e e e e than Miss PR good morning good morning mayor this is a meeting of the AL Paso city council for Tuesday October 10th 2023 mayor liser is present in presiding in council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro manelo alternate mayor Pro molinard representative Sido representative Canales representatives ernandez and Rivera have requested to be excused this morning it is 902 a.m. will everyone please silence their electronic devices so it's not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by Al Pasa police chaplain Robert Hill Jr good morning Rudy how are you sir good morning sir to The Honorable mayor osala city council M members Department chairs and members of the committee uh please bow your heads at this time according to the book of Matthew's 5th chapter 9th vers word says blessed are the children of God who are peacemakers because we are all children of God and we should be striving for peace and we thank you for allowing us to have a city council that promotes peace and Harmony we ask that there's a time for everything there's a time for war and there's a Time For Peace but most hopefully father we ask that you grant the mayor and the council the courage to know what to do and do the right thing and conducting the business of the city following the agenda and may they speak when it's time to speak and listen when it's time to listen and be patient and respect others as they speak this we ask in your holy name in the name of the father son and the holy spirit amen amen thank you sir and this morning to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance we have Sher law firm's inaugural internship and scholarship program recipients yalit contas Bren and ciso Sebastian espara and Jacob loano flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you got to check you got to check [Music] for the record representative Federal is also present in council [Music] chambers good May good morning everyone and um you know um there's a big tragedy going on in our community in the in the world today and Israel is under attack and there's a war on the nation and I think it's important that we pray for peace not only in the Middle East but peace in the world that innocent lives innocent people men women children don't lose their lives and there's so many people that are being affected by hatred that I'd like for us to take a moment of silence and really pray that we live in a world that cares did we live in a world that lives are important to people and as we see the videos we can only think back what happened in our country alone on 911 and I um I I I want everyone really to and I'm I'm lost for words I I I got to give a speech yesterday and I took a piece of paper and I wanted to write down what I wanted to say and I couldn't find the words to be honest with you I threw the piece of paper away because it's hard to explain what's going on and why that in 2023 we're still suffering from hatred so um I want toone to really put in your own words and really pray for peace in the world thank you thank you all and may God bless America may God bless El Paso and every one of you all thank you God bless you miss PR thank you mayor that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is national health education week representative mulard good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas national health education week is an annual event recognized since 1995 to increase awareness of health education and health literacy across the country and to empower the public to get involved in their health and personal care and whereas Health educators are specialized in dedicated public health professionals who help transform communities by trans translating and explaining in simple terms Health Concepts at both the individual and Community level and teach how to incorporate healthy choices into people's Lifestyles and whereas op Paso Taxas is disp disproportionately affected by many chronic conditions with poor health outcomes due to low health literacy and other social determinants of health and whereas the city of Paso Department of Public Health offers education and promotion programs that aim to improve the health of all all El pasin and whereas during this national health education week the Department of Public Health educators will improve health literacy in our community by addressing Diverse Health topics to improve health outcomes and whereas we urge all residents Healthcare organizations educational institutions and Community Partners to come together during this week and Beyond to work collabora collaboratively and promote health education to improve the health and well-being of our Beloved Community now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of Al Paso that October 16th through October 20th 2023 shall be known as national health education week sign Oscar liser honorable mayor for the city of El Paso thank you good morning good morning mayor good morning Council my name is Joy Leos and I am the program manager for the health education and promotion division in the Department of Public Health it's a privilege to be able to address you all this morning as we celebrate national public health education week national public health education week was started over 28 years ago to increase the awareness of major public health issues and promote a better understanding of health education and health promotion together with our peers across the country we reflect and take action on major issues that are prominent in our communities we work in areas of increasing health literacy combating chronic disease adolescent mental health improving maternal and child health increasing Access to Health Care improving our health Communications advancing Health Equity through advocacy and reducing Health disparities in our communities through action we're lucky to have a great team of Health Educators in many of our programs across the Department of Public Health they all possess a very special set of skills in making health information relevant interactive and meaningful to those whomever they come in contact with we strive to do our work in a nonjudgment mental Manner and truly listen to the community because without them we would not be here there's nothing more valuable to us as a team than the ability to engage with our community and take to heart the information that they share with us we do our best to use that information to improve our programs presentations and Outreach events to better meet their needs health education is a social science that involves teaching and providing information to the public to help them better achieve Health at the community level we draw from a combination of Sciences including biological environmental psychological and medical to promote Health prevent disease disability and premature death health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their personal health it looks at individual Behavior but also beyond that at a range of social environmental and organizational factors that can influence health I'm beyond proud to stand with this amazing team of Public Health educ haers and publicly thank them for their tireless and sometimes Fearless work over the years it's an honor for me to be able to serve this community alongside so many people with hearts of Service public health is a turbulent field but our team has been steadfast in Rising to the challenge and putting forth their whole effort regardless of the task this national public health education week we invite mayor and councel to continue to support our Public Health Department efforts and initiatives in the community and be supportive of our continued efforts to keep our community safe and in its best health thank you thank you thank you all for being here and if this morning's honores will please remain in Chambers Council will have an opportunity to take photos with you once all the ceremonial items have been completed the next Proclamation is domestic violence Awareness Month represent Canales Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas domestic violence is a serious public health problem that affects millions of people each year and whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group or groups of people but cut across all economic racial and societal barriers and are supported by societal indifferences and whereas in the 2022 2023 fiscal year the center against sexual Family Violence received 6,363 calls on the crisis hope line of which 4,128 were directly related to domestic violence an 88% increase compared to last fiscal year they provided shelter to a total of 839 residents advocated for an additional 3,28 victims at the Family Resource Center and provided over 3,800 hours of individual therapy and whereas we urge all members of the Community to join the center against sexual and family violence in supporting victims and survivors of domestic violence we can all make a difference by speaking up against abuse we encourage victims to reach out for help and know that they are not alone and whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the month of October as domestic violence awareness month and urges all citizens to actively participate in scheduled activities and programs to work toward improving victim safety and holding perpet ators of domestic abuse accountable for their actions against individual victims and our society as a whole now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as domestic violence Awareness Month signed by our honorable mayor Oscar liser thank you good morning good morning mayor good morning city council um it's an honor to be with you here this morning I'm Senator nadas Garcia I'm the executive director for the center and with me behind me I can see on the screens we have some of our um um staff that does the the work daily um working with our survivors in our community as you just mentioned um you know the the issue of domestic violence has not been cured um we continue to do our work we've been in the community for over 45 years um and continue to provide those services to those survivors in our community for Al Paso Huds and Culberson counties the individuals that we serve um are struggling right in our communities and so often times we use this month to be able to project out as much information as possible it continually happens that people tell us you know I didn't know that there was that service I didn't know that this was a resource and unfortunately um it's a common problem with our particular victimization if you will individuals that know of us is because they're either interested in the work that we do um have had some sort of individual affected by it or a personally affected by it um or have come across Us in some other way and so we utilize this month to do a projection of different activities we started our month with a FAL a fall festival one of the things that the center Prides itself on is creating new memories for our families and their children and so we work closely together with our emergency shelter and our Family Resource Center to create those different opportunities for those individuals and show them what an activity not involved with violence um looks like for them um because often times when you talk to them about specific holidays and memorable events a lot of our victims connect those with um some sort of violent um um interaction with their partner or spouse and so with that um we are asking for a few things of our community um so one become more informed about what domestic violence looks like um it does have different there's verbal emotional sexual and physical abuse um we ask you to talk to your friends and family members if you see something um something doesn't feel right it probably is because it's not right and so we have a 24-hour hopeline which is that 593 7300 number that anyone can call 24 hours a day it's completely confidential just to get information about the services that we provide and what that might look like for your loved one um we ask you to support any type of domestic violence organizations by volunteering um donating um as you know any nonprofit needs all types of help and so we provide everything from a to Z in the sense of a person comes in and they're provided everything um in our emergency shelter absolutely free um so everything from shampoo conditioner sanitary napkins diapers wipes all those things because we want to be able to be that safety net for that individual and have them focus on increasing their sense of safety and not have to worry about the Bare Essentials um lastly we come together in terms of making sure that we promote it like I said throughout the month and so this Wednesday actually tomorrow we're um featuring a movie which is called Alice darling at Alamo Draft House on the far East um you can go to our website if you're interested um tickets uh will benefit um the center and obviously you can adopt a child to send them to the movies um but this movie was I was really intrigued by it because it talks about when people say like why do they stay why is it that um you know I would have never been in that relationship I would have never stayed that long and this movie kind of um really portrays ra how of individual who's been verbally victimized um the gravit the the gravity of verbal emotional abuse what that looks like um before it even necessarily gets physical um so it kind of puts it into perspective and it's it's usually we see all the physical attributes but not the the the emotional and the verbal so that's really um unique to to to those different types of violences the last thing that we'll also have is um as you know peso giving days on October 19th um and so we'll be doing a whole we're doing a big sort with the county attorney's office we're doing different things to be able to promote um individuals to come into the center to try to um provide that support for for our survivors and for the work that we're doing and so again I would just again like to extend a thank you to all of you for continuing to um allow us and invite us to be here and your support just throughout the year because it really just truly mean a lot to not only us as individuals but I think the survivors in our community that we serve so thank you thank you all the next Proclamation is October month representative Kennedy come on there's some architects in hear you I saw you design a way up to the microphone okay we're getting up here whereas the American Institute of Architects El Paso chapter adds value to city county and surrounding areas by creating places that enhance the quality of life through the built environment for all the residents of El Paso and whereas the local AIA chapter is responsible for the design of many iconic buildings in El Paso safeguards the culture of the region through historic preservation and AIDS in the review of local codes and ordinances in order to maintain the health safety and Welfare of citizens and structures and whereas the local AIA chapter is one of the leading organizations in our community focusing on Energy Efficiency sustainable design urban planning and the importance of Building Technology merged with design Innovations to help improve our city and whereas the local AIA chapter encourages citizen Architects to take pride in and learn about the built environment how it shapes our City's progress the ability to strengthen our regional cultural identity and quality of life through buildings historic structures and neighborhoods now therefore be it proclaimed and you brought a celebration too uh now therefore be it complained by proclaimed not complained proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of October shall be known as October the witness therefore is under the hand of our honorable mayor Oscar liser thank you thank you mayor council um and uh city manager um we are uh we are once again thankful to be here with you and and for you to be honoring us with this Proclamation for October which celebrates design in our community it's our design month celebration every year we have a number of uh we have a number of two and other activities this month that that we welcome to the public to join us in and um we'd also like to take a moment to thank you all for all the great work you do in uh making the built environment a priority in our city and and elevating design as part of your your own projects and um and bringing the our members and member firms um into that process with you and and being your partners in it so we're very thankful for that and I'm just going to leave you with one um final statement we'd like to read for you we're going to take a moment uh Edgar's got some uh um got a statement that we're going to pass out to you that we'd like to advocate for we've seen recently the the in the news that you're considering uses of the Union Depot property and we would just like to advocate for the continued use of this uh of the Union Depot as the home of the architecture school in our community that's super important to our profession the Texas Tech Huckabee College of architecture has called the union the historic Union Depot building home for over a decade Excuse Me Miss PR I don't think this is the item on the agenda no sir this is so we cannot this is not the item on the agenda so we cannot move forward on what we're talking about right now the the proclamation is something different than than this so I want to stay with the item on on the agenda please all right well with that then um thank you all for uh the time today and and opportunity to to be here with you all and celebrate architecture in our community and we appreciate it thanks thank you congratulations the next Proclamation is indigenous people's day thank you Miss PR I believe we have some members of the tribe our local tribe here if they'd like to come up and so whereas October 12th 1942 marks one of the most significant days to all indigenous people of the Americas and whereas numerous cities and state governments within the United States now recognize Columbus Day also as indigenous people's day in an effort to create a path of healing and Reconciliation and whereas the downtown area of Al Paso Texas has served as the core of tribal passage settlement and regular ceremonial convergence since the time immemorial and whereas the city of El Paso opposes racism towards indigenous people in the United States and whereas the city of Al Paso promotes closing the equity gap for indigenous people through policies and practices that reflect the experiences of indigenous people that ensure greater access opportunities and policies that honor our nation's indigenous Roots histories and contributions in whereas indigenous people's day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of native nations in the United Nations sponsored event the international NGO conference on discrimination against indigenous populations in the Americas and the AL Paso city council voted on September 12th 2023 to officially recognize the second Monday in October as indigenous people day in the city of El Paso now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the city of Al Paso that October 12th 20123 shall be known as indigenous people's day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations y'all thank you so much for being here thank you everybody uh good morning mayor good morning Council on behalf ofo I just want to say thank you for um acknowledging our tribe and our um Native American tribes here in the United States thank you again thank you very much thank you for being here thank you thank you for having us oh [Applause] thank and the final Proclamation is tin toober Fest day thank you mayor Proclamation city of op Paso Texas whereas teenagers represent the future of op Paso and deserve to be included in the decision- making and planning for the future and whereas te toober is the Nationwide celebration hosted by libraries every October which aims to celebrate teenagers and promote yearr round teenage services and literacy and whereas through tin toober the El Paso Public Library highlights an innovative ways to help teens learn new skills F their passion in and out of the library and whereas ENT toober Fest is a festive teen Centric celebration which brings together educational recreational and cultural resources to give teens an opportunity to to express their creativeness and talent now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the city council of the city of op Paso that October 14 2023 shall be known as tin toober vest day signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser good morning good morning mayor good morning Council thank you so much for having us here uh I want to thank you for allowing us to be here this morning to talk about how libraries and our programming help to support Youth and our community teen toober Fest is an annual event which has been held for the since 2021 teen toober Fest aims to provide teens with access to a wide range of educational recreational and cultural resources through Partnerships with over F 50 exhibitors sponsors and collaborators the event being held this Saturday October 14th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. will feature live entertainment workshops by El Paso Community College College Plant Parenthood University Medical Center among others there will we will have crafts video and traditional games competitions cosplay contest Escape rooms a Lucha Li exhibition by Lucha League of Al Paso and much more free of charge to teens from all over El Paso food trucks will also be on the hand to provide traditional El Paso Festival goodies for the El Paso public to enjoy in addition to those events already mentioned the library will be giving away more than 200 pairs of eclipse viewers starting at 10:00 a.m. so that attendees can see the eclipse happening that same day admission to the event is free and open to the public we hope to see everyone there I also want to thank my colleagues behind me um for all the work that they do and putting all of these things together thank you so much for having us thank you mayor would you like to move forward with the consent agenda yes Ma I sure would thank you 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 protim I'll turn it on for you your mic's on I got them right here thank you um I make a motion to follow to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page three item two request to excuse absent city council members and that's to excuse Representatives Cassandra ernandez and Henry Retta from today's meeting and then page six item 20 um add alternate mayor proem molinar as a co-sponsor page six item 21 take item after proclamations per representative Hernandez and then page six item 22 take item after proclamations per representative Hernandez second thank you there is a motion made by mayor protim anelo seconded by representative Salo to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote you have a question representative Salo I thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously alternate mayor protim not not present items 21 and 22 were moved to the Forefront mayor and they're related would you like to take them together or individually we can take them together thank you sir thank you item 2 hey you going to read them both yeah thank you Miss 21 is discussion and action to approve a resolution for the city to declare October 11th of every year is El Paso and's coming out Day by listening to the lgbtqia plus community and working with lgbtq IA plus support organizations together will Foster a model city that is safe to come out in item 22 is discussion and action to approve a resolution for the city to declare the month of October of each year as transgender History Month and pledges to continue to show its support and stand in solidarity with a transgender Community honoring our diverse and intersectional community and that the city declares itself as a safe haven for transgender and gender non-forming non-conforming families these items were submitted by representatives ernandez and rera thank you Miss pran um since uh both sponsors are not here today um I'll read the resolution and then make a motion to approve um so the first is coming out day whereas coming out day has observed nationally to celebrate coming out and to raise awareness of when it was first observed on October 11th 1988 on the anniversary of national March on Washington for lesbian and gay rights that urged Congress to pass protective civil rights legislation and whereas coming out has been the common term for someone who acknowled who acknowledges to others that they are lgbtqia plus however the term gives the impression that people who do not identify as heterosexual are hiding from society rather than acknowledge ing how homophobia and transphobia creates an unwelcoming and unsafe environment to live authentically and whereas hundreds of lgbtqia plus El pasoans come out to their friends and loved ones yearly not knowing what the response will be and whereas coming out can be a life-changing experience and for some can lead to family Exile discrimination in the workplace social shunning and violence and whereas while discriminatory policy set by the government and public institutions further ostracize and criminalize lgbtqi Plus people they also have the power to create a public space that is accepting and safe so that coming out is not done in fear and now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso declare October 11th of every year is El pasoan coming out Day by listening to the lgbtqia A Plus community and working with the lgbtqia plus support organizations together will Foster a model that is safe to come out in second oh I think we're taking them both together taking them both together so read the other one so it's half a second it's half a second there you go okay um whereas transgender history month is a time to honor the rich history and contributions of transgender and gender non-conforming history makers and whereas transgender and gender non-conforming Americans and their existence are often portrayed as a recent cultural development despite having existed throughout human history and whereas transgender and gender non-conforming Americans are being dehumanized and politicized and their contributions being a rased and whereas the Texas government has consistently created laws that specifically Target transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in their way of life continuing to perpetrate discrimination violence and disparity against them and whereas transgender and gender non-conforming is a diverse community that is blazing Brave new trails making history and advocating for equality and inclusion and whereas Lisa Turner in El Paso and and Veteran has made history is the first trans women to be appointed to several City commissions including the women's right commission and continually add for Kates for common sense policy that ensures that the Alp pasoans are represented and whereas supporting the transgender and gender non-conforming Community by designated October as transgender History Month will create a culture led by education and recognition of the contributions of transgender El pasoans now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso declare the month of October of each year as transgender history month and pledges to continue to show its support and stand in solidarity with the transgender Community honoring our diverse and intersectional communities and the City of Al Paso declares itself a sanctuary City for transgender and gender non-conforming families second my all right I think it's already unanimous vote I don't think we need to take a vote and we do have public comment yes ma'am yes we'll take them we'll take them both together thank you sir the first person that signed up is aelio Valdez Jr not here here Andy Rose Taro good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning mayor good morning city council uh to say how important these two resolutions are is an understatement um as a transgender woman and as a uh transgender Advocate and activist uh when it comes to uh coming out and uh coming out day it's a it's a time to celebrate just being able to proudly Proclaim who you are who you identify as who you love especially in a um societal structure that doesn't exactly make it the safest thing to do and uh having that fear to not be able to say like say who your married to or who you're dating or who you have an interest in is one of one of the most tragic things that can happen anywhere because while while we live in a societal structure where um cisgender and heteronormative uh and heterosexual uh relationships are uh are the norm when it comes to uh LGBT plus relationship ships and identities they're often struck down attacked and dehumanized in the worst ways and so being able to officially as a as a city Proclaim El Paso in's coming out day it fights back against that structure and fights back against that hatred and that uh discrimination to show that El Paso is a safe place to be able to come out in and it should be it and it should remain that way and when it comes to transgender History Month it's important to be able to continue to show the the not just the successes but the contributions and the the way transgender and gender non-conforming folks have given back to the city to the economy to everything that you see in the world today and to be able to S to have a month uh dedicated to that history in in in a country that in a country and a state that continues to try and erase and overwrite their existence and their rights it sends a me a a message not just to those who who fight against those who identify as trans but it sends a message to those to other transgender individuals to other gender non-conforming individuals to see that their City sees them and that their city has their back so thank you so much for this and uh thank you again thank you ma'am the next speaker next speaker is Lisa Turner good morning Miss Turner you have three minutes thank you good morning M Turner Council of course I'm going to be in favor of this uh coming out is a monstrous achievement for anyone who's LGBT the individual whether they're a child or an adult have heard their families talk and when these individuals decide to come out it may not be to family simply because they know how family feels about you so imagine if you're a child and you're coming out but you've heard your parents speak about you in a very derogatory why so who do you turn to you turn do somebody you trust this is one of the biggest obstacles anybody in this community has to overcome as for our history being transgender I'd like to point out that every bit of this digital equipment that you use is basically based upon the work of Alan Turing the father of computer science a gay man and Lynn Conway who IBM was dumb enough to Fire and basically the computers we have today such as such as this what you have at your desk would not be possible so it's uh we're just regular people just like you somehow the good Lord decided you are going to go down this path and we walk it it's not an easy path to walk uh but we get up every day and we do it in spite of the hatred thrown our way thank you thank you Mr Turner you know I'm going to say something real quick I know that um before but I think Mr Turner you and I will agree that um we're all created equal and we should Live and Let Live thank you go ahead man thank you there is a motion made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative Kennedy to approve items 21 and 22 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously alternate mayor protol not present mayor would Council like to recess at this time to take photos yes ma'am thank you is there a motion to recess is there a second there's a motion in a second to recess a city council meeting all in favor all in favor anyone opposed and the city council meeting is in recess at 9:42 a.m. in order to take photos with this morning's honor e just a quick update in terms of the order of where how we're going to take photographs we're going to start with the National Health Educators week followed by domestic violence Awareness Month followed by Arch month and then in indigenous people teen toober Fest and then we're going to move on to items 21 and 22 which are the two resolutions regarding lgbtqia a efforts um so if we could start in the lobby if those individuals could please again we're starting with national health Educators week thank you all tired last time here like six hours they were like all right just wait 19 hours somebody e e e e e can we have a motion no we're not going to read return we're going to go to uh mass transit Miss PR good morning Rudy good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso mass transit Department board on Tuesday October the 10th it is 10:01 a.m. present and presiding is board chair liser also present in Chambers are board members Kennedy anelo molinar salido Fierro and Canales board members Hernandez and Riva have requested to be excused and Mr chair we do have two members of the public signed up to speak are they miss go ahead yeah we'll start with that ma'am thank you very much for that thank you Mark Salazar Mr Salazar are you here um I don't see Mark out there okay Jos Rodriguez here's Jose hi good morning mayor um M friend good morning how are you sir doing great sir um we just wanted to come while Mark Salasar has a couple of other comments and he's on his way um uh but we do want to bring up uh some of the issues that people have been having with the lift um some of them in include scheduling conflicts um where people call in schedule uh and then they they call the day of and they say they haven't scheduled anything um those are some of the technical things um that are happening another one is the the complaint line um we've heard and I myself have called uh where we have uh to leave a complaint but it's it's not a complaint night itself um it's like it's something else that they transfer us to um and we would like a system where we can get a tracking number for the complaints comments or any other uh related um issues that we suggest uh there Mark has um a lot of other um issues that were come that people brought up to us during a couple of meetings that we had with both uh group oal and desert adapt but um the one thing I do want to bring up as far as uh desert adapt we want to actually thank Sun Metro for um accommodating us uh when we actually um were about to have people stranded at the airport um a couple well last week um our plane the plane for people got here laid and they were able to um accommodate that by allowing us a couple more minutes for people to actually get on the buses so we want to thank Sun Metro for for that and we also want to thank him for pushing to get more uh Vehicles we still need a lot more and um there's a lot more uh customer service that needs to happen as far as uh drivers are concerned but um that those are issues that will be brought up um later but again we do want to thank uh Sun Metro uh in particular um Mr Rafael for going out of their way this last time to accommodate and make sure that people didn't get stranded um that's it thank you thank you thank you for being here Mr salar's here the next speaker is Mark Salasar also has concerns with the lift Services good morning good morning Mr salur uh I saw that I I can't speak for someone unless they're here and uh I'm going to speak for enria Navi TV she's sitting right back here she wasn't able to sign in on time but um is there any way she can speak before me no go ahead sir it's your time okay uh bo that downtown exit is horrible okay um I'm Mark Salazar a friend of Mrs natividad who is present here as an advocate for people with disabilities I wanted to make a few comments concerning recent issues that she had with the LIF service that occurred in the August in the late August and early September times I might mention that some of these uh have been reported to Sun Metro by Miss natividad and she has confirmation uh number 49 499 and number 4100 for two of them but for a third issue she doesn't have a confirmation the first issue is about the fact fact that when she reported these complaints she asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that it would take four or five days for anyone to get back to her unfortunately to this day it's been four or five weeks and no Supervisor has contacted her I question is this some kind of policy that a supervisor will take four or five days to respond one reason we're here today is precisely that complaints don't seem to be being answered with adequate promptness and attention and I don't see anything on today's agenda where complaints are being reviewed or addressed by this board secondly there was an issue with a ride that Miss nativi thought scheduled on August the 5th when the bus didn't arrive to pick her up she called and asked for the what happened uh she was told that there was no reservation to be found it seemed like like they were inferring that she had never called and it was her fault can you imagine how that would make someone feel to be waiting for a ride that you know you had scheduled and no one comes then when you check to be told there's nothing there this seems totally unacceptable and irresponsible to me I suggest that just as they issue confirmation codes for complaints that there should be a confirmation code issued for one's reservation that way when there's there's a backup record and they can refer to that and there's no gaslighting the consumer nor blaming a glitch in the system lastly there was an incident when Mrs natividad was at wmart waiting for a ride home at 300 p.m. the lift didn't your three minutes are up okay thank you sir I asked that these issues these um issues are not um been um fixed um I'd love to please make an appointment and we'll meet upstairs thank you yes sir thank you okay right so we'll um I'll talk uh I'll see you uh hopefully next day or two those are the only two members of the public sir all matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by mass transit Department board to be routined 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 and that would include the revision to item two to excuse board members rera and Hernandez good morning city council mayor excuse me good morning mayor city council um Anthony deiser director of of mass transit board thank you both of you for bringing those concerns on hold on we need a motion for the consent agenda is there a motion move to approve second there's a motion second on the conscent agenda voting session is open and we do have a motion made by board member Anella we don't have anything yet there's nothing available to vote on it's not no ma'am there it is okay molar and Salo and the the consent agenda has been approved unanimously we're going to move on to item number six mayor mayor if we may before moving on to the agenda um Mr deiser um will be contacting the individuals directly to make sure that the customer service issues that they faced will be addressed proactively by staff and we appreciate them sharing that information and we apologize for any misunderstanding or any inconvenience that they've suffered at this time but Mr deiser will be addressing and we'll be in touch with them directly sir to make sure that their issues are addressed I appreciate that and like I said um if they need to come see me I please do Mr Shar I know we've met before so thank you thank you ma'am thank you sir item number six is far West Texas El Paso Regional Transportation Coordination Committee update and there is a presentation it if you can please open the present bring up the presentation for item number six who's doing the presentation up on the come on up please good morning mayor city council Anthony deiser director of mass transit morning Colonel good morning mayor this presentation um of the Farwest El Paso Transit Regional Transportation Coordination Committee um is uh to present to you the purpose is to build stronger Transportation Community by facilitating collaboration and the sharing of information to better Transit service in the region the weep has no direct authority over Transit agencies in the area one of their focus is to improve the overall Ada accessibility uh for the community and the El elderly weep also facilitates and reinforces Partnerships with state and federal agencies in particular the FTA and teot Sun Metro's role in the wup steering committee as the largest public transportation area in in the west Texas region with 50 years of experience we assist in Phil facilitating connection Cs and building relationships with external agencies such as Tech noo and the FTA and we share transit information like Trends Solutions and recommendations sunro has been participating since 2006 coordinating through the committee or its members we participate in health faires Transportation Summits and community outreach uh opportunities the committee's leading agency is project Amat and Celia Garcia and Xavier Benavides um are here to present this presentation good morning good morning mayor and members of our city council my name is Javier banales I'm a member of the steering committee of the Farwest Texas El Paso Regional Transportation Coordination Committee for short it's weep West Texas El Paso so when we refer to weep we're talking about this Regional planning committee and the reason we're be we're here before you is BEC to to present to the mes Transit board it's spelled out in one of the slide presentations that uh that we have so I'll start the program the presentation by introducing Celia Garcia she is the Chief Operating Officer uh at for social services at project Amistad and she and I are presenting our presentation is about eight or nine minutes long and so I'll start by sharing with you and can we go to the next slide please the Genesis of the of this committee goes back to the 1990s with the signing of the American with Disabilities Act by President George Bush the Ada mandated that reasonable accommodations be provided to elderly persons and persons with disabilities shortly after the Ada became law advocates for this population noted that there was a disconnect between transportation services and Social Services they felt that there was a need to better communicate and collaborate between Transportation providers and social service agencies and so the purpose for expanding the Ada was to address this concern services to elderly and persons with disabilities next slide please oh I doing sorry I'm used to do in uh 20 in 2003 the Texas legislature required that coordination between social services and agencies that provided public transportation services funded by federal state or local funds undergo uh collaboration communication and uh work together in 2004 the federal government called for a reduction of duplication of services by federally funded transportation services and and expanding access to transportation to elderly persons with disabilities low income and others such as Veterans for example in 2005 the Congress passed Federal legislation that called for the establishment of locally developed coordinated public transit Human Services Transportation plans and the coordination was left to the states and of course in Texas texad the Texas Department of Transportation was given the responsibility of implementing Regional planning in 2006 Then texad followed up and contracted with local agencies within the 24 regions of Texas to ensure that Regional planning occurred in 2006 El Paso County Area Agency on Aging and Amistad came together and established WIP El Paso County became the lead and Fiscal Agent and functioned in this capacity until 2017 in 2017 Amistad became became the lead and Fiscal Agent to continue the implementation of the transportation Regional planning in 2020 Amistad coordinated the development of the current plan which I believe is before you you should all have a copy of that plan uh which was uh approved by texad in the year 2022 and the regional plan covers the period between 2022 through 2026 it's a 5-year plan and so the plan before you was approved in 2022 this is this is an overview of the map of Texas of course with the regions of Texan and as you can see Far West Texas uh has eight some sorry six counties El Paso husp curome Jeff Davis Presidio and and Brewster and so our area covers those six counties 95 to 96% of the population lives in El Paso County but the other four 4% are uh included in the other five uh counties and of course we make every effort possible to include them in any meetings any partic any events that we have next slide being a state uh plan we had to interface with uh goals as established by the state of Texas and among them was one to eliminate waste in the provision of public transportation services to generate efficiencies that will permit increased levels of service and to further the state's effort to reduce air pollution and so Tech St as I mentioned earlier is the entity that oversees the monitoring and The Guiding and the funding of the Regional plans throughout the whole state of Texas and so when we ask ourselves why Regional planning why is it important well it plans for a more efficient and effective network of public transportation providers within the region it identifies resources to get people to desired destinations uh have communities that come together to develop five-year plans to address Transportation needs and Human Services and to identify inventories of transport ation resources available throughout the entire region and also to complete a comprehensive needs assessment and GAP analysis in the region next and we are unique in our region because we're the only one in the whole state of Texas that actively has participation by an adjacent State and in this of course in this case of course it is New Mexico and of course this is because several communities straddled the Texas New Mexico border of course chaparal s Lin Park Anthony there's a bus service that operates between El Paso in Las Cruses the south central New Mexico Regional Transit District operates a bus transit services between El Paso and Las Cruses and points in between and of course they use City and County Roads as they move up uh to their areas in New Mexico El Paso County and da Anna have formal and informal relationships whereby coordination of services is done for the betterment of uh residents within both States da Ana county is a member of the no Metropolitan planning organization and has within its board of directors several elected officers from D Anna County so as you can see it's very basic that New Mexico entities participate and the reason we address this is because uh we've been asked about it as to why New Mexico entities are participating with the Texas uh Regional plan the the mission of the uh Regional planning committee is to promote collaboration between Transportation providers and health and human services and as you can see uh it's a very basic Mission the I statement of course being a little bit more when the wrong way being more Global and far-reaching uh states that persons within West Texas and El Paso's six County region will have access to Social Services and in that include customer service center dependable and convenient transportations wiep is not a regulatory agency nor do we have final approval on any funding uh proposals that are submitted either to Texon or to the federal government through the Federal Transportation agency at the state level weev is an entity that Fosters and promotes communication collaboration and supports services to member agencies when needed next the implementation plan again you should have a copy of there before you uh contains five goals and as you can see each of the goals have a number of uh operating objectives the first goal is is uh where's go one sorry gold one I think there's some sles missing can my apologies the implementation plan uh that is before you has those five goals and the each each of the goals have five or six operating objectives and you can see the first one to implement the plan very basic goal number two is to promote collaboration resulting in continued and improved services to persons served goal three is to fill gaps in Services through identification and assessment of changing Mobility needs and increase efficiencies funding opportunities as well as new technologies and goal four which is the reason we're before you today uh states to maintain public knowledge of Transit and Social Services throughout the six County region in fact operating objective four of this particular goal specifically states that we're to make presentations to public uh policy makers such as City councils in fact we've presented this uh we made this presentation to groups like the city of Soro uh Council of um the call Council of uh governments the Metropolitan planning organization and so uh the county of El Paso then the last goal is to promote efforts to maximize technical assistance and training to member agencies and here's again the overview of the various goals and objectives and ACC course you'll see these on uh chapter six of the regional plan that you have before you as for the contents of the regional plan the first chapter provides empirical data that we've gathered from various uh sources sources like the Metropolitan planning organization the Texas Transportation Institute from texad and various regional and local reports such as from the county of El Paso from the city of El Paso suan Metro and other similar reports we include a section on surveys and that's in the appendix the last section that surveys that were taken of writers from s Metro from the County Transit System from Amistad from uh bmbb from different entities that provide transport ation so this the results of the surveys as well as the surveys themselves are included in the appendix which you can look at your uh pleasure input from policy makers also was gathered there were about 15 policy makers uh that we interviewed in fact they are found on chapter one Pages 11 through 20 and these included individuals uh from the we had two uh County Commissioners from the uh two City we have a mayor two Mayors um a State Rep State uh Regional person from the Health and Human Services Commission along with heads from a agencies such as the Cog Metropolitan planning organizations on Metro BMV project Amistad Project Bravo ol the Center for Independent Living and then the next chapter on um chapter eight uh has the performance measures these are important because this is how we evaluate ourselves and actually are evaluated by the member agencies as well as by texad and of course uh the plane sessions and the vehicle inventories are also also included in this Regional plan okay thank you and to continue of course on this slide you all can see um we had a transportation Summit in 2019 uh which of course our keynote speaker was uh the public transportation division director uh Mr Eric gleon um we did have a lot of panel discussions we provide information of course to the public and all the attendees participated in public meetings um of course as I mentioned the welcoming address was done by the county commissioner and of course participation by tex. uper management we had over 75 attendees and we also reported on the regional PL status to that date which of course covered the 5-year period before the current plan um you know there was new stakeholders welcome and and of course we always uh try to engage you know Community agencies that do provide services to older individuals and persons with disabilities with the purpose of collaboration um on our next slide of course just some pictures for you all with representation of the different agencies that collaborated during that Transportation Summit um you know dialysis agencies like d of course Amistad am mer group 211 Texas Rio Grande and uh the Health and Human Services of region 10 of course next slide is another picture for you of course city of sooro we mentioned to you city of Al Paso uh s Metro of course a big part of our committee uh Big Bend Community Action and of course once again the county of Al Paso and Amistad and um just a a a short list for you all of some of the representative agencies that collaborate through this committee um you know Big Ben Community Action city of Soro Amistad we have New Mexico Family Services of course um dialysis centers Workforce Solutions all of these agencies that in some way form provide either transportation services or social services to older adults and persons with disabilities utilizing um transit services uh of course some of our partnering agency logos for you all and here of course we present to you our uh officers for the steering committee of course uh Victor Reta from the city of Soro is our chair we have misset Lugo who's the vice chair U Miss Nunes from big bank community action who's our secretary and of course some of the members lordes Torres from New Mexico Family Services of course Mr banales um here from mmy Dad and our most recent of course update Miss Claudia Garcia from Sun Metro city of El Paso and David Aro South Central New Mexico Regional Transit um of course our meetings are done at least four times during the year um and our steering committee meetings of course are done prior to to plan the agenda items you know discuss all the relevant topics uh the meetings are normally held at Amistad boardroom uh of course you all know during the pandemic you know we we did Institute a a virtual option and more recently we still continue to provide that option to those that uh it would take them an hour or more to to drive to Amistad there are of course special meetings as as necessary and um just to you know to to encourage you all to go to our website um if you log in through the Amistad website we have a link for the wiep website which includes all of this information that you all can review um you know for for your own information um as we mentioned we're currently in the 2022 to 2026 Regional plan and we address a goal where we you know share this information of course to to policy polic makers and anyone of course interested in in the work that's being done um and of course you all have our our contact information there in case you have any questions or anything further that you'd like to to know about weep thank you all for your time today thank you all thank you for being here thank you sir Colonel or Diana item number seven and that is the discussion and action that the mass transit Department board ratifies the execution of the submitter merchant agreement with Chase payment tech for the provision of thirdparty payment processing services and the execution of the payment processing Services agreement and also with genfare a limited liability company for credit card payment processing Services connected to the continued fun functionality of the ticket vending s machines tvms that the public uses to purchase Sun Metro bus passes for a term to begin effective date and end on December 1st 2024 this item was postponed from September 12th thank you and and that you brief everybody or just me I just brief to you mayor okay um so again this is Anthony deiser director of Sun Metro this is a represent um just for a little history um this is agreement between uh genfare and Chase bank before it was an agreement between genfare and pay easy but pay easy had Sunset and so um the tvms need to be converted from uh to a Chase processor making two agreements necessary a genfar payment processor agreement and emergence agreement with the Chase Bank and so again I I briefed the mayor specifically on the question that he had how did the payments get processed and so the Gen Fair transition fee is 2.9% of the total value of transactions plus a 05% transaction fee gen faires 2.9 includes the software maintenance and Reporting and Reporting and support services Chase Bank transactions fee is 2.6 making the total transaction fee of 5.5 um plus the 05% transaction fees all of those fees go to Sun Sun Metro last year um the the total cost for 2003 was about $15,900 um dollar and so that's that's how it gets separated and Sun Metro um takes those cost and we take those cost so the price of the ticket doesn't doesn't go up and get um passed on to the customer now both of them combined it's like 23 24,000 um some like that yes yes as we discuss when when we bre you mayor and and I think the biggest problem I had with this was the the way it was handled and I think we've talked about it and moving forward I I think we'll we'll be a a little bit different on this but um this um this program is already in existence we're already using it and if we turn it down we'd still be using it so it um it kind of we went the wrong direction but I think we all know how what we got to do moving forward so thank you you're welcome go ahead sir thank you mayor um this question is for Mr cortinas Mr cortinas we as the city of El Paso are a financial institution that we normally have services with is Wells Fargo that's correct sir okay so in this particular case if payment is being made to Chase Bank or whatever subsidiary of Chase how do we get funds to the city of will pass to to Wells Fargo it would be to the credit cards system sir just credit card system that's it and is there added fees for that none additional above be on what Mr deiser just briefed so there was like no way um Wells Fargo has this system in place that we could have gone straight to our financial institution of choice not in this case this was B out and so this was the selected vendor for this particular item sir okay thank you you now this contract's already been signed we're already apply we're already moving forward and it's a one-year contract correct correct and in the future yes yes sir so in the future we can do something different but unfortunately this one's this one's the ship's already sailed correct is there a motion motion approved second and there's a motion by board member Fieros second seconded by board member Salo to approve voting session is open and the item has been approved with board member Molina voting nay next item is item number eight and that is a discussion and action to issue a purchase order to seman Mobility Incorporated the sole and authorized distributor for 2023-24 747 good morning Crystal boss with purchasing and strategic sourcing this item is linked to strategical number number seven enhance and sustainable passel infrastructure Network the linkage to the Strategic plan is subsection 7.3 enhance Regional comprehensive transportation system this is a request that the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue purchase orders to seedsman Mobility Inc the sole authorized distributor for 2023-the with the stipulation that the vendor provides an updated Soul Source letter and affidavit each year is there a motion anymore is there a motion to approve move to approve second we have a motion made by board member molinar seconded by board member Canales to approve voting session is open and the item has been approved unanimously board member Fiero not present for the vote item number nine and that is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2023 0673 janitorial services mass transit rebid to Francisco Coral doing business as Eagle janitor old Service Company for an initial term of 3 years for an estimated amount of 6,845 79 move to approve motion made by board member anelo seconded by board member Salo there's a question by represent mulard um what is the current um hourly rate for the custodial staff Janette NAD purchasing and strategic sources Department uh the current hourly billing rate is um on one moment it was 1050 an hour and it went up to 18 correct okay thank you thank you 1825 correction thank you with that we have a motion in a second and we do have a motion and voting session is open Mr Fiero would you like to vote on this I and the item has been approved unanimously do we have a motion to adjourn second motion made by represent by board member molad and seconded by board member Canales to adjourn the mass transit Department board meeting for October the 10th at 10:37 a.m. all those in favor all those opposed and the meeting has been iner have motion to reconvene motion to reconvene second there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor I anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10:37 a.m. the next item is number 20 item 20 is discussion and action for the city Al Paso to use $500,000 of its fund from the American Rescue plan Act of 2021 to partner with up together a 501c3 nonprofit organization to provide direct unrestricted financial assistance of $500 per month for 12 months to Residents households facing financial hardship defined as earning a household income at or below 80% Ami for the local El Paso County area this item was submitted by representatives anelo and Molin thank you before we do that I think um Miss nean can you brief us a little bit on the item I know I'm going in the meeting so I'll go ahead and do that thank you go ahead um so so the request from uh representative vanello is to as as listed on the agenda is to take $500,000 from arpa and award it to um up together which is a a nonprofit organization and to use the money um to provide assistance for $500 a month for a year and it's supposed to be intended to be used for residents or households that are facing hardship which is defined per the language of the of the posting as household income at or below 80% uh Ami which is for the local um uh County area and it's intended per the the language on the resolution to ex in order to um address any negative economic impacts as a result of the co 19 pandemic uh we we have spoken mayor to to you and and representative anelo about some of the concerns that we listed the the the issue that we were concerned with originally is under arpa they Define um the financial hardship at 65% Ami so this is actually encompassing more people than would traditionally be what the guidelines are under arpa so that was the the first uh issue that we that we addressed well with representative anelo I think that there's also a few other issues that staff on the operation side have addressed in terms of um we don't believe that there's any available funding under arpa I think it's already been allocated for other areas and then it would be up to council to decide how you all wanted to proceed as a result of those issues that we've addressed here do you want to clarify that this morning please does that does this qualify under the guidelines based on the arpa funding so the the guidelines go ahead I'll I'll defer to our CFO thank you we would have to ensure one that as Miss nean mentioned there's obviously strict requirements related to ARA and the eligible uses I mean we would have to make sure that we had some further details related to this particular program it has been done by some other entities that did receive arpa funding however we just need to make sure that before we move forward with any authorization from City Council so that we did identify the particular guidance within the AR eligibility okay thank you for thato yeah I'm a little disappointed that the conversation that was had today was not brought up on amending the language I first want to say um other cities have done this with arpa funds I have agreed to take arpa out of the language to direct you all to find those funds U Mr cortinez a few months ago I was told that there was a $10 million surplus in arpa Council has not allocated that money also I called our regional HUD director last night to confirm that these are eligible for arpa dollars as many other cities have used them this is not the first time staff has heard about this we have asked you to meet with up together with a piso with myself for over a year um I'm concerned that I did not receive these questions until 7:00 last night but I was able to do the research to determine that these were eligible for arpa but still yet have had a conversation with snan this morning to take that language out and allow staff to find the appropriate funding but I don't appreciate coming up here and the conversation being like we're not sure if this is eligible had over a year to do this work it took me one phone call to find that and I still come here and been amendable to amend that language and yet that had not been been even mentioned or discussed and so it feels like I'm being a little bit cornered and I don't I really don't appreciate that um I do want to go to public comment so we can hear from the people but I I do want to say that I think this is extremely important I get calls all the time we have completely gone through all of our our utility support we have gone through our rental assistance support um I'm getting calls all of the time not just from residents but also organizations begging for that money um we have said that we're pushing towards we don't you know and I just have to say I think our plan for arpa has been a little bit all over the place from the beginning you know we said we were supporting communities we were said we were supporting small business so we've run out of that money and we've done no assessment to see what the actual need in this community is so I really applaud um the individuals who have had their boots on the ground and said this is what is needed for our community to survive I also remind Council that we spent and Robert you can find the final number for me but I think we spent about how many million dollars to resurface tennis courts with oura funds when we're talking about coming out of a pandemic and helping our community become stronger and more resilient to me this is the better use of that money than actual Sports Court so with that Miss P would ask if we or mayor if we could go a public comment I think had something to just one comment so at the last council meeting city council did approve that $3.8 million for the community readying center that we did purchase and that was done using the arpa funding as well and so while there has been some additional Surplus particularly in the co response all of those funds are currently allocated and that was one of the recent uses that we did uh take advantage of using the federal funding thank you and and if I may add mayor um additionally um in examples where this this type of funding has been provided in other communities there have been requirements of benchmarking and of of certain types of um deliverables that would come back to the city to to talk about that money and how that money is being utilized um staff has um and does have particular paths that could be followed but that's not something that is outlined in this guidance at this time and so therefore we would want to ensure um that that that that we could actually talk about the deliverables that would come back to to the community first and foremost there are a couple C of other concerns that staff has um mayor I don't know if you want to explore those now or if you would like to continue um with with with discussion among council at this time but there are some other concerns that have been discussed with um interim city manager um Carrie Weston and he asked that those be expressed as well today mayor can I uh use my remaining time to respond to miss jome go ahead ma'am absolutely um again uh language was worked on with legal this morning to address those concerns if you would like me to make the motion now so you can hear them I can but I I know that we are very much aware of this and so I don't know why those conversations are being brought up when we know that those have been addressed in the amended language um I'm I'm happy to read that language right now if anybody would like to he thank you mayor represent Canales thank you mayor uh and then we'll go to call to the public after that we than I think I think it was just important to hear the dialogue of where we're at and then listen to the public so go ahead sir thank you um I'll just start with a question am I hearing correctly then that there is no there is no longer $500,000 of arpa funds available to allocate currently all of the arpa funding is allocated to programs that the council approved in May of last year okay um and the the the final piece of that was the uh arpa funds that were allocated for the purchase of Morhead Middle School from episd so we continue to work with all of the Departments to where those funds were allocated all the different programs to ensure that they're spending with the timelines that we're going to be able to expend the funds prior to the timelines are having committed uh prior to the December 24 deadline which if they're committed or obligated we have until December 2026 to actually spend the funds so we still have a little over 3 years to spend the funds but we continue to work with all other departments to ensure that the programs that were approved are on track or on time and that you any potential opportunity to come back and do any reallocation would come forward probably within the next several months but currently right now there's no additional funding to be reallocated okay um regardless I I believe repella was saying that she had a an amendment to potentially remove arpa uh funding directly from this proposal but to to direct staff to move forward with uh with this and identify a different funding source um I I think today that we're presented with a really unique opportunity to make a significant impact on on the lives of people in El Paso who are struggling still due to the economic Fallout of the pandemic um again this item proposes that we allocate $500,000 uh to partner with upto together who are a very respected uh nonprofit organization um as the posting language reads this partnership uh aims to provide direct unrestricted financial assistance of $500 per month for 12 months to households facing hardship uh defined as those earning a household income at or below 80% of the area median income or Ami for El Paso County um so I know that there will be some some fear some trepidation about this kind of program largely because this type of basic Income Support Program uh is a really New Concept to us here in El Paso um but it's not a New Concept Nationwide and I I want today to strongly advocate for uh what essentially amounts to a pilot program here and I hope I can provide some some compelling reasons for us to approve it um we we can't ignore the fact that the co 19 pandemic has disrupted the lives and still continues to disrupt the lives uh and financial stability of of countless El Paso ends uh families that were financially secure before the pandemic have found themselves grappling with uh loss of jobs reduced hours and and that's led to more economic insecurity here um as representatives of of this community I think it's our our duty to assist those El pasoans who have been placed into this vulnerable vulnerable position uh by by the pandemic and the resulting insecurity in our economy um the the proposed program here offers a LIF line to those who are struggling to make ends meet it empowers them to uh regain control over their own uh lives and and economic futures um furthermore the the basic income program we're supporting today or I'm supporting today uh aligns perfectly I think with the overarching goals of the American Rescue plan Act of 2021 or arpa um arpa was enacted to address the The Economic Consequences of the pandemic very directly um and this proposal partnership with up together is a really direct and meaningful way to utilize uh These funds to uplift our residents directly um even if we don't use arpa I think that uh again we have a duty to help the people in El Paso who are struggling um this uh program recognizes the importance of economic mobility and and self-sufficiency of our residents it's not a handout uh but an investment in in the future of these residents so by off offering unrestricted financial assistance uh we enable individuals and families to make choices that are best suited to their own circumstances whether that's investing in further education or Healthcare uh or entrepreneurship uh this initiative empowers our residents to build their own power to improve their own unique situations um there are broader economic benefits of such a program as well putting money directly into the hands of struggling uh El Paso households has a multiplier effect on our local economy so as recipients spend these funds on essential goods and services uh local businesses will be the ones who benefit the most helping to revitalize our our economy in El Paso and stimulate more growth uh we saw a similar multiplicative effect on community spending during the the height of the pandemic when the federal government provided stimulus checks uh you know directly to the people funded by the co related Tax Relief act of 2020 and the care act um those checks reached approximately 85% of us households so I'm I'm sometimes disheartened when I hear that programs such as the one we're considering today uh are opposed by some people because they only provide uh assistance to low-income households who need the help the most in order to meet their basic needs um this program has a potential to serve as a really valuable test case uh for us here in El Paso for the effectiveness of basic Income Support uh as a tool for addressing poverty and and inequality uh by collecting uh data that we we get back from this program and evaluating the outcomes uh we can gain some really valuable insights into the potential long-term impact of a of a longer program on our community uh and potentially inform some future policy decisions that we can make as a council uh similar pilot programs across cities uh across the country have been very successful um the those include programs in Birmingham Alabama Phoenix Arizona uh many cities in California including Los Angeles Oakland San Diego San Francisco uh somoma Stockton there's Denver Colorado Atlanta Georgia Chicago Illinois New Orleans and sheveport in Louisiana Baltimore Maryland uh New York City uh Newark and Patterson in New Jersey Providence and Rhode Island Austin and San Antonio here in Texas Seattle and Tacoma and Washington many more there are programs all across the country uh that are doing something similar to what we're doing what what is proposed here today um and I'll note that some cities on the list such as Chicago Seattle Mountain View uh have used arpa funds uh specifically to fund their programs um I want to look a little bit more closely at a small selection of of the programs uh I'll start with the Stockton economic empowerment demonst demonstration or seed program uh this one was established by the city of Stockton California uh and led by then Mayor Michael tubs it provided Ed 125 low-income residents with $500 a month for 24 months with no strings attached and the data that they received back from the seed program suggested that the recipients used the funds primarily for basic necessities like food utilities and Transportation uh particularly transportation to work uh and it also found that there were improvements in employment and mental health and overall well-being for those participants um I'll also look at Jackson Mississippi where the Magnolia mothers trust uh which was a pilot program there provided $1,000 a month for 12 months to low-income black mothers living in federally subsidized housing so the findings there uh indicated that the the funds help recipients to pay their uh their bills reduce Financial stress and I think very importantly improve their housing situations uh housing stress is something that we Face uh pretty significantly here in El Paso that we share with Jackson um and I would hope to see a similar uh knock on effect here in El Paso um as you can tell from the the long list of of cities this program is no longer rare in the United States and these programs all across the country have H have uh by and large had really successful outcomes um however if that's not the case here and for whatever reason we don't see the the positive effect and positive outcome that we're hoping for uh the proposed action today only allocates onetime funding so not ongoing funds this isn't a program that would continue into the future NE necessarily um it's essentially a pilot program so we're under no obligation to move forward with basic Income Support as a as a future strategy for tackling financial hardship here in El Paso if we don't uh see the results that that we think we'll see um that said I think this will be effective here and we won't ever know unless we try uh so I urge the council to vote in favor uh of this uh basic income support program today uh and to enter into this partnership with upe who I think will be an excellent partner for us uh by doing so we can send a really powerful message of uh empowerment of our our fellow Alp pasoans who are struggling as a result of of challenging Economic Times uh and in passing this today we'll we'll demonstrate our commitment to economic Justice here in El Paso uh resilience and recovery for the the families and El pasoans who need uh the extra support coming out of the difficult Economic Times uh brought on by the pandemic thank you mayor thank you sir and I appreciate you and I know you always uh do your research and come up and and show us the facts and I appreciate that's really important as we talk about something that's uh this important than just putting it out there but actually sharing the facts and everything else I think makes makes a big difference so I do appreciate you uh doing that and kind of sharing all the statistics you did with us and uh and you liing your 9 minutes and 58 seconds good job I know that's what you're saying good job thank you sir uh repes sentive um FAL thank you Mr mic on there you go thank you mayor and U first of all my colleague here is very articulate and he really told us how right exactly oh the why the why we need to do this program the why it's going to touch so many people the why other communities have done and been successful at my question is the how you know I was under the impression that there was arpa fund still available and we were just going to move some arp funds into this program but that would be my question to everyone up here is and to staff is where is that 500,000 half a million dollars going to come from thank you mayor thank you Mr cortinez no as I mentioned that we would just have contined to evaluate those programs to see if there's potential to reallocate some of that funding towards this if the council wishes to move forward with this type of program thank you for that and with that we do have a public comment yes mayor we have Ivana ner Miss ner star six please to unmute your telephone and you'll have 3 minutes Ivana ner star six please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes hello can you hear me yes ma'am good morning everyone my name is ianti and I am the senior partnership director out of together I'm here to request that you approve the proposal on item 20 and allocate $500 $500,000 um from marpa funding or other sources to provide direct unrestricted financial assistance of $500 a month for 12 months to Residents in households facing financial hardship Define as earning a household income at or below 80% of Ami for the local El Paso County area up together is a nonprofit that for over two decades has partnered with government philanthropy and Community organizations to distribute cash directly to families while learning how they work together in community to achieve their goals and Achieve Financial Security since 2020 up together has successfully completed over 18 city and county level government Partnerships including El Paso County city of San Antonio and City of Austin in Texas since November 2020 up together has been in partnership with the Woody and and yel H hum Family Foundation El Paso County and Aliso and Border Interfaith providing more than $1 million in direct investment to more than a thousand households in El Paso County through our work in El Paso and across the country we have collected data that shows that directly directly invest in cash in people without restrict without restrictions and how it spend improves Financial stability and well-being thanks to an investment made by the Woody and Gale h family foundation and other philanthropist we have had the opportunity to expand our own work in 2024 through partnership with the city and anticipated contributions from the from the county and philanthropy we expect to be able to invest in in 82 households in the city and 83 in the county with six $6,000 over 12 months providing $500,000 a month as I as I mentioned the stories that you will hear today on the power of the up together approach are not unique and we know that thousands of families can improve their lives if you make the right Investments here are some of the highlights on what we've learned from the initiatives that we've launched in partnership with El Paso County city of Austin city of San Antonio and in Dallas just as um representative Canal mentioned all participants use the money primarily for basic needs such as food housing medical bills participants indeed increase their housing stability over time we see how uh participants get to improve their health wellbeing and food security income gets increased debt decreases and in some inst instances ownership increases as well participants work towards sustainable outcomes such as raising children going back to school moving to better paying jobs among others today is your opportunity to be a part of this initiative that will provide major Financial stability to residents living with low income F houses thank you and I'm available for any questions as well thank you the next speaker is Rosa Luhan followed by Claudia Garcia Roxana Perez good morning Miss Lan you have three minutes thank you mayor and members of city council good morning good morning my name is Rosa Luhan and I am a member of St Thomas aquinus Catholic church and a leader with a piso and Border Interfaith in 2020 during the height of the pandemic our organization started doing hundreds of very virtual and phone meetings with those in need in El Paso we heard many stories of families on the edge who had experienced the death of the bread winner in their families Health emergencies and people who lost their jobs who now found themselves unable to pay for food utilities and housing many people were not eligible for pandemic relief funds episo and Border Interfaith organized quickly and were able to respond to the need working with the county of El Paso the hunt family foundation and with the upto together initiative we were able to get 1,340 families in the county over $1 million in direct cash assistance so that they could spend this money on their top priorities and stabilize their finances this money was distributed over two rounds of funding and had unanimous support from the County Commissioners who understood the ongoing need the pandemic may be wanning but its effects are far from over many families are still reeling from job laws hospital and utility bills that piled up and other difficulties also when we were doing Outreach in the county we started getting a lot of calls from those on the edge in the city of El Pas Paso we know the need is deep and widespread we are here today with great hopes that you will vote for the city of El Paso to also invest in this initiative so that families in the city can also have an opportunity to stabilize their situations it is a great model and gives people the dignity to work their own way out of economic Strife thank you thank you thank you the next speaker at this time we have the next speaker is CL excuse me ma'am Garcia excuse me thank you Claudia Garcia will be assisted by licensed interpreter Marcelo Gonzalez good morning my name is Claudia Garcia and I a member of the sanan Diego Parish co co 19 has disrupted my home causing my husband and my children to lose their job in fact my oldest daughter of 25 years old contracted the co 19 virus she was hospitalized during a six- week period she was intubated she was sedated this was a very difficult time due to the fact that we didn't have information from her apart from phone calls from the [Music] hospital she turned 26 in the hospital without her family these times were also very difficult because the money that we did have was depleting and my husband was unable to find work my apologies still affects me amongst all this I still had to think about my daughter's recovery her medication expenses as well as her therapy when this time came about we were filling out application upon application they were very long they were very tedious they were causing stress and depression only to think was I filling out these applications [Music] correctly the aftermath for people who have suffered from coid 19 people like my daughter are very sad my daughter left the hospital with a tube in her trachea and also a tube in her stomach so that she could eat she could not talk and she could not walk she is still suffering from muscle aches that do not let her sleep and she suffers from epileptic seizures she still continues with her physical and mental therapy which has made her unable to work that has caused stress anxiety and depression to her and her family thanks thankfully to God this initiative was created along with the county and money from private corporations the thanks to the up upto together initiative we were able to get ahead also thanks to them many other families from from my community were also benefited for example my friend her husband had a stroke she she had to look for financial and medical help for her husband with a part-time job and with help from the upto together initiative she was able to pay for the medications needed and provide financially for her home we're very grateful for the help provided by this initiative up together we know many more families still need the help and we ask for you to support the upto together initiative we'd like to thank you for your time and attention graas the next speaker is Roxana Perez good morning you have three minutes good morning hi good morning my name is Roxana Perez I am 28 years old currently now um I just want to let you know how the up together helped me and my family out in the severe time of need and that year coid 19 and a big winter storm hit Al Paso Texas I live in an old mobile home with my two young children and I remember I remember that that time time was very hard because my husband got very ill and at the moment he was the only one who could provide money um it was very hard because I didn't have money to repair my water lines and everything that was happening at the time with my house luckily one morning Miss suuki bis called me and she said look I know you're struggling up together is trying to give funds to those families who are need why don't you do the application me and my doubtful mind uh 50% chance I know it's a no but what's with the other 50 so I took the risk and I applied this money turned out to be a huge blessing it was not just money lended out to me or given to me it turned out to be a big blessing to my family because I was able to provide what was necessary for my kids and medical expenses for my husband thanks to up together things are now good at home but I know that as it was a big blessing to me it can be a big blessing to other families in El Paso and I just want to take the time to let you know that I am very grateful for this opportunity to be standing in front of you may the Lord keep blessing you all and give you wisdom to take wise decisions this morning thank you God bless thank you and I'm glad everything's going well for you the next speaker is elio the Aila good morning mayor and City Representatives just two points this this money that we're talking about is for City individuals when we did what what the people have been talking about concerning up together and the county it was for County individuals but we discovered that the need was also within the city and people were sorely sorely disappointed that they could not be declared eligible for entry into the program to receive assistance what I will do is tell give you a statement from the hunt Foundation the hunt Foundation is the private philanthropy that is talking aled about in the testimony so far that we've given this is the statement our foundation is committed to improving the quality of life of el pasoans which is why we are proud to once again partner with episo borderer faith up together and the city of El Paso on an initiative to invest in El Paso families and support their Ingenuity and resilience with this support each family will not only be able to meet their unique needs but also move towards long-term Economic Security and prosperity Woody L hunt chairman of the Woody and Gail hunt Family Foundation thank you thank you and with that I think um we have one more speaker Miss Turner signed up to speak who did Miss turner oh miss Turner yes sir how could I miss miss Turner with great difficulty mayor I [Laughter] know mayor counsel uh about 34 trillion doll was handed out in PP loan PPP loans and forgiven uh we take care of business all the time we do very little for the individuals uh I'm just curious all the gentlemen in here how would you like to take a 43% pay cut how would you like to work at the same rate that a Hispanic woman works you would have to take a 43% pay cut because she makes 57 cents on the dollar I want you to remember that we have a large community made up of households led by women I saw an article the other day it was I think it's CNBC a Hispanic woman would have to work to the age of 90 to earn the same income as a white non-hispanic male by the time he turned 60 this is a lot of the problems we have in this community problem that you should be addressing problem that business should be addressing we've got to to do something you can't keep turning your back on the people it's time that you start paying attention to the people and stop the bleeding from the treasury going to business we bend over backwards to business and yet women don't get paid their work is devalued and that's tens of millions of dollars just in El Paso alone that's not going into the economy you know we pay people properly we won't have these issues but we refuse to pay people properly we don't value the work of a woman even when she has more education which according to the Department of Labor says women are more educated than men and yet they make less and even when a woman is in a female dominated job like nurses the nursing profession guess what she makes less than the men we've got a lot of work to do and this is just a start thank you thank you Mr Turner do we have a motion here pardon me ma'am uh he just put his thing on yes representative Kennedy um there are so many issues that were brought up today that are all valid issues um but not necessarily Germaine to the issue at hand um and I appreciate the cities the list of cities that have done it in your Howard Dean homage without the scream at the end uh of places where this has been done my concern was so initially there was a thought arpa funds would be used but wait we don't have any let's go find some others you know is this a pilot program is this a test case is this a survey is this it's it's not a handout but we haven't heard a whole lot of controls and I'm concerned about all that and that's why I will not be supporting this item I'm not necessarily a fan of guaranteed income or Universal basic income but that's a different issue that's what it seems this item is um I think there is some concerns that I have that this was brought forward with a concept to me that there was going to be dedicated funding and there might be but there might not and I'm not one that's going to vote for a half a million dollars without it having been fully fleshed out and looked at and checked through with legal and financial and everybody else and I'm just not ready to support this item thank you representative mayor proam thanks mayor uh first I want to thank representative Canales for sharing all that data I had a lot of it but unfortunately um I had to spend my first 10 minutes speaking about things that were already addressed before this council meeting um and so with that I'm going to make the motion so you can understand how the language has been changed um and the language actually written by legal so they were aware prior to those comments um so the motion to authorize city manager and City attorney to identify a funding source for $500,000 and create a process to select an organization to support families that are at or below 80% adjusted median income with metrics and standards as required by relevant law and the relevant funding source in an effort to assist those at risk of eviction and prevention of homelessness so that is the motion and I and I'm app appreciative of of Representative Kennedy's concerns because I think a lot of the conversation around this has been there's no there's no checks and balances um there's none of this there's none of this council is the policy of this organization are it is not my job to stop and say these are the checks and balances that needs to be put in this is the appropriate funding source that needs to put in and I did say that at first still feel like I'm hearing conflicting information about arpa fund and the actual balance that we have but the truth is we are here to direct them to find the funding that they deem appropriate and to write the contract and put in the metrics that they deem appropriate it would be overstepping for me as a council member to do so um again thankful to representative Canales uh so I don't have to read all that data but I would actually like to ask U Miss Nicole farini some questions as she did an assessment of this program I think about six to eight months ago and we started discussing ing this with staff so just so you're all clear this is not a conversation that has just happened overnight um Miss farini in your assessment you kind of close off by saying that you the community human development has prepared an FY 24 supplemental request for consideration that would support a forementioned notice of funding availability um don't need you to get into details about that but I know that you oversaw a lot of the funds that we put towards rental assistance and we put towards um utility assistance those funds when did they run out Jor very quickly I remember I would have to get back to you on an exact date I can tell you that all of those funds are expended we did um something like $30 million in rental assistance and that went out in about 12 months from the date that we executed those agreements okay um yeah yeah I appreciate it because I know that this Council has re uh kind of replenished the economic development funds have have you had any replenishment of rental assistance or utility assistance since that original allocation so initially rental assistance was funded through two Federal Vehicles cares the cares act did you all remember during the height of coid and then the emergency rental assistance program the ER program um which came following cares once those were depleted we were uh this Council allocated $9 million in arpa funding to address Community vulnerability however rental census was not included in that because we prioritized those individuals experiencing homelessness those at risk of immediate homelessness rapid rehousing and Street Outreach um so there were no rental assistance funds included in the arpa allocation for Community Development and since those last allocations do you think that the need has gone down no absolutely not I would say that what we see in our community needs assessment that we deployed last year I think you even saw indications of it in the community health assessment is that access to those kinds of resources is absolutely still a challenge in our community yeah and I remember you mentioning that the budget I remember you asking for these funds correct um and again you you've heard me and I think you've read the amended language I was even able to get that to you prior to the council meeting um do you feel that that language limits your ability to look at metrics when it comes to the funding and to write a contract that you think is is secure um in just the distribution of that funding I would defer to legal on the language of the motion but what I will tell you is that um to allow us to explore a process that would align with whichever funding source is identified that doesn't occur at the community development level but once we understand what the funding source is we will work with legal to investigate the regulatory structure and make sure that we put the proper controls in place and those are ultimately embedded in the subian agreements that we do and so just want to be clear that this language is not stopping you from doing any of that process what you do for noas no f i don't believe so okay all right um and then I I also just want to say again arpa was the initial funding source that was in um the original language um again we've seen in other cities them use $380 we have a 380 fund like this is not we're not asking to pull this from general fund I know that was actually a request of yours in FY 2024 um that is not what I'm asking I'm asking staff they and and I guess this is maybe a Miss nean question before you all execute a contract you would have to come to council correct to approve the final contract that that's correct so we work with staff on the proposed linguage to ensure as as Miss farini was just stating um that it meets the requirements and the funding stream okay so today we are not handing out $500,000 we we are directing you to do the due diligence of a process that is what it says it says create a process I'll read it again since I wasn't able to read it before direct the city manager and City attorney to identify the funding source or $500,000 and create a process to select an organization that's actually exactly what it says um and so that's what I wanted to be very clear about I I appreciate the disagreement and allowing me to reiterate that one more time but that is exactly what the language says this is not the allocation of $500,000 it is creating the process and and again based on um what staff had said to us months ago during a budget process that they did see that this was a need that we needed to fill the Gap and so this is directing them to find a way to do this so thank you very much Miss Frey yes ma'am thank you and now it's your second time this will be your second time sir oh thank you Mr Mayor thank you U mayor Pro 10 brought up some very good points and one is I believe that we should direct staff to identify the half a million dollars where it can or where it could come from answer all the legal questions that this body has brought up um all the directives to move forward and and to put a time limit on them coming back to us with those answers that that is what what I would I would like to amend the motion to read that way the motion that that I'm looking at here and I I don't know if maybe I'm on the wrong page or the wrong date but doesn't say exactly what you're saying there U mayor proam I know the motion was amended by legal this morning again they did not contact me until 7 o'clock last night um and so the language that I read is the motion the one that are on the agenda is not a motion is not the language that's correct right okay that would be my suggestion make a motion um yeah in fact um um May I I'd like to make that I think that's important that as we Direct staff and we're we're spending taxpayers money that we find a source for it we just can't so to go come back and see if there is or is because obviously we do a budget and within the budget we have um we have constraints so it's important to see where and when where the money is and and that's why I thought it was really important that um City attorney and and staff talked about that the item on the agenda did not we didn't have the money available but how we can move forward and see if we do and how we can find it and how we can do it in a different way so that was really important so it's not quite what the item on the agenda is which is use arpa funding but um we um we are looking at a different way of trying to um work with the community now if I'm not mistaken this would um take care of about 83 families it's about the right number3 right 83.3 so we'll go to 84 so yeah so that um and what what is the number of families that would qualify at the 80% level Mr Dava do you know I don't know Ian out n might have somebody yeah I'm just wondering what that number you know because there's a lot of people in need in our community and and based on you know broadening all people that that wanted well excuse me hold on Sir will you mind coming up and I apologize I'm the one who was asking you the questions but yeah please in the previous experience with the county there were more people that we had to turn away and it wasn't us it was up together that either there was the money was exhausted or they were not eligible yeah but I would believe that there's thousands and thousands of families that would qualify for this and so this is just kind of um 83 fames Le there's quite a small number to to help and how do we determine who qualifies and doesn't qualify I think that's something that needs to be really important as we move forward to try to help is what is the criteria to because like I said if people are going to apply we're going to have thousands and thousands of will qualify with only 84 of them being taken care of and I think Miss finini is shaking her head which I think we need to come up with some criteria of who what and when and how we determine who will get it and and that's something that's really important when when we're talking about helping the community and being able to do something like this Miss finini can you um kind of help me a little bit with this up up together up together we we'll be handling all that no yes sir no you can stay up I just no please I don't I don't bite um if I understand the the your comments and your question sir correctly I can't give you a number of el pasoans that qualify at 80% Ami but it is a large number of El Pas we are talking about in the thousands um we know that there's approximately 200,000 households in our community we know that approximately 20% of them are in poverty and so we understand that there is a great demand we saw that you know during Co 19 the total number of assistance that we pushed out was $77 million and it was not enough right and we we understood that and so there will be a large number of families that we have to turn away my understanding was that we could serve 75 but I think that um if I understand the motion correctly you all are asking us to go back and take a look at that and take a look at the possibilities the fun the available funding it will be very important to identify which funding source we're talking about um as was mentioned earlier we did come forward during the budget process because we were looking for the most flexible funding source um but as we start to look at you know whether it be you know in in past history was cares or era each one of those had very very different constraints and so we can analyze that for you and come back to the council and and be more clear about how many who and with what prioritization structure I believe that's what you're asking me for yes ma' that's really important because there'll be so many people and you know how are we going to determine who deserves it more than the others and so I'd like to have some really good criteria so we can be really fair in the process thank you for that um represent Kennedy I think you're good I was going to say that it it absolutely is our responsibility to worry about the implementation I mean we talked to the people from Mass Transit about what the percentage is on their credit card charges but we're not going to worry about the mechanics of the implementation of a half a million dollars which we don't know where it's coming from and we don't know where we're going to find it and we're going to go ahead and push this through on a program that could be a pilot program a test case a conceptual analysis and I think to get lost in the is there poverty in El Paso that's a simple yes is there poverty in people in need that need to be helped the answer is yes um and I don't blame councel or staff or anybody else for those those are issues that we will have to deal with I disagree that this is the process to do it I think that if it had come out more fully fleshed out that it doesn't take a council action to get that done and that's the only reason I'm not supporting it that's exactly what I'm saying we need to get the process procedure and the criteria because there's so many people that do qualify and we want to make sure that we serve and not discriminate by any means on how we're doing it and where we're doing it that's really important to the city as um repr Kennedy said that um a process we really need to to look at and it's the first time we've done something like this as a community with City money that it's important that we we look at and see how we're able to do it and and it's going to take some work no no if some buts about it to be able to do something like this anyone else oh I'm sorry I knew who represento thank you mayor um I know it's very important for us to address the the most bable in our community and so it's important conversation that we're having here and thank you to my colleagues for sharing all their their sentiments um um my concern here as well is the identifying of the the funding but I think that we're talking about where we could definitely go in and identify the funding the process and the criteria is what's important to me um R uh Fiero mentioned and I don't know if that's exactly what his motion is but that is something that I would support for it to come back and identify the funding first and then the process and criteria so that we make sure that there's measured metrics for for addressing and and being able to really help the vulnerable in our community so if if that is the the motion um Fierro has I will second that rep molard thank you very much mayor um I understand everyone that came out here today thank you very much for your stories and I'm sure there's thousands thousands more of those stories that we have not heard uh there are issues that are coming up for uh utilities Transportation housing uh medical care and we all need that services and thank you very much for coming out and taking time every day to come out here but um the way that when I was met with the different people I believe from at bezel and I can't remember the exact or other organization um and yes it was presented to me that hey we would use the money from arpa and I said okay that's fine that I agree with that and I listened and there was discussion there was dialogue and so I I I supported that okay but what I'm hearing today now is from our Chief Financial Officer we don't have that money correct sir from arpa the $500,000 or up to 500,000 as of today as mentioned all the funds have been allocated to programs are approved by Council in May last year okay so um not knowing that up to today it's very hard I mean uh to support this or not to support this because we've already done our budget and so I don't want to see this as a pilot project because if not we're going to have people lined up uh coming up for us for our money and it's not our money it's your public funds but we also have a financial responsibility a fiduciary responsibility as elected officials to make sure that the funding that we're spending is taxpayers money and we're doing it well and we're trying to do it the right way and so therefore we do have a budget process that's where we do have programs and I don't believe we as a city council need to create a process if we can identify a source I know miss finina you you you're well versed in all these things so it's it's it's not nothing new youo you're well vered in everything you're doing I'd say if we could just allocate the money to you you bear that responsibility of identifying who the recipients are why they need it how much they needed of course and um handle that so we get out of that way the city's not involved in that but let AO and whatever other organizations up together uh the gentleman said up together let them handle that part uh we as City do not have to be involved in that part I just feel that we're complicating this issue more and more that doesn't need to be done thank you rep thank you mayor uh again just a few clarifications um I believe that the the plan here would uh essentially give that responsibility to uh up together as a partner who would administer this program so the city would be the source of the funds um but the administration of the program and any uh compliance uh that that would be tied to the arpa funds would go through grew up together and again would be overseen by the city but not directly administered by the city is that a correct understanding of how that might be set up I'm glad you asked that question because I want to be very very clear about what our role becomes when we're using federal dollars um the federal government allocates those dollars to the municipality when the federal government checks on compliance they do not go to subrecipients they hold the city of El Paso accountable we've had this discussion on a number of occasions yes around the entitlement around cares around other funds this is partially why we initially suggested local dollars because it gives the council and the staff the most excuse me the most flexibility but I do want to clarify that although we can in an agreement say that the subrecipient in this case it would be up together um would be responsible for compliance we are ultimately responsible for assuring that compliance and the federal government will hold us and our funding sources accountable for that compliance so I just want to be very clear about how that works I think we went through this a little bit and you'll remember through El pasan feed and hunger that we gave them the money and then we had to answer back to be able to to um get the fund or we were going to get charged back so I think we've already lived through this once yes sir thank you um and then uh I think another important clarification here is that with the motion that's currently on the floor uh there would be no allocation of funds today uh this would be directing staff to develop a plan uh to uh draft a potential contract or agreement with upe um and to uh return to council who would have a final decision um on whether or not to move forward with with the program um and so again a a vote uh against the motion that's that's currently on the floor would be vote to uh not even move forward with doing the work of what this might look like um and again a vote of support uh would only be support for uh advancing to the next step to make sure that we have uh a funding source identified or maybe a number of potential funding sources identified that the council uh would have an ultimate Choice over uh when this came back to us in the future yes sir thank you mayor thank you Miss can we take the motion please there was a motion made by mayor Pro manelo but I didn't hear a second on her motion can you uh how many motions do we have right now on the floor mayor Pro manelo made a motion to authorize city manager and City attorney to identify a funding source for $500,000 and create a process to select an organization to support families that are at or below 80% adjusted median income with metrics and standards as required by relevant law and the relevant funding source in an effort to assist those at risk of eviction and to prevent homelessness that was a motion made by mayor panelo I did not hear a second representative F I'm unclear as to what your motion is Sir well made a motion I was second by representative so your motion is the same of mine amended to say return to Council in 30 days okay and then representative Sal though had seconded that okay but so hold on time out real quick so you made an amendment but no one has second your motion so is anyone going to second I'll second I think he made a second motion that okay that's say but I want make sure we second that motion and you added an amendment to it yes and now it's second okay M PR so the motion was made by mayor proos and representative P you're seconding her motion and adding to return to Council in 30 days is that correct okay okay so on that motion by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative feral to authorize city manager and City attorney to identify a funding source for $500,000 and create a process to select an organization to support families that are at or below 80% adjusted median income with metrics and standards as required by relevant law and the relevant funding source in an effort to assist those at risk of eviction and to prevent homelessness and return to councel in 30 days on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 5 to1 representative Kennedy voting nay repres Representatives anel molinar Salo Fiero Canales voting I thank you thank you so much everybody for coming out [Applause] congratulations that brings us to item number the introduction of ordinances these are items 23 to 30 there motion to approve second there's a motion made by mayor P manelo seconded by representative Canalis to approve the first reading of ordinances these are items 23 to 30 on that motion call for the vote voting session is open representative f are you voting on this item no representative Kennedy thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously Representatives anelo not present that brings us to item number 31 item 31 is discussion and action on the request at the managing director of purchasing and strategic sourcing Department be authorized to issue a purchase order or purchase orders to US Postal Service move to approve there a second second there's Motion in a second there's a motion made by representative Canales seconded by alternate mayor Pro mol to approve item 31 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously Representatives Federal not present let's skip 32 and 33 and go to 34 yes sir thank you item 34 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 12 vehicles in traffic International Bridges to add description of buses and to add or any other vehicle to the title of toll collection for pickup trucks of the city code proof second motion on a second there's a motion made by mayor Pro manello second it by alterate mayor Pro molard I'm sorry was it I'm sorry councilor if you can please use your microphones when you're making motions I I cannot hear sometimes representative salido seconded by alternate mayor protim Molin to approve item 34 your button but on that motion call for the vote was and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor would you like to go to 35 thank you item 35 is a public hearing on an ordinance terminating the A1 outdoor marketing non-exclusive franchise for waste containers on sidewalks and other city property motion to approve thank you mayor uh just to clarify for the public this is at this termination is at the request of the franchisee correct they don't want to continue as a franchisee with the city yes uh Nicholas withd yes it was per the request to cancel their franchise thank you right Motion in a second we do have public comment on this item from Miss Turner I don't believe she's in Chambers she's on her way in Miss Turner this is item 35 terminating a marketing non-exclusive franchise for waste containers please do so I don't like these things in my neighborhood I had an an email from a city employee telling me that the contract had expired on the one that's at on Bartlett and they said they would come pick it up and it's still there well this one's just to um terminate a contract per and I'm just here to voice my support because I don't like these things in my community thank you m yes sir the motion was made by alternate mayor Pro mol seconded by mayor Pro manelo to approve item 35 on that motion call for the vote thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 36 is a public hearing on an ordinance amending title 12 vehicles and traffic to amend paragraph H 40 mil hour at Upper Valley Road Country Club Road Borderland Road and West site Drive Senate Kennedy move to approve there is a motion made by representative Kennedy seconded by representative FAL to approve item 36 there's no public comments on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor proem anelo not present item 37 is discussion an action on a presentation and Adoption of the resolution on the targeted zoning code assessment move to approve second mayor of Staff has a presentation I'd like to see that as well what did your ask sure I just said if uh staff has pres a presentation I'd like to see that as well mayor before you have presentation Mr Hoffman yes sir I do go ahead sir all right well as it brings up uh good morning mayor and Council Alex Huffman for the record with capital Improvement Department uh this item is a presentation on a targeted code assessment uh that we've been working on for the last several months that's an extension of some of the plans and policies that have been before this Council before and this is really focusing on the implementation efforts uh related to those plans and policies so the purpose of a code assessment is to identify various Provisions specifically of our zoning ordinance that conflict uh with some of the ideas that are presented in plans and policies that were adopted by this Council and so what we're going to be doing today is to talk about what those major are what some of those changes that are being proposed and then to get the direction from Council to move forward with those changes so the overarching strategy again with this particular project is to implement approved Master plans and policies I'll go over what those plans and policies that have been approved by this Council are but very generally speaking some of the things that we're looking to achieve if we get the direction today to move forward with the proposed changes is to be addressing things like housing affordability promoting housing choice to remove barriers to development to allow for some of the principles that were identified in these plans and policies and to reinvest in priority areas and so priority areas are the areas that were identified by the council as part of the strategic planning process and then we're also the different plans and policies are applying to that have been adopted by this Council so some of those previous Council actions are listed here on the left uh you can see that it's everything from different policies uh to different Master plans most recently this Council adopted um the downtown uptown neighborhoods master plan and so this in addition to these other items that are listed here uh are being contemplated for implementation um through this particular report that's identifying the code changes necessary to bring them to fruition I think the big thing to point out here is that plans and policies are not a matter of of law they're not adopted by ordinance and so in order to bring these things to the table to make Property Owners comply with these different ideas that are presented here we need to make the changes to our zoning ordinance to bring that um to bring the us forward um if we get the direction today the proposed um effort that we're looking at doing we're going to be branding it as inclusive neighborhoods uh the rationale for that is because historically speaking the area of focus that we're proposing the changes for have been areas where particular population specifically uh racial minorities as well as lowincome individuals have been excluded from these neighborhoods um this image here on the left is our 1930s zoning ordinance and this is when the city first adopted zoning um a lot of the regulations that we still have in place today are the same as they were in 1930 as we are you know almost 100 years later and so just the nature of changing development there's the exclusion that happens there um but then also we can see that here list on the right are restrictive covenants um that are in existence on a lot of the properties within our study area and it's difficult to read but in this particular one it comes from rimroad subdivision and it's very explicit limiting um access to the neighborhood for non-white populations and so historically speaking these were areas where we saw exclusion in addition to um redlining that happened with the federal housing Administration where mortgages were not uh given to people in particular neighborhoods and so all that to say that part of this effort is really about acknowledging the past harm that came about as a result of exclusionary zoning and some of the lending practices and so being very intentional about doing the opposite of exclusion which is to be more inclusive and so that's what a lot of our policy changes are focused on and so I believe our consultant is here yes all right I didn't see you uh and so uh I'm going to hand it off after this slide to our consultant CL um Matt goo of claron and Associates who's going to talk about some of the changes but generally speaking we're proposing to get there in two ways so first is to legalize much of what's existing through quick fixes so a lot of the development in our study area is in locations that existed prior to the city having zoning and so the current the properties don't comply with current zoning nor have they complied with zoning ever and so we're looking to just legalize a lot of what's existing there in order to promote development and Redevelopment and then secondarily looking at new tools and so the way that proposing to do that is by looking at things like new zoning districts that facilitate the type of development that's called for in our different plans and policies that our current code does not allow for and so with the specifics I'm now going to hand it off to Matt who's going to go over um some of the recommendations of the report thanks Alex good morning Commissioners uh council members good to see you thank you for the opportunity to present um we're here to talk about the zoning code assessment uh that's setting the stage for the uh for the zoning code amendments uh that that Alex is talking about the purpose of the overall project as Alex said was to develop uh code amendments that facilitate successful implementation of all the different planning projects that El Paso has been working on now for the past decade Plus in a variety of of different areas um it is a targeted effort focused just on infill development um one of the things that we wanted to emphasize right up front is that we're not talking about a comprehensive zoning code Amendment but rather targeted amendments right now focusing on infill it might set the stage for for larger zoning code updates in the future uh but right now we're taking a very targeted approach um the code assessment report that you've seen is a is a opportunity for us to before we get into the into the weeds of the drafting to look at a high level at the big ideas for zoning and how it needs to be improved and when we do that we look at particular parts of of a zoning code we look at first of all the zoning districts you know the different residential districts commercial districts Etc the the various standards that regulate things like you know building Heights or building setbacks uh we look at the land uses allowed within those districts we look at the development standards that affect the quality of devel development things like how the site is laid out or the parking the Landscaping uh we also look at the administrative aspects of a code you know who makes what decisions what are the what are the what are the decisions that can be made at the staff level versus by the city council for all those topics we look at um is the current code working well are the zoning regulations doing what you thought they would or do they need to be revised um are there any zoning standards or procedures that are acting as barriers to infill or to other uh goals that have been identified in your key plans so that's the that's the thinking process behind the assessment those are the things that we looked at and to to to get feedback on all those topics we talked with the folks in The Orange Box there we talked with a lot of Staff members other stakeholders that live in El Paso that have done development projects here um we also just informed the project with an online survey and our general experience was working with Texas code projects and other code projects around the country so that's how we put the document together that's the purpose um a little bit more about the stakeholders we talked with uh is on this slide we talked with a lot of internal stakeholders a lot of groups you know Bridges Community development groups within the city uh outside the city we also talked with Architects you know infield developers uh we had great interviews for example with some infill developers that do very small projects uh in the downtown so all these folks again were intended just give us a sense of how well is the current zoning code working for these infill projects and how can it be improved so with that background about the project let me now jump into some of the substance uh and just remind you first of all what is it that we're trying to implement uh we call these the priority initiatives these are all the different efforts by the city of El Paso getting an infill in some way and these are all these priority initiatives that we need to to to look at collectively um to address uh in the code updates some of them are very recent uh like the downtown and Uptown plan uh and the Alama corridor plan uh some of them are a little bit uh older the regional housing plan for example uh some of the common threads from all of these these projects are in the The Box on the right infill and revitalization of the city core are common threads that run through all of these different efforts over the years um implementation is a little bit fragmented implementation of all these different efforts is is is cuts across different city departments the geographic areas where you think about where infill should occur that's really evolved over time and we'll talk about that more on a few slides down the road um the fact that you have been looking at these issues ues in all these different plans through different departments has led to some implementation challenges uh that have led to the need for this project so uh let's talk more about that geographic area evolving this is the current infill area as it's defined uh by the city of El Paso established in 2003 uh as part of the infill and Redevelopment policy 51% of the city's total land area so 133 square miles just comparatively against other cities that's it's a very large area uh within which you're you're defining infill um like I said that infill definition has evolved over time with all those different projects and so a different definition of infill in the downtown and Uptown plan uh the Tod incentive areas top right Etc and so one of the things that we've tried to do as part of this assessment report is to to bring all these together and propose a new priority infill area that's shown on the shown on the slide here that provides a little bit more of a narrowed Focus for where the targeted incentives and and code updates for infill should focus on immediately um this is an attempt to kind of weave together all those different overlapping plan boundaries uh that we saw in the prior slide um there are two levels so there's the level one which is the core uh the downtown and some of the key core corridors uh and then there's basically the level two which is all the green outside the blue um all the other older neighborhoods out outside the downtown core um the focus immediately will be on those level one areas as part of the the code amendments up front so that's the that's the area within which the recommendations will take place now as far as the recommendations themselves I get into that now um there's a few themes that run across all of these recommendations removing regulatory barriers first of all how can we just get the code out of the way to streamline approvals for infill development which the city has said it wants to see uh how do we expand flexibility for non-conforming uses in the code um how can we incorporate form-based zoning rules where appropriate you know focusing more on the look and design of the project uh as opposed to just the use allowed within the project and then how can we get at that issue of fragmented implementation across different departments how can we assure ensure that we've got a coordinated strategy so um with that in mind with those themes in mind we identified uh five focuses areas uh within which our recommendations fall um we think these are the common threads that are shown in all of those different priority initiatives facilitate denser mixed use development were supported by infrastructure and services diversify housing options and older neighborhoods encourage historic preservation and adaptive reuse we had a lot of conversations with stakeholders about the importance of the built environment in El Paso and the great old buildings that you have and making sure that those can be continued to be integrated as part of healthy new developments um expand the the adoption of sustainable development practices and promote safe healthy and liveable livable neighborhoods so these are our buckets of different recommendations for each of these we've basically got two tiers we've got the short-term stuff which we're calling tier one these are the targeted code amendments that we can do pretty quick this is the low hanging fruit uh and then longer term we've got the new tools uh tier two the longer term efforts so for these Target targeted code amendments uh tier one these are the things these are the code amendments that we think have broad support internally and with the public um and we think they could be done pretty fast they could be getting at some of the immediate barriers that we heard about uh in your zoning code and then the tier two stuff is is going to be a a second phase because it's going to require more public engagement and more discussion a little bit more significant changes to the zoning code so there's a lot of text on this slide I know it's hard to read but at the top in the the row across the top the the Navy you can see those different buckets of categories so moving from facilitate denser mixed use development to diversify housing options and then we've got examples uh down below of what some of these amendments might be and this whole slide is just what those quick fixes would be all the tier one stuff so for example um the very first bullet under under First Column we can offer built-in flexibility on dimensional standards that's a good example of how we could go in and just do some Target targeted updates to the zoning codee pretty quickly um and again there's a lot of different examples here on this slide uh we've got parking maximums that's another good example of how we could propose a fairly modest change to the code that might have real benefits in terms of keeping new developments providing Seas of parking so this is all the tier one amendments and then this slide shows you all the tier two amendments and again these are all covered in the report but uh these are the things that would that would fall later in in the second phase of the project and we would have a chance to have to talk more with neighborhoods and more with the public about um all these different issues you know for example on that First Column eliminate parking minimums for all other uses that's a good example of how we' need to have a bigger conversation about do you want to require minimum parking at all in the city of El Paso we don't think that's a quick fix so that wouldn't fall in the tier one category but it's definitely a a recommendation that could be consistent with the report and so we definitely put it in in the tier two category so I know there's a lot of a lot of text on these slides it's all covered in the report but this these are the main uh this is the the framework for all the recommendations that we have um in terms of just next steps um I I think that's what we wanted to move to next and we'll talk about the timeline for these so so as Matt mentioned U we're proposing to break this project into two components so again the quick fixes are going to be happening uh here shortly again if Council gives the direction today where we're looking to bring forward the first round of amendments in um I would say late winter uh and then moving into the longer term efforts which we'll be bringing back uh essentially a year from now I think that there's going to be a lot of opportunities for engagement and so part of this process is not necessarily setting anything in stone today it's just about moving forward in the process and beginning to have those conversations with a lot of the stakeholders including those individuals and groups that we have not had an opportunity to meet with yet and so uh what we're asking for from Council today is to accept the general recommendations that are included in the backup and then were presented here briefly in this presentation today and then to get the direction uh from the city council to initiate the process to begin working to develop some of these text amendments and then bring them forward in in alignment with the timeline that was proposed in the presentation with that I'll answer any questions the council may have representative Canales thank you m uh no real questions Alex uh thank you uh to yourself to uh Matt Goble is it yes correct okay uh thank you to you both and to Claren for the hard work here there's still a lot of work ahead of us um again uh you've you've definitely heard me say it Alex I think most people have heard me say uh and I'll say it again that uh having denser uh more walkable neighborhoods where people can afford to live have housing options that's key to El Paso's future uh we've gone years and years uh where we've had unrestricted sprawl um and and now is the time uh it's always been the time but there's no better time than now uh to start uh raining in that sprawl and these kinds of uh targeted focused interventions are the way that we can do that so uh thank you again for all the work look forward to everything else that's uh upcoming here I hope we can pass this today and you can get to work on everything that you have coming up thank you thank you sir thank you for the presentation very detailed um with that we have a motion in a second we do have Miss Turner mayor that signed up to speak on this item who did Miss Turner seriously seriously good afternoon Miss Turner good afternoon good afternoon Miss Turner hello mayor how are you fine thank you may seriously uh I'd like to point out I read this the first thing that bothered me was oh we need to get rid of the parking minimums gentlemen you see that little thing right there that I have to depend on there's insufficient parking in the city sometimes when I come downtown I have to park in the street and risk my life to get off of that thing and go anywhere the sidewalks are simply not safe you've got you don't even bother putting up notices that sidewalks are closed and then you'll close both of them my concern is I look at this and I hear well we're going to do targeted zoning and I think back to uh our first downtown plan when the decision was oh hey we're just going to destroy South El Paso and take homes that's what I'm afraid of that this is going to happen under this quote targeted zoning changes uh you talk to the people who can make money but did you talk to the people who live in these neighborhoods no do you care about the people who live in these neighborhoods no because if you did you would have come out and asked us for our input what do you think we need no you're going to make the decision on your own uh the decision is going to be made today after today whatever we say will go in one ear and out the other and into a trash can again my concern is that you're going to try to take South El Paso my concern is you shouldn't shake your head like that my representative down Town plan the original one look at all the mess that brought up uh this talks about reducing parking this is talking about reducing the use of an automobile in a town of this size I live on the west side of a parment west side of this town my have a doctor over on Jo battle the hospital I use is out in the middle of nowhere it Willam Bowmont uh it's not like I can walk to it uh you make a lot of decisions here but you don't talk to the people impacted by something like this they need to have some hearings before this comes before you thank you thank you and Mr Turner I think that's a really good question about the scooter can can we address that please I think that's an excellent question and concern yes definitely so I think you know to the question of parking so again it's to remove the requirements of parking but it doesn't mean that people still can't provide off street parking I think what we recognize specifically in the area that we're focusing on so for downtown for example about one quarter of all of downtown is made up of surface level parking I think that we believe that there's an opportunity to redevelop some of those vacant lots and provide additional uses that maybe they provide parking in conjunction with the building and then there will still be opportunities for uh parking on the street which is not going away under this provision so it's really about um unbundling the requirement of parking with building buildings essentially um a lot of times projects we see don't happen because they can't meet the minimum parking requirements and so that's what we're looking to do is to reduce that burden and then if people still want to provide additional parking they're able to do that okay thank you for addressing uh and Alex just to clarify no change here would absolve us as the government or anyone from uh their responsibilities under the Ada correct no exactly uh and so I would say that you know we do dedicate particular parking spaces both on street and off Street for Ada parking and so that necessarily would would not go go away again we're just saying that it's not going to be a requirement that people have to provide X number of parking spaces I think the other thing too I just want to address to make sure that's clear so you know Council making this decision today is not changing the ordinance we're going to start that process and so in order to be meeting with the various stakeholders um those meetings need to happen and they're going to happen before we bring forward any recommendations to the council so I just want to clarify that as well thank you Alex thank you for that appreciate that with that Miss P yes there's a motion made by representative Canalis seconded by alternate mayor proad this is to accept the general recommendations included in the code assessment as strategies for implementation of previously adopted plans and policies and direct the city manager to initiate the process of the recommended text amendments to the municipal code on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously mayor may we go to call to the public yes ma'am please thank you the El Paso city council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to displace ability 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 per pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public use this for 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 we have six members of the public that signed up to speak the first person is Maria Guadalupe Casta and Miss castanada will be assisted by our interpreter Marcelo Gonzalez good afternoon [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen good afternoon mayor my name is Maria T I am here because on the 28th of September I left town and came back to my home on the 29th of September during that time the DEA and the sheriff entered my house in the presence of my younger daughter and my [Music] grandson my daughter was escorted from the house in handcuffs my grandson was placed on the floor as well about to be handcuffed they had my daughter outside waiting near the garage door for nearly for a long long period of time and did not produce an arrest warrant or search warrant until 30 minutes [Music] afterwards they were exposed to the public the people that passed by took pictures of my daughter as well as video vide they were left outside for an extended period of time without the air conditioner turned on in the vehicle they destroyed the door they broke the windows and took them out of the house Barefoot passing them through the broken glass she requested the search warrant and they did not produce it until after 30 minutes One agent after another directed themselves towards my daughter asking her to produce what they were looking for they were asking her where the drugs were and where the owner of the house was at that moment at the time I was out of town after two hours of destruction of my home the destruction of my door they were surprised to not find anything they produced a photograph which they showed to my daughter a photograph of a woman they then asked permission to show the photograph to my grandson they took him out of the vehicle took the handcuffs off they asked him about the woman and he stated that he had never seen her before the officers stated that there had been a call advising them that that lady was living at the home I am the owner of the house I have an honest job and I am here requesting for you to help me with the expenses incurred to the damages of my home I had to cut my vacation short on the 30th of September due to the damages to my home and to my family it is not fair that I've been working honestly in the city for the past 10 to 15 years sometimes up to 15 hours a day gra temp thank you thank you the next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford Miss Crawford star six please to unmute your telephone her topic is National indigenous day and abusive tribal treatment good afternoon ma'am you have three minutes thank you thank you so much good afternoon as as we know good afternoon M good afternoon sir uh as we know yesterday was Columbus Day um also known as National indigenous peoples day as it's been um renamed um I want to speak briefly um about um a specific tribe of Native Americans in the New York New Jersey area um I had privilege to spend time with them um I met the chief on two occasions um and the topic is relevant for um some things that are going on in in terms of um the treatment of those people God's word tells us in John chapter 10 Jesus said I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly we know from God's holy word that one of the main tactics of the enemy of our souls the devil is deception um and one of the main methods of deception um is murderous deception from the time of Moses when there was an edict um to destroy infant um the birth of Jesus Christ when herod's edict went out for Destruction to the present there has been an attack um on specifically on infants um I want to speak briefly um about what took place um among this native tribe there there aate recognized tribe the rap POS I'm and for those who um endorse Planned Parenthood as a good philanthropic organization I urge you to look at up northjersey.com September 4th 2016 entitled determined to write or wrong and save lives um and I quote the study of eugenics was founded to try and figure out how to breed the unwanted traits of underprivileged and unwanted indigenous people of the ramama home mountains when Margaret Sanger the founder of plan par parthood became involved with this Eugenics movement there was almost a feverish pace of the need of the elitists to delve into and financially support the Eugenics movement and their focus was dead set on the Ramapo indigenous people moving forward the study of eugenics that was to Beall Upon Us ramma Mony would soon be used by Adolf Hitler to kill millions of Jewish people in the Holocaust so alongside atrocities against Native Americans that were committed by greedy settlers that were uh committed in the name of religion um alongside that is something like this it was committed um by the founder of Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood always has and always is about population control it is not thank you Miss Crawford thank you ma'am thank you thank you the next speaker is Steven Strummer Mr strummer's topic is Street markings and Linings at intersections at St Patrick's school and Cathedral High SCH School in addition to North Campbell good afternoon Mr Strummer you have three minutes good afternoon sir good afternoon I thank you for the work that has been done on Street markings the intersections uh we are still this was 7 months ago I was promised by honorable Canales user on June 15th I'm still wanting it from the courthouse here all the way up to California Street on North Campbell for the employees safety and those that deliver here to the building as well as all three sides of St Patrick's and Cathedral High School the reason is much more serious than either of you know on September uh 26th we had a major collision at the northwest corner of North Messa at Arizona car flipped over I I do not know if the person lived or died had I been there 10 15 minutes earlier it would have been all over for me I am asking you uh mayor sir to um fulfill uh the promise for these Linings um Chris I am asking you uh to do this for my area for the children for the uh School uh it is no small activity it is much more serious than I realized um I am asking this I've had I've actually had two people willfully try to kill me with a car I'm not kidding you uh I I am asking you uh particularly uh uh at Arizona from the UT Houston in school of health sciences for uh Street markings it is no small problem I need this help the the work that's been done on Yandel is beautiful Yandel at North Stanton we need more we need it and we need it now um for our community for our safety um I thank you for listening to me and um I pray uh you will fulfill this thank you so much thank you sir I also want to um thank uh Lisa Turner for her years of coming down here um I would encourage her to keep on keeping on her voice on U Traffic Safety car safety um it's true she what her said what she has said uh is is is real her words are my words on uh downtown safety Thank you Lisa keep it up thank you sir the next speaker is Michael ree his topic is Special Olympics upcoming events and desire to grow in community good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon sir good afternoon uh good afternoon members of the council uh I stand before you today as a passionate advocate for the inclusion and empowerment of individuals with intellectual disabilities through the Special Olympics of Texas greater El Paso area our community has a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact fening a more inclusive and supportive environment for our fellow citizens the Special Olympics goes beyond the realm of sports it's a movement that celebrates diversity breaks down barriers and fosters a sense of belonging as we embark on this journey I invite each of you our valued community members in esteemed organizations to join hands in supporting the Special Olympics of Texas here in El Paso by actively participating volunteering or providing sponsorships we can recreate an atmosphere of unity and encouragement for our athletes your involvement can make a significant difference not only in the lives of these remarkable individuals but also in shaping the spirit of our community let's come together to promote inclusivity sorry celebrate the achievements of every participant and demonstrate that our city stands as a beacon of compassion and understanding I I encourage you all to consider how your influence resources and dedication can contribute to the success of the Special Olympics of Texas here in El Paso together we can create a legacy of kindness support and empowerment I invite you to be a part of this transformative Journey helping us build a community where everyone is celebrated for The Unique abilities the events that we currently have on schedule is a top golf competition on October 26 over at Top Golf El Paso as well as Top Golf tipic cop activation days on October 27th and 28th we have a bowling competition scheduled at Aces Lanes on December 2nd and none of these is to include various community and law enforcement engagements events that we also be working to put together here in El Paso we need your help and we need your presence for a Paso thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your time sir the next speaker is Ron KOMO his topic is Animal Services advisory committee and animal services it will need the Elmo please oh okay thank you appreciate the help always afternoon everyone uh again I can't thanking you guys enough for what's been done and hopefully we've started on the school as far as getting it ready for intake for animals um last time I was here we discussed a conversation about my request to get information from the director so that we could work on issues on adoption and rescue um at the last City at the last ASAC committee meeting I requested four agenda items all basically leaning towards trying to get information so that the ASAP committee could understand what's actually happening um I just want to give you this information this is what I'm think they're afraid of showing you in 2019 for the first seven months of 2019 we had 153 15 yeah 1,500 or 15003 5,378 adopted and rescued out of the shelter in 20122 we had 13375 in 23 we had 9,27 I I I get it they don't want these numbers to get out they're embarrassing and here we are returned to owner in 2019 2761 in 2022 12,26 and then with all the help we got from the embedded program we got 837 returned to owner in seven months this is disgusting and just for the record they kicked out all of my agendas but one even though I was told by the representative that I gave him the information to get it put on this week's or tomorrow's meeting so if if you if we keep hiding what's happening we can't fix it if if asack doesn't know we can't recommend correct it's it's time to stop protecting the shelter and trying to hide the information second thing this picture of this puppy this dog was on the street for two months for two months the shelter wouldn't pick him up two months people tried to catch him people called the dog got hit the dog's Dead who took care of that dog's five freedoms who treated that dog humanely how many of those things happen every day and as long as we allow the shelter to not be full because we don't want to house a bunch of Strays this is going to continue I would appreciate if you put those pictures on your desk and every morning walk in look at that picture and wonder how many Strays how many family members aren't going to make it back home because we don't want to fill our shelter thank you for your time I appreciate it thank you sir and the final speaker is Steve fiser Mr Fisher's topic is city manager position good afternoon sir you have three minutes thanks good afterno judge hi as uh you have an advertised for this position I figured you're just waiting for someone qualified and local to come up and say okay I can do that and I can I have more than enough educational requirements including an MPA a lord law degree uh Masters in uh criminal justice don't discount the 40 years in law because when I served on School Board I was able to proactively look at policies and look at actions that prevented lawsuits um financially I've been an investment advisor I've managed budgets much bigger than the 519 million that the county H that the city has um I'm the owner and manager of a pistachio Farm I just sold that and a tree farm and administratively I've been a district attorney um and I've taught government I've taught local government at College uh but I I guess I want to talk about ethics since I don't have time it's come up uh when I was district attorney and there was vote fraud going on I prosecuted those people and they said you can't prosecute them you're a Democrat Prosecuting Democrats I prosecuted them we changed the venue and I convicted every single one of them when I was here and Jim Sher appointed me to the allomatic committee and I looked and I looked at the districts there was six districts and it was Gerry manded so Hispanics couldn't win more than two ever and I went and I wrote the Fisher plan made it eight districts and gave people a fair chance and I caught help for that people would scream at me at meetings why do you like Mexicans of course my son's a Hispanic attorney um and and it was hard getting debating uh Jonathan Rod just to get that passed um just stuff like that I'm lawyers of this District elected me to be the State Bar director I've been on the State Bar professional rules and Ethics Committee uh I appoint them and I do things that even if they're unpopular there was a a bar president who was conservative made some statements that I didn't agree with but I st stood up for his free right to free speech and I had to defeat the motion of 29 other directors to and showed them the law that they couldn't do this um you know there there there's so much I've done I can't do in two minutes but the salary is way too high how can you ask somebody take a $400,000 salary and then look and say we need some austerity here or this budget or your salary is too big can't do it we don't need Severance you know uh when I was on the judicial commission the promises I made to get elected there to be especially tough on judges I couldn't keep so I I I I resigned no one asked me to um if if I can't do this I get out that door I walk seven blocks up to my home and my servants will be my dogs and wife will still be really happy to see me well my dogs will anyway any rate we don't need an outside firm to get somebody who loves El Paso there are people right here thank you thank you mayor that concludes call to the public this afternoon thank you ma'am I'd like to go back to 32 and 33 is that it or 33 and 34 I don't remember 32 is discussion and action on an emergency ordinance extending emergency ordinance number 01 9333 authorizing the city manager to assign personnel and resources to assist in addressing the humanitarian and Public Safety crisis resulting from a mass migration through El Paso item 33 is discussion and action on an emergency ordinance extending emergency ordinance number 01 9485 due to a humanitarian security and economic crisis resulting from a mass migration through Al Paso move to approve second Motion in a second there is a motion made by mayor Pro manelo manelo make you crush her because she made the motion look at [Laughter] him I know gez that was seconded by mayor Pro mol to approve items 32 and 33 the emergency ordinances on that motion yes ma'am call for the vote mayor do you consent yes ma'am thank you and the voting session the motion passes unanimously with the mayor's consent thank you and I I do want to make one comment um Chief um and I tell you this and I've told you a lot you're doing an incredible job and you know we we um in El pasor we have quite um probably the largest um Asylum Seekers Crossing in El Paso and probably anywhere in the country and yet uh we've had no Street releases yet uh last month we were able to house 16,000 people and feed over 40,000 meals and continue to make sure that our community is safe and the Asylum Seekers continue to be safe and go to the destination of their choice so I mean we've seen Street releases all over the country and just about every city where except El Paso and I attribute that to you and your team so I want to really thank you for the great job you're doing yes sir and if I could I'd like to thank you and your leadership it's it's allowed us to develop the relationships at the federal level we're now sitting in a better place with over 30 million in in the bank in advance funding if we think just back to this time last year we were waiting for reimbursements so we're in a different situation we're able to handle things a lot differently and it has been a smoother op operation thank you sir and I think the numbers of uh and just for information Point too um in the last 3 4 days the numbers have dropped off ,000 a th000 um people per day so we've gone from 1700 today was 1600 I mean 600 so that makes a big difference and um we've closed down all the hotels and and then like I said you guys have done a great job and I think Chief Rodriguez came up so we'd say he's doing a good job too so Chief you're doing a good job too thank you thank you do you want us to go through the presentation for the update no may I would ask that Council reconsider the item we also have David Scully David Scully are you present sir he signed up to speak will Council reconsider the item so we can continue discussion V yes no not yet yes yeah we did voted unanimously move to reconsider the items over there's a motion in a second to reconsider items 32 and 33 all in favor I anyone opposed the motion carries good afternoon Mr Scully you have three minutes hi sorry about skipping you there sir excuse me excuses for skipping you oh that's okay I was a little bit worried sometimes I get a little bit that they're out to get me and that they know who I am and all that kind of stuff but that was not the case and uh sometimes being last is the best place to be so greetings to to you mayor and to the council members this is a lot different from Middletown Pennsylvania uh where I sort of cut my teeth attending My First Council meetings this is something they should teach in school actually because it's quite confusing I don't know how you people learn all these procedures and when you uh first get elected but I'm not running for election I uh I'm interested in the I'm just an interested citizen in in the uh the migrant a lot of issues and the migrant issue is right in your face right here I I came down to El Paso in 2017 and I I wanted to to learn Spanish and expose myself to the culture and I went over I I was living in my U-Haul and I I I parked near the border for as long as I could and I I crossed a lot and I I managed to sort of volunteer as a English teacher I'm a credential teacher and I not really training to teach English but you know we all speak English uh and and uh and then I would go there a lot as much as I could to practice the language and Escape of the American culture and uh I went back there I think in February because I had a some sort of infection in my tooth ear and and I noticed something was different and and lo and behold was all those migrants and I encountered a Venezuelan family who I helped and brought over and and and brought them up to my house in Pennsylvania uh that that I have up there and then they went up to Detroit to live with his brother which was their original destination and of course I observed all the the things that have been going on anyway uh I'm running out of time here I got my onet thing so I Amaze all you people amaze me at how how good you are at that little game uh of timing yourselves but uh so this is a timely thing with all these people going into hotels and motels and swarming the streets and it it goes in fluctuations uh I don't have property in in in Paso but I have I have 4 and a half acres in Deming which which I am currently uh in the process of developing and I just thought well you know uh I can't do it alone but I I mean I've seen these things going on in New York the street releases and it's amazing to me what I think I just heard about how you got all these people and but you're managing to find PL you hold on to them I guess and then you feed them and then you manage to get them out without you know uh without being on the street so I I'm I'm offering my uh we could set it up as as as a nonprofit I don't really care I'm 72 I'm not going to take it with me uh I've I've actually performed a nonprofit but I would need help in that in that legal area as well so I I would prefer to work with professionals and people who know what they're doing and so you got four and a half acres there I don't care if it's a 10th City or whatever but I'm running out of time and I just wanted to let you know that here somebody and deming's pretty close 100 miles away thank you sir thank you for being here thank you do have a motion second there's a motion made by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative Salo to approve items 32 and 33 the emergency ordinances on that motion call for the vote mayor do you consent mayor do you consent thank you and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously with a mayor's consent would you like to continue on the agenda sir thank you item thank you sir item 38 is discussion and action that the city manager be authorized to execute an incentive agreement between the city of Al Paso and healer measurements Inc motion approve second that's correct mayor Pro representative um Pro vanello I just have a quick comment I know that the our staff uh Juan Gonzalez and Roberto Breo briefed you all individually if there was any other questions okay thank you thank you that so we have motion second we do have Miss Turner that signed up to speak on item 38 adopting uh representative Kennedy's uh way of doing business I don't see any particulars in here I am also quite concerned about being told that do with with the request for 500,000 for a previous item that there was no arpa money left when in fact when you look at this the funding is $974,000 from arpa so my question is who's telling me the truth M Turner money was already allocated I mean it's not I don't see anything says allocated mayor I just I have all I can do is go by what I have in would you post yeah once the money is allocated then we have like um they said Mr cortinez I could think name uh said that we got till 2026 suspended but we allocated and has to be allocated before the end of December of this year so it's already been allocated that's why there's none available $1,000 though could be but uh my question is this uh back to the particulars I just need to be assured of several things U knowing that Hillary is not a startup that it's a major facility some 60,000 Square ft of surface 41,000 squ ft of manufacturing a bunch of Engineers and so forth opening something in uh Orlando uh and now here am I against this no but I want to make sure that there will be a large number of women who are going to be become a part of these interns I believe yeah student opportunities I want to be sure that pwfa act pump act title 6 chapter 6119 the Texas government code will be followed to the letter I want to be sure that all women will be paid on an equal status as any male I want to be assured of these things before you spend one penny these are the particulars of the matter uh it's my belief that a woman should earn the same amount as a man not less and as I had mentioned earlier about the pay discrepancy between men and women that's got to come to an end and there's no better time than than now to start thank you Mr Turner with that Miss PR yes there's a motion made by representative Federal seconded by alternate mayor po molinard to approve item 38 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Federal not present that brings us to item 39 this is presentation and discussion and action by the financing of election campaigns cross functional team providing information on Key activities efforts and processes okay well I'm in charge now uh before you make the presentation with Prim I have a few questions so it says um the motion is to come back in eight weeks will there be an ordinance change required and will the first hearing be in eight weeks yes ma'am can I can we change that to six weeks is that possible the the six week requirement also we need to also take the item to the ethics commission so we have to go to there and and brief them and ask for their recommendation before we come back so that's also being taken into account in regards to the timing I can't I always get confused on first hearings and first ordinances and and can the item be amended prior to the first hearing it can correct we bring it back we bring it for introduction introduction but can it be amended after the introduction it can be amended at the introduction so I yeah again I I I completely understand that I do want to fall on that timeline I just I would like to be here to to vote on this um and so if we could maybe do the the first the introduction in the six weeks and then anything that needs to be amended um I I can't guarantee that that'll happen because we have to also schedule a meeting with the ethics review commission to review the item so we're we're talking about eight weeks to take that into account we can certainly work towards that but I don't know that I know be able to introduce it and then go to the ethics commission and then come back I don't know where we are on that time frame in terms of the calendar in terms I see what you're saying but I guess I was just saying since you can amend it's like it still gives you eight weeks to bring it to us it just you would do the introduction in six weeks I don't know what the discussions were PR in regards to the eight weeks you're correct in saying that we were asking for eight weeks so we to allow us to present to the ethics commission during a meeting and then come back to council with any recommendations received at that time and introduce the orance to council I thought you were saying you were going to bring it to them for final okay I got it ma'am I would just ask that you consider thank you we will consider the timeline mayor poem good afternoon Council my name is Laura pryan I'm the city clerk and I'm a member of the financing of election campaigns cross functional team we're back with an update today after the direction provided to us on August 14th that was for us to return in 8 weeks with updates regarding campaign contribution limits and provide proposals that will address concerns related to campaign contributions after elections occur so an overview of our presentation we come back today we' expanded the scope of data to capture all candidates that ran for all nine Council seats during the last two election Cycles we do have an interactive dashboard to estimate the impact of contribution limitation based on several scenarios we have Quantified individual High contrib contributions and we return with staff recommendations so the criteria for the expanded scope of data we did go uh we used the same election cycle as previously the 2020 and 2022 elections and again this captured all nine elections for the N all candidates that ran for the nine Council seats in the last two election Cycles uh we found there were 37 total candidates of those six did not report any campaign contributions we looked at the campaign Finance reports from the January and July filings prior to the election of the November election of 201 20 and 2022 we looked at the 30-day report the 8-day report before the general election we looked at the 8-day report before the runoff election and if a candidate filed a final report we also looked at those contributions now some candidates did file a final report after the general election and some candidates filed a final report after the runoff I'll now turn it over to Mr Adrien Martinez he's a research assistant in my office and he will take over the presentation followed by Dr Carlos Alo and Carlo SS good afternoon Council adri Martinez research and management assistant for the city clerk's office um so some notes on the data we provided new data points um we captured new data points in order to reference to filter out duplicates from the previous analysis so we feel like this is the most accurate measure of the of the money that came in and through the election Cycles multiple contributions by person oners were aggregated so if one person donated multiple times it comes out as a total for that individual meaning that if I donated to Cris analysis campaign $50 then $50 my metric in the data would be 100 data from the semiannual reports post elections was not captured this was a concern in the previous um analysis that we didn't capture information after the election uh That Remains the case here we for time sake and for the measure what we're trying to measure leading up to the election we didn't capture that data um now to help inform Council on the proposed ethics ordinance report um reporting Trigger or if the contri contribution limits are Revisited we have provided a series of analysis that we're going to go over now the first of which is uh the dashboard this is just a tool developed to estimate the impact of contribution limitations based on suggested scenarios um it displays the contribution totals across 2020 and 2022 um by district and mayoral races each and individual candidate that for each individual candidate candidate that's submitted a CFR so I'm just going to give you a quick demo of that this is going to be provided to you um later on this is what it looks like on the right side you're going to have a series of filters to help you with this process uh right now we're looking at the Mayoral race for the general election and this is a person and non-person selected you can remove non-person entities if you'd like if you just want to see personal contributions all you have to do is type in a number on the top if you want to set a limitation of $1,000 as the criteria for the campaign contribution limitation press enter it'll filter it to show you how much it would impact a specific candidate um like I said this is a mayor race this right here is U May Oscar ler in the 2020 election and that would have been the the proposed impact if you want to reset it just at na it'll bring it back if you want to display the contributions that were initially proposed in the resolu in the proposed ordinance which was a th000 and 5,000 um you set those in parameters in and then it'll display it per district and again this just a quick demonstration that's going to be Pro um there's a tool provided to you so that you can make a inform decision if you ever want to re revisit this topic from there I'm going to pass it Forward pass it to Dr Carlos Alo and he's going to review individual contributions good afternoon Council carlosa from International ridges so um as Adrian said you were we were asked to just come back and look at more individual data the more details in it so let me see so for this data set that we analyzed we just looked at the general election since you know we didn't include run house cuz technically they were already viable candidates so we were just sticking with general election uh a few candidates self-funded so right now when you see all the this analysis if you don't see a specific candidate it's because they self funded or had zero contributions um the other thing on this data set for the analysis what we try to do is we wanted to replicate this concept on the dependency on high contributions which has been discussed um including by uh some of the the petitioners uh we did Reach Out caveat we did reach out to uh Dr ST which uh uh she she's she's the one that kind of created this this idea of like uh individual uh candidates have a lot of high contributions so we reached out to her for methodology the caveats on on this datus set is what we did is we not only provided the percentages but we also provided the counts of individual High contributions and we included all candidates not just the winning candidate so uh just context uh in the last presentation that we did I don't know was it like six weeks ago or so we analyzed total contributions for five election cycles and what we found out or at least what the data we're speaking to was that contributions matter but there are other factors including incumbency including uh voter apathy that potentially may play a larger role than just uh total High contributions in this case we're analyzing the individual contributions for the last two election Cycles 2020 and 2022 in detail for all candidates and when we analyze it we see similar results and you'll see some of that right now okay so we decided to do this through box plots because this way you can visually see all the contributions and we're able to compare multiple candidates by District at the same time so just so so you understand how to read this so on the Y AIS are the actual dollar amounts uh in of contributions in thousands of dollars okay so then you have four rows at the bottom of those graphs the first row are the the total number of contributions that a specific candidate received so for example uh uh Canada Gutierrez had a total of 123 uh contributions regardless of the amount whether it was $1 or $1,000 or 5,000 so the second row gives you the count of all of those contributions that were $1,000 and over and you see that highlighted in yellow and the third row is are the contributions of strictly over a th000 okay so the the one before is a th000 and over this the third one is over a th and the fourth row in red are the is the percent of the votes that that candidate received in the general election uh you see also red circles those are the winning candidates uh you see letters so I stands for the incumbent and the letters l and w stand for or represent the candidate that had the the largest number of $1,000 or more contributions and whether they won or lost so the other thing I wanted to mention is the actual box plot which is that rectangle and I'll look if you can uh look at the one the far right where it says V cuz that's the biggest uh uh rectangle to to be able to interpret so that middle bar is the median okay so or 50th percentile so that means that 50% of those contributions were under that that amount so if if again looking at theise if if you stretch out that uh middle uh line on in that uh uh rectangle if you stretch it out all the way to the Y AIS it's about $250 so that means that for valise 50% of her 26 or I can't remember candidate at of of that candidate's uh contributions were $250 or less the Top Line in that box plot is the 75th percentile meaning 75% of the contributions were under $1,000 and then that bottom line is the 25th percentile same interpretation so I'm not going to go through all the details of you know each individual candidate you can see and I forgot to mention all the the blue dots that's every single contribution okay so you can visually see it right there so without going again to every candidate in every race I'll just summarize it this way so in District 2 uh we see that uh candidate Gutierrez had the largest contributions of $1,000 or more and lost lost in District three the candidate with the most one in District Four the candidate with the most lost in District s the candidate with the with the most W and in the mayor's race the candidate with the most $1,000 or more ended up losing so these five graphs were for the 2020 election the following four graphs were for the 2022 election in District One the candidate with the most lost in District 5 the candidate with the most one District Six the candidate with the most lost in District 8 the candidate with the most lost to summarize all these nine races um we see that six out of nine or 66% of the candidates that had the most contributions that were $1,000 or more ended up losing so we see kind of a similar story to what we presented previously that contributions matter but there's are there are other factors at play in these next two two tables we take the same data but we provide the percentages and in the previous ones I should say the reason we provided counts is because sometimes percentages can be misleading right 1 out of two is 50% 10 out of 20 is 50% so it could be misleading so that's why we did counts over there and this one we did the percentages and the way we did this is within districts so for example in in District 2 uh there were in that row down there okay let me explain the the next three columns where it says by persons the First Column is analyzing the the percent of contributions $1,000 or more second one strictly over a th000 and we throw in over 2,000 just you know just for FYI and if we go back to that column where it says uh greater than or equal to a th we see that there were a total of 21 contributions that met that Mark $1,000 or more uh Canada anelo had 38% of those 21 guas had 20 uh 62% okay in blue are the one are the candidates that won so we we we just kind of show you the a similar story or a different way of tell uh of telling the story than with the counts the the the last three columns I should say are by nonperson similar like like packs for example so we divided those up for your FYI again um you see the percentages there for you know so you can stare at them I'm I'm not going to go over each one of those but in short the story is pretty much the same candidates that received the higher percentages of $1,000 or more uh contribution individual contributions ended up ended up losing um and that concludes the analysis when I to keep it short and I'll pass it on to uh Carla signs good afternoon Council Carla science with the city attorney's office we we are recommending amending the ethics ordinance uh because we want to increase the transparency with contributions and donations that are made to the district and the city so whenever I mention contributions um just note that I mean contributions and donations so we are specifically recommending these five amendments the first one being to expand the jurisdiction of the ethics commission so it can have jurisdiction over candidates political committees and those that are making contributions currently with the ethics code the the commission doesn't have any jurisdiction over these entities the Second Amendment is to give the commission the the ability to issue a fine currently the commission can impose sanctions on office holders but these sanctions wouldn't necessarily apply to candidates political committees and those that are making contributions uh thirdly we we want to require a notice on the agenda to be posted when a city council action would benefit a a contributor or a donor uh for providing the total total cumulative contribution that each officer has received at the end of the year and lastly we want to implement clear language that defines those that are contributing um and that defines contributions and donations and that defines what will be considered a benefit now how would this look in practice um the regulation to require notice on the agenda genda to be posted when a council's action would benefit a contributor would be enforced by the ethics commission and it would be the duty of the contributor and the donor to disclose no later than one week before council's action all the contributions and all the donations the city council member um has received or their district has received in addition to that they would Al be required that with their application or their bid that they include a complete list of contributions to City Council Members um or the district or the city now based on the information received from the contributor or the donor then the clerk would have the responsibility of posting the notice on the agenda the office holder if the contri distributor um fails to disclose and provide a notice on the agenda um so it isn't posted then the office holder has a duty to ask the clerk to include a notice or they must verbally disclose on the record that the contribution or donation that they received Additionally the office Holder will provide at the end of year a report with the cumulative amount of contributions donations that they've received and from whom they've received them sanctions as I mentioned before the commission is currently able to issue a letter of notification admonition or reprimand they're able to recommend removal from office but this amendment would also include the ability for them to issue a fine um of $500 to be paid within x amount of days now this fine or this process wouldn't go through the Municipal Court um going through the Municipal Court would would extend or be a lengthier process so it it would be regulated through the city and the appeals process uh would remain the same currently we can ask the commission to rec reconsider if there's new evidence so next steps uh we're asking Council for a motion to direct staff to return in 8 weeks with the proposed amendments to the ethics code that reflect these recommendations as mentioned before this recommendation is based on us being able to go to the ethics commission and present our proposed amendments um we're also asking Council to set a reporting threshold for the contributions and donations or provide guidance any questions is there any other appointed board that has the ability to F people within the city no building and Standards Commission do building and standards canine what's there appeal process if somebody appeals the fine for building and stand they have to go to a district court my concern is is the appeal circles back to the same organization that levied the fine on this one you know the if it there's F $500 the only appeal is back to them saying could you reconsider this right and the reconsideration would likely be the same language if there's new evidence that came forward yeah my concern is the ability to to appeal the fine to somebody outside that organization maybe not the council but whether it's district court or whatever it is so most of the courts that have a pet procedure are in state court and like the building and Standards Commission it's written that way out of state law that it appeals to them so we could do different mechanism where maybe we talk about having it being appealed to Municipal Court yeah I just my only concern was the they have the right to Levy the fine and they're the only people that get to review their own decision then there is I think a limited appeal that's my only concern I think that we can look to see what other cities do okay I believe San Antonio does uh provide an appeal process to go through the Bear County okay we could look yeah if you could take a look at that that would be great I should have brought it up earlier but I didn't sorry other questions uh just a minute ma'am okay um going to slide uh 22 where it says um required to disclose no later than one week prior to I a city council action all contributions and donations are you saying that if someone gave $1 that they ired to notify all this or if someone gave $100 or someone gave $678 regardless of the amount of contribution they would be required to fulfill this when we wrote I don't think we were implying to set an amount we were leaving that to your discretion what we meant was um all the contributions that they've received okay but it says uh all contributions so my question to you is are you considering the amount of contribution or you just saying regardless of the value or the amount you you want us to report everything if it fits that criteria what do we meant to stay with all contributions to x amount that you designate that we look into So currently Mr mol what we have on the slide is a question mark what we had recommended previously is that it' be set at $500 which is currently what you all disclose when you receive campaign contributions so the recommendation is that we would set that contribution at $500 okay so anything under $500 would not be everything over $500 excuse me okay but conversely anything under $500 does not apply correct okay and um when you mention uh a complete list of contributions and donations so whether it regardless once again the amount of $500 above or below or above you would still need to provide that list as well the individual the individual would have to provide a list of all the contributions that they've made to City Council Members all city council members that are above if the amount designated is $500 so everything so you're you're you're directing a campaign contributor to disclose this all and so you're saying well if you don't do it how how do you hold that person accountable it would be through an Ethics complaint filed by a person in the public but you're saying um you're you're talking an individual campaign contributor let's just say Mr Henry Gonzalez lives in District 4 he gives me $750 this applies if they're receiving a benefit from City council's action well so not every person who donates to a campaign has to do this it's only if you are subject to approval of a contract from the city so if you receiving Financial benefit from the city you need to disclose all of the contributions over $500 that youve given well it goes back to another thing so if this person is going to be awarded a contract and and I understand the last time I was asked I ask this question so if this person contracts subcontractors how how am I supposed to know that um you're not required to look into subcontract but that doesn't say that it's not required well we could add that Lang or yeah but you need to be clear from you need to be clear from the very beginning you cannot just be making this up as we go along Mr Mr I think it's a it's a working document right now they're trying to so the proposals that we're bringing forward and this is what was discussed previously was what other cities have done in what we're proposing if the council feels inclined that you want additional regulations that this is the time for you to do that and then we can add it as to part of the of the Amendments moving forward so if you want to have requirements that it be sub contractors and that would be part of the Lang which that you could propose today that's my point I don't want to do that you know that's a point it say that now we're creating a more filters more levels more work more information that to me is AR necessary that can be decided by Council there is cities that look into subcontractors and and they have to disclose who's subcontracting and there cities that don't so it's definitely at your discretion so the and the other thing too I have a concern so once again uh whoever gives me $750 $1,500 whatever and so that person is not let's say it's a business and for 6 months there's nothing happening but all of a sudden two years later what's the timeline that all of a sudden this person hey how am I supposed to remember that this man Henry Gonzalez has his firm a business whatever and he's giving me a campaign contribution and all of a sudden he has an item before us and he's going to receive a benefit from the city is there a timeline or disclosure that says hey we have a a filter here that or is it going to be like indefinite that that is a recommendation we'll take note of I know there's a city that looks at 24 months in the past so that could be something that Council can decide if you want to look back a year two years or whatever is your prerogative representative Pro or alternate mayor Pro mly our recommendation is that it it applies to the full term of the member of council so if the campaign contribution was received when you campaigned four years ago that that would be applicable to the disclosure on the council agenda that the party that's receiving a benefit by a vote of city council lets the public know that they they contributed to a member a sitting member of council's campaign whether it was four years ago or eight years ago the recommendation is that it cover the full period but if Council would like to amend or would like to limit that that time frame that's certainly within your purview but right now is not the time for amendments right now is the time that you can direct us as to how to draft this ordinance sir okay well I would like to say make sure that you know moving forward when that candidate applies for election reelection uh the time period would be two years 24 months period because if not you're going to continue and continue and continue when is it going to stop and that's what I'm saying it's not necessary that I'm against this but we having so many levels that we're adding more confusion more work that I don't believe is necessary so thank you representative Kennedy yeah I I mean I'm I think the number four years makes sense because there's a fouryear term and if somebody contributes money before I'm elected and they know in their mind now I'll just wait two years it rolls off and no one's going to know it any better I think that the goal of this is very simply to say not that it's going to disqualify somebody or it's going to change any vote it's very simply you need to know if you're seeing somebody vote on an item that's going to benefit somebody that either contributed or donated right to to that individual I mean it's to me it makes sense because I want to say all right you know it doesn't it's not a disqualifier somebody may have given money to every person up here I mean that's not a big deal but at least we know it's not like you know I gave somebody $5,000 well we'll wait 24 months and then we can start bidding because it'll roll off I'd like it to be the entire term I mean it's it's we have to fill out the forms anyway so we have tracking internally anyway on who is giving us money I mean and and yes it is inherent upon the person who's bidding to get the benefit but I think it does fall to us as elected officials to be the safety net to say well wait a minute that person gave me some money I just want to make sure and I think that that makes sense that we would be the safety net and I agree whether it's $500 you don't want somebody to gives you $25 and you got to start you know I mean there there is a threshold and I agree that you guys have done a good job looking at what the other cities have to say what is the threshold I mean personally I'm comfortable with a $500 threshold but I think it should be four years because our term is four years you know and and let's face it contributions come in surges I mean there's a surge when you're running for office and I guarantee you for the next two years you're not going to see very many or some of us won't rep fierro's gone um some of us won't um and so does that mean for two years I have to be transparent and then the last two years I don't because they haven't contributed yet I that's why I would say I'm comfortable with it being a full four years I would say that along with some of the Amendments this is a totally semi-related issue but a different issue is if there is any way that the reporting software that the city used uses could be more sortable friendly for a candidate it would make our life easier we just changed to the state right I mean I'm just saying and it and Adrian you know where I'm going with this right if I can just go in and say we've got these five people let me check and make sure rather than having to go through all our records that's yeah if I can sort my campaigns and go you know how much money did Denise Knight give me that's something that we could check with with a vendor since we're Contracting with a vendor that the Texas ethics commission uses we can reach out to the vendor and see if there's any kind of reporting queries that they could build yeah I'm saying that's if that's a part of it it makes our safety net easier than to do okay that's that's kind of where I am I'll move to approve hold on you got a motion to approve mayor mayor uh mayor this is Kristen Hamilton K from the city attorney's office and I apologize I didn't introduced myself earlier um we are also concerned about the ability to get before the ethics Commission in 8 weeks looking at the calendars I don't know if Council would be amable to giving 10 weeks to draft the ordinance and I don't know if you also want to include the time frame representative molard representative Kennedy that you're proposing for the tracking to be required so I made the motion um it was blank on item 22 uh slide 22 so required to close so 48 months and $500 and $500 is that where you're over I'm just I literally just gave you a date and a number I don't know if that's how you wanted it done thanks representative Canoles thank you um yeah I just have a few clarifying questions are we attach so the intention then is to attach a certain number of months or would it just is it is it not simpler to say the the present term in office or the entire tenure in office figure that yeah same thing I think the concern is if you don't use months if you do present term of office I don't take office till after the election well but true but you would there you would not be making any votes that would benefit uh a member of the public until you take office and so there would be no agenda item that would apply before you take office no but I'm saying if it's 48 any contributions within the last 48 months is what we're talking about with the contribution because they contribute before the office I understand um I think I my understanding is that the 48 months or whatever time frame uh is attached to the reporting is relevant to the reporting requirements and how long the during what time frame would have to be reported on a city council agenda necessarily when you receive cont I think that representative Canali brings up a great point because you're all s people do fill unexpired terms right um and then say 48 month I mean just it may just make more sense to say throughout their term term of office right I think that that might be more clear I agree and I would go so far as to say the entire tenure in office as well if you receive a contribution the day before you you are point of clarification representative Kennedy and Canalis are saying very similar and different things representative Kennedy's concern is about how much time prior to taking office but my understanding is that doesn't matter correct your contributions throughout the election for the term that you PRI previously serving or if you know okay so I'm on my second term I got $500 from Brian Kennedy before my first term in my I did not buy the way this is just for example in my second term do I still have to report that and I think you should um report it so what you're saying is while you're campaigning you don't want to report that no and this is where I think it makes what I'm saying you got to report it while you're campaigning because most of the money I think representative Kenedy said that that you know after I got elected you may not hear from anybody for two years but I think while you're running for office is when you're going to get the majority of the donations I can tell you I've been in office three years I've gotten zero donated and I can tell you I got a lot of money donated when I ran for office so that's where I think we need to disclose the money when we ran for office well no we that still exists we still have to report anything over $500 on a council agenda was in office remember I wasn't in office when I ran for office I know I thought we had talked about adding that he brings up a good point yeah I didn't run for I was not an elected official correct this regulation that we're talking about right now would require that if a person comes before you to for you to vote on an item that would benefit them they would be required and you would be required to make sure that it is disclosed to the public any contributions that they have made to you in the prior time frame whether it's for your whole term but it should Encompass the campaign time frame so it should Encompass the time frame prior to the election prior to your being sworn in in okay the campaign time frame I just want to make sure that we disclose all of it I mean I I ran for office for two years part to being elected so okay I got it so I think it it needs to be clear that it does encompass that campaign period and then the the term of office Mayor I had the floor can I reclaim the rest of my time please um yeah again I I think it makes perfect sense to say that uh in terms of a uh looking at when the contributions occurred you look at the full term the full time of the the election uh and also the time in office and in terms of the reporting requirements the the time frame would be uh during the entire tenure of the representative um does that am I making representative well we would add to the regulation is the time period would apply from the beginning of the election season to a certain period of time for candidates and then once you're elected it would run for the whole term that you're in office right yes that's what we would need to address so the beginning of the uh the election cycle election period uh at which the representative was first elected to office and then attaching for the entirety of the tenure correct that would be what our recommendation was okay yes sir okay um and then I believe the motion also didn't include uh reporting trigger value as was requested by staff on slide 25 we had discussed $500 is that what was it in the motion okay just wanted to make sure um I think that's seems like a number everybody's comfortable with okay thank you thanks mayor thank you sir are we have representative nello I think you've already spoken twice but I counting um oh I was responding to representative Canales which was out of order um I did want to so the mayor did bring up a good point we had had discussions previously about um currently right now if you are a sitting member of council you're running for office if you have receive a donation over $500 you have to report that on the agenda but we had discussed having all candidates do that is that on did I miss that in this presentation are you all not recommending that because I know previously the county required that they did remove that from their rules um I think about two years ago but it it is possible to have any candidate for office disclose on an agenda any contribution over $500 um if that's a a motion that Council wants to put forward today that was not a part of our recommendation um to have candidates that were not elected for office Place items on the agenda um I don't know we haven't really looked at how that might look as far as Administration uh to have a candidate while running for office Place items on the council agenda if they're not a sitting member of council and this action is just directing you all you'll come back with the final proposal correct to consider yeah so I will make an additional motion um to ask you all to inquire about that a point of information here repr Ken do you have a another question sir I was I was just going to say that I'm pres making and I want to make the presumption that the election cycle then begins when someone files for a Treasurer because that would be the first moment then that they could actually take donations yes sir that's correct okay thank you thank you I'm happy now you have something yes so I personally would not call it an election cycle but just like what representative Kennedy said up to that individual filing the campaign treasury Report with the proper Authority which would be our city clerk because everyone's going to be different and so if you say election cycle Define election cycle it's different for me it's different from the mayor is different for everybody else what is it you know the Secretary of State for the State of Texas will announce hey we're going to have a uniform election in November but they don't give you a date they give you a date for early voting they give you a date for the actual date of the voting reel or um if there's a runoff or things like that but that's that's always changing so if you put that individual candidate for the when the files or he or she files for a campaign treasure with a proper Authority I think that's the beginning that would be the cycle but I don't like that word cycle how about tricycle no un unicycle no all right with that we got representative um Salo and then representative Canoles thank you mayor I just have a quick question um in regards to the ethics commission how do they enforce or make sure that the the it's being done properly or the fines or how do they enforce how do you forese that um similarly to how the ethics commission hears cases currently uh they would receive a complaint it would go through the same complaint process that is conducted currently for the ethics commission to have a hearing a full evidentiary hearing and the ethics commission evaluates the evidence brought forward by the complainant and the and the person um defending their the the respondent um under the ethics ordinance and they will decide the case just like they do currently uh they would just now have an expanded jurisdiction over whom can uh be uh have a complaint filed against them as well as the ability to issue a fine okay thank you repres caneles thank you mayor um yeah do have just jumping back one topic I have a small concern with uh the the process of how a non-office holder would Place items on the agenda um I wanted to propose maybe an alternative idea which is simply that um all campaign Finance reports uh would be posted on the agenda uh of the next city council meeting after the uh after the filing deadline for for those reports um those are already aail aable to the to the city clerk and those could just be easily posted on an agenda for notation would that be okay and they are posted online right they're posted online this would just be to make them slightly more available to the public um you not that I think a huge amount of the public is reading the city council meeting agendas but at least it would be uh posted for notation and would come up at a city council meeting is that would that be a suitable alternative okay thanks mayor all right M Pine we we have window right here we do have public comment on this item mayor Turner Miss Turner you all open the door uh from the voters side as I look at today's agenda I see two people who've accepted large amounts of money one way or the other uh to do things and they are no longer eligible in my eyes to vote on any issues that those people whether those business entities bring anything before you all my eyes say they should recuse themselves from the boote otherwise in my eyes they look like they've been bought now my concern is is say say I'm going to run for mayor and I get $100,000 worth of donations prior to filing my campaign Finance report well who's who's going to know how are you going to prove that I didn't get do it because I'm going to loan that money to myself are you going to do an audit of every candidate my next thing is is how do you prevent from people from breaking up a $2,000 donation into donations of $499.99 how are you going to do that so in other words any donation you get should be listed not anything 500 and above if you get a15 I as a member of the public want to know the other thing is is I have a huge issue with people who don't live in my city trying to control who sits on my city council that means packs from outside the city that means people who may live in Houston or Austin or Denver they don't live here they can't vote here therefore they have no right to participate in our election since they cannot vote they cannot donate they don't live here so how do we get to that point how do we keep those people from interfering with within our city elections is that something that the city is that something we can legally do so um Miss Turner so under the First Amendment to to the United States Constitution the Supreme Court has ruled about gifts or donations to campaign contributions as a First Amendment protction so we have an ability to do some of that but we can't outright prohibit people from giving people money I uh when you get a dollar bill that can come up here and stand for three minutes and talk I will go with that but what I'm trying to say is this no one has the right to decide who sits on my city council or who's my mayor if they don't live here thank you it's not a violation of free speech it's thank you the Integrity of the election thank you m Turner the next speaker is Veronica carvahal good afternoon Miss carvahal you have three minutes good afternoon uh mayor and councel um veronal good afternoon ma'am District 2 Resident and president of husia frisa Pac um a year ago well more than a year ago in August of 2022 we raised the campaign Finance limit to council by submitting the signatur signatures of over 11,000 um voters in our community who believe that we need campaign Finance limits and City elections um in October of 2022 the former Council voted us down and so we had to decide to continue to collect signatures um and also work with Council so we've met with you individually we've met with members of Staff we've met with the cross functional team um and here we are almost uh a year to the day um October of 2023 hoping that you have not forgotten about the limitations that we have requested for over a year um again we remain steadfast that we need campaign Finance limits in the city um so that we can be on par with other major cities in the state of Texas um we remain steadfast that those limits should be $1,000 per individual um uh per contributions by individuals and um the test again as we have exped explained uh repeatedly is can a candidate run a viable campaign if they're getting donations that are limited to $1,000 per person and the answer is yes and the cross functional team today told you that ni you know um getting um less than um get not getting the most number of $11,000 contributions does not kill your campaign you can still win even if you're not the person getting the most number of contributions over $1,000 so viability has been met again Mr Canales won his race by limiting himself to $11,000 and so we know that that test has been met the second test is whether there is a threat of corruption could corruption happen if we don't have these limits and we very much appreciate the recommendations from staff today we agree with all of them that they are important and disclosure is Paramount to having a democracy that is vital um for people to trust that the their vote matters um but we do not want these recommendations to supplant our request for campaign limits we need those limits um um imposed disclosure is not a limit right even if you have a threshold for reporting you're not limiting the amount of money that the person disclosing can provide it they could be giving $500,000 to one candidate and disclose it and they'll still be under the new rules they'll be fine the point is we are trying to democratize our elections we're trying to tell especially young people that they can run without having to raise money and money that we consider to be funny money um which means that you take money from folks that don't align with Progressive values so we hope that you haven't forgotten about our limits and that one day you will pass them and that that day comes very soon thank you very much thank you very much maam mayor that concludes public comment on this item can we take the item please we have a window right here no let me see if I have the motion correct the motion was made by by mayor Pro manelo seconded by representative Kennedy and this is to direct staff to return in 10 weeks with proposed amendments to the ethics code reflecting the recommendations to include a reporting trigger value of $500 for aggregate amounts of contribution donations received by a council member and that the reporting time frame begins once an appointment of a campaign treasure is filed in the city clerk's office I mean I I didn't say the 10 weeks I would like to stick to the eight um I think there are two ethics meetings coming up at the end of October and the beginning of November yes ma'am I mean I'll keep it at 10 weeks but I really would like to try to get that before the 10 weeks I think they got an agenda just staying but the time the limit to add things to the agenda isn't over right it's just there's time period to do that yes thank you is okay okay did I miss anything else okay on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes 4 to1 representative mol voting nay representative FAL not present the motion does carry that brings us to item number 40 this is discussion and action on a resolution of the city council of the city of Al Paso Texas calling for a special election to fill a council vacancy in the office of Representative for district number two to be held on December 9th 2023 making provisions of the conduct of the special election and authorizing a contract with El Paso County to furnish election services and equipment move to approve of the resolution second a motion in a second can I ask one question if you hit your light I'll call on you no you can't no representative Kennedy thank you um have we one will we decide what the early voting locations are in this the early voting locations have been established we've received them from the county there's four early voting locations in the lby and District too that's correct take this mhm um my concern Laura is that because Grand View senior center is closed for renovation which is one of our largest um Loca voting locations that there's nothing actually in the Central Area you have um one downtown which is not in District Two um one in South Central and then two in the Northeast but you actually do not have a voting location in the largest portion of the district um and so wondering if you could add Memorial Park Senior Center to that we can check on availability we'll check on that ma'am I mean it is our building but yeah thank you can we get a second on the motion yes sir no okay thank you take the item the motion was made by representative Canal seconded by representative Kennedy to approve item number 40 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the mo passes unanimously representative F not present that brings us to item 41 and this is discussion and action that the city manager or design be authorized to sign an advanced funding agreement between the city of Al Paso and the state of Texas through the Texas Department of Transportation for the design and construction of the surface Transportation Grant Pro improvements to Railroad drive from Purple Heart highway to Shrub Oak dri move approve second there is a motion made by mayor protim anelo seconded by alternate mayor protim olard to approve item 41 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Fiero not present item 42 is discussion and action to authorize the interim city manager or design on behalf of the city of Al Paso to sign all Rel required documents and submit an application to the office of the governor Texas Military preparedness commission for the defense economic adjustment assistance grant for construction of the McGregor range waterline booster station replacement project move to approve second there is a motion made by alternate mayor protim molinar seconded by representative salido to approve item 42 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Federal not present that brings us to the executive session items yeah we'll we'll go to Executive session and then we'll reconvene an executive session in 45 minutes yeah unless want an hour at 2:30 all right we'll take an hour 230 2:30 2:30 fine okay good anyway so we'll go ahead and reconvene motion to go to ex session second there's a motion and a second and this is to recess a city council meeting at 1:43 p.m. and retire into executive session at 2:30 p.m. on that motion all in favor I anyone opposed and this City Council of city of El Paso May retiring to Executive session at 2:30 pursuant to section 3.5a of 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 Kenny and tonette individually and as representative of the estate of Ken match Dion Graham versus city of Al Paso calls number 2021 dcv 3399 matter number 21-10 36- 34451 under 551.071 executive session item two purchase exchange lease or value of real property located in downtown El Paso HQ number 23-1 1582 under 551.071 551.071 executive session item three purchase exchange lease or value of real property located in East El Paso HQ number 23308 under 551.071 551.071 executive session item four discussion on potential Economic Development opportunities in northeast El Paso matter number 22-1 72864 HQ number 23478 under 551.071 and 55108 7 executive session item 5 economic incentives for nfield development located in West El Paso matter number 22- 17-38 HQ 23-1 1273 under 51.08361 point0 71 these matters are taken into executive session under 551 1.71 consultation with attorney 55 1.07 2 deliberation regarding real property and 55108 7 deliberation regarding Economic Development negotiations it is 1:45 p.m. e didn't is all right thanks guys e e e e l e Del yeah e one two one two one two one two one more okay yeah check one two check one two open up for e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for today yes sir is there a motion to come out of executive session motion to reconvene second there's a motion in a second to come out of executive session all in favor I anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 547 p.m. mayor potm ex1 motion made seconded and carried that the city attorney's office in consultation with the city manager be authorized to reject the settlement proposal in Antoinette Kenny individually as a representative of the estate of Ken M Dion Graham versus the city of El Paso case number 2021 dcv 3399 and matter number 21-3 10 36- 34451 and to take all steps necessary including the execution of any docu required documents in in order to effectuate this Authority second there's a motion made into read into the record by mayor protim anelo seconded by representative Fiero on ex1 to reject the settlement Demand on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously ex2 motion made second and carried that the interim city manager is directed to begin soliciting entertaining letters of interest from interested buyers for the purchase of the properties located in the union Plaza area of downtown El Paso which were identified in executive session item number 23-13 41 on October 10th 2023 there's a motion made by mayor Pro Tim manelo and read into the record on ex2 seconded by representative Canales on that motion call for the vote voting session is open thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously EX3 no action thank you EX4 no action thank you ex5 no action thank you thank you ex6 no action thank you motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday October 10th 2023 is adjourned at