversary of the city of El Paso original charter in the city of El Paso on February 24th through 26th 2023 and whereas we urge the citizens of El Paso to recognize and support this worthwhile Community organization now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that February 19th through February 26 2023 shall be known as numismatism week signed by our honorable mayor Oscar liser foreign thank you mayor thank you city council my name is Jason Elwell I'm the president of the international coin Club of El Paso a little background information about our organization with a membership of over 100 members the international coin Club of El Paso has been involved in promoting the hobby of numismatics coin collecting within the Borderland community of El Paso Texas for more than half a century the earliest documented case of a gathering would be December of 62 and has held formal meetings since 63. in July of 81 the international coin Club of El Paso received a certificate of incorporation from the state of Texas and officially became a non-profit organization one of several Milestones involved a former city mayor then city mayor Thomas D Westfall recognized the positive impact the international coin Club of El Paso had with the public as it is with the goal of this organization to educate the public about numismatics mayor Westfall signed a proclamation on 29 January 1980 designating numismatism week also within the proclamation he also urged the people of the city to support this worthwhile organization in 1985 special guest former mayor Jonathan Rogers was part of an opening ceremony for a Statewide coin convention hosted by the international coin Club of El Paso at the downtown convention center every year since 2006 to coincide with its annual Coin Show education outreach program the international coin Club of El Paso has commissioned a medal celebrating El Paso history some themes have been our historic missions Union Depot and San Jacinto Plaza for 2023 we are releasing a metal commemorating the 150-year anniversary of the original incorporation of the city of El Paso the 59th annual El Paso coin show will be February 24th to the 26th as part of our commitment to numismatics in the community we would like to donate one of our metal sets in hoping that the city will help us celebrate 150 years of Borderland history these medals are numbered sets out of 60 I'd like to present the mayor with one and our sponsor representative molinar he's not here so would you be able to accept his medal also yes sir thank you may approach the bench yes please thank you thank you and the council will have an opportunity to take photos with this morning's honorees following the next Proclamation the final Proclamation is Lola quick my birthday thank you for the record representative Rivera has also arrived at the meeting there he is she's right here good morning sir yes thank you thank you for being here Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the league of United Latin American citizens otherwise known as lulac was organized 94 years ago in Corpus Christi and is the largest oldest and most successful Hispanic Community Based organization in the United States and whereas lulac in El Paso was established in 1932 and has served El Paso through various programs such as omnistad a non-profit agency providing a plethora a social services programs Via Del Norte Apartments a 192 unit apartment complex for low-income families and a scholarship program that has awarded thousands upon thousands of dollars in scholarships to area students and for us lulac has championed the cause of Hispanic Americans in education employment Economic Development and civil rights and whereas and whereas lulac has fought against discrimination and employment and housing has implemented numerous programs promoting education job training Equal Housing opportunities citizenship classes and voter registration and whereas lulac's legislative platform promotes humanitarian relief for Citizens and immigrants increa an increased educational opportunities for our youth immigration reform with a path to citizenship and equal treatment for all persons in the United States and its territories and whereas lulac is celebrating 94 years of continued service in El Paso and whereas the city of El Paso recognizes lulac councils in El Paso Texas for the continued work and dedication to improve the quality of life in our community now therefore be proclaimed by mayor council in the city of El Paso that February 12th through February 18 shall be known as lulaqui signed by mayor Lisa congratulations thank you good morning mayor Lisa members of city council city manager Tommy Gonzalez good morning my name is Javier banales I'm president of one of the eight little like councils here in El Paso as was mentioned the little like week celebration is actually next week this is when almost 93 years ago lulac was established through the merger of three different organizations one in San Antonio Corpus Christi and another one in Newport in Brownsville in in the Harlingen area those three organizations formed the league of United Latin American citizens and it was only like three or four years later that luleg was established here in El Paso so we Trace our Genesis 2 on 1932 and we're getting ready to start planning for the Centennial Celebration of the little Lake organization in the year 2029 with us today are several members from some of the different look like councils ignacita Ramirez is the district director of the lake she is right here the District directory is elected by the representatives from the eight little like councils here annually and right now she is the administrative head of our organization here in El Paso and of course there's about 24 other districts throughout the state of Texas they each have their organization the district director they meet once a year and select a state director of lulac and of course at the national level we have a national office in Washington DC we also have the national conventions where the national president of lolac is elected every every year as was mentioned uh lolac here in El Paso we're a 501c3 nonprofit organization duly chartered through the Secretary of State's office and we continue to Advocate on issues that we feel are important such as providing scholarships which is one of the major emphasis of our organization this last year the El Paso Council has awarded approximately 20 25 000 in scholarships pre-pandemic periods we were awarding seventy eighty thousand dollars a year on black scholarships to area students in fact Nationwide about 10 percent of all Hispanic students in the US have at one time received or are receiving a financial support through our organization so I'd like to again thank you very much for the recognition and uh I'd like to introduce the other members besides our district director we have Oscar Ramirez he's one of the different look like councils uh Mary mere Peewee known as Peewee Mir uh Mary Bowles Arturo Pastrana he's president of one of the clola councils councils 132 please here in the audience as well Raymond Zeta is also was scheduled to be here I'm not sure if he's here has arrived but we have about Senator like members in El Paso we thank you very much for this recognition thank you thank you good morning Mr Mayor city council city manager my name is ignacita Ramirez I am the district director for lulac district for here in El Paso I want to thank you all for the proclamation this week um one of my biggest passions is again empowering Our Youth and I'm just going to add a little bit more to what Javier said as far as the scholarships lulac has given over 30 million dollars worth of scholarships in this area um already through the years and we will continue to do the Civil Rights all these kinds of things so I'll I'm just going to end with what our national presence president always says if I can add just one more comment just most recently about three three weeks ago our organization distributed five thousand dollars worth of winter clothing to immigrants who had arrived and were being released within the city so that's just one of the many uh events that we have during the year very little if any publicity but nonetheless it's something that that our organization did we purchased the five thousand dollars worth of clothing at different uh stores here in El Paso and distributed them within a few days to support the immigrants that were here thank you and thank you for um you know giving back to our community and also for representing Us in the state I think it's important and like you said just now you've given a lot back to the youth and you know not only the youth but a big part of our community so I thank you all for being involved and giving back thank you [Applause] mayor did you want to continue with the consent agenda yes please okay and Council will have the opportunity to take some photos in a few minutes with it this morning's honorees cancel the reminder once you obtain the floor from the mayor you will have up to 10 minutes per debate you may speak twice per item please make sure you're speaking to the microphone and refrain from site conversations at the Deus while the meeting is in session that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members prior to the vote members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda when the vote has been taken If an item has not been called out for separate discussion the item has been approved Council May however reconsider any item at any time during the meeting mayor Pro tem mayor Pro tem I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page page three item two requests to excuse absent city council members and that's to excuse representative Joe mullinar page three items three and four it's moved to regular per representative anello page 12 item executive three delete per City attorney's office Council does anyone else have any revisions do we have a second that's Prime yes there's a motion made by mayor Pro Tim anello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote do you want to take um it's open uh representative Salcido I representative representative Rivera hi thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously would you like to move to item 14 yes please item 14 is discussion in action on a resolution to waive the requirement of the park naming changing guidelines and hereby approves the naming of the grant view senior center located at 3134 just person Avenue as a Wayne Thornton Community Center at Grandview I don't think we have any public comment dude go ahead ma'am okay pardon me public comment I do have a public comment no I know we we have quite a bit of public comment and uh here's one to get a smile from Mr Ramirez and I did Scott if you're in the queue star six please to unmute your microphone Hawk Scott good morning you have three minutes hi everybody can y'all hear me yes hi everybody and a very pleasant good morning to you honorable mayor city council city manager and staff I am calling into him full support of item 14. the name of Grandview Senior Center to Wayne Thornton Community Center at Grandview I first met Wayne out at the Lincoln Arts and Cultural Center you got to start somewhere and that's just what he did a Pioneer so easy to talk to and get along with Wayne was such a big Community Advocate especially with the give and fight program with price of dairy community outreach and the famous mid 90s Midnight basketball program just to name a few there's no stars in the sky tonight because they're all inside here was something he always said at the gym to keep us off the street the West Side Northeast in Pablo recreation centers were home to many of us from 10 pm to 3 A.M on Fridays and Saturdays he made appearances he showed up and he always greeted us with kindness great moment in high school was being introduced by Wayne from the McDonald's All-Star classic at the Don Haskins Center as well as see him out at a couple of our games at Coronado me in mind I was a baseball player but he made me love basketball 2017 I was invited on this radio talk show on Sunday morning at the time I was a recreation corner with the village of Ruidoso New Mexico all we did was talk Parks and Recreation and impact it had on everyone for the hour I remember him asking if I would ever come home that stuck with me because a few months later I was back home for the start of four great years with El Paso Parks and Rec two of those years with Wayne he was a major driving force we did the Sun Bowl punt passing kick for our youth after this through the assemble Association as NFL drafted we reimagined and brought back the senior games to newer Heights the countless radio and TV spots who he was set up to promote our programs two state champions in 2019 was our youth football seven new T-Birds 11 new Broncos Paving the way for our cheerleading program which has produced number of awards and state champions but one of my proudest moments was showing Wayne the veterans Recreation Center gymnasium when it was completed knowing Wayne's father was in the armed forces all these experiences have Wayne throughout the years compel me to be great and Rise Above to where I am now as the executive director of parks recreation and community services including the Santa Ana Zoo for the City of Santa Ana California in closing Wayne Thornton represents what El Paso is 40 plus years with the city it's unheard of 40 plus years with the same organization in the same town he wore the 915 on his chest and in his heart for decades as well as the necklace with that gold whistle to countless number of el pasoons he is a lock in to get a community center named after him a first ballot Hall of Famer so to say and a friend to us all Wayne should be honored while we still have him with us because one day the big man upstairs makes the call to bring us all up to the heavens he should be greeted by the countless number of peoples who live whose lives he has been a part of and on the opening day of Wayne Thornton Community Center I will be there hopefully and with in big bold letters thank you Mr Scott thank you thank you the next speaker is Ivan Franco Herrera followed by Bernie Olivas Ruben Ramirez and Julie Coleman I can see the gold whistle from here good morning you have three minutes mayor good job my name is Yvonne Franco head and I am a retired educator and a voter in District 7. I am here this morning in regards to the renaming of an El Paso parks and recreation facility after one of El Paso's most positive extraordinary and one of the most humble hard-working individuals I have ever met when one hears the phrases Midnight basketball Ray Kugler award skills Camp Cheer Camp flow Hyman Award Sun Bowl parades UTEP women's basketball YWCA yisd Bond committee McDonald's basketball one cannot help but to think of Wayne Thornton and the many things he has been a major part of and has been involved in throughout his career and in our past in our beautiful El Paso Community I've always wondered when he sleeps on a personal note my family and I have known Wayne for over 25 years as our paths have crossed numerous times through sportings events both of our daughters played Sports at a very young age and started through the Parks and Recreation programs Wayne has truly been there for all of the big moments in both of our daughters lives athletically and academically through their Journeys from elementary school sports to assisting with national girls and women's sports day from being the MC at numerous Sports Banquets to advocating for women in sports through Title IX Wayne was there when both of our girls played Collegiate golf here for UTEP and he continues to support the younger generation of Youth athletes through facilitating camps and continuing to be guest speaker for many Youth and academic events his legacy and passion for sports deserve to live on in this proposed facility as a Testament of the dedication he's had for decades to the city of El Paso he has been a friend and a fan to all student athletes of this community his work is nothing short of an inspiration thank you for your time and consideration in renaming the Grandview Senior Center facility to the Wayne Thornton Community Center at Grandview thank you very much and thank you for all your hard work thank you the next speaker is Bernie Olivas good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor council city manager staff everybody thank you all for good morning me to speak on behalf of one of my dear friends Wayne Thornton I think the mayor said it best and when he started by saying that there are certain people that have great a big impact on a lot of people's lives I cannot think of anybody who has had a greater impact on the lives of the people here in El Paso and Wayne Thornton and that's why I'm here that you know to hopefully get this thing done all right I have never known somebody who is nice as rice or melua's jello who has had more impact on so many people without ever raising his voice yelling at somebody or done anything he just knows how to handle people and he knows how to get things done as far as the stumble is concerned I think it was already mentioned he does a lot of things for this for the children of El Paso for the Youth El Paso through the symbol he began a charm camp for girls which taught you know Middle School girls stuff about etiquette dress career self-esteem he began that in 1999. that turned over into boys thing called Boys to Men which does the same thing for Middle School boys teaches them how you know how to act how to behave how to how to do everything and it's a thing that he does our Cheer Camp he gets both schools that have come to participate in the Sun Bowl game and gets their cheerleading squads to teach about 200 youngsters boys and girls some cheer camps does a basketball skills camp you know where he has he gets the four teams that come to play an assemble basketball tournament and he gets their coaches and players to come and show the Youth of El Paso some basketball skills all this free of charge to all the youth in El Paso all these events are free to the children of El Paso never without raising his voice never without yelling at somebody always there and the most important thing about Wayne is that he never asks for anything in return he does this out of his heart he does that because of Love El Paso his love is children young ladies young women and of course the Sun Bowl so on behalf of all the summer Association I like to propose that this uh that this renaming take place thank you very much and good luck thank you for all you do thank you sir the next speaker is Ruben Ramirez followed by Julie Coleman good morning you have three minutes good morning morning mayor good morning Mr Gonzalez um I really didn't prepare anything because you don't really need to have like a really fancy speech when you talk about Wayne to know Wayne is to know that El Paso is represented by a first-class citizen anytime you see wayne out doing whatever he's doing on that particular day you know that he's doing it from the heart and he's doing it for the benefit of the Youth of El Paso and then during these times that we're living in right now I can't think of a better role model and someone that more deserving to have this community center have his name on it than Wayne Thornton so that's really all I needed to say or want to say but I really hope that you all do this thank you very much the final speaker is Julie Coleman good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning mayor Lisa Council city manager thank you for your consideration of the naming application before you today and I wanted to thank representative anello Matthew and Amy for the help support guidance and assistance you gave us to get to this day still wanted to speak Scott Stein go ahead ma'am okay carrying the name on a building is an incredible reflection of the value added to our community by one of our most remarkable El pasoans this honor is rare my name is Julie Coleman and I'm here this morning to tell you why I believe a community center should be named after Wayne Thornton many of you know Wayne Like These incredible women at the podium with me all have worked with him and have learned from him but for those of you who may not I would like to tell you a little bit about him are there adequate words to convey a man I have boundless respect for humble altruistic tenacious extraordinary a hero an icon these superlatives hardly scratched the surface Wayne Thornton left a legacy of Goodwill for our community to enjoy a deep footprint on the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department and a transformative effect on so many lives I met Wayne nearly 30 years ago while I was researching the feasibility of bringing Midnight basketball to El Paso for the Junior League of El Paso the incident we began planning together I saw how committed he was to supporting young people especially through Innovative programming Wayne was integral in the creation of Midnight basketball a late night basketball league for at-risk youth between the ages of 15 and 20. and it was his effervescence and engaging spirit that solidified the participation of the El Paso Police and the parks and rec to be partners with the Junior League to make Midnight basketball reality this award-winning program affected thousands of local young men and women for nearly a decade because of Wayne his tireless conviction and enthusiasm Wayne is a selfless El Paso Ambassador who never stops seeking ways to Champion others he has touched so many in so many ways and there are dozens of his peers former co-workers fellow volunteers and generations of kids who participated in the sporting events he created who want to see him honored with his name on an El Paso Parks and Rec facility for me Wayne reminds us that there is still good in this world please consider renaming the Grandview Senior Center to celebrate a man who has spent his entire life bringing honor to El Paso Parks and Rec and kindness to the city of El Paso and I know these ladies behind me all worked with him I know one through Sun Bowl land Junior League but they are Amy Marcus thank you and Linda Smith thank you thank you [Applause] Q by the name of Mr signs that would like to speak on this item star six to unmute your telephone am I good morning your name please can you hear me yes your name please Scott Stein go ahead you have three minutes Dr Scott Stein thank you thank you good morning Oscar liser mayor Oscar Lisa and city council I'm Scott Stein and I want to speak on behalf of Wayne Thornton I I can't think of another individual so deserving of this honor from the first UTEP women's basketball coach to all Wayne has done for parks and rec and years ago Wayne put on a McDonald's All-American basketball tournament for boys and girls and then the charity game between El Paso Dental dentist and UTEP X players Wayne is always doing something for kids in our community Wayne has been instrumental in the El Paso athletic Hall of Fame he's very deserving of this honor and I just wanted to thank you all thank you thank you Dr Stein that concludes call to the public on this item thank you and um you know we before we um I know we have a from the council wanting to speak about Mr Thornton but um I had the opportunity to meet him in 1977. and Wayne and I played um in intramural said UTEP and you know I see the gold whistle but I don't see the tassels on the shoes or the cape on you there Wayne he was he'd come out with kid Wayne and we played in a championship game in intramurals and from then on from 1977 which is um what uh 50 six years ago we became friends and I've always had a great admiration for him for giving back to the community but also I you know I think every time you I see wayne there's two things he has there's that little camera trying to film you had a smile on his face you know so um I can tell you that I'm very honored you know I never thought that in 77 Wayne when we met and I think we both had hair back then I'm not trying I'm trying to think I know I did but uh and um that I would be sitting here you know I sat there at your retirement and we played one-on-one on your retirement and I think I won again so but um you know um the there and um be here shouldn't honoring you again 56 years later and you know never would have thought when we first met this would this day would come so I'm very honored to be sitting here and I'm and I'm and I'm credibly happy to see that um if I had a vote which I don't because there's only seven people here so it won't be a tie but um I would definitely vote in support of you thank you and congratulations and thank you for being a mentor to so many people and also a friend of so many people and um I congratulate you representative Rivera thank you first of all pretty much has been said about Mr thorden and uh I remember when he when my when my son my eldest son played for for the city leagues and he he mentored these children like um you'd figure he was her parents I really do appreciate that much has been said already how you care about the children how you cared about doesn't matter what sport it was so long as you got the kids on the right path and you did that so well um years later I believe it was our first Council here that I saw you again uh and you asked me for my son by his name and that speaks volumes because it shows how much you you put into your your your caring of the children and that you do remember them you do remember them and what they do now as he and still say he moved on to be a professional in his own work right and you always do that not only for me but all the other parents that you've you've had the uh pleasure to to coach their kids and I do thank you thank you very much for that and this is well deserved and I thank rip in the LL Neville for putting this on the agenda and getting us to waive the uh the naming rights because nobody deserves it more than you do sir thank you thank you representative representative Kennedy yeah thanks I was going to say Wilbur but I'm not going to I I tried to think of what I could say about Wayne that nobody else has said and I decided I'm going to say I don't like Wayne Thornton because nobody will ever say that but I do love Wayne Thornton because he has given back to this town in ways that everybody who thinks they know how Wayne has given back to this city you don't because you don't know all the ways because he doesn't do it for publicity and he doesn't do it to get his name in front of something how many times have we all heard Wayne say I don't care who gets credit let's just get it done and his commitment to friends and to this community is unmatched and so I will have to admit that I do like Wayne Thornton and I love that guy he has given back to this town in ways that we don't know and he doesn't care if we know because that's not why he did it but that's an example of the way you should give back to your community thank you Wayne thank you representative Kennedy mayor Pro Tem thank you mayor um thank you everybody who spoke and and thank you to Julian um Joe and everybody else who really brought this to my office um is Wayne here everyone's talking about everybody can't see him sorry you're out of my eyesight hi Mr Thorne everyone from a round of applause [Applause] um so a fun fact about me is I don't actually like naming buildings after people um and so when Julie called my office my staff was like hey someone called and they want to rename Grandview and I just like kind of grumbled um and then they said they want to name it after Wayne Thornton and I was like oh yeah absolutely let's do this I'm totally on board um I think that this is incredible and it's funny because I I spent a lot of time I went to the senior centers to let the senior knows that you know their name will be changing and um and I do also want to say Julie was really great in making sure the name still Incorporated Grandview so people didn't have a lot of heartburn over it um but even the staff and all of the seniors after hearing either they knew him already or they heard about all of the things he had done had the same reaction at first they were a little hesitant and then they were very excited um I'm not much younger than Mr Thornton so I don't want this to come off as if I'm I'm saying that I am but I am of the generation who benefited from programs that people like Mr Thornton created and I think for people my age and especially younger we forget that there was a time before programs were created to help Youth and really Empower people and in the communities that they grew up in and so you know this is this is more than just the programs is created it's the absolute impact that you had on children's lives and that you will continue to have and I think that's why a lot of the seniors were excited because they their grandkids went to grew up in those programs their children grew up in those programs and that they'd never met you they'd seen the impact of those and and I'm extremely excited I can't wait till we we open that building and we're there together and we get to celebrate out with the community but thank you for allowing me to do this to the individuals who got the petition and Mr Thornton for allowing me to honor you it really it is such a special moment you know I met you when I came into Council you were always there with the camera as the mayor said you were always so welcoming and it was an honor to to go to your retirement party and watch you kick the mayor's butt in basketball um and so you know really it's been an honor to know you and I'm very happy to be here today congratulations I do want to correct you and I apologize for doing that but um you know you say you're not much younger than Wayne you are Wayne just doesn't age because Wayne Red Wing yes and it's 46 years you and I met and I think the first time you tell me I think you said it was nice as rice Mellows jello so Bernie forgot the first part on it you want to come up please sir thank you good morning good morning everyone so my father is Wayne thorden and I believe you've all heard today how humble he is he actually didn't mention that this was happening to me but I knew behind the scenes that it was happening and so when he kind of spilled the beans yesterday I was like oh I know I'll be there and I love that you guys mentioned the small camera he would follow you around with because when I was young it was a huge camcorder on his shoulder that he followed me around with and when I was young I thought he was a movie star because everywhere we went everyone knew who he was but as I got older and I started listening to those conversations it wasn't about him it was all of these parents coming to him and thanking him for how special he made their kids feel and that gave me a lot of sense of Pride and then as I got older and I was a teenager I started also going with him to more events and seeing everything that he had worked towards I remember running around Lincoln Center as a kid where he had so much pride in that Center and then also following him in his footsteps to UTEP where I graduated as well and he could have chosen anywhere to lay down Roots but he came back to El Paso because this was where he decided to make his home and he's made it his home since over two-thirds of his life has been to give back to the El Paso Community and that Pride I think is insurmountable and I can't think of a better person that we could name one of the parks and rec centers after thank you thank you before um we have Mr Thornton speak um representative you have a motion motion to approve second oh Mr Price can we take the motion please yes Mary the motion was made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 14. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously [Applause] Mr thorden thank you mayor council city manager and all the city employees which I'm a proud member and still am in many ways and everybody in life needs an angel on their shoulder my angel has been Julie Coleman the Junior League of El Paso those women are phenomenal at what they do I see Amy Marcus Norman Price and so many others and ginger Francis and over the years we've had some good times with the Junior League of El Paso is truly phenomenal those women have two hearts because for what they do it's it's unbelievable Joe Rodriguez my fellow Court you can't have a better teammate a better co-worker than Joe Rodriguez over those years um I want to thank all of you for your kind words for your inspiration because many times you sit here and you do what you do and you don't realize who's watching you and it's special and to be able to be a part of the Sun Bowl Association Bernie Olivas and Joe dobbach and then many other people there it's just phenomenal so I stand here today in front of you not as somebody anymore special anybody else has been here in this spot it's just a way to be able to just say thank you the most powerful word in English language something we don't use often and we should more often is say thank you and today this is my day and to representative anello um many times when we come in here as a city employee you just don't know what which direction to go what the move may be but I've always felt that when I come in here this is my second home because when you see employee this is the mecca this is the place where things happen not just for us but for the entire city and for what you all do on a daily basis I know you don't get a lot of things but you're phenomenal as well and representative anello is special and thank you and my family thanks you as well my daughter fancy uh she is a just a amazing individual as you heard and uh most recently we lost her grandfather Herman Adams along with my mother-in-law she's at home right now recovering from that tragic loss but as Mr Kennedy knows Herman Adams was a phenomenal human being as well and I stand here today because of him because he that technically raised my children and I have to say I'm sorry to my daughter and I'm sorry to my son because I was not there for them as much as I should have as a father because I was trying to think I could save the world by doing my work for the City Parks and Recreation Department and it's so special now I can share these moments with her and him to be able to say that we're in this together and it's special as well so all of you God bless stay nice as rice mellow is jello and today and tonight please be aware of the fact that when you leave it gets dark outside and before you get in your car just look up in the sky and you won't see any stars because all the stars are right here God bless and thank you [Applause] do we have a motion to recess there's a motion in a second to recess the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at 9 57 A.M Dating Violence awareness month if I can get the folks 17 Dating Violence awareness month to join us back here um followed by the dependence it feels weird see you sir motion to reconvene just kidding good morning everyone Miss Prine can we go to mass transit please yes mayor which I know was your idea but good morning there's a meeting of the mass transit Department board for Tuesday February 7 2023 president presiding is board chair Lisa and board members Brian Kennedy Alessandra nello is alcido art Fierro Henry Rivera and Chris Canales board member Hernandez is present but not at the Deus and board member Joe molinar has requested to be excused from today's meeting it is 10 15 A.M we have five citizens signed up to speak for call to the public this morning mayor would you like to take that now absolutely call to the public is uh time reserved for the members of the public who would like to address the mass transit Department board for items that are Anonymous Transit agenda members of the public May communicate with board members during public comment regarding not regarding agenda items um first to speak is Mr Stephen Strummer I do not see Mr stronger in Chambers up next Mr Josue Rodriguez good morning sir good morning mayor city council thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all um once again we are here to emphasize the importance of having a Sunday schedules reinstated for everyone um I'm glad to hear we did have an opportunity to speak with Ms Smith just before the meeting um today and she did let us know that paratransit will be reinstated on Sundays um beginning this Sunday I believe she said and that's great but we also want to acknowledge the fact that there's a lot of other Transit dependent people not just the people who use the lift that depend on Trans on Transportation Services to get to and from places so we just want to make sure that that's noted that we appreciate the fact that we're now becoming a priority um uh for for Miss Smith and son Metro but I I don't want us to uh steer away from the fact that there's a lot of other Transit dependent people that don't have access to Transportation um that some even some people with disabilities not all of us qualify for Paratransit so I just want to make clear that our goal is ultimately to have transportation services reinstated for everyone so that um people can go on with their daily lives because we have a lot of people right now myself included um friends or or family getting together and then we we are not able to get together with them and we're stranded at home because there's no way of getting to where they're Gathering um events happening including City events that happen during Sundays that we don't have access to so please um I know that funding uh is one of the issues and I would like to encourage um the or the encourage the fact that for you all to dwell into a general funds if needed but we do need transit services on Sundays and throughout the week without the transit services we're we feel like we our freedom has been taken away we don't have access to a lot of services that um other people do and as um some of you already know even with the act the apps like uber and Lyft um we don't have access to that as other people to to get on the app and request a ride so please um as we move forward we do want to see Transit service for all transit Riders um and I appreciate them the fact that there our concerns are being listened to but Transit dependent people come in our shapes and forms thank you thank you and I just want to assure you you've always been a priority and I know Miss Smythe she's taken over she's done a really good job of making sure that I know Miss Ferrone been working really close with her to make sure that we continue to provide a service so I I thank you for being up here thank you thank you thank you Mr Rodriguez next to speak is Blanca inigas go ahead good morning good morning good morning I'm here to speak on behalf of the transportation for the lift as well uh I know we we just spoke to miss Smite I would like to uh also say uh it has been difficult for ourselves and many of our loved ones as well as having to go to uh different uh medical appointments that have been had to cancel because of the transportation not being available having to walk some distances in the past that uh were scheduled uh having to send our loved ones to walk Three uh three point uh and a quarter miles to get to the lift uh stop that was uh designated but I'm here to uh speak on behalf of myself and many of our loved ones as well as friends and colleagues that use this transportation and we like to thank Miss Smite as well for putting us as a priority and uh we will still be waiting on that Sunday transportation to come through that it uh it does not stop uh the date for us to continue our our transportation ongoing thank you very much for your time thank you very much thank you ma'am next to speak is Ruben Montoya good morning people good morning we talked to Minot no but the bosses in Midtown I got that way back on how about that big bosses on the weekend yeah yeah something will wake up late you know I want to go see your family on the weekend there ain't no buses that they go maybe over here on no Loop and there ain't no buses you know thank you thank you Mr Montoya thank you sir next to speak is Ruben Fernandez is coming up good morning Mr Fernandez you have three minutes good morning sir how you doing um I came to ask Mrs as the coordinators to what time and foreign it was ahead 20 or antique Wells that you had had no problem I had to go through I'm here I have a wishes they'll make it that they 'll make as in their way you can put 63 and he gives for a live for at least hmm uh can you go answer that question he was asking us what is the latest bus in the evening that he can catch to come home it was one of his questions so um I know we're not that's not really in the right order to answer questions but um we're starting the Sunday lift service for the Paratransit on Sunday March of February 11th 6 30 in the morning to 7 45 at night and then the other question he had was on a fixed Route Bus Route 63 when is that regular fix bus going to be back in service on Sunday I believe is what that question was and I don't have that answer off the top of my head um as I explained previously in November the priority was in the order as I've explained we brought the streetcar back and then we brought the Montana Brio online in November and then the next group was for to bring the Sunday for the lift and then our next priority will be Sunday city wide and then we have our priorities that are coming up from our consultant on what he thinks other ideas would be which is all great and we will proceed to get better and better we have a class of drivers in our Transit operation class right now eight of them are about to graduate and we've made great strides in filling many of our vacancies we still have a ways to go and that was because of the great Improvement on our salaries and so um I hope if you've had any recent complaints about any of the services fixed route or Paris Transit please let me know but our complaints are way down our reliability is up although one of the gentlemen today said he broke down on the way over here and said that's not good so we you know we're not perfect but we have improved greatly thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr Fernandez thank you Mr smite that's the conclusion of call to the public would you like to move on to the consent agenda pardon me would you like to move on to the consent agenda yes no you want to come back up there's only one item okay uh all matters listen to 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 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 we do have a revision today and that is for item two and that's to excuse board member Joe molinar from today's meeting I move to approve has revised I have a motion from board member Cassandra Hernandez seconded by board member Chris Canales to approve as revised on that motion call for the vote foreign thank you poor chair Lisa all right in the voting session the motion passes unanimously eight to zero with representative molinard absent thank you thank you Mr smart do you have a motion to adjourn have a motion and the second to adjourn today's meeting all in favor any opposed and the meeting for the mass transit Department board has been adjourned at 10 28 A.M no motion to return to regular meeting there's a motion in a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the regular city council meeting is back in session at 10 28 a.m mayor did you want to take the two items that will move from consent to regular at this time please thank you these are items three and four they're related item three is a resolution that the El Paso city council authorizes the submission of a Grant application to the office of the governor of the state of Texas Homeland Security Grant division Grant application number 2950709 item four is also a resolution that the El Paso city council authorizes a submission to the office of the governor of the state of Texas criminal justice division Grant application number 2592810 motion to approve Motion in a second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by mayor Pro tem anelo to approve no representative to approve items three and four on that motion call for the vote thank you all for being here in the voting session the motion passes unanimously with representative arnello abstaining that brings us to item number 15. item 15 is discussion in action on a resolution that the mayor elects to appoint district one representative Brian Kennedy to serve on the Texas mayors of military communities committee move to approved there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Fierro to approve item number 15. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 16 is discussion in action on a resolution that District 4 representative Joe Molina be appointed as a city's representative to the Texas Municipal League board of directors effective upon Council approval there's a motion made by representative Fierro seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 16. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 17. is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2023-0134 Janitorial Services International Bridges to Ace government services there's a notion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Salcido to approve number 17. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 18 is discussion in action on the award of task order number K-1 for solicitation 2022-0678 Veterans Park Recreational Center renovations to Keystone contractors and engineers a second there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 18. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously item 19 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending title 15 Public Services section 15.08.160 mobile Billboards to extend the current permitting pilot program by one year which you all like to see a presentation please good morning please good morning mayor council good morning Phillip foreign inspections so regarding this item we do have a short presentation to provide some information regarding the uh when the program is adopted as well as his current status so this mobile billboard ordinance was originally adopted February 15th of last year it was adopted on a one-year pilot program the way it was set up I did allow for a maximum of three three permits so we did cap the number of permits at three with each permit allowing a total of three mobile billboards so at the end of the day the most I could be operating would be nine total of nine mobile Billboards the permit uh is reviewed under these special privilege ordinance administratively and the again the pilot program was approved for one year so the end date would be February 14th of this year throughout the year the information we have received two of the three permits have been issued so there is still one one permit that has now been claimed each regarding those two issue permits one permit does have one truck and the second permit has two trucks so at this time uh permitted mobile billboard trucks operating is a total of three three mobile billboard trucks in the city we did uh coordinate with our code enforcement section um at this point we have not received any type of complaints or any type of issues that have been brought up or brought to our attention so that last year as well as when the assignment was presented last meeting the Clark County did come up as part of the research that was done last year we did we did a look at other cities and found that Clark County is the only municipality or county that has uh or attempted to adopt a written ordinance regarding mobile Billboards their ordinance did specify and limit the Billboards to the strip and it was adopted in January of 2020. within a month in February of 2020 Clark County decided to suspend the program based on some issues that were brought to their attention mainly the number of of billboards that were permitted as you can see uh in that short time span there was a total of 83 mobile Billboards that came in for permits that were issued permits and were operating within the strip and then there are also some other complaints received regarding unsafe driving so again uh we were aware of those issues with Clark County and hence the provisions in our current ordinance that capped the and controlled the number of mobile Billboards that's why you see that in our current ordinance we looked at other cities we could not find to identify any other city that had a written ordinance regarding mobile billboards most of them either specifically prohibit them or they're pretty much silent on this issue and that's really that's all I have this morning Mr Garcia is there any on our mobile billboard permits as we issue permits any restrictions or as long as to have a permit they can do whatever they want with it no so the original ordinance does include certain certain restrictions such as size hours of operation um there's a Prohibition of operating when there's winds in excess of 35 miles per hour so there are uh there is a list of restrictions that do uh apply to these political the whole thing is there any political restrictions usage no sir no these are open to anybody who wishes to utilize okay I'm just making sure yes sir all right thank you for that sure yes there you go I just had a few questions here um uh the presentation shows zero complaints received if someone was going to make a complaint would that be through code enforcement or calls to PD or yeah so uh that would likely be through our PMZ folks our zoning code enforcement which is what transpired um previously we had received previous complaints throughout the years um through our zoning code enforcement department okay so the zero complaints is just during the one year period of the program yes sir exactly got it um and that's inclusive of any types of like if if a complaint had gone to PD it would have gotten routed to code enforcement so uh PD would not enforce um unless the vehicle committed some sort of movie violation or but it's uh it would be planning zoning code enforcement that would address any issues right I think what I'm asking I just want to make sure that zero complaints meant Zero complaints if if a call had gone into PD would they just say we don't enforce this and or would would that call get routed to that that car will likely get rotted to our zoning folks um we did reach out to PD in terms to see if there was any issues on their end and uh nothing came back from from the response okay um I mean just to put it plainly I still have big concerns about this um you know it's it's good to see that there have been no complaints received during the the pilot program and I understand it's a very small number of vehicles that we have on the road right now again as I said last time uh it's still you know large Vehicles doing large number of of miles on our streets um you know the the the Rev if we have only issued two permits that's three thousand dollars in Revenue I don't know that that makes up for the wear and tear on our streets I'm concerned about drivers and and distracted driving um you know I I think what might make this easier for me and and you know that it would involve extending a pilot program for for a year and I understand that but would be the the provision of some data from the the primatees we saw something similar or we instituted something similar in on this on the other pilot program that we have going where the foreign the scooters the shared use Mobility devices um and I'd be interested to know in a future year of a pilot program uh how many miles these vehicles are traveling for example um I I think that's that's the biggest one to understand is is how many miles and and I think that gives us an idea of the environmental the environmental impact the wear and tear impact on our streets and um understanding whether or not frankly the the permit fee that we're currently uh that we currently have in place is enough um and so uh I I think I'd like to see that rolled into a pilot program if we if we choose to extend this you know I I would defer to the expertise of the planning and inspections department as well for whatever other data you think might be valuable in in terms of how we evaluate the pilot program in a in a second year sure I mean I think that's something we can definitely accomplish similar like you mentioned with the share Mobility devices work with the providers with the applicants to get that information and then eventually brief all of city council before making any permanent changes and then I do have one other question and uh it is an enforcement question as well have we seen any have there been any incidents or reports of unpermitted mobile Billboards within the city during the time of this pilot program no sir again there's been absolutely no no complaints no no uh no calls nothing okay so to our knowledge there's only three out there total three vehicles and no other unpermitted ones operating correct okay that's all from me thank you thank you representative Kennedy followed by mayor Pro tem I just had a question on the uh what's the illumination parameters on the rolling billboards they're complying with our dark sky ordinance right their specific language in the ordinance which I can cite if you'd like for you yeah because my only concern was was um backlits that may be stationary for a period of time but then you have a backlit sign somewhere where it's parked it's a strange request I know but right so as I mentioned um the the verbiage in the in the ordinance in the mobile board ordinance um specifies that shall comply with the dark sky ordinance okay and of course the dark sky ornaments has specific right elimination information but that's got the same illumination for stationary Billboards also right correct yes sir okay all right and I I would say look at going forward if we could put something that illumination is only available while it is actually mobile because um I do know that you can stop when illuminate it and at that point you have a stationary billboard that somehow could slide through the cracks yeah I mean we can definitely look into that okay yeah but again addition going forward sure sure definitely um the dark dark sky awnings that would apply to any and all signs but we could definitely see what we can do there regarding mobile Billboards yes sir that's all yeah thank you representative Kennedy mayor Pro Tim thank you mayor mayor for the pilot program three three per minute okay and one of them stationary oh they're all mobile um an option for digital there's kind of just an option for just a plain image um what are the three I know one of them is is static um and then one other uh maybe digital and I believe the third one last we heard was being worked on to potentially be digital understand kind of the range that we were working with for our data point that's all I had thank you do we have emotion motion to approve exactly yes mayor there's motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro to approve item number 19 there's no public comment on that motion call for the vote mayor I have one more just procedure question I requested to speak do we need to make any kind of floor Amendment here to require the the provision of that data or is that something that can be rolled into the pilot program after council's approval good Maya mayor council philippewer planning inspection I think we can roll it into um design guide I mean to uh guidelines for that so when we bring it back in about a year we'll also bring that back as part of that what you requested today and by bringing that back you mean the the requirement moving forward or you'll bring back one year's worth of data from well we'll bring it back with one year's data okay coming back to you because this is still a parallel program that you're extending for another year so we'll bring it back with all the information and all the data okay do you want that moving from the beginning or you want to wait for a year well no I think we we ought to start uh collecting that data from the from the permit holders now for this second year program as part of their renewal program uh renewal license that this information will be provided to us okay thank you Mr pardon voting session is open in the voting session the motion passes five two one Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido Rivera Pierro voting I representative representative Hernandez not present item number 2020 is a public hearing of an ordinance of the city council of city of El Paso Texas ordering a special election for the submission of Charter amendments good morning Council Laura Cruz a coastal communications director for the city of El Paso thank you it I feel so uh to recap the conversations that we've had over the last several months and year the what you see on the screen right now is a list of the proposed amendments so we'll go over them very quickly proposition a is section 3.1 which would allow the district representatives to appoint and remove the district office staff section 3.18 would allow city council to authorize leases for 40 years or less by resolution or ordinance section or prop C would specifically hit section 3.5 a which would allow the council to reschedule meetings for Holiday purposes proper D would also be in section 3.5 a which would allow the mayor to cancel a council meeting if required due to a declared emergency prop e is section 3.9 b 3.10 b and 6.1-12 which would allow for the city to align to state law and update some obsolete references in the charter proposition f is section 6.14 to allow the city to create a policy regarding appointments to the Civil Service Commission that would reflect this community and the city Workforce proposition G is section 6.7-1 and 6.8-1 which would allow the city to establish more flexible policies in the hiring of employees proposition H would be section 6.1 13-11 D and would establish the city's contribution to the police and fire pension fund if of no less than 18 percent of the wages of the participants and remove the limit on the city's contribution proposition I is section 3.11 which would remove the requirement for a second petition and initiatives and provide a procedure for citizens to initiate city ordinances and proposition J is the newest one which would be section 3.20 B and would change the reporting structure for the chief internal auditor to report directly to city council the backup included is outlines the propositions that the council approved in July no in October I apologize as well as the most recent changes in January so you can see those we want to go over a proposition a i and j a little bit deeper in the following slides so proposition I is section 3.11 on the screen here you'll see that we are looking at the proposed ballot language should section 3.11 relating to the initiative Petition of the city Charter be amended to remove the requirements for a second petition and Institute a process for the Pol for the public to initiate the city ordinance And to clarify that no ordinance may be initiated through this process appropriating or allocating City funds zoning or rezoning leving of taxes setting utility rates purchases or sale of an interest in real property or Grant granting a franchise specifically in the last conversation that we had was a proposed amended language in which you see here no ordinance may be initiated through this process striking regarding required and adding appropriating or allocating and then removing of City funds zoning or rezoning loving of taxes setting utility rates purchase or sale of an interest of an interest in real property or granting a franchise the second discussion is a proposition J and this one is specifically on a motion made on January 24th of 2023 and the motion was made by representative Kennedy seconded by representative anello and carried to add a charter amendment to change the reporting structure of the internal auditor so the position reports directly to the city council and that's the language from the motion and so the proposed amended language is in number two of 3.2 B asically you see there in red and I'm going to go ahead and read it city employees in such positions shall be protected by the Civil Service systems rights and processes that are afforded to classified employees even if it considered unclassified by other sections of this Charter or the city's civil service system you see in parentheses related to discipline that is a discussion that the internal auditor has asked us to for the council to consider adding and amending and so we can expand on that one in a moment so section 3.2 B in this one it's on the fifth point on or after the effective date of the amendment the city the chief internal auditor shall be appointed and removed by and report to we added that and report to the council and so we struck the city manager subject to the approval of and so the position would report to the council on the screen now you see the proposed ballot language should section 3.2 B of the El Paso City Charter be amended to change the reporting structure of the chief internal auditor so the position reports directly to the city council and the pro and to provide Civil Service protections to employees and positions that report to the chief internal auditor and just a little bit of background history the next few slides I'm going to ask Robert cortinas and also um Miss Kristen Hamilton from City attorney's office to give you a little bit of background history and best practices in order to cover some of the due diligence process typically and you'll see here on the screen when we go through this processes Council activates the ad hoc Turner advisory committee in order to identify those proposed amendments this is probably about a year-long process plus or minus a few months and then the ad hoc Charter reviews the council's proposed amendments and then the committee goes through each of the Amendments one by one has extensive discussion amongst themselves and then with also the community the council then comes together and hears from the charter the ad hoc Charter committee about the proposed amendments and what they heard back from the community and then the council will call a charter election due to the timeline where we want to give you a little bit of background history as we call for the special election in that process and with that I'm going to ask Robert cortinas to come up and give the next couple slides good morning members of council so I'm going to start with this slide here and then I'm going to pass it over to Ms Hamilton who's going to provide you a little bit more background on the current system that the city does currently utilize for the internal audit function so this allows information taken directly from the an Institute of internal Auditors and so this is a a National Organization that provides the best practices for internal auditing this is something that our internal auditory utilizes if you look at the internal Auditors annual Charter that he provides to the full act it's actually referenced in there under his Professional Standards he utilizes this guidance so you see the yellow highlighted section there that talks about the degree of Independence necessary to effectively carry out the responsibilities of the internal audit activity the chief audit executive has direct and unrestricted access to not only Senior Management and the board and so in this case the city council or the full act and this can be achieved through a dual reporting purpose which as you can hear from Miss Hamilton here in the second this is the information that was utilized When developing the current system the way it is now with the function for the internal auditor having that dual connecting reporting purpose tunnel in city manager but ultimately reporting to the full Act who actually approved the annual audit plan for the internal auditor and then goes to the city council as well so just to provide a little bit of context Miss Hamilton is going to go a little bit deeper on some of the additional history related to the current system thank you Mr cortinas Kristin Hamilton Karam from the city attorney's office good morning members of council the current system that we have in place related to the internal auditor and the function of the internal audit office actually was a very gradual process to develop what we have in place today the internal auditor was hired in 2005 actually and that was when that position was begun in 2010 the city council codified the internal audit function into city code 2.110.030 in 2012 the city council further um adopted a very strong internal control system and process to expand the transparency when they created by resolution the foak so the foak was developed by a resolution in 2012 and then in 2013 in the wake of some difficult situations in other local public entities and with that in the background Council activated and submitted to the ad hoc Charter committee an item to further solidify the system that we have in place as the charter committee to look at what is the best practice for a chief internal audit system and they were able to learn from our our the other local entities and other entities across the country by seeing that when the auditor had reported to the elected there were issues that could arise as well as when reports only to the administrator there are issues that could arise next slide please may I have the next slide please and so when they were looking into this there were several different things oh I apologize I didn't know I had control of the slides um they looked at the at the um not only the code that was in place and the resolution that was in place as you know city council is able to thank you city council is able to amend resolutions in one city council meeting and so they wanted to make that more solid the foak function they also sought guidance from an international independent external audit company KPMG at that time Who provided guidance and advice um so that study from KPMG as well as the international standards that Mr cortina's referred to earlier all provide that a dual reporting structure provides the most transparency as well as the best internal controls for an entity and so at the 2013 Charter Review Committee and through the council at that time that function was created to solidify the Dual reporting system that already had been in place through the resolution and they modeled it after those standards for professional practices of auditing um we have a couple of video clips that we wanted to share with you all that we reviewed from 2013 showing the audit or the I'm sorry the charter committee not the audit committee the charter committee who um created this uh this item on the ballot as well as a 2018 report from the charter committee at that time in 2018 again the charter committee did review the internal audit function and uh came back with a recommendation related to that as well obligate the council to always have a financial oversight and audit committee at this particular language that's proposed can we turn the volume up please in Chambers last year established can we start it over and turn the volume up please in Chambers this particular ly this is coming directly from City Council Members they asked they've asked for this they would like it to be codified so that every I did to do so excited to do so this is a new provision that would obligate the council to always have a financial oversight and audit committee at this particular language that's proposed is comes from a resolution that the city council passed last year establishing the the this particular committee and this language would just Implement that committee and put it into the charter this is coming directly from City Council Members they asked they've asked for this they would like it to be codified so that every city council from the future would be required to have this committee and then there's a companion item on the new things that you'll consider that talks about the internal auditor and the reporting lines but this one this one so we can keep things kind of what you all looked at before and and what is new this one is um the language to create the committee thank you I don't see any public comment on this one or do we have did y'all take a vote on that last issue on on 3.5 yes and man the motion was to to prove the language but limited to seven meetings this was Bautista yes sir I have a concern with the the committee audit committee out of Team the city the the city ought to be audited by an outside Source I served in the State School for the Blind and the one problem that we had was when we wanted to find out from the auto trip what was going on we got the information that they wanted to give us you need an outside auditor to make sure that everything that is being done is up in in you know being done the right way and as long as you have the internal audit auditing themselves I got news for you it's not going to happen the city has and correct me if I'm wrong Ms Wilson but the city publishes an annual audit done by someone outside the internal audit is they go in and they look at each individual department and see if they're actually doing what they're supposed to be doing in other words if they say we have five chairs they're going to check and make sure that they have five chairs and they haven't sold three of them to pocket some money this is a fantastic ideal except for one small thing I think we need to meet quarterly or more often as needed instead of annually um well first of all in response to Mr Batista that Charter does actually contain in section 7.21 a requirement for an independent external audit so that's already in the charter and it is done and the issue of the meetings that's fine if that's what you all want to recommend to city council but what they have done right now just by way of background is they meet once annually and then they set how many meetings and right now they are meeting actually they're meeting more often than quarterly because they're doing some catch up but if that's what you all would like to recommend I'm sure they would be happy to hear it the the to the um this issue is that the council wanted to have in the charter that there is a an internal audit function defined by the charter and a standing audit oversight Committee of the council so that it's not discretionary thank you I think just to be grammatically correct the last line needs to be to say shall meet annually I think the word at is crack that then oh at least annually that's fine my only recommendation to to the uh Financial oversight committee that if it's finances have you met once annually I don't think you could and and if you did have some problems and encounter some problems some financial problems you know doing it once a year we're not going to solve the problem that's uh that's letting the you know the the horse out of the ball that's the committee like the internal auditor has this schedule where they audit each Department's they submit a plan to the the city manager and Council okay this is what we're going to do this year we're going to look at uh council members P cards which are the credit cards we're going to look at you know hours you know what what if you mean if this is the best thing that we've ever seen come forward I understand the most important thing in my opinion and it it's a must do is to have this committee have it meet to me at a minimum quarterly and it should have the support of the people because if we don't then we're going to be just like epist nobody knowing where the money's going that's my problem assuming that you had an anonymous suggesting that we do that you had somebody that you had a Garcia you know within city council okay and and you advocated advocated those duties that's what you would be doing here if you only met once a year so at the very minimum I'm for it but at the very minimum I think that you would say are minimum at least quarterly you know like all businesses get together and they have their quarterly meetings to review their status and that's my recommendation happily we don't we report quarterly but that is um the when they when they have the annual meeting or the way they have organized for for now the in internal auditor comes forward and they call it an audit Charter there's a document if you would go on our website and in that um on the website it describes that in their meeting quarterly so there's no problem with it if you all want to put that in there instead of annually to quarterly I don't think there's an issue with that at all of the City attorney I apologize you had something else to say I I agree with you if it doesn't hurt to put it in there and the other point that I want to make if you have four members of city council I think you should draw you should you should draw for a position okay and it should be by draw and he's somebody that four people you know kind of have the same mentality and they're going to kind of remn right you know four four on this Council pretty well is dictated what has been happening sure and so what you want to do you want to take those four you want them to draw Lots okay okay thank you sir thank you sir Miss Wilson I think iPhones will come a long way huh there's a dual report line well from the internal auditor you're absolutely correct Miss Turner and every audit that's done is released to the committee at the same time it's released to management and it's also posted on the website correctly from the day after I was hired we re-established it and we brought in KPMG which is the external Independence it's the external audit company that managed that did our external audit they were the ones that recommended the structure based on other governance models and it's worked consistently since then well if there's anybody who would distrust the city and it's spending it's me but I have to say that what has happened with the financial oversight committee the Dual report line the notification and presenting on a I believe it's a quarterly basis to counsel the the audit reports I don't think you can get any more transparent than that we've done everything we can to avoid what happened at episd so I mean I have all the faith in the world when it comes to our internal auditor my only problem is they don't have Civil Service protection the organization chart where does the auditor box get placed to city council purposes into the council for functional purposes and in the org chart it shows that it shows he's separate and he's like got two lines and that's the way the charter was Rewritten to accommodate that per the council can you define reporting to the city manager for administrative purposes for purposes of budget oversight um going Personnel matters because many of the Auditors positions are civil service and so they're governed by the Civil Service and for implementation of recommendations so that the manager can ensure that recommendations and findings are acted upon by the organization and that's the way it was clearly articulated also the auditor appointment and termination must be ratified by the council so you don't have the administrative discretion solely and it was written that way to accommodate that you mentioned Finance so that if you don't like what the auditor does you can cut their budget no that budget is set by the council the budget is set by the council the auditored like any Department presents their budget to the council annually so you couldn't arbitrarily go in and do things we're not doing that now even though it's a more direct report I'm still not sure why the auditor should be independent because he ranges throughout the administrative structure and his job requirements dictate that he be an independent examiner of things so it would seem like you want him to be totally independent of the administrative structure so that he can do his job representative we went through this this reflects our our ordinance on the issue and I think it's really important I think it's one of the strongest jewelry reporting structures in the city and and the issue is it is independent but you also need the administrative support because in often often it's not a policy issue or an organizational issue it's a Personnel issue by City Charter the only one that can address Personnel issues is the city manager and so that's why it's really important it's a dual reporting function it the the auditor reports to to actually to the public the city council and the city manager at the same time and then it's Our obligation as city council to follow up to ensure that everything is being followed up on and hers responsibility to make sure that if there's personal action is taken but I'm I'm just confused by what you just said if you wanted to make the the auditor independent all you had to do since we're making changes to the Charter would have been to put an exception about the Personnel portion and make an exception for the internal auditor and then he would be totally and that's what we did we made it so that he the internal auditor is both hired and fired by by city manager and city council no you just said that the charter requires that the personnel requirements be handled by the personnel office and so that necessitated you're having dual reporting and I'm saying if you wanted to make the city manager into I mean the auditor independent and you're changing the charter it would have made more sense to change that portion of the charter relating to Personnel functions to carve out an exception for the auditor and then he would be totally independent Mr Schechter we actually are proposing that because there is an exception in the charter everybody all administrative staff is hired and appointed by the city manager with the exception of the internal auditor Who is the he can can only be appointed or terminated with the approval of city council so there is in fact an exception carved out in this proposal so that he does get separate treatment and and a different level of oversight from the city council and and the organizational structures consistent with the KPMG study that was done when we set the function up it's just being codified in the charter now thank you another area um where I think we've seen great improvements um under um in the city management form of government is the internal auditor function that um Mr Schechter brought up before that function has grown and has become much more independent and it has gotten much better at um sort of finding the the issues within the organization that cost taxpayers money that create waste in the system and as a result of that which I think you would only have seen developed in the city and manager form of government we have a better city government today and so I think um that certainly there's always work that needs to be done to improve an organization but I think a city manager form of government it marries the vision of the community in terms of policy goals and public ideals with with a organization that's actually able to accomplish with setting for in front of them on the committee decision related to the internal audit function uh you'd be happy to know there was some significant discussion over this for in our initial vote on May 21 there were five a uh yes it's five eyes two Nays and one absent and then on June 4th our last uh action on this was fundamentally unanimous and I want to point out the reason for that because in our current environment the way it's set up if you read through the the city Charter there are checks and balances and transparencies put in place by the financial oversight advisory committee with four members of council serving on it plus the city manager and and the uh the auditor and of course the CFO so any any challenges that may occur or may occur in the future relative to that position and that employee feeling either that they are not being treated fairly or if there's not transparency or on the other side of that Spectrum if that individual has not conducting themselves properly there is an action in place through the city Charter currently that even though this individual reports directly to the city manager they're hiring and their termination is decided by Marion Council so for those reasons we remain standing in support of the current position so that's pretty much the presentation thank you for your attention and patience to that history I I think it provides a good background for you as you're making this decision today in 2013 the ballot item addressed not only 13.20 related to the internal audit position but also it addressed in 3.6 putting into the charter the faux and so the item before the voters in 2013 um in the second half of this paragraph it discusses to create requirements for the establishment of an independent internal audit function and a financial oversight and audit committee to provide oversight of the audit function and review City Financial policies thank you and that that passed it the ballot by 52 and a half percent Mr cortinas will be coming back to provide you with a little bit more history and information thank you good morning again so I have two more slides so one of the slides the current members of council I've heard us talk about the external audit findings and what we managed to do for the from the assistance processes and policies that we've put in place with the help of the internal auditor with his assistance that strong work in relationship not only between his office and my office City manager's office but then obviously working closely with the full Act and developing his audit plan is proving his work extremely well there's been times when we've had to call on edmundo to provide us some assistance on different things in that again working relationship has proven to be extremely beneficial for the organization as a whole attached in the back of as well there's a couple of documents again and Mundo is here Mr Calderon current intern auditor they go through it peer review every three years they're required to do this again going back to the Institute of internal Auditors and that guidance that's provided and so they go through this process you'll see there are some of the items that they pointed out in this most recent which is done again a few years ago they're currently in the process of getting that updated and going to process again but this was through 2016 through 2019 review you'll see that one of the items they pointed out was again the culture and expectation of Independence and objectivity within your organization so again this group is the one that's setting that guidance on what this relationship should look like and then ultimately those best practices my last slide here is the city has been on the budget Journey so we go through a budget review process and outside organization puts to get their team of reviewers they come through a reviewer application do interviews with just about everybody throughout the organization through all levels the internal auditor function is one of the areas again that they do interview and speak with and you can see here on this slide one of the things they pointed out is the strength with the city is our governance system and really talking about the independence and effectiveness of the internal and external audit function and then that system of checks and balances again with the current way that the system is set up so again following that that guidance but then also having that again recognized by these individual groups has shown that again it's been a very very successful structure that we have in place now so with that the very last slide I'll pass back over to miss Cruiser Costa the final summaries with regard to the next steps once the council calls for the election then we move on to the community meetings and the information sessions about the proposed amendments and then of course early voting begins in April through May with the final election on the 6th of May and just to remind Council once we go into the period where we start talking about the proposed amendments the presentations that the that the city would provide are strictly factual we do not condone any kind of conversation in terms of for or against any of the ballot items that is up to the voters themselves and that concludes a presentation we are thank you very much for the presentation can you go to slide seven real quick please just started you went a little quicker than my eyes went so you still kept at the cine manager should maintain operational oversight over the internal audit functions it's still in there on number five yes that is as relation to the administrative procedures and operations sir right that's what I'm saying so but still with regard to the operations of the the function but the position itself as directed by the council tax recommendations and changes to the city administrative procedures and operations as requested by the council right um I thank you all for that presentation I think that that was a really good presentation that showed that you do need to update the rules and and the functions of it so I think you all did a really nice job of bringing that forward and kind of shown that there is some some updating that needs to be done and I appreciate I know it took a lot of work for y'all to do that so I appreciate y'all bringing that forward and without representative of nonetheless followed by a representative Rivera um absolutely I think there is three yes sir we have three members of the public that signed up to speak on item 20 the first person is Dr Rick bohner followed by Lisa Turner and Veronica carvajay Ms Turner was that you on the video [Laughter] good morning mayor and Council Rick bonard for the record uh and I I'd like to start out with some comments in general uh about benchmarking when you start to do these procedures and uh although benchmarking is good for quantifying the numbers it's not good enough for qualifying what you're going to get so many cities might do something the same but the re the question is does it produce the desired results and what I saw a lot of these meetings was presentations of this City's doing this and this city is doing that and we should copy but what happens is you're using the same consultant that all these cities are using so you begin to get this homogeneous view of what a city Charter looks like rather than individualized for our specific needs and to that I would like to bring out three specifics in regards to 311. one of which is the uh not in any particular order is the uh calling of Elections and I know representative Canales brought this out and I want to make sure that you feel confident that it doesn't need to have the word next inserted into there because otherwise it seems to give an option rather than have an election at the next uniform election that there's an option to wait okay well we'll just wait to the next general city election which could mean somebody might have to wait four years so you might want to make sure that that language is inserted the second thing is the cap in which we've talked about how many people need to sign for something and so I can tell you from my personal experience when we had to do lost dog two sets of petitions each one about 1700 signatures that was very difficult for us to do it's not an easy process that's why I think that 10 000 is an onerous amount to be done and in fact what you're doing instead of encourage the average citizen who may not have access to you to get what they want done you're encouraging people that only have the money and resources to pay for canvassers to go out and get this done and I don't think that's a good idea and why the cap should be lowered to a more reasonable number and finally as to the limits the current ordinance does not contain any limits and I will tell you that the history in our city has been that that's not been a problem and if you want to put some sort of limits in there I think that you need to be very specific and not so General because I can come up with an example very reasonable of something that I might want to get done that's allocating specific funds from a specific thing for a specific project and it would not be allowed so I think that to have such a blanket limitation will be used as a hammer against people to not do some of the simplest and most Grassroots things they want to get done thank you Lisa Turner good morning Miss Turner you have three Turner I think that was you and I won't admit to it uh there are 11 items in item 20 16 and 21. there's only three minutes we get to speak on it it's kind of disrespectful to the public you're just saying your input does not count that's why we bundled them all together uh now moving on I have to pick one out of here to talk about so it's going to be 3.20 B I'm all in favor of these changes I'm looking where the buck stops it stops with u9 so when our an audit is done it should come to you people first you should see it not the city manager not some committee u9 it comes to you all and that's where I stand that's the book stops with you you had the fiduciary responsibility and and throwing it off to somebody oh we'll have a dual thing and the city manager will take care of it now that ain't how it works comes it when it comes right down to it you are the ones in charge it should come to you and you all do have to do what you you all do thank you thank you Miss Turner the final speaker submitted a statement for mayor Pro Tem from Veronica my name is Veronica carbajal I am requesting that each council member in the mayor acknowledge having received our suggested amendments our analysis of limitations languages in other cities we provided those documents on January 30th if possible please show the public our proposed edits during your discussion as you can see among other things we have omitted to limitations the second document explains the reasoning for the Omission should you just should you still decide to include limitations we suggest keeping a minimum number of limitations in addition we are requesting per the attached document one a cap of 5000 signatures two 365 days for petitioners to collect the signature since signatures expire in 180 days this additional time allows petitioners to decide when to collect the signatures three that the proposed ordinance be heard at the next city council meeting four since the city clerk will have 60 city clerk working days to validate that there should be no further delay after that and the proposition should be placed on the next city council agenda five again there is no reason for delay and as such the proposition should be placed in the next uniform election six amending or repealing a proposition should be available to council after two years not one seven councils should not be obligated to consider a proposition more than once every year instead of two when Alf Housewives take on the difficult and expensive task of trying to change a lot of themselves they do so because they feel they are not being heard at City Hall please honor their commitment to democracy by making the ballot initiative process more accessible please keep in mind that once petitioners overcome the procedural hurdles they must still win at the ballot it is indeed a very difficult process please don't make it harder than it needs to be and please recognize that our suggestions will make the city clerk's task easier to accomplish thank you Veronica carmahal thank you and with that mayor can we take our 11 30 break if you would like to make a motion motion to recess for till noon there's a motion in a second Teresa is a city council meeting until noon all in favor yes anyone opposed and the meeting is a recess at 11 29 A.M this item is tabled until thank you we'll show you all the three you said foreign foreign foreign thank you is foreign foreign um that would be huge have y'all voted for the next speaker I think my mother my mother let my hair grow out real long when I was a baby yeah a little girl they don't fall as a girl okay okay how about you let's go home it's fine Australia unless you're from Australia foreign thank you okay thank you for the weekend yeah this past weekend we'll see you know what I was gonna ride in the train and it was so well and I got all those Mexicans well that's good foreign and uh and I got another one pants you know he's got to be with me every five minutes on me but you can take a wildcat make your house go oh yeah I tried it once you've got to keep him locked up I've lost two lives and five dollars and one cap which one do you miss the most tomorrow and you know uh you know I've talked to this guy up here in terms I think they're gonna hurt somebody with them though God you've heard another guy with cheese from another town right you don't know the people here foreign let me give you my number I got a good number 84.84 there you go campuses isn't he got over there talking to him he's a vet isn't he veterinaries yeah yeah we're going to speak next right tomorrow and it's all Mexicans they uh they play Mexican music on Sunday and dance it's all Mexican stores they have married options there when the Sunday hours there no I'll show you in a minute but you know everything in there is a Mexican there's no experience that's only Gringo in that place I'll show you the stage I'm going to show you that the camera lost that was a wild cat I made a house like it's lunch time it sounds like it's lunch time Fort Worth it's all Mexican there's no gringos at all in there well that's the place I need to go yeah uh oh no no no Knights right down here he's got fish I don't want fish oh that's good you look like I eat healthy um what I want um you doing good oh yeah that was yeah I know thank you Health person you can't do that you know what you're right you're cool button um they'll show you okay go ahead [Music] I'm glad you're here foreign we're not doing it um you know foreign I know that you would like to go to call of the public yes is there a motion to reconvene there's a motion in a second to read anyone a post the meeting is back in session at 1202 PM we now move to call to the public the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings our public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to displace stability and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public use this form for political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have three members of the audience that signed up to speak and Council there is a member of the audience that would like a suspension of the rules because he didn't sign up by the 9 A.M deadline there's a motion and a second to suspend The Rules of Order to allow for an additional speaker after the nine o'clock deadline all in favor yes anyone opposed the motion passes will begin call to the public with Miss Wally Schick followed by Jamie Fisher Carol Cassidy and James Perry Ms check's topic is right or wrong save America good afternoon Michelle you have three minutes hello Miss check how are you good morning good afternoon good afternoon God bless you all and may God save America and every one of you I wanna congratulate you because you was gonna be my Valentines but you goofed me up by not having next speaker thing is that Mr Mayor I wanna not much to number please take this home you lay down and let your wife read it to you after a day's work and then after you read it you get a little meeting and read it to all of them when you have your meeting and I want to show you this is a picture when my mama became 80 years old in church Williams session for her in and said it was my privilege in my honor to give her the citizenship as a non-person he broke all his rules and Regulation and had appeal with her making posts and mama said give me a course I'm an American and gave him a live employee and this is a story in itself and I won't give you the time because I next meeting in two weeks I make my very last meeting because of my health I've been 94 years old and may God bless you until then you see me again I'm free to say and there is no person on Earth that can stop me from getting you a gift this is gonna be my 108 yeah never mind I surprise you now our next meeting is not till the 28th of February I I can't hear you excuse me you're the best 28th 28th of February okay okay yeah and thank you yeah they couldn't have three minutes thank you I mean I couldn't talk through thank you the next speaker is Jamie Fisher the topic is speed speed hump installation decision making good afternoon you have three minutes yes it we need the Elmo please there's a power button here should I touch it or not good afternoon good afternoon my name is Jamie Fisher I live on Camino Alegre which is and all of the neighborhood agrees that we have a problem with tarasis with cut through traffic volume and with speeding so the city started putting in speed humps and I went to talk to the neighbors on tarascus and said hey you guys know what's going on well they got a map and this is the infamous speed hump number seven it's half a block in front of a stop sign and so I asked him you know what did you ask for they said oh we want as many speed humps as possible I said will you do you want one in front of a stop sign and they said no that's stupid so I asked more people they said no that's stupid so it's not just the stop sign it's also a T-bone intersection which means this dead ends into Belvedere you've got to stop this is the slowest part on the entire Street and this hump impedes us from getting over to Belvedere which is the arterial street so I called streets and maintenance I emailed them nobody would return any of my communications until I called Mr Gonzalez's office and Miss Ogden called on my behalf then they called me back and the woman in charge talked to me she said that National Transportation recommends that speed humps be placed every three to six hundred feet in order to slow traffic and I said well a recommendation is a suggestion to be taken in consideration with other factors like T-bone intersections and stop signs then I asked her how much it costs to put in a speed hump and she said we don't track it that way well there were there was a four man for 4-5-man crew out there all day to do the substrate then a second day to do the top layer and then a guy came out to do the signage so it is very expensive and the issue that I have the street department treats it like it's a cure and it is not it's one tool that we have so this was two months ago where do we stand now bless you bless you you still see people speeding on the street it's a their cars parked on both sides when I slowed down to go over hump a woman tapped on her horn and went around me and I saw somebody else do that I also see people just driving right over them to be fair to be sure a lot of people slowed down but it is not a cure we still need the police to go out there periodically to slow down traffic so what I am asking is that somebody look into these decisions that they're making on where these humps go because they are incredibly expensive and that one doesn't make sense and I told him that and they said well after it's installed you can put in a request to have it taken out so anyway in my view they are using them like sprinkles on Christmas cookies thinking the more there are the safer it'll be and it's not that simple they are painful to go over they are a nuisance and we only have one street left off the mountains Fisher thank you thank you Miss Fisher the next speaker is Carol Cassidy her topic is Chinese spy below Miss Cassidy's star sixth place to unmute your telephone Carol Cassidy star six please to unmute your telephone Miss Cassidy you're on mute star six plays to unmute your telephone Carol Cassidy you're on mute star six will unmute your telephone we'll move on to James Perry Mr Perry's topic is thank to thank representative Kennedy for some pins good afternoon sir you have three minutes hello Mr Perry um I've got several proclamations from the city of El Paso and what I do when I go out of town I give his Texas pins and it's a great honor today to honor Mr Brian Kennedy because he made sure that I had the pins when I went out of town so I want to thank you thank you thank you for helping me out and I think the voters in El Paso May made the right decision when they put you in office I think you'll see a big difference thank you thank you Mr Perry mayor that concludes call to the public thank you prior to the recess we were on item number 20. yeah and um we're gonna I just want to make sure and remind Council that uh per Roberts of order everybody will be allowed twice to speak and everyone will be allowed 10 minutes but it'll be 10 minutes per time you do speak so as um you get your second chance you do have an additional 10 minutes and we will stay to that so thank you for that and with that I think I'm not sure if you wanted to speak first representative none this because uh you hadn't had a chance you just wanted to hear a call to the public so sure thank you mayor thank you um I do uh I do have a question for Mrs Hamilton if you have a minute um I wanted to go back to the discussion and the presentation regarding the internal auditor function enroll and so you put the historical information I'm just I'm just curious what what is the language prior to this change when the voters asked to change the function and the the reporting structure of the internal auditor prior to the 2013 election these two paragraphs did not exist in the charter they were brand new Okay so um and when you say these two paragraphs these two sections I apologize so 3.20 B okay is brand new the whole section as well as 3.6 B those are both brand new sections in 2013. 3.6 B was the one related to the foak okay perfect so with this proposed change what would be the motto of the foak the foak section of the charter Remains the Same the foec would still exist for legislative oversight and for the function that it exists today that was unchanged by the emotion that representative Kennedy brought forward okay so it's not it's not going to change foak was still have its full function correct yes if it's assuming the item passes by the voters okay um thank you for that clarification now um I do want to focus on some of the um just my opinion a personal opinion and you know why I think it's really important to keep it as is I used to work for city council at the time that all of these discussions were brought forward at the time members of council were very concerned very concerned of the state of the city and the all of the Corrupt Practices and cheating scandals that came forward that was really the the focus and the focal point of that conversation at the time um and then all of your citizen advisory Outreach whether that was back in 2021 I believe was the last one they did um back in 2012. in 2011 um I worked I started working at the city back in 2011. this has been a constant theme and a constant conversation is when you have a governance structure that is too heavy on one side of the um assuming that we're talking about the Eternal auditor and the case with the county the auditor reported directly to County Commissioners in the case of eps episd you had an audit function that reported strictly to an Administration and so at the time and I think it was representative Byrd who who brought it up in the in the conversation there there has to be a better balance between how an Administration and in its political subdivision and the legislative body should have uh oversight of the internal auditor um I I think it was a totally elegant uh proposal it it had a lot of support from several community members members came to city council to to speak in favor of it as well but also at your city Charter advisory meetings you heard loud and clear please don't touch this function because it's really important the problem that I have with the proposal is that it could lead two potential practices that are unfavorable for our government you have to have an independent auditor which I think we do I have a lot of faith in our auditor but I'm referring to the function itself when you have future councils or future members of a council or you have a situation or in the event that there is problematic situations happening within our functions of our finances or our policies you have to have that checks and balance system and I'll share with you what I shared with my constituents on my community meeting which by the way is open to the public it's Facebook live meetings are archived afterwards everyone's welcome to my meetings and I do a deep dive into the decisions I make I do a deep dive into why I voted one way or another the reason why I didn't support this then and I don't support it now is because these practices are moving away from a council manager form of government we're slowly chipping away with some of these proposals which the council form of government is the most secure process um I didn't say that the researchers in education and that focus on governance structure says that this internal audit function is going to protect the citizens of El Paso and their financial interests as well as any you know practices that are going to that should be that should be highlighted and should be audited in the event that you have this pass you're going to have full Authority account is going to have full authority over an auditor where is the checks and balances there how can the public or employees respond to any concerns there there are some really severe questionable practices that we have seen in the past that we should learn from these are learned opportunities so when you give too much Authority and recognition to an audit function under one umbrella it's gonna you're gonna set it up for potential conflicts for potential under oversight and and that's problematic to me and I think that the public takes issue with that we've heard testimonies from members of the public in from the past three excuse me ten years and I think it's important that we keep the city Charter function the way it is most importantly because it's already been fully vetted by the public members of the public have already voted in favor of it it comes across as having a governance that wants to change that back and forth your city Charter isn't meant to be changed dramatically that way that often I don't see a problem today I don't want to see a problem in the future and I think it's really important that Council preserve the internal audit function as is in the city Charter and not change it how is the current process um important the current process is important because you have a faux that your internal auditor reports to The foac Works directly with financial staff we work directly as well we work directly with the auditor and the audit team then on top of that if there's a problem with management or policies your phobac is notified everything is documented and notated on a city council agenda and then City Council Members have the authority through the city Charter for investigative Powers if there's a problem so the authority already lies within the city Charter for city council today so there is no reason to change that or to ask the voters to change that because this eloquent and elegant response with the Dual reporting process is really important to our our government so I would be you know very afraid to to change that given these circumstances and the history of cheating and Scandals across this community so we need to make sure that we preserve and have a fair checks and balance system in place and so for for those reasons I've been very concerned with with that I do want to make an amendment and so my motion will read as follows so if you look at page number nine for Mrs Prine if you're following page number nine item 20 it's going to be your 13th line down to the end beginning at section 3.20 B so my motion is to strike starting at section 3.20 B to change the reporting structure for the chief internal auditor to report directly to city council so my motion would be to strike that entire section and so the reason why I'm making a motion to strike that is because for an entire decade we had a community that was concerned about corruption in our community and the response was this change it was fully vetted by the public it is supported by not only the international um Independence and objectivity for The Institute of internal Auditors as mentioned earlier we have experts who have told us that this proposal through KPMG Global an external auditor has set this dual reporting function as important it preserves and protects the taxpayer and there's not a problem to fix so so we should keep it as is secondly it hasn't been proposed timely through the city Charter advisory committee it hasn't been vetted by the public nobody from the public had an opportunity to look at the language this is very last minute and I'm concerned with the the way it's been proposed because of the the potential damage that can come from it in the future and so with that um thank you thank you representative Rivera for your second and and I would ask the members of council to keep the city Charter as is thank you so all of my Facebook meeting lives are archived but you're welcome mayor to come to any meeting or ask me a question about a position I have and I'm always very honest note so the so my meetings are Facebook live and then the videos are archived I'm not sure if anyone else in this room Facebook lives or meetings but I do on charge just wondering if there's a way to read is there a concern you'd like to know you said it was on there I just want to see if it was on there and then I proceeded to say that the videos are archived afterwards no I heard that I just wanted to make sure so they're not on there any longer no but you're welcome at any future meeting I will be there thank you thanks thanks for the invite and I think I've been there too as a matter of fact thank you representative anello followed by protem followed by representative Kennedy thank you Charter advisory committee committee from 2008 you said you said video there were four different videos the first video was from the charter advisory committee in 2013. that was when the voters uh enacted the provisions that are in place today and so there was a city council member on that committee that would be Mr that was a city a city meeting okay that was the city council meeting okay um and then where the City attorney the head City attorney and the city manager were present was that was also both the city council meeting and the charter advisory committee that's correct um and the input from the Community member that we saw I forget his name though I know him uh yes that was the com that was a committee meeting there was there was a video that showed Mr Schechter that was at the city council meeting the other gentleman that was going back and forth would you like to pull that no I mean I just I wanted to point out that that kind of Engagement the back and forth um was not something that was available uh at our Charter advisory committees it's not something that's available at our Council meetings um and so I think when we take into account the response of the public because of our Rules of Order we don't really we're not really allowing the public to input and so that's a good that's a real concern that I have because a lot of the Amendments I'm going to make today are from members of the public and and this is one that we've heard from the public you know there was never a time for members of the public to entertain some possible changes that they would like the committee to discuss there was never a moment for them to have them back and forth on what their concerns were I know that we did a lot of public meetings and at no fault to anyone on this staff we know that those meetings are not always the best attended by the public right and so when we're just talking about a public input that video those videos that you showed uh the participation again with the city manager and the head City attorney and the public at the ad hoc advisory committee uh really kind of opened up my eyes into something that I don't think Could Happen through this process and something that we would need to work on uh in the future moving forward with that said I am not going to support the amendment for 3.20 B but I did have a question in regards to the Civil Service language um and said employees will be protected by Civil Service even if they're considered unclassified so my understanding which does not mean this is fact but my understanding is that only classified employees are currently in our Charter protected by civil service is that correct yes ma'am so then this language in and of itself contradicts our Charter this language would provide protections of for those employees but it contradicts the language in our Charter which says it basically says only classified employees are protected by Civil Service it would provide that as an exception to that um and currently none of the employees again my understanding not a fact is that none of the current employees of the auditor are classified at the moment it's not really within my I don't know the full structure of is there anyone in this room that knows if the Civil the auditor staff are classified or unclassified I and Mundo I'm sorry I didn't see you back though that was very rude of me not to address you directly I apologize profusely good afternoon everybody Atlanta Calderon Chief internal auditor for the city of El Paso uh repanello currently my Auditors are unclassified that was done several years ago because we were in a competitive situation with other auto shops in the city I was getting raided by other local governments so what happened we created new job description it's pretty similar to the other jobs but give them new titles that they became contract employees unclassified and what we also did we created a new pay scale which was higher than the Civil Service pay scale and it allowed us to pay the Auditors more that way I could keep them because they were I was getting raided all the time by the school districts UTEP Texas Tech they were constantly when they needed employees this is where they came because I trained them sure no I don't doubt that that's that's good information although it although it's somewhat uh kind of only makes me a little bit more concerned so let me first my first concern was my assumption was that your employees were unclassified because you work yeah but because because of the financials that you work with right and if the and if you had an employee who you found was doing something incorrectly dealing with finances having them respond to civil service if they were removed from their job could be a potential hazard in their agreement that they sign right now representative O'Neill they actually uh uh agree that they don't have Civil Service protection but I know when I have had to dispense discipline we do follow the discipline Matrix uh established by the Civil Service Commission and I think that's great I just do because it's just the common practice why would I not do it and I think that's great and I think the way you're doing it is the correct way my other concern would be we are now go going to protect a certain Department of unclassified contract employees under civil service right and so think about and this is me just thinking about any Department you could come and work for I'm just going to say parks and recs and your salary might be a little bit lower but you are protected through civil service that's what you receive but now we have a department who's not going by the pay scale that we've created for every other Civil Service employee who are being paid more and are protected that is a concern of mine that is unfair to every other employee in the city and it again I believe it is a contradiction to what our Charter says falls under civil service and so my motion is going to be to strike um that line which uh says protected by Civil Service even if considered unclassified and if I may respond representative anello the only Department in the city that would have a director who is appointed solely by the members of council under this structure would be that and so that provides the Civil Service rights and protections related to discipline which we requested that Amendment um would protect those employees if the new if a new Council came in and wanted to change things in the leadership in that department so just the employees today are enjoying those rights that you mentioned as being contract employees but were we just to shift the the leadership position in that division that would shift when we benchmarked um when we went on this on the 21st was the 24th was when we heard of this amendment and we quickly benchmarked other cities and um the cities that had the internal auditor uh hired and fired by the city council in those cities the employees in those departments were protected by the Civil Service and I don't disagree with that that's not my disagreement at all um I I think that our employees should be protected my concern is that the unclassified category because our classified employees are on a pay scale that is set in fairness across the city and we're not going to do that with the Department yet we're going to give them the same protections if I was an employee of another department I would say this is unfair and my scale in my department should be met to these individuals who are unclassified so my follow-up question would be for edmundo you currently oversee your staff correct you hire and fire your staff and you I believe I am taking this from I believe what you said was that you have them sign an agreement and which they you know you follow the Civil Service yes from According to the current city Charter the Auditors report to me and the only and I and I don't think that should change um I do believe that um you should be or the auditor not specifically you but the auditor function should be as independent as possible I do not think that this item gives city council or should not give city council the right to come into the auditor's department and hire a fire but again I don't want to kind of go through the back and forth on whether I think your employees should be civil service or not if that if the auditor is as independent they want they should be able to make that decision whether their employees or civil service or not however I do not agree that we are now creating an exemption for one department on unclassified that's all I'm saying I'm not giving an opinion about should your employees be protected with civil service or not it is just the exception for unclassified I appreciate all of your answers and so that would be my motion I do not know if I have a second thanks I have other things um thank you thank you but I I do want to go back to item 3.11 um and so I'm going to make several amendments based on the feedback that we've had from the community again I think based on the direction that y'all were given and what I discussed last meeting I I just I don't the language still does not sit well for me um on the the initial petition so I would like to amend to change the language to any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with state federal and local law again I don't know if there is a second what what where are you can you read so currently let me read you what slide is it man um it I don't know what slides on Christianity this is on if you look at the backup on page seven of the ordinance uh or section 311 initiative currently it says any registered voter or group of registered voters referred to in this section as a committee May initiate an ordinance so you're looking to strike or group of registered voters referred to as the committee a group of registered voters and then I want to change that language um that says requiring funds zoning rezoning I think as we discussed last time that there may be some zoning laws with petition that change by state law and so I don't want our language to be out of compliance I think you know we are stating the things in our ballot that is not allowed by state law I think that you can just say that is compliant with state law and that covers all of the things that are in there as per your previous explanations and for the record we did research that case out of Plano and that case was dealing with the city's comprehensive plan the court in that case very clearly did state that the comprehensive plan is not zoning and it is well-grounded law that zoning is not appropriate for initiative petition so it does not look like that is changing anytime soon that's fine but the language that says State local and federal law still pertains to those things my concern is the way that the wording of funding and allocation of funds is I still don't think it's very clear so that is my motion for that again I don't know if there is a second can you please restate yeah so this is um what Miss carbajal sent in it says any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with state federal and local law thank you now you are out of time and um oh welcome back yes ma'am thank you and uh representative Hernandez um there is no way like I guess you told me the art where you said your meetings are archived so there's no way to uncar to get him back up I guess but you said that I have a question and the question I had that bothered me that I've had constituents call me on and say that you the statement you made and I want to see how it was used was who will watch The Crooked politicians and that was the statement made during your meeting and I'd like to be able to see in what perspective that was Houston I think I had City staff who were president at that meeting I had over 40 constituents who were president who could also testify if you have a concern with my comments no no I asked I'm just wondering you said that I have a question I was just wondering what you meant by that my question about a potential in the event that you have I will watch The Crooked politicians I don't even use the word crooked so I'm not sure that's the correct maybe corrupt I don't know what you know I had concerts culture I don't know right so if I can clarify it since there's a question about that in no shape or form was I referring to this body if that's your concern I think that we have a history mayor of corruption in our community I think we can all agree to that I think that previous councils were bold enough to put restrictions in place so that we can avoid that in the future and I told my constituents specifically that in the event that you have a council or a body that is either corrupt or um there they have nefarious actions or concerns there should be a checks and balance system in place I'm not referring to any member of this body what I'm referring to is your governance structure and and when I speak to my constituents I give them full explanations as to what my positions are but um if you're if you're asking what my intent was about that exactly what I said earlier this this revision can lead to a potential so we're not talking about it you didn't mean that when you said that that the council or anything because that's that's the way they took it absolutely not no and that's not what I said then we both agree that we need checks and balances we need to check some balance with our audit function correct and I think the proposal that we have today the city Charter that we have today allows for a checks and balance which is why I'm advocating against that so but I would also appreciate mayor if you have a concern you can call me directly and I can address any concerns you have directly I appreciate that and that's why I thought I'd ask you directly and not uh you're asking me in a public setting well anyway that comment was made in a public setting that come and was made in public settings so I think it's just only just as appropriate to ask what you meant when you said that and I had constituents call me and ask me very concerned I think Max Grossman even posted it on his Facebook about that he well I'm not going to talk for him of course but he did post it on his Facebook right and so you all are welcome to call me directly if you have a concern about public statements I make generally about a governance structure and not by a political subdivision or any elected official or any member here you all have a good enough relationship with me that you can call me and I can give you very Frank and candid responses so I would also appreciate you do that for me too I appreciate that and thank you for your answer as I said it was done in public setting and I appreciate that you went ahead and answered and clarify no it very much feels like a direct targeted mayor a direct Target concern you have with me so I would ask this body to to maintain professional decorum and that was and that's why you asked me do you have any questions you want to ask me about my meeting please do and I did so thank you for giving me that opportunity okay it just doesn't seem like a representative Kennedy thank you um well I don't want to get too deep into the weeds and I understand that the international standards would have a bifurcated system I would also say the federal standards for internal Auditors say you should report to the legislative body I was going to make one correction um that County Purchasing does not answer to County Commissioners it answers to the Council of judges so that that structure is by Texas Constitution different the internal auditor is is overseen by the Council of judges that being said and having listened to everything I would like to make a motion that in on 3.20 B paragraph two delete all of the proposed additions in red and that paragraph five read on and after the effective date of this amendment the chief internal auditor shall be appointed and removed by and report to the council the chairman of foe act shall maintain operational oversight of the internal audit function and the city manager be responsible for the implementation of any audit recommendations for changes to City administrative procedures and operations as requested by the council all second thought yes sir thank you representative Kennedy mayor Pro Tem thanks I'm back on 3.11 a couple of other changes that I just wanted to make um I can't remember actually miss Hamilton if we changed I know the one-year um she's busy thanks sorry I I remember we had discussed previously um that Council cannot amend an ordinance or anything um once it's passed after a year I thought we had changed that to two years already had we not done that it currently is two years we I'm so sorry you're okay because previously we were told it was not in the language right now currently the current Charter language that Ms carbajal was referring to in her email related to two years that she was asking to change to one year is the very last sentence in the current city Charter that states the city council is not obligated to consider the same ordinance initiated by petition or one that is substantially the same more often than once in two years yes that's the current language that's not the language I was talking about okay um she says amending or repealing a proposition should be available to council after two years not one we were told previously that that language does not exist at all in the charter and it you had recommended one year I thought that we had already changed it to two years we did ma'am it is one year of adoption okay so I would like to make an amendment to change that to two years okay um I do I mean I still have a concern over the next uniform election and I know that representative Canales had made a motion that was approved can you remind me what that language is right now as amended because we Workshop that a little bit and I just couldn't remember exactly sure yes ma'am if the council does not adopt or adopts a proposed ordinance in the amended form the city council thereafter must place the proposed ordinance on the ballot at a uniform election no later than the next city-wide general election specified in state law yeah I mean I'm going to make an amendment to say the next uniform election and again the reason that that provided the council with flexibility is for Budget concerns I understand no second okay I'm also going to recommend that petitioners giving 365 days to collect to collect signatures versus the 180. that was a motion sorry I didn't say that but I don't think that there is a second and then my last motion is somewhat of a compromise I know that we had scaled down the cap for signatures to ten thousand they're asking for five thousand so I will make an amendment a motion to amend that to 7 500 signatures and that's all I have so I think I got two seconds second three seconds that was to just the 7 500 signatures correct can you read can you just briefly restate the other two I'm sorry quickly I'm sorry I'm like time uh so the 7 500 signatures um the 365 days for petitioners to collect signatures versus the 180 days second okay and then the other one was to add next uniform election that one's not getting a second remember that Miss Prine we're we got representative Canales yeah I would like to offer an amendment uh on that same section but a different Amendment um I I think that there is I understand the the budgetary need if it's forced to go on the next uh on the next uniform election and we don't the city doesn't have something already on the ballot for that election those costs can get very high um for the little I know for the lost dog petition it was 250 000 I believe and we could get higher than that um and so I I think the language and admittedly it's my own language it leaves maybe too much too much flexibility too much potential time that could elapse could be three and a half or you know anything up to four years um I think it would be reasonable to propose uh uh one of the next two uniform elections so that we can at least if there's nothing on the the May ballot for example then it can go on the the the following November ballot and I think that's a reasonable compromise here so I'd like to make a motion uh let me think about what the the best way to word this is but uh yeah I'll move to uh add the well let me read the full sentence if counsel does not adopt or adopts the proposed ordinance in an amended form the city council thereafter must place the proposed ordinance on the ballot at one of the following two or one of the next two I should say uniform elections no later than the next city-wide general election specified in state law meeting all deadlines second and that is all thank you Miss Prince can we take the amendment first and then the the first motion I had was from mayor Pro Tem I'm sorry the first motion was made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera and this was to strike out on page 10 of the ordinance this was to strike out the section is to strike out measure J section 3.20 in its entirety is that correct that's correct and you've mentioned a different page number so I just want to make sure it's page nine or are you referring back to the ordinance though correct I have it on page 10 of the ordinance mem oh of the ordinance okay that's correct I wasn't referencing the ordinance so it's page 10 of the ordinance where it says city of El Paso measure J and then it's amending section 3.20 B you wanted to strike out that entire to strike out section 3.20 to change the reporting structure for the chief internal auditor to report directly to city council so striking this uh and voting yes of this means that the voters of El Paso would not have to vote on their current governance structure for internal order on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion fails two to five Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido Fiero Canales Representatives Hernandez the motion fails the next motion was made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Kennedy and this is on page seven of the ordinance under 3.11 on the first paragraph to strike out the words or group of registered voters referred to in this section as a committee is that correct no no it was to replace let me pull up the exact language the presentation is really long and hard to follow um and I'm on page seven of the ordinance under Section 3.11 initiative I need to open up the ordinance can you read that link so the language we just read uh starting where you started we would amend that language to read any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with state federal and local law correct that would that would leave that would uh strike out the words or group of registered voters referred to in this section as a committee so it would strike out those words so that it would leave any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with federal state and local law okay so you're adding you're striking out and they're rounding out the words that are on the ordinance right now that says or group of registered voters refer to in this section as the committee in which strike out those words thank you yes on that motion call for the vote Ms Hamilton thank you mayor um there are references to the committee throughout and so I think the motion needs to if you would uh to include striking the committee where it would need to be stricken okay yes ma'am you agree and substitute the petitioner it's just referred to as the registered voter um maybe the motion would be to give us the authority to make the appropriate changes throughout that section Kristen to remove the committee yes and I can actually reflect the phrase needed and I actually think that Miss Prime um we were not understanding each other so I was not just striking out registered voter I was striking out anything after um local law by filing with the city clerk a statement that they intend to circulate a petition that's where I wanted it to end so I wanted to strike out a group of registered voters and then also strike out zoning resulting levying of taxes setting utility rate purchase of sale interest in real property or granting a franchise such statement must okay that's also what I wanted to strike out because all of those to me are redundant and those are the state and federal laws so we're just so I'm going to I guess I would need to make another motion to strike out from however sorry representing or mayor Pro Tem if we that that Crea that's the first step in the system and then when when they they provide the city clerk with that notice that they intend to circulate into a petition and they have their ordinance attached that's what triggers the city clerk to place it on the city council's agenda and and then once she does so we would need to have them file something with the city if you want to strike that out no I want to strike from however right so it would still this is what it would read I'm going to read you if it passes or the amended any registered voter May initiate an ordinance that complies with federal state and local law by filing with the city clerk a statement that they intend to circulate a petition such statement must include the names and addresses of the petitioner and the full text of the proposed ordinance ordinance period so you would strike group of registered voters refer to the section as a committee you would then strike however no ordinance be initiated through this process appropriating or allocating City funds zoning or rezoning levying of taxes setting utility rate purchase of sale and interest in real property or granting franchise and then the last thing you would strike is and designate a lead Committee Member representative Kennedy do you accept that and that would also be to direct them to remove the committee as mentioned throughout am I allowed to ask legal a question are we into dicey territory by removing that language no because that state and federal and local law right well that's I mean it's already in there representative Kennedy thank you for the question the reason that the committee recommended having that language on the charter is so that the public will be aware of what types of ordinances are excluded from the field of appropriateness for initiative processes it does not provide it does not create a dicey situation to use your word um because the law is already it doesn't change the law it just provides notice to the public and the committee felt that it was important that individuals in the public are aware okay I'll second so again Council the motion by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy is on page 7 section 3.11 initiative that very first paragraph It's to strikeout or group of registered voters referred to in this section as a committee and to strike out however no ordinance may be initiated through this process appropriating or allocating City funds owning or rezoning Levy of Texas City utility rates purchase or sale of an interest in real property or granting a franchise and then at the last sentence and also to strike out and the designated lead Committee Member and to strike out any references of the committee throughout the section is that correct yes thank you so much for working out with me respond I appreciate you on that motion voting session is open in the voting session the motion passes four to three Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido fierrovorini Representatives Hernandez Rivera Canales the motion does pass the next motion was made by representative Kennedy seconded by mayor Pro tem anello and representative Kennedy I may need your help on this one because I didn't quite this is on page on referencing 3.20 B and I'm going to need your help representative Kennedy okay stating that motion please on the paragraph two the first sentence remains appropriate positions as are authorized by the council who shall report to the chief internal auditor period that ends that paragraph you're striking out where it reads city employees in such positions shall be protected by the civil service system rights and processes that are afforded to classified employees even if considered unclassified by other sections of this Charter or the city civil service system yes you're striking out those words under number two correct 3.20 B2 and then you said under number five you wanted to also strike out some language there or amen some language there um I wanted number five to read on and after the effective date of this amendment the chief internal auditor shall be appointed and removed by and report to the council the chairman of foak shall have operational oversight over the internal audit function period the city manager shall be responsible for the implementation of any audit recommendations for changes to City Administration procedures and operations as requested by the council okay so once again on page 10 under Section 3.20 B under number two to strike out on the the words city employees and such position shall be protected by the civil service system rights and processes that are afforded to classified employees even if considered unclassified by other sections of this Charter or the city's civil service system and then under number five to strike out city manager replace with chairman of foak to read the chairman of Forex shall maintain operational oversight over the internal audit function period and then to begin a new sentence that reads the city manager shall be responsible for the implementation of any audit recommendations for changes to City administrative procedures and operations as requested by the council is that correct correct that would also then change the proposed ballot language to remove the last part that says and to provide Civil Service protections to employees and positions that report to the chief internal auditor since that was removed so under the ballot language it will only read should section 3.20 B of the El Paso City Charter be amended to change the reporting structure of the chief internal auditor so the position reports directly to city council correct period correct I'm sorry what were the changes to number two everything on slide six in red we would remove the second sentence under number two in its entirety mayor Pro tem do you accept those changes yes ma'am okay on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes five to two Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido Fierro Canales Representatives Hernandez Rivera voting the motion does pass the next motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy and this is on page 10. sorry it's on page seven and this is under Section 3.11 and this is on the fifth paragraph to strike out one year and replace with two years so that it reads initiative ordinances adopted or approved by the electors shall be published and may be amended or repealed by the city council as in the case of any other ordinances provided however that no ordinance adopted at the polls under an initiative may be amended a repeal by the council within two years of adoption is that correct yes ma'am on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes five to two Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido Fierro Canales voting I Representatives Hernandez Rivera the motion does carry the next motion was made by mayor Pro tem anelo seconded by representative Canales and this is also on page seven of the ordinance this is on the third paragraph and this is to strike out 180 we place it with 365 calendar days and to strike out 10 000 and replace it with 7 500 signatures is that correct oh 7 500 signatures in the previous one was ten thousand it was right now it reads at ten thousand yes ma'am on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes five to two Representatives Kennedy anello Salcido Fierro Canales voting I Representatives Hernandez Rivera the motion does pass the next motion is also on page seven it was made by representative Canales seconded by representative Salcido and this is on section 3.11 and it's on the fifth paragraph and it's to strike out a uniform election and replace it with one of the next uniform elections so that it reads if Council does not adopt or adopt a proposed ordinance in an amended form the city council thereafter must place the proposed ordinance on the ballot at one of the next uniform elections no later than the next Citywide general election specified in state law is that correct one of the next two one of the next two uniform elections okay so it's going to strike out so that it reads if counsel does not adopt or adopt a proposed ordinance and Amendment form the city council thereafter must place a proposed ordinance on the ballot at one of the next two uniform elections no later than the next city white general election is that correct on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously point of clarification Miss Prine on the vote that we took to cap at 7 500 signatures did that also include the motion for changing the 180 days to 300 okay that's what I am thank you so much so now we take we need a motion to approve as amended move to approve as amended yes sir there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 20 as revised remember this is what for that representative Canadas put forward right this is to adopt as amended to include all the Amendments that just thank you on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes 621 representative Hernandez vodine the remainder of council voting I the motion does pass that brings us to item number 21 know the agenda and this is a public hearing on an ordinance of the city council of city of El Paso Texas ordering a special election for the submission of Charter amendments listed in the petition mayor before we take this at lean can we can we skip to number 24 I believe our our uniform officers have been here absolutely yes sir 24 yes yeah a little more absolutely item 24 is discussion in action that the mayor be authorized to sign an interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and El Paso MHMR DBA emergence Health Network for the purpose of continuing to operate a crisis Innovation intervention team in the city of El Paso in a second do you have what go ahead no I just wanted to thank you all for working on this um I see Crystal and Christy here I didn't realize I'll be here hello um I know there was a lot of work that I went into this a lot of conversation um I just wanted to say thank you to both emergence and to the police department the city manager this program means a lot we've got a long way to go but we're doing really great work so thank you so much for everything you did on this before we take the vote can we also take 25 and 26 are they related to take them together yes sir are they related man can we do that Mr Prime would that help 24 and 25 are both with 25 okay you want to take 25 yes right okay 25 is discussion in action that the mayor be authorized to assign an interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and emergence Health Network with the mutual benefits to establish a mechanism for diversion of Mental Health crisis diversions from the 911 system to ehn motion to improve second you have a motion in a second thank you mayor thank you sir thank you good afternoon Council good afternoon mayor I'm Robert pesarchik I'm the lieutenant with the El Paso police crisis intervention team I'll go ahead and be opening the presentation today on the interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and emergence Health Network for the operation of the crisis intervention team thank you I think they're working on it okay this uh this partnership lines up with this strategic goal goal number two to set the standard for a safe and secure City 2.1 maintain standing as one of the nation's top safest cities and 2.3 to increase Public Safety and operational efficiency in 2018 CIT was established to provide a safer and more effective response to incidents involving persons in suspected Mental Health crisis and situations involving persons with a diagnose or suspected mental illness and or Internet intellectual disability the El Paso Police provided a letter of support to emergence Health Network for the mental health grant program and ehn was rewarded 5 million eight hundred and seventy five thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars for the program the El Paso Police Department and ehn entered into an interlocal agreement on December 18th in which we paired a police officer with a mental health professional from ehn and responded to mental health calls within the community in fiscal year 18 315 000 was allocated for police trainees and fiscal year 19 969 206 dollars was funded by the city and 728 thousand dollars seven hundred twenty eight thousand nine hundred and two dollars was funded by EA by an ehn Grant ehn funded the first six months of the CIT program the city funded in fiscal year twenty one million eight hundred and eighty six thousand five hundred nineteen dollars in fiscal year 21 2 million 5183 dollars in fiscal year 22 3 million two hundred and thirty nine thousand three hundred thirty eight dollars and in fiscal year 23 3 580 970 dollars I'll go ahead and turn it over to mrsado Valdez thank you sir good afternoon good news Council I'm well sir Isa administrative services manager for the police department um as Lieutenant passarchik stated the contract was signed in 2018 it allowed for startup costs through a grant the startup cost for the CIT included vehicles computers office supplies ballistic best and office furniture the contract also states that the city agrees to P to reimburse ehn for personnel cost of their their caseworkers that pair up with our CIT officers in 2020 and 2021 they had Grant funds and they did not request a reimbursement the reimbursement began in 2022 fiscal year 2022. this is an example of the the cost allocation within the agreement it pays for 17 positions a program manager I'm sorry a director manager two program supervisors two lph workers eight case workers and four LPC one workers so that's a total of 17. it also pays for shift differential and an administrative fee the total approved amount at the time was 1 million two hundred and three thousand dollars in FY 22 we paid ehn one million twenty one thousand dollars that was the first year of reimbursement current proposed contract is for one million seven hundred and seventeen thousand dollars it's about a 42 percent increase or about 541 thousand dollars that covers the salary increases for the 17 positions it also increases the Staffing from 17 to 22 positions that's an additional five positions for 285 thousand dollars it pays for holiday pay overtime and it clarified some language regarding responsibilities and duties here's a very detailed breakdown of the increase in cost and I will passes over two chip kills good afternoon mayor and Council Chief killings El Paso Fire Department so for this part of the presentation we're gonna it's gonna be in reference to item 25. uh this is an interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and ehn and it's really building upon the Partnerships that were created with ehn and El Paso Police Department building on that to address the mental health care issues that are present here in our community and so with this interlocal agreement it allows to again build on a partnership that was created when the 988 Crisis Intervention hotline was decided to be co-located at the 911 Center so we're going to bring Mental Health Care Professionals to the 911 call floor and we're going to have the 988 crisis hotline be answered out of there which provides us an opportunity to provide a 911 diversion option for our Personnel or our community members who are calling 9-1-1 with mental health care issues this is a no-cost interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and ehn there's going to be six on duty Crisis Intervention Specialists that are going to be available 24 hours a day seven days a week our 911 operators are going to be able to follow a protocol that will be able to give them an option of diversion over to the mental health professional who will then be able to either de-escalate the incident or get that person in touch with resources that they need to better deal with the Mental Health crisis that they were dealing with this is going to help alleviate some of the burden for the 911 calls that we get that apply to mental health and also provide a line directly to the police department's CIT team to be able to get out there and be able to provide a resource for a mental health clients and that's it that's all I have on my my part of the presentation any questions overall comments concerns we do have a couple questions so I'm not sure who they're for mayor before before the questions are asked just would like to add that we just continue to add to this program I know there was a council initiative and one of the council members championed it and this is just something of a follow-on to what we've been doing in the past years thank you okay um first of all I wanna kudos to expanding this program um I want to say hi to the chief good to see you I am I'm a criminal defense attorney and I have had clients that have had to use the crisis intervention team and their safety and the officer's safety has been greatly enhanced by the fact that this program is here um You probably don't hear me say this very often but bigger is better in this program I know it's unusual for me to say something like that but I really think that when we talk about Public Safety the safety of the First Responders is also critical and the crisis intervention team can keep everybody in a safer position I've said for a long time sometimes our criminal justice system has become our mental health system and this is not only in my opinion required if at all possible could be expanded bigger is better on this one and I think it keeps everybody safer in the city of El Paso so thank you for growing it and thank everybody that's involved with it and Mr Kennedy it was a very good collaboration with ehn and Kristen and her team and so I think that by getting all that feedback from all sections it makes the program better and you're exactly right in terms of the safety thank you representative yeah I just I wanted to give you Chief killings and I Know Chief degasino um credit this is something that the mental health consortiums have been working on for a long time it's something I put in the budget for four years y'all were able to figure this out with Partnerships you've already had and so I want to thank you for that but also acknowledge the work that you did on that it's um as representative Kennedy said it's a invaluable asset to this community so thank you thank you representative Ronaldo and I and um you know I um I can tell you that I'm making a bigger better and faster is always important and you guys were able to do that so I thank you for that um it's fine we do have public comment yes mayor we have for item 25 we have Scott Calderwood how are you sir good good afternoon uh mayor council City we can still call you Chief right uh thank you sir yes sir my name is Scott Calderwood I'm the director for the El Paso County 9-1-1 district and I just wanted to come up here and speak in support of this initiative and give you a perspective from uh from 9-1-1 this is something that the nation has been looking at at doing but very few entities have managed to implement this and it's it's a testament to uh to the culture that we have here in with our Public Safety and and our mental health facilities that we were actually able to pull this off this is this is a this is a fabulous opportunity to be Innovative and come up with a way to better meet the the callers needs with uh with a resource that that's more appropriate for them and so it's uh it's another way for us to kind of try and reimagine how uh how 9-1-1 is going to look in the future and this is uh this is a huge accomplishment it's a it's a big win-win for everybody we have some of the best public safety uh agencies uh in the state we have one of the best 9-1-1 systems uh ever and the fact that uh that we were able to pull this off as a community is is just a huge feather in El Paso's cap and uh I just wanted to uh voice my support for the project and congratulations to everybody that was involved thank you Chief thank you the next speaker is Delirious Montanez is Montagna star sixth place to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes can you hear me yes okay uh good afternoon mayor and City uh representative I'm actually at the hospital with my mom um anyway I just wanted to uh be in favor of item 25. um as a former first responder I can tell you and and I have been very open about my medical condition I am 100 permanent totally stable for PTSD because of MST and whenever we talk about 9-1-1 on 988 I can tell you if you will send if I will call 9-1-1 for assistance on that first responder a law enforcement officer goes to my residence they will trigger my condition so I really want to to be open about this because we need to understand that the stigma among our community is extremely high as you know I have the facility for the Equine Therapy in Southern Park and I want to express to the chief of police and the chief of the fire department that are more than willing to assist uh you know we're looking at a holistic approach but I am in favor of esm to have the dis you know the help for the dispatchers and that's all I have to say thank you thank you that concludes Paul representative Fury thank you thank you I just wanted to thank all the law enforcement all the teams that are here 9-1-1 but also the partnership with emergence I mean that's what really makes this whole thing come together and work so I just want to again thank you all publicly for everything you're doing for our community thank you sir thank you mayor also I'd like to to not only thank the partnership but the hardware they put behind it and uh the conscious of ours that they have and working with every aspect of treating the individual and making sure that he gets a proper treatment that they that they deserve and need because most of the times they're they're determined that they're uh they refuse to take their meds and that's what that's what normally happens for these so uh again thank you very much for everybody involved the uniform and the emergency Network appreciate you all thank you very much thank you and I know Chris she and her team have been Partners since I took office back in 2013 and uh and continues to be here and continue to work with us so thank you and without Miss Prine yes Mary the motion on item 24 was made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by Representatives Salcido this is to approve item 24. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 25 the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 25. on that motion call for the vote and that motion passes unanimously better if you'd like to take item 26. item 26 as well now yes item 26 in an action that the mayor be authorized to sign an interlocal agreement between the state of El Paso and county of El Paso for funding of the office of emergency management motion to prove executive we have a motion in a second there is a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 26 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously we'll go back to 21 please item 21. thank you Jill thank you thank you all thank you for being here item 21 is a public hearing of an ordinance of the city council of city of El Paso Texas ordering a special election for the submission of Charter amendments listed in the petition received after proof second and there is public comment on this item go ahead yes or no thank you the first person that signed up to speak on this item is Jose Miguel Reyes followed by Miguel escoto Jesus Reyes Angelo yoa Matthew Rodriguez Vanessa Medrano good afternoon representative Rivera we want a quorum if you leave we're going to have Quorum if you walk away we need a quorum on the Deus please Council and all site conversations okay go ahead Mr Reyes you have three minutes welcome back how are you thank you I'm doing good thank you my name is Jose Miguel Reyes I am a constituent of District Seven um and first and foremost I want to thank city council and the mayor for um giving us the time and the patience to you know listen to us acknowledge us um if you don't know already I'm a volunteer with Sunrise El Paso specifically doing uh canvassing talking to people talking to them about um um you know the uh the charter amendment that we've been working on and um yeah it just really means a lot to me and to my friends who worked a lot on this to um you know get this thing finalized and um you know get uh to have all the time I've spent I'm an undergraduate at UTEP so most of the time it's me spending either at school you know doing homework or just being here doing uh coming to these uh City Hall meetings um to and I'm volunteering my time as much as I can and uh I'm uh yeah just um a big thank you to uh for listening to us and for uh getting the uh this item finalized for uh for today for the May 6th election we appreciate a lot thank you thank you Mr Royers thank you for being here the next speaker is Miguel thank you uh hello mayor and Council um thank you my name is Miguel I'm also one of the organizers with this uh climate Charter campaign um I usually come to these meetings pretty angry but today I'm very happy I'm very excited I'm very appreciative of this body uh for being able to listen to the people being able to listen to the over 40 almost 40 000 signers of the climate Charter um and yeah we've reviewed the the proposed ballot language for proposition K and we're really pleased with the language because we feel like it represents an accurate description of what the petition is um and yeah we hope you can vote for the approval and the final and official uh call for this election in May shortly but really quickly before I leave I I do want to mention how important this is for young people in this city if you look at if you review voter participation from my generation in local elections it's pretty low that's not by accident um a lot of people feel like this government has failed them when I was out canvassing getting contributing to this effort of getting close to 40 000 signatures a lot of the people that I contacted and that I talked to they really agreed with the program but they were skeptical that the city that city government was actually going to allow for this to even get to a vote I got a lot of people saying yeah I'll sign but I don't think this they're gonna they're going to allow it and I think that speaks to how by you listening to the People by you um approving the language as is for ma election you are increasing the trust that that you have with this community and it's really important right it's very important that the people of the city feel like this body does actually represent them and yeah I I look forward to your vote just to finalize and call the election and I thank you for for listening to us and for being being there thank you thank you sir the next speaker is Jesus Ray yes followed by Angel your Matthew Rodriguez good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon sir good afternoon Council the mayor um I just have my notes here just so I can organize my thoughts and kind of stay on track with the timer but uh I just want to say thank you to City representatives and pleased to have put the climate Charter on the May ballot all while preserving and representing the language we presented back in August as accurately accurately as possible for proposition K with how the countless examples we have seen in our lives and how government has failed to fulfill the wishes of its citizens and in some cases rollback our most fundamental rights I am proud to say that the city council is uplifting expectations on how local Representatives can govern in accordance to the demands of the people it gives me hope that going forward that city council will do their due diligence by the people and for the people I understand that this city has made unfortunate decisions in the past to push through ordinances and policies that are not supported by the vast majority of el pasoans but Sports video sports Stadium we hope going forward that City Council Members can uplift initiatives by the Grassroots so that the best changes for the city can finally be seen thank you thank you the next speaker is Angel ulloa if you're in the Q star six to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes you're back on mute star six go ahead you have three minutes hello good afternoon hi can you hear me yes okay good afternoon Council and my in-person comrades I'm Angel Yara with Sunrise El Paso we're really excited about the progress that the climate Charter is making and happy to see us on track for the May 6 election we really appreciate the community support we've got in as well as from some of our members on campus on Council we put so much heart and work into this we're fighting tooth and nail to protect it as you can see um that's why you see us here every time the climate Twitter is on the agenda whether that's in prison or on the phone uh despite the lobbyists and the fear-mongering and even rep Hernandez herself spreading and misinformation that we will happily correct um anytime here that that's being said about the charter but we expect that this would happen in our campaign um so we're just gaining some digital content from this misinformation thank you very much all that to say thank you all for your time on this matter Council please vote Yes on item 21 today you're not allowed to campaign during your public comment I'm not campaigning I'm saying please vote Yes on item 21 a move forward with putting accurate and easy to understand language on the ballot for May 6th um we're excited to vote on cupcake thank you our next speaker is Matthew Rodriguez followed by Vanessa Medrano Lisa Turner Joshua Simmons and Carol Cassidy good afternoon you have three minutes thank you good morning uh my name is Rodriguez I'm a constituent of representative odinello and want to thank you representative vanilla for throwing a lot of courage in supporting this um really happy that this has come to be and feel like fundamentally this Charter amendment is about power structures in El Paso and who gets to make decisions decisions about how we live the water that we have the air that we breathe and that's what this is about and anything contrary to what is written here is against that we know the same six people who fund a lot of you who fund a lot of the projects that go on who are entized with El Paso Electric are in ties with all the fossil fuel companies and this is to take the power back to the people to have them decide not the same six people that decide everything else in El Paso and so we thank all of you for voting in favor of this and appreciate your time thank you the next speaker is Vanessa Medrano followed by Lisa Turner Joshua Simmons Carol Cassidy good afternoon you have three minutes okay my name is Vanessa Marano and I am one of Representative Riveras constituents from District 7. I am a proud El pasoan and a volunteer with Sunrise El Paso I work with youth in the El Paso region and I am currently pursuing my Master's in social work I am happy to say I am in favor of item 21 as is I'm actually So Satisfied and thankful for the language that is currently proposed that I took time off work to tell you all directly how thankful I am for that this is the first time I have been able to speak on an agenda item with excitement hope and warmth I want to thank the city council and City staff for working with us so that we could get to this point this is a beautiful demonstration of direct democracy and I am so glad you will you all were able to work together and listen to a bunch of passionate on passowans like myself to achieve it I know it can't be easy because I'm sure certain lobbyists and Powerful individuals with ties to the fossil fuel industry may be pressuring pressuring you all and sharing their own narratives of the effect this measure might bring they may have even encouraged for there to be language that could misinform or even fear Monger voters at the ballot but I did not see that happen with the proposed language being presented today we rarely get moments like this so I once again want to give my thanks thank you for standing your ground and for listening to the voices of almost 40 000 El pasoans and over 20 000 registered voters in El Paso thank you thank you I don't say Miss Turner in the audience so we'll move on to Joshua Simmons Joshua Simmons star six pleased to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon mayor council distinguished City staff my name is Joshua Simmons I am the executive director for the local nonprofit 501c3 Eco El Paso and I would like to join in support with the fellow youth of El Paso those climate environmental justice activists within Sunrise El Paso who have um led the way and really changing our approach to how we're going to approach clean energy clean water and clean air and as well as by the efforts of ground game Texas I would like to ask the mayor and city council to consider a vote a vote of yes as a language as is for prop k and uh and looking forward to having this on the ballot seen on the ballot for voters to make a decision in May the pairing of the language that is the El Paso climate Charter along with the already passed Prophecy from the November 2022 election will allow El Paso to move in a Swift and meaningful way into adopting means of sustainability not only for the city but for the residents of El Paso and trying to pave away and changing the Norms of what we've come used to in those of the propaganda and commercialism from the fossil fuel industry Eco Paso is dedicated to the sustainability of our region and we look forward to engaging the public and educating about about how the climate Charter impaired with items of Pop C can accelerate us to achieve a more sustainable and fair and just economy as well as the growth of green jobs adoption of solar as well as the pursuit of the cleaning of our air and as well as our water I want to thank you and urge a vote of yes on the language for prop k is and I look forward to engaging with the mayor and city council further on these climate issues as well as other means of achieving sustainability in our region thank you very much the final speaker is Carol Cassidy Carol Cassidy star six pleased to unmute your telephone good afternoon you have three minutes can you hear me yes okay great thank you so much mayor on city council and this year before I move on agenda 20 I I I'm impressed with what you voted for so thank you so much for maintaining uh well let me think no do any International standards that's World economic Forum the United Nations oh my gosh yes everything should be reported to the people's elected representatives and that is you the city council and of course our mayor so thank you for that and then of other things too but I don't want to lose my time now for this uh interesting item which uh of course I I heard all this uh baloney and Seattle while she's in before I got out of there and the nonsense before I thought wow uh please for the uh the people that are proposed this thing you know God's in charge of creating uh of our client he's in charge of it uh vote go to Noah maybe you've heard of them that's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and see what the retract record is for forecasting the weather it's very interesting you know we have uh uh tornadoes and hurricanes and uh uh my gosh tsunamis and then in 1980 Seattle had Mount St Helens a volcano erupted and uh so we have all kinds of things now today for Courtesy of the world economic forum and I'm sure the one world order that wants to be smart meters smartphones uh and the Chinese okay and so uh the beautiful Chinese people I love them but not the Chinese communist government which sent that balloon across the Aleutian Islands coming through Idaho and Montana etc for eight days before our government decided to take any action to think about things would have uh well was fully capable if it had uh to set off emps across the United States and these uh these people that are advocating this climate thing here uh we would have been taken back we can be taken back to the 19th century for their further information so eliminating of impediments to renewable energy well gee For Heaven's Sake fossil fuel that coal oil natural gas hydroelectric power what do they think uh is is necessary to make the solar panels and the the Monstrous uh blades or the wind farms they're totally dependent on fossil fuels cold oil natural gas hydroelectric power so for heaven's sakes under understands what we're looking at here men cannot Manson do a certain things but it's all dependent on God's creation of what he's provided us and he certainly has blessed the United States with an abundance of Natural Resources with which if you're not aware of both HIPAA both live for a while in California my native state where they thank you Miss Cassidy you've reached the three minutes Ms Cassidy thank you all right thank you and I know we have a motion in a second yes I had a question on I thought we had eliminate the municipalization of the El Paso Electric Company we didn't think so no sir uh representative thank you for the question um that item is on the uh the charter petition language we cannot eliminate any of the proposals oh I see what you're saying but uh did they did they say how they were going to do it or can you explain it to the public that's listing in how they plan to do it or yeah I do not have that information on on how they plan I think they uh the language that is on their proposal is is all that we have related to that okay thank you Mr Martinez good afternoon Mr Council we're currently working with an expert in the industry that will help provide us some advice and some guidance on putting together a feasibility analysis will be the first step so she's going to prepare that document we should have a job to that helped it by the end of the month and obviously whatever they come up with and some other individuals working with as well to put together some estimates in connection with City staff as well so all of that will come forward hopefully by the end of the month okay that was a that was a follow-up request from the council asking us to get that information so we said we'd seek out experts to get that information to the council and to the public okay thank you that's uh I guess for the first time listeners that see that and get confused by that thank you so much appreciate it thank you sir representative Kennedy you're going to cost out the entire cost of the whole yes sir because if you remember y'all took an action and gave us the ability to go do that so we're going to get the information so it'll be together as best we can we will it come as like a single ticket price for the entire since it's a single month it'll have to be because of that yes okay it's going to be a multiple phase so first phase is going to be coming up with the estimated cost for a feasibility analysis and providing everything that would need to be involved in that process okay and then an estimate on what they think that that would cost and that would be this first step and then obviously looking at that was made before was to come up with what the costs were what the estimates were as best as we could you have to look back at the motion and that's what we've asked the experts to do okay thank you I think Robert's riding you're right sir representative um thank you ma'am thank you that is going to be about the language or no ma'am what it'll do is it'll be factual information that we can share again it was pursuant to the council's request and the motion that they made and given us authority to go hire experts and so that's what we're in the process of doing once we get all that aggregated we're going to share that with the council and with the public and that will be shared and again just facts only and we're going to you know get the information from the experts and make sure that we can cross check that as best we can and do the best we can to get that information out but as I mentioned before I think the question was asked to me publicly in terms of how you know how do you determine what a utility is worth the last process that was taking place we didn't do it it was done by a private entity doing their feasibility and due diligence and that that's about a 15 to 18 month process and so obviously we don't have that kind of time so we'll have to have these estimates based on Expert information that we receive okay thank you so much I may also further clarify uh that cost estimate is required by state law the local government code requires that the city provide an estimate of the cost related to any Charter amendments and that will also need to be published in the newspaper when we publish it but it will not be on the face of the ballot thank you for that thank you Mr Prime we have a motion in a second yes mayor the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Canales to approve item number 21 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously item number 22 is discussion in action that the director of Aviation is authorized to create and amend policies for the lease of the El Paso makes Innovation Factory and buildings within the advanced manufacturing campus motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Canales to approve item 22. no she's we've already gone through it thank you go okay go ahead hi Mr I just have a question on this agenda language so you're asking for direction to create and amend policies which means none of this will come to council for decisions amend the lease policy um on the the incentive it's to create the policy and use the funds previously allocated from local arpa funding for the purpose of helping businesses locate or relocate at The Innovation Factory we are also asking for authority to enter into they would be sub-recipient agreements as opposed to incentive agreements with the tenants just because the nature of these businesses they are early stage um we would like to keep them for three years if possible but we may have situations where they move in and out and so we are asking for authority to approve those sub-recipient agreements I guess the lease is where I have a bit of confusion because this is airport land we've been told over the years every time a lease or lease policy has been Amendment it amended it follows the FAA requirements and so will you be amending the lease policies based on that and wouldn't that impact every lease you have with the airport since all leases at the airport are created in conjunction with FAA rules at San Jose's director of the airport you're correct all of these agreements do have to follow all the FAA requirements and there are specific guidelines that the FAA publishes related to what needs what language needs to be included into the lease agreements for entities that operate or at least land or property from the airport that's not going to change the standard language is not going to change so in terms of the master policy of us following our standard template that's not going to change I think it's the the policy that that we're asking for is the flexibility to be able to terminate contracts where we see tenants not fulfilling the requirements of of those policies uh in as Elizabeth stated some of these are going to be short-term in nature and being able to move those those uh those tenants in and out is critical to our operation and success but don't you already have that Authority when it comes to airport land or terminate leases that do not follow the policy you don't bring those to council every time you terminate a lease at the airport we do because those are formal contracts which is those are typically not standard I mean we're able to work out either repayment plan especially through this covet process and we've been able to work repayment plans on those it's very rare that we move forward with termination of leases and because there are contracts that are approved by city council those have to come back to city council for approval those that are within this program within this program because they're going to be short-term one to three years Max lease agreements just being honest I'm just praying yes mayor that motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Canales to approve item 22. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to two representative anello voting the motion does pass item number 23 is discussion and action request pardon me I'm sorry 621 representative anello voting nay the remainder of council voting either motion on 22 does pass item 23 is discussion and action requesting city council support for the submission of the staff recommended Five Points reconstruction in Paso Del Norte and Stanton Bridges feasibility study Grant applications go ahead man I think you're excited to see these five points on here I wish I had a little bit more information before it came to the agenda but just wanted to make sure this is in addition to the funds from the Sun City Lights Pro program good afternoon my name is Omar Martinez I'm grants and strategic initiatives manager and the answer is yes this is in addition eight million dollars is what we're requesting all right thank you so much it's nice to see you I'm sorry I'm talking so fast we get to a point in the agenda where I feel like I'm taking up everyone's time thank you thank you is there a motion Motion in a second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by mayor Pro tem anello to approve item number 23. no side conversations please on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that takes us to item number 27 and this is discussion in action on a resolution to authorize the city manager or a designee to enter into contracts and amendments to contracts to carry out the 2023 public art plan good afternoon members of the council for the record Ben Fife managing director of cultural Affairs and Recreation today we are excited to bring forward the 2023 public art plan as a reminder by ordinance the public art program is required to come before the Council on an annual basis for permission for any projects that will be initiated in that calendar year we use this as an opportunity as well to update the Council on projects that have completed in the previous year and also provide you insight into projects that are in process just some quick stats on the program itself this year we were excited to have completed our 85th project we at this point have worked with 377 artists 77 percent of whom have been local this program continues to be a way to support the work of our creative Community we've impacted over 175 local businesses and we've received 11 national awards and been featured in 18 national Publications this is a little bit of benchmarking on the program itself showing how we compare to that programs of other major Texas communities and as you can see El Paso really does continue to punch well above our weight in terms of the amount of staff we have compared to the amount of projects that are being completed on an annual basis I will say that that credit is really due uh to the tenacity of our staff who is extremely diligent and very professional and does what it takes to get the work done as well as the support that we have from the council as well as City leadership including city manager Gonzalez Deputy senior Deputy city manager Jerome and Deputy city manager Mack for the program and all of the partner departments that help us as well so to walk you through the projects that have recently completed I'm going to bring up Miriam Garcia who is the public art manager and I want to just acknowledge that this is not her first time presenting a council but it is her first time presenting in person at Council so the six projects that were recently completed up to actually last month and then we have one project near completion it's fire station 36 that will be completed in May 2023 was supposed to be completed next month however the project is a little behind so we got pushed back on that now I'm going to go over some photos of the recently completed projects as well as a rendering of the project near completion and here we have Portal 1 by Ricardo Chavarria at the El Paso International Airport for district 3. treacherous Crossing by Julio Sanchez Cleveland Square Park District 8. Camino Real by artist renevarez Recreation Center for district 7. Aces by George Bates for the Montana RTS District 235 6 and 8. mitsu Overstreet 200 Geronimo drive for district three window to the Franklin's by Simi Alvarado 5800 block of Alabama for district 2. and this is a rendering and a program shot of the fabrication of pillars of the community by artist Ken McCall for fire station 36 at District 1. so this year we are seeking permission from the council for allocations to initiate the five projects you see listed at the top I'd actually like to call out attention specifically to uh two projects that are being initiated to memorialize the work and Legacy of Chief Allen we also are seeking permission to increase an allocation to an already existing approved project and that is uh we're requesting an additional two hundred thousand dollars to be allocated to the Arts Festival Plaza water wall improvements that project is to bring in an artist a device solution for a defunct water feature in Arts Festival Plaza located at the back entrance of the Plaza theater as a reminder to the council the budget that you see here are all from the two percent pulled from the uh that the ordinance pulls from issuances and when we increase a budget we're not seeking the council's approval to fund budget elsewhere but rather to be able to access project Savings in essence go into the program's piggy bank to be able to to adequately address a shortage that we see with a particular project in this case we know before even getting started that the complexities of fixing a water feature as well as the escalation of a number of costs related to inflation will mean that we do need to access those funds I'm going to bring this Miriam back to walk you through projects that are currently in progress so in here we have a list of our projects in progress we have a total of 24 projects plus the our master plan which we're starting this year and then I'll go over some renderings of these as well this is a continuation of the list of our projects in progress and here we have Nopal by Chris winterstein for the main library children's area for district 8. weatherscape by Future forms at the El Paso Children's Museum for district 8. El Paso Faro by Ray King at the PDN roundabout District 8. the August 3rd Memorial by Tino Ortega at Ponder park for district 3. Regional Command Center for district 5. and this is the second piece ego Wing by MGA sculpture at the Eastside Regional Command Center as well any questions or concerns mayor Pro tem followed by representative thanks so on slide 18 you have the paso del Norte roundabout I know that there was a lot of concern from the Council on the previous iteration of this artwork how this is the first time I'm seeing this though well the presentation you gave me the other day but if the finalized what seems to be a finalized design without kind of briefing counsel when there had been so much issue to it and so I want to know what you know kind of what the story behind this is how this came about so for this one we did do a request for proposals from three different artists that were qualified to uh provide a proposal for this project we had an artist selection panel that decided homegoing with artist breaking and then um the artist presented to the public art committee he presented his uh rendering which is doesn't do the peace Justice it's a really pretty tempered glass that it's multicolored and it's actually a bunch of stars that form a big star and then also you can kind of see here the the size of it based on the rendering but we're very excited to work with him we did go through the process of having the pack ask a lot of questions and make sure we got the best piece that we could get there and then also we took into consideration the piece that had already been presented to council and we put that in the call for artists for them to do a proposal and I I'd also just like to mention like all public art projects this actually went to a community meeting as well with downtown property owners and stakeholders as well I understand I just I think that with all of the concern from Council it should have been brought to council before on a finalized plan um I think it's better than what was presented previously but again I would have liked to have been uh just part of the conversation a little bit more but for clarification I know that there's a fence around kind of where this is going and Landscaping that was already put in is that going to be removed or is this just kind of a uh theoretical rendering so this is actually a very complicated project because we're going in sort of after yeah a lot of the work has been done and so I again I'll I'll defer to Miriam here but we are having to work with not just the federal guidelines but again also what's already been installed here and I will just say to address your concerns represent or mayor Pro tem we do not bring individual project updates to the full Council we use this particular the public art plan presentation each year to be able to update you on multiple projects uh yeah again but because there was concern from the council and we asked to find a new project it would have been nice to at least known about the meetings that were happening um so just to clarify what you said though so because half of the project is already done which is the fence in the landscape that is going to remain and then this is going to be placed inside of that yes so the area of um that you see on the second rendering the dark area um where actually you see the lighter part that's what's going to be left or was left empty for us so we have the Planters around it and then we have that kind of like white area and he'll have those letters that say welcome and the others say they say bienvenido and then we'll have the piece in the middle and it'll be lit up at night as well okay thank you my next question is um at the Grandview Recreation Center that's being built um there's no which we've now just renamed today there is no artwork listed for this project every other Rec Center Library renovation things that were part of that Bond have received public art I've asked about this previously the only public art project that I've had in my district since being here is this mural and then I'm seeing this very large project like many that were part of the bond being the only one to not receive in our PRP so I don't know if that's just coming or um I mean I also see funding put aside for a project for land that we don't even have yet and so just wondering why that that is happening so I will say representative in District Two There are 16 projects completed an additional two in process right now sometimes when we have projects we determine with our colleagues at Capital Improvements as part of the design team with the architect on record and the contractors some projects are not necessarily good fits for artwork just maybe because of the size of the site the scale the pace of the project and so oftentimes there are projects where we will not necessarily put public art in there I'd be happy to have a meeting with your office with Miriam to look at the plans for Grandview and discuss you know ways that we can we can look at the project once it's completed yeah I would like that because even the plans for the rec center were never shown to me until there was a public meeting and concern from the community I've never no one ever sat down from CID to have that conversation with me prior but I will ask of the what's it five rec centers that were built from the 2012 bond is this the only one that's not getting a piece of art because my understanding is that it is uh yes but this is also the only one that was an existing structure but I see Library Renovations here that are also getting a piece of art um the rec center was not an existing structure it was added onto a building which is a decision was actually stated in the bond that that would not be the case but then it was a decision that was never discussed with my office the previous representative's office and was made without counsel um so it doesn't really actually seem like a valid reason since that was a decision made outside of this body and the voters so I would like to have an update I think that this you know I think this community deserves public art I think especially after our dedication today I think that um yeah I don't think it's acceptable that Grandview has been completely left out of this plan it's not the first time I've had this conversation and so I'm not going to be supporting this today but I would like to see some kind of initiative and then I can put it on the agenda in the future to see how we can make sure that my community and this community is receiving the same treatment as every other community across the city because I see three art projects for the East Side East Side Regional Park and not one for this center it's just there's not an equitable distribution of resources as far as I'm concerned so again I will just say representative in terms of equity in District Two There are 16 projects completed that is the second highest number for Andy Council District that we have and you're also taking in account of redistricting since I've been in office there's one project that has been funded and completed we will send you a list of all the projects in your District I will also say representative oftentimes a Project's budget sometimes does not also allow the two percent to stretch to an art project but let's have a sit down and I think examine the plans the timeline and see what how we can address your concerns thank you thank you mayor it was fine first of all thank you very much for that wonderful event you had over the weekend at the um Art Museum it was absolutely spectacular thank you very much um I want to ask you since you're gonna send um the mayor Pro tem an update on her District would you mind forwarding went to our office absolutely and the last thing that not hers District Six understood because I'm sure I'll get jealous over all you're giving her anyway but oh I don't know but the last thing I'd like to that really the reason for the question can you explain again how where you're getting the 200 000 from yes sir so uh the the two percent ordinance that was originally passed by the council in 2006 provides that two percent comes out of any uh Bond or Co issuance that the council does uh for the total project cost to be pulled out for artwork now what the program does is determines with the Capital Improvements department when there are good fits for the integration of original artwork into those projects sometimes the two percent that we receive for a project is higher than what we need and so that money will be pulled for later for later use for other projects per the ordinance which allows us to do that sometimes there are projects where the issuance is not really enough for us to do anything impactful and again that's get that gets pulled and so we're able to go to that pool of funding when we have a project where either we know we're going to need more money and I think the men of company project was a great example of that we came back to the council twice knowing that it was getting more expensive but that we had made a promise to the community we also will use that sometimes when we have a project that the issuance was not enough but we feel that that part of the community There's an opportunity to do something very impactful and so we'll say you know what the two percent was not great here so let's pull money from those savings to be able to address that as well well thank you for being creative within your budget thank you sir thank you sir do we have a motion in a second second there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by Representatives on cedel to approve item number 27. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to one representative anello voting nay the remainder of council voting I the motion does pass Miss Hamilton see Miss Hamilton meets the address something on item 20. Kristen Hamilton came for the record on item 20 we amended uh Council moved to amend section 3.11 related to the initiative to delete the clarification language about which types of ordinances were not in the field to be initiated however that room that language is on the ballot proposition language um and so now the ballot proposition language would be inconsistent unless Council moves to make us stimulation so motion to reconsider item 20. is there a second there's a motion and a second to reconsider item 20 section 3.11 all in favor bye anyone opposed so what should it be approve the changes in the ordinance as reflected in the ballot proposition language that would be the ballot proposition language to reflect the changes in the ordinance backwards thank you I moved to approve the changes to the ballot proposition proposition language to align with the ordinance language related to as amended related to 3.11 11. go ahead man thank you representative thank you mayor I just had a quick question um for the benefit of the public can you um read what what you're talking about the last yes ma'am the ballot proposition language reads should section 3.11 related to initiative petitions of the city Charter be amended to remove the requirement for a second petition and Institute a process for the public to initiate a city ordinance currently it says to clarify that no ordinance may be initiated through this process appropriating or allocating City funds zoning rezoning Levy of taxes setting utility rates purchase of their sale of real property or granting a franchise this action this current motion would delete that second half that says to clarify no ordinance may be initiated regarding those topics but it was in the language so she just wants to make a match it was deleted from the the text for the ordinance Amendment or for the charter Amendment okay thank you thank you for a motion in a second yes mayor there is a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by mayor Pro tem anelo to amend the ballot language under Section 3.11 to strike out the words and to clarify that no ordinance may be initiated through this process appropriating or allocating City fund zoning or rezoning Levy of Texas City utility rates purchase or sale of an interest here real property or granting a franchise this would strike out that language from the ballot language to match the text out it was amended earlier on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously is there a motion to approve the ordinance as amended there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the ordinance on item 20 as amended on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to one representative Hernandez voting name the remainder of council voting I the motion does pass the next item is number 28 this is presentation discussion in action on the FY 2022 2023 first quarter financial report and to authorize the city manager or designate to execute the necessary budget transfers not to exceed 750 000 for a special election on May 6. good afternoon sir good afternoon go ahead sir let's bring up the presentation here what's wrong yes so I want to provide it first this presentation is going to give you an update on where we stand through the first quarter so this is going to cover the months of September October November of our current fiscal year so we're going to go through first a recap of the budget again because this will provide some context of some of the numbers that you're going to see again so for the new members of council as we begin to develop the budget looking back to last summer we did see on President growth not only the sales tax but property values as well and I have some information on sales tax in particular as it is the second largest source of revenue for the general fund it allowed the opportunity for the city council to take status recommendation to get more aggressive as far as the wages for our city employees continue to invest in our Public Safety through the additional academies also the additional teams as you saw a little bit earlier the Christ intervention and as well as the body camera team and then finally dealing with the inflationary pressures and some fixed costs they were built into the budget as well that we saw some increases in as well so again as we look to PD the number one cost driver for the budget only this year but just about every year and again looking at the additional staffings for both the police department and fire department to stay on track with that tenure plan we have for the police department and then the firefighter academies to be able to fund those new fire stations you just heard the reference to fire station 36 currently under construction which we'll be opening here in the near future and then again those new teams which you saw the interlocal just a little while ago from the police and fire department with the crisis intervention team and the expansion that we've seen with that particular team as I mentioned as we developed out the budget again the original recommendation with the city manager's proposed budget that we did at the end of June last year original recommendation was to do a 75 cent increase for our city employees and we had prorated that not to begin until May of 23 because of the sales tax growth that we did see and the property values were able to get more aggressive with that we actually increased that to the dollar increase which we've already done phase one phase two will be taking place on March the 12th additionally with some of the additional Revenue we were able to increase the allocation for our Public Safety vehicle replacement so we went from 6 million up to seven million dollars now and that's again annual money that's in the budget now for replacement of both police and fire vehicles Additionally the city council did approve as part of this budget again something new something we did not have this amount built into the budget this three million dollars and again this is for non-public safety vehicle replacement as well as money for Park Community Replacements and facility repairs and so that money for the city manager talk about the little thing matter little things matter program to be able to go out and do some of those programs as well as we look to fix costs again this is something that drove the budget for the current fiscal year something that we continue to monitor you heard Miss Cody give the presentation a couple well last week about some of the current economic situations we're facing as water increases the rates increase electric rates increase the city of El Paso continue to see increases in those as well as we are a heavy user of both water and electricity in addition fuel costs we've had about a 500 000 increase in fuel our it contracts all pretty substantial increase in this current budget about a 3.3 million dollar increase primarily being driven by so Microsoft licenses that we have and then finally one of the things we've discussed here at the very end which is the action item the election cost that we have not only for the November election but that we have built in or that we need to cover for the May 6 election so this is just a budget recap again and as we talked about at the last council meeting the last budget update breaking down the city's general fund budget and personal services again that's the salaries benefits and taxes varsities and city employees making up about 73 so the increase in that category was about 26 percent again primary driver in the budget that we that city council adopted in August of last year and if you break it down again the red slice of the pie here is the goal to that's our Public Safety department it makes up about 60 percent and so we're looking at the first quarter again this is just the recap and I'll provide you the actual numbers here in just a second sales tax continues to perform positively although not at the levels that we've seen in the last two years we have seen a slight decrease in permanent licenses and so something we continue to monitor as that can be an indication of entering a recession something that we saw in 2008 and into 2009 Bridge cost of Revenue is only dealt slightly as well nothing dramatic as I'm going to show you here in just a second as we look to the expenses again I talked about the phase two for the city employees and the wage increases that we have implemented again so to be the additional 50 cents or at least a 1.25 percent depending upon that amount for those employees we did obviously as I mentioned increase the budget for fuel utility costs and so those things continue to increase but again in line with what WrestleMania as far as the overall expansion for this current year and so this shows you the revenue sources by category and it gives you a comparison of where we are through the first quarter this year it shows you the actuals compared to the actuals of the prior year and you'll see on this slide here again property taxes and sales taxes higher than the prior year in the first quarter again making up the primary increase In the comparison of those two fiscal years our property tax collections against the largest revenue source for the city it's about 43 percent of overall revenues for the general fund again we monitor this to ensure that the property tax collections are aligned with the historical averages and they are and so through December we're at 54 and you can see there as property tax deadline did just end on January 31st and so we are in line with that actual collections I'll spend a couple of minutes here on this slide and the next slide because this is going to be critical as we begin to develop the budget for this upcoming fiscal year which the budget staff is in the very early stages of starting to put some of those estimates together if you look to the far left of the graph here you'll see this goes back to September of 2020. so during that time obviously we were still heavy in covet and you see that the sales tax growth was essentially flat we did see a couple of decreases there in October and December of 2020 being severely impacted by covert and the shutdown of the economy and then you'll see beginning in March of 2021 you'll see pretty significant increases in overall sales tax again this is doing a comparison for example if you look at March of 2021 that's a comparison to March of 2020 obviously at the onset of covet and you can see how the economy bounced back very quickly so as you follow along that graph there until you get to the far right hand side there the last three data points are the first three months of this current fiscal year and so we're averaging double growth in sales tax we are still seeing Positive Growth however it's much less than what we have seen in those 24 months prior so the last three months of September of 2022 we're at 3.4 October 2022 again 3.4 and then the most recent allocation which we have received from the state in November of 2022 came in at five percent and so I have on the ground there you'll see November 2022 is the last data point there is a lag a two to three month lag and the reporting from the state and we should be getting the December sales tax allocation which is the largest data point that we collect in the fiscal year the Christmas holiday season we should be receiving that hopefully by this coming Friday so as I talked about this slide here is a really really good slide and I'm going to spend just a couple of seconds here so that make a couple of key points so as you look at this you see historically in that top section of the box there historically prior to covid we had been averaging around five percent growth in sales tax which we generate on average four and a half million dollars of new Revenue you'll see even if fiscal year 2020 even though covet started mid-year we still finished that year with a positive growth in overall sales tax as you look to fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022 you'll see that percentage increase compared to the prior year at 14.4 percent for fiscal year 2021 and 13.6 percent for the fiskery that just ended in August of 2022 compared to the prior year again so 14 and 13.6 is again unprecedented in sales tax growth which resulted in if you look at the dollar increase there that middle line in that top box 14 of additional Revenue in fiscal year 21 and over 15 million dollars of additional Revenue in 2022. so why do I make this point why am I spending some time here because historically again on average a five percent increase in sales tax will generate about four and a half million we've had the benefit in the last two years to have essentially 10 million dollars of additional Revenue top of the historical averages to be able to not only do the pay wages for our city employees to do the police and fire academies to do all of those key initiatives in the Strategic plan at the same time minimize the impact on the tax rate and so as we again developed the budget for this year that we're currently in we took that into account we were not obviously that optimistic and expecting to continue to see 13 14 increase in sales tax and something as I mentioned we are currently working on the preliminary estimates for this coming fiscal year which we expect to go back to historical averages or maybe a little bit less just depending upon what we see as far as the next several months which are going to be critical and as I mentioned that December sales tax amount we should get by Friday would only give us a good indication kind of where things stand so far for this fiscal year and then the bottom there is just a comparison of the first quarter last year compared to the first quarter this year and as they mentioned we're at 1.2 million dollars of increase or about 3.93 which is again right now back in line with where we are using that historical average as I mentioned licenses the permits is down slightly again nothing to be concerned about or nothing that's in up any red flags Philip like the way he saw earlier today and his team do an outstanding job at the One-Stop shop but something again that we'll continue to monitor as we develop the budget and the estimates for next year Bridge cost of Revenue as well September and October were essentially flat September was actually a little bit higher than the prior year first quarter we did see a little bit of a decrease in November but again nothing to be concerned about and we were actually very conservative in developing the estimate for the bridge across the revenue just based on everything that has been going on in the last 12 to 18 months so the last few slides here are going to cover the expenditures and as I mentioned here you'll look at that first line there the personal services which is the salaries benefits taxes for our city employees overall if you look at the fiscal year 2023 actual through November compared to the fiscal year 2022 actuals overall increase of about 11.4 million dollars and again the largest driver of that is going to be in that personal services category which is up 7.4 million followed by contractual Services increase of 2.7 million compared to the first quarter last year and again that's due primarily to the it contracts which we saw a pretty significant increase in from the prior year this next site is a breakdown by a strategic goal and again a quality of life and Public Safety are there two big drivers where you're going to see the increases when you're looking at a comparison of the first quarter this year compared to the first quarter of the prior year Public Safety is up by 5.1 million compared to the first quarter of last year and again that's based on the collective bargain increases as well as the additional academies the quality of life strategic goal is here is up by 2.1 million again overall expenditures up by 11.49 and then the last slide here that I have is the breakdown by category so this provides you a little bit more context as to all the different categories that we have not only salaries and benefits and taxes but all the different categories that we monitor the budget office monitors to sure that we're staying in line with the actuals and the budget that was allocated appreciate these different categories so again everything is pretty much on target we continue to monitor again nutrition which is something that we continue to work on we do have the second phase of that compensation increase which city council approved so that will again help us not only be able to retain but be able to recruit our City Workforce and so as we look ahead I mentioned a lot of these points already again the lag and real-time information primarily with sales tax and franchise fees so when we look at the City journal from budget property values sales tax franchise fees make up about 80 percent of our general fund Revenue property values we have a preliminary meeting set up with Central Appraisal District next month I believe around the middle of next month they start providing pre-preminary reports they give us updates every month but we don't receive those certified final values until July 25th the end of July I'll throw everything up until that point is based on historical data looking at what's been provided as far as those updates sales taxes I talked about that delay in real-time information creates a little bit of a challenge when we're looking at estimates again so utilizing historical information current economic situations and what we're expecting to see and then finally franchise fees are paid quarterly so that's even more challenging when you're looking at projecting what those Revenue sources are going to look like not only in the current year but as we're projecting now 18 months ahead and particularly when we're looking at the utilities who may be looking at rate increases which would impact that Revenue source we do have our police collective bargaining negotiations in a way which is going to be critical again in getting that resolved so that as we're developing the budget we have good estimates as far as that particular Department and then finally the last point there is we continue to provide more information on these budget updates some of the areas we'll focus on looking at Public Safety some of our fixed costs primarily as you talked about Fuel and utility costs and some of the other categories and then ultimately March will also present our five-year forecast just to give the council an idea on what we're looking at as far as future Revenue growth and future expenditure growth just based on what we know today and so as city clerk Ms Brian did mention we do have an action on this item so the council did delay the charter Amendment election which you all just approved was the religious schedule for November it was delayed after the property tax rate had already been set and so this is an additional cost that we currently do not have in the budget so this is asking for authorization to be able to fund the special election for May 6 not to exceed 750 000. we do have an estimate from the county I believe it's 609 000 however there may be some additional publishing costs so we want to ensure that we have a little bit of flexibility not to exceed 750 000 for the May election Miss Prine his mayor there was a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Canales to approve item 28. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to one representative the motion does pass motion to retire to executive there is a motion in a second to return to Executive session all in favor anyone opposed and the city council of the city of El Paso May retired to Executive session pursuant to section 3.5 a the El Paso City Charter and the Texas government code chapter 551 sub chapter D to discuss any of the following executive session item one application of El Paso Electric Company to amend a certificate of convenience and necessity regarding generating unit 6 at the Newman Generating Station Public Utility Commission of Texas docket number 54605 pattern number 22-1008-205 Hunter 551.071 executive session item two proposed facility lease in central El Paso and anticipated El Paso Electric Regulatory Compliance filing matter number 21-1003-122 under 551.071 and 551.072 an executive session item four epwu Texas versus New Mexico original number 141 matter number 13-109-059 under 551.071 these matters are taken into executive session under 551.071 consultation with attorney and 551.072 deliberation regarding real property it is 2 28 pm foreign I need it I'm sorry is there a motion to come out of executive session there's a motion and a second to come out of executive session all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 3 25 PM we're on ex1 and there is a emotion that the City attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to hire a retain outside Council and any other necessary consultants and to file an intervention in the application of El Paso Electric Company to amend its certificate of convenience and necessity regarding generating unit 6 at the Newman Generating Station filed on January 30th 2023 under the Texas Public Utility Commission docket number 54605 in matter number 23-108-211 and to take all steps necessary including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this Authority motion to approved there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Hernandez to approve the motion I just read into the record on that motion call for the vote voting session is open let's run away just a minute Mr Frank I'm gonna hold on one second mayor Pro tem wear on ex1 four you should you study X4 no ex1 you said four didn't she I thought when she read was here before okay this is on ex1 otherwise thank you I don't know what I heard before in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Pedro not present ex2 no action thank you EX4 no action thank you is there a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed all right and the meeting for Tuesday February 7th 2023 is adjourned at 3 27 pm thank you Council